Looking to the future with energy-efficient equipment and smart water management for industry

Sector: Industry and infrastructure

Challenge: Reducing energy consumption

As we look to the future, the challenges of climate change, ever-scarcer resources and meeting the needs of a growing population loom large. As a consequence, cutting carbon emissions and setting sustainability goals has become critical for the businesses of tomorrow.

For industry, managing water efficiently - with smart technology that optimises every step of the process - is a key objective. It aligns with sustainability targets and also, by reducing energy and therefore costs, with the need to do more with less.

As a company focused on protecting, optimising and managing water, sustainability is fundamental to Xylem’s business and operations. We’re here to helping our partners reduce energy consumption by finding and implementing smart solutions. Our team of knowledgeable, professional and highly skilled staff pride themselves on their ability to help customers optimise their business by providing the right solution every time.

Getting smarter about industrial water

Water is used across the industrial production process as an input into the final product, including cooling, cleaning, and transport. In Europe alone, 54% of the total uptake of water for all human activities is used by industries.

How can industries stay afloat in the 21st century and optimise their manufacturing processes?

The first step is determining each facility’s baseline energy use, for which third-party energy audits can provide valuable insights.

Another important step is to understand what impact energy-intensive processes like pumping and aeration have on your facility and how you can prioritise improvements.

Here’s a closer look at how we can help you solve water:

Water intake

Freshwater abstraction and consumption for industrial processes offers a prime opportunity to make the move to smart water management. Companies seeking energy-efficient assets to manage their water intake and cut costs to route and pressurise that water can benefit from our breadth of international expertise across all sectors.

Xylem can help you select the most energy-efficient solution to suit the application specifically tailored for your industry’s needs. Our digital solutions exist to help optimise water systems to reduce freshwater use, as well as reducing energy use and greenhouse gas emissions.

We worked with dairy plants in France and Italy, for example, to introduce booster sets to improve the efficiency of cooling water processes for yoghurt production and reduce energy consumption. Xylem was able to supply an intelligent frequency controlled pumping system to ensure optimal pump usage and energy management based on fluctuating demand, which led to a 70% reduction in energy costs for the system.

Process water management

Pumps are one of the largest consumers of energy in a typical plant, estimated to use between 30% and 50% of the total electricity consumed. They are also cited as the asset requiring the most maintenance – making the right choice pivotal to a plant’s success in reducing energy use. That is why we offer a free-of-charge consultancy service to industrial plants to identify the most efficient pump to suit your application to optimise processes and save power – and money.

Xylem understands that unplanned downtime can cost up to ten times more than routine maintenance. A pump with integrated intelligence can revolutionise your process water management, eliminating downtime while reducing greenhouse gas emissions and energy costs.

Having the appropriate equipment in place, with an effective maintenance schedule, allows you to achieve long service life with a low cost of ownership, resulting in overall peace of mind.

Wastewater

Since a significant amount of energy and other resources are required to treat industrial wastewater, it is imperative for industries to optimise these processes to reduce costs and increase efficiencies and reuse of resources where possible.

The Flygt Concertor is an integrated and powerful wastewater pumping system that senses the operating conditions and adapts its performance in real time to deliver maximum energy savings and reduce maintenance and service call-outs. Intelligent pumps can halve electricity-related emissions in wastewater management and contribute to an 80% inventory reduction.

Adaptive mixers – that mix automatically to match output to demand – can bring 47% energy savings by applying variable thrust based on aeration conditions. And efficient aeration systems are themselves crucial: aeration systems can represent 30% to 70% of energy costs in wastewater, but the use of turbo blowers can reduce losses by 30% to 40%.

Heathrow Airport Water Services Department trialled the Concertor in an effort to solve chronic clogging issues at one of the airport’s wastewater pumping stations. The new wastewater pumping system installed by Xylem led to energy savings of up to 53% as a result of both sophisticated software and cutting-edge components.

It combined built-in sump and pipe cleaning functionalities in a single integrated solution; in addition, the pump-cleaning function, together with Adaptive N-hydraulics, effectively detected and solved clogging from large debris.

Smart water management:

Digitising your industrial water cycle is the key to optimising the entire system and not falling behind in the digital era.

Smart technologies including remote monitoring and controls minimise costly, unplanned maintenance and unwanted downtime while reducing safety risks. Visibility and understanding the health of assets enables efficient scheduled maintenance, smart inventory management and reduced energy consumption. This, in turn, helps to reduce costs and greenhouse gas emissions, reducing industry's carbon footprint as the world progresses towards the goal of zero emissions.

For those who are not sure where to begin, you can trust Xylem to provide cost-effective plant operation and maintenance services, from effective troubleshooting and root cause analysis to partial or full turnkey responsibility that enhance operational reliability through preventative maintenance of your equipment and various warranty options.

Industries can also save time and money with our monitoring and supervision services, from individual installations to entire plants, as well as optimisation and performance benchmarking services.

Futureproofing for sustainability and resilience

At Xylem, we are helping lead the digital transformation of water to optimise and deliver the step change that data, analytics and decision intelligence have brought to other sectors.

We’re advancing trusted water and wastewater products and solutions for industry, making them more energy-efficient and effective.

Our technologies – tailored to suit the needs of every company - are helping society take on the toughest water challenges of our time: making water more accessible and affordable, and making water systems more resilient in the face of climate change.