Reduce its water consumption by 90% by 2030. This is the objective set by Cristal Union, which signed a “Water and climate” industrial contract in December with the Rhine-Meuse Water Agency. Erstein (Bas-Rhin). The manufacturer has already reduced its water consumption in recent years, to around one million cubic meters per year, compared to three million cubic meters ten years ago. To do this, withdrawals from the water table were rationalized and certain uses could be replaced by water recovered from the raw material: beets, which contain 75% water.
«Our project this year is to be able to store condensed water. Each ton of beet brings us 500 to 550 liters that can be recovered», Points out Ervin Szokola, director of the Erstein site. This condensed water was rejected after cooling. A part can now be reused in the industrial process, in cooling cycles, or for high pressure boilers. This is already being done in other sugar factories among the group’s eight.
An investment of 10 million euros
Cristal Union is also one of the signatories of the SENS 2027 convention (Solutions Eau Nappes d’Alsace et du Sundgau), which gets communities and farmers working together on water quality. “We are studying the possibility of redistributing water to local users, industrialists, or farmers, who could be interested during periods of withdrawal restrictions.», indicates Ervin Szokola.
Ten million euros of investment are planned on the industrial site, including 3.5 million euros provided by the Water Agency, for example, to create condensed water basins, set up heat exchangers ‘water. “The roadmap is not fixed, we are looking for the most efficient solutions», continues Ervin Szokola. One part of the contract concerns the preservation of biodiversity on the site of around fifty hectares, around thirty of which are occupied by ponds.
Source: www.usinenouvelle.com
