2. CH2M HILL
Fortune 500 company, 27,500
employees, over 80 countries,
6.4 billion USD revenue
Environmental Consulting,
Engineering and Construction
First projects in China in 1915
About 15 offices in China
About 380 staff in China
3. MASDAR City
Client: Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company
Location: United Arab Emirates
Project Scope
The first zero-carbon and zero-waste sustainable
city nestled in the heart of Abu Dhabi
Comprehensive Abu Dhabi government program
to address sustainable energy sources and
environmental practices
Project focus on developing and commercializing
advanced and innovative technologies in
renewable, alternative, and sustainable energies
(photovoltaic, wind, solar thermal, solid waste, and
ground-sourced heat pumps)
Our Role
Serve as program manager for the development of
MASDAR City
Identify and measure environmental impacts
throughout MASDAR’s life cycle (energy, water,
wastewater, and transportation)
Rendering courtesy of the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company
3
5. Water Stress is prominent in
industrial development areas
Less than 1,700 m3/ person/
year is considered stressed
6. Industry Sustainability Concerns
Sustainability concerns
Risk to operations
Insufficient water supply
Decreasing water quality
Increasing water treatment costs
Downstream constraints
Effluent discharge limitations
Increasing wastewater treatment costs
Water management affects businesses
around the world, throughout the value chain
7. Strategic Signal #1 –
Business Disruption Risks
Increasing competition among water uses
Priority to basic human needs
Protection of water eco-resources
Agriculture
Expanding industrial demands
Industry at risk to lose water supply or have
supply constrained
8. Strategic Signal #2 –
License to Operate at Risk
Current allocations are not assured into the future
Extreme weather events (drought, hurricanes) causing
short-term (months long) re-prioritization of water rights
Water rights re-assessed and re-allocated
in developing countries
Right to discharge effluents being challenged
Businesses lacking contingency plans are
vulnerable to disruption
9. Strategic Signal #3 –
Water Management Costs Increasing
Water Decreasing source availability
source Costs to protect current
sources, or change sources
Water Deteriorating source water
treatment quality (salinity, solids)
Higher treatment costs
Wastewater Tightening effluent standards
treatment requiring higher technology
Higher incremental costs
11. What are the economics?
Benchmarking –
Is water expensive now?
Is the situation sustainable?
Cost Evaluation
Direct costs:
• Raw water
• Pre-treatment
• Specialized treatment
• Wastewater treatment
Indirect costs:
• Expansion constraints
• Permitting and legal maintenance
• Environmental Liability
13. Point 1a: Current operations.
Point 2a: Cost reductions from optimization efforts
Cascaded water reuse projects requiring only operational changes
Typically result in minimal expense, but
Higher concentration effluent (decrease in water quality from 1b to 2b)
14. Point 3a : Step increase in wastewater treatment costs
Substantial increase in water quality / marginal cost increase
Water quality increases from 2b to 3b,
Costs increase marginally from 2a to 3a
Capital projects: reduce water consumption and wastewater generation.
• Facilities to allow segregation
• Reprocessing and reuse of process water
• Reuse of intermediate quality waste streams
• Sidestream softener recycle of cooling tower and blower blowdown
15. Point 3 to Point 4: Large-step increase in treatment costs, as incremental wastewater
quality improvement requires substantial increase in capital and operating costs.
