Challenge

In 2006, Siemens Water Technologies was contacted by a hexavalent chrome plating customer for assistance in reducing water demand at the facility.  The customer manufactures chrome plated parts and was seeking a solution that would allow an increase in production without the need to expand existing pretreatment equipment used to condition city water and also avoid additional investment in the existing precipitation system.

Solution

Siemens’ solution featured our wastewater ion exchange (WWIX) service. Wastewater ion exchange is a service-based option which utilizes ion exchange resins and other medias selected to remove specific ionic contaminants from groundwater, industrial wastewater, and process water for recycle.

Siemens provided a complete turnkey system with WWIX resin vessels along with an Aquasaver™ pump skid to pressurize the water, remove particulate, pH adjust and remove the dissolved metals from the newly installed recycle loop. The ion exchange vessels were positioned in a lead-lag configuration and when exhausted the primary vessel is removed, replaced with the secondary and a clean vessel is placed in the secondary position.

Results

The WWIX equipment was used to recycle a majority of the clean running rinse water from the process rinse baths. Recycle of this water reduced the demand on both the feed water and precipitation system by over 50% and eliminated the need to expand the existing systems or revisions of discharge permits with the local regulatory agency.

The turnkey system minimized investment in capital equipment and reduced the water demand at the facility. Off-site regeneration at Siemens RCRA facility provides the customer with compliance to all RCRA regulations while hazardous metals are recovered.

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