Water is an extremely precious resource – not only as drinking water, but also as a raw material, solvent and coolant in many technical and chemical processes. At WACKER, we use water sparingly and always purify our wastewater as effectively as possible.
The Elbe river and our Nünchritz site (Saxony). Water is an extremely precious resource. We use it sparingly and purify our wastewater as effectively as possible.
During the period under review, the Burghausen site’s demand for cooling water increased due to production expansions. The water treatment plant had to be updated. Through technical improvements and by using the cooling water twice, an additional 4,750 m³ of cooling water could be saved per hour. It was thus unnecessary to further expand the water-treatment plant. At our US site in Calvert City (Kentucky), we improved our production process – increasing product yields, conserving raw materials and reducing sludge volumes to a quarter.
The Nünchritz site developed an additional procedure for wastewater treatment via ozonation. The site is now better equipped to deal with substances that are poorly biodegradable. Thus, despite increased production, the wastewater load – measured as chemical oxygen demand (COD) – could be kept low.
The integration of sites acquired from Air Products resulted in significantly increased COD values across the Group in 2008.
| download table |
|
Water Consumption/Emissions to Water | ||||||
|
|
|
|
|
| ||
|
|
|
2008 |
2007 |
2006 | ||
| ||||||
|
|
|
|
|
| ||
|
Water consumption |
m3 |
241,286,375 |
244,173,260 |
228,283,219 | ||
|
Cooling water volume |
m3 |
252,310,068 |
225,391,086 |
208,111,808 | ||
|
Wastewater volume1 |
m3 |
22,074,455 |
20,875,385 |
20,878,196 | ||
|
COD (chemical oxygen demand) |
t |
4,782 |
2,162 |
1,993 | ||
|
AOX (adsorbable organic halides) |
t |
7 |
6 |
5 | ||
|
Heavy metals |
t |
2 |
2 |
2 | ||
|
Nitrogen |
t |
461 |
484 |
475 | ||
|
Phosphorus |
t |
9 |
10 |
12 | ||