Installation of high technology equipment such as:
Electrodialysis units
Brine concentrators
Evaporation-crystallization systems
Ion-exchange units
16. Point 5: Water Use Minimization and Wastewater Reuse
Targeting “Zero Discharge Operation”
17. Water Risk Management
Requires an understanding of a company’s water
needs in relation to local externalities:
Water availability – current and projected
Population/industrial growth
Water and wastewater quality objectives
With a focus on,
Identifying strategies to preserve water
balances that affect operations
Seeking on location opportunities to
conserve the utility of water
18. Assessing the Drivers
Rel ative Importance to Decision to Im pl ement Water Reuse
-8
-6
-4
-2
0
2
4
6
8
Sy nergis tic utility efficienc ies
Example Forcefield Diagram of Water Reuse Motivators
Cos t of raw water
Cos t of wastewater disposal
Value of recovered materials
Time to mark et
Financial incentives
Regulator y collaboration
Public image
Motivator
Environmental regulations
Industry benc hmarking
Water r es ource limitations
Rec eiving water quality
Diffic ult to meet discharge stds
Water r ights iss ues
Waste dispos al is sues
Pr oduct quality conc erns
Pr ice competition
Capital c onstraints/ROI requir ements
water reuse
implement
motivator to
Decreasing
water reuse
implement
motivator to
Increasing
20. Global Water Tool
Developed for the World Business Council for
Sustainable Development (WBCSD)
Free and easy-to-use tool for companies and
organizations to map their water use and assess risks
relative to their global operations and supply chains
The tool can be downloaded at:
www.wbcsd.org/web/watertool.htm
22. Step 1: Set Baseline Water Balance
Identify specific water-intensive operations, or
Those with high potential for recycling water
To an upstream point in the same process or
To another process in the plant.
23. Step 2: Benchmark Against Industry
Water is used in the industry as:
Raw material,
Cleaning or reagent solvent,
Heat transfer medium,
Conveyance medium,
Reaction product, and
Fire extinguishing medium.
Large body of knowledge and experience
exists from which to draw ideas
24. 3: Evaluate Management Strategies
Recycle and Recovery Approaches
Process Changes
Various Pollution Prevention Techniques
Operations Strategies
Source Reduction
25. Step 4: Finally strive to Reduce Source
Eliminating waste, a more reusable water stream
Smaller equipment
Stream segregation
Reduce or even eliminate end-of-pipe treatment
Easier to expand production volume
26. Case Study: Manufacturing Company
Implementing water reuse with results:
Lowered purchased water consumption
Reduced wastewater discharges
Potential reduction in discharge limitations
Recognized annual operating cost savings
Demonstrated environmental stewardship
27. Facility Description
Manufacturing operations divided into 6 areas:
Machining and grinding
Solvent degreasing
Metal finishing (cleaning, electroplating, anodizing,
conversion coating)
Spray painting
Assembly
Utilities including Steam plant (16 boilers), Cooling
towers (131), Wastewater treatment plant
28. Baseline Water Balance
Chemical Addition
0.1 mgd
Domestic
0.36 mgd
Industrial
Current Purchase 2 mgd 0.47 mgd
Cobb County Current Discharge 1.47 mgd
Wastewater
Water Supply Treatment
Boilers
0.31 mgd Plant (WWTP)
Maintenance mgd = million gallons per day
0.01 mgd Based on Summer Flow Dem ands
Cooling
Towers
0.65 mgd
29. Alternatives Evaluation Results
Established Recovery for Reuse Objectives
Recover 240-720 gpm water of drinking water quality
Recover up to 55 gpm water with low TDS and oil &
grease, and
Recover up to 90 gpm water with low alkalinity,
hardness, silica, iron, copper, and 7<pH<8.5.
30. Implementation Results
Additional costs: electricity, chemicals, membrane
replacement, analyses, maintenance, operating labor, and
concentrate disposal.
Offset by savings in purchased water costs, (O&M) for existing
ion exchange units, and O&M on the cooling towers
Estimated annual net savings between $50,000 and $100,000.
Out of 1,47 mgd that was originally discharged, up to 1.08 mgd
now can be reused. Current infrastructure allows to distribute
0.6 mgd. Additional end-users will be added.
Demonstrated environmental stewardship has enhanced
credibility with water and environmental agency stakeholders
Retained the Sustainability of Operations
(eg: current debate on China CTL)
31. Global water and air volume
(SPL Reference Number: E055/330)
Water sphere of 1390 kilometers across, volume of 1.4 billion
cubic kilometers.
Air sphere of 1999 kilometers across, weighs 5140 trillion tons.
