World Environment Day

Yesterday, 5^th June was observed as World Environment day. While every denizen of this planet has to feel responsible for our environment, amongst the various professionals, the burden on Chemical Engineers is several notches higher. There are two reasons for this. Firstly the chemical and allied industries have the maximum potential to damage our environment. But let me state in the same breath that the chemical engineers are our best resources to counter and alleviate that threat.

Chemical industries are big consumers of water. Water is used for cooling, to raise steam, as a solvent, as a diluent, to backwash filters, for general purpose cleaning and it also takes part in some reactions. There are numerous opportunities to reduce water consumption for both designers and operators of chemical plants. However many of them are dismissed without a second look as being too trivial to warrant the investigative effort. Other serious contenders get shot down as not cost effective after a cursory analysis. The problem is that we don’t take water seriously enough. No effort is too much when it comes to saving water. Similarly many economic analysis are doomed because the cost of water is pegged at artificially low values.

Every Chemical Engineer worth his salt must perform a water balance of the plant he is designing or operating.

Following are some random ideas for reducing water consumption:

• Use more air coolers to bring down cooling water requirement.
• Use higher cycles of concentration in cooling water systems by adopting better treatment methods to prevent scaling.
• Invest in filters which can handle more solids loading to reduce the backwashing frequency.
• Fix leaking steam traps and valve glands immediately.

Here is hoping that every chemical engineer addresses issues of water conscientiously and with a conscience.