Barrington, DJ orcid.org/0000-0002-1486-9247, Prior, A and Ho, G
(2013)
The role of water auditing in achieving water conservation in the process industry.
Journal of Cleaner Production, 52.
pp. 356-361.
ISSN 0959-6526
Abstract
Water has traditionally been over utilised within the process industry due to its low cost. However, increasing environmental regulations, concerns around human and ecological health, and consumer expectations of high environmental performance have placed water conservation onto the agenda of the process industry. Many conceptual and mathematical techniques are available for determining appropriate water management practices to achieve this, but these are often not easily applied in complex, multi-contaminant systems such as petroleum refineries.
This study investigated the use of water auditