Month: August 2020

It’s easy to take the most basic necessities for granted. Three meals a day. Clothes to wear. A place to live. Clean accessible water to drink.

Water is one of the fundamental, if not the most essential element of life. All forms of life require water to establish and maintain life.

So many of us freely wash our cars, water our lawns, bathe and launder our clothes with little regard for such a seemingly endless and readily available supply.

But we all know that’s not the case for everyone. That’s why it’s a good reminder today – March 22 is World Water Day – that others need our help.

Surely you have all heard the saying ,

“Water, water, everywhere but not a drop to drink”

These lines might just turn out to be true if the existing outlook of people doesn’t change. The conservation and sustainable use of water resources is imperative for the continuity of life on earth.

In 1993, the United Nations began an international observance for water. Since then, World Water Day has been celebrated every year on March 22. This is a day to celebrate an essential building block of life. It’s also a day to prepare for how we manage this resource in the future.

The theme of the World Water Day 2016 is ‘Water and Jobs’. It reflects the importance of water in the most comprehensive way. The first and the foremost thing created in this universe was water, as it was required for everything else. It is necessary not only for life but for all the necessities of life.

Whereas major chunk of jobs is directly related to water, the remaining can also vanish without water. Economy of the nations flourished rapidly those having comfortable water resources or having well managed it. It is required for food, energy, healthy environment and economic growth.

Three pillars of sustainable water management are equity, environment and efficiency. That ensures economic growth which is crucial for jobs creation. Jobs lead to satisfaction and happiness and ultimately to good health. Healthy nations are more productive and more creative that further add to economy and jobs market. Therefore, survival and well- being of individuals as well as nations depends on sustainable water management. Only sustainable water management can change world around us.

Facts and figures (Courtesy of http://en.unesco.org/)

No water, no jobs

• Three out of four jobs that make up the entire global workforce are water-dependent.
• The farming, fisheries, and forestry sectors alone, which are among the most heavily water-dependent, employ nearly one billion people.

Better water, better jobs, better lives

• Access to safe and reliable water supply and sanitation services at home, school and the workplace is critical to maintaining a healthy, educated and productive workforce.
• Inadequate water, sanitation and hygiene are associated with global economic losses of US$260 billion every year, largely related to lost time and productivity.

The water-job relationship in a changing world

• Climate change exacerbates the threats to water availability and will inevitably lead to the loss of jobs in certain sectors.
• The transition to a greener economy and the emergence of green technologies can generate positive shifts in employment and create opportunities for decent jobs.

Water crisis is one of the major issues that the world is facing and it is the responsibility, perhaps the duty of each one of us to contribute towards water management. Water scarcity would drastically change the environment along with our lives. Global water scarcity is expected to become a leading cause of political conflict in the future. Intelligent utilisation of water resources is the need of the hour. From now onwards, let’s all commit to saving each and every drop of water.

Thermax is one of the leading water treatment companies in India offering both customised and standardised sewage treatment plants for municipal corporations, housing societies, commercial complexes, SEZs, hotels and hospitals. These systems reduce lifetime costs and occupy 1/5th of the space of any conventional system. These can be installed in basements or on terraces with the options of recycling, complete automation and connections to the municipal lines, facilitating sustainable solutions of decentralised sewage treatment.

How often do we see dense, dark fumes from factories and industries drift uselessly into the atmosphere?

This waste heat is actually free energy which must be trapped and reused. Recycling heat is quite common in Europe. Denmark gets roughly half of its electricity from recycled heat, followed by Finland at 39 percent, and Russia at 31 percent. We in India need to take a cue from them and start implementing this!

So what exactly is ‘Waste Heat’? Industrial processes anywhere involve transforming raw materials into useful products and this process results in the production of waste-heat.

If not captured and used to generate emission-free renewable-equivalent power, waste heat is released to the atmosphere through stacks, vents, flares and mechanical equipment. Waste Heat Recovery is the process of collecting waste heat and using it to fulfil a desired purpose elsewhere. It is Thermax Profetherm’s innovative technology that captures and converts this largely untapped waste heat to generate utilities such as chilled water or hot water, allowing the industrial user to put their wasted energy back into the process that created it.

Exhaust gas waste heat recovery

Waste heat recovery equipment that take heat from the exhaust gas and produces steam or hot water for use in industrial processes have been in existence for a very long time. Recent development by Thermax Profetherm makes it possible to recover this waste heat by means of an absorption chiller and produce chilled water for process cooling or for air conditioning.

Engine exhaust gas, micro-turbine exhaust or boiler exhausts may be used as a source of waste heat. Waste heat from steam boilers can be used to preheat boiler feed water. This same heating energy, if of sufficient quality, quantity, and regular operation, can be used for building heating as well as comfort cooling. In an absorption chiller, the waste heat drives a refrigeration cycle that provides chilled water for building air conditioning. Note this approach is more commonly associated with natural gas-fired engines & micro-turbines that regularly provide electricity for peak electrical demand.

Hot water waste heat recovery

Industrial processes generate a lot of waste heat in the form of low temperature hot water. The heat in many cases is left untapped and gets rejected to the atmosphere. Similar is the case with engine coolant water of DG sets and gas engines. Thermax Profethermoffers heat recovery solutions for this waste heat. With Thermax Profetherm solutions, it is possible to generate chilled water, hot water or steam from the heat drawn from hot water.

Heat recovery from industrial vapour

One of the most untapped form of heat in industries is in the form of organic and inorganic vapour generated as a result of manufacturing processes. Chemical, textiles, food processing, refinery and petrochemical industries have abundance of process vapours which is seldom tapped as a source of energy. Thermax Profetherm has pioneered numerous such direct and indirect heat recovery solutions and helped industries lower their energy consumption.

Benefits of Heat Recovery

Successful applications of waste heat recovery by Thermax Profetherm include Airports, Hospitals, Hotels and Offices as well as industrial applications including Automobile, Food and Beverage, Textiles, Chemicals, Pharmaceutical and Refinery requirements wherein the waste heat is used to run absorption chillers. Such heat recovery based cooling systems reduce the overall running cost to the end user and helps save a great deal of electricity. These heat recovery systems also improve the efficiency and viability of independent power generation projects. Heat recovery based systems usually have near zero operating costs and therefore offer very lucrative payback period. Improving the awareness of such solutions is key to lower the carbon footprint of industries and buildings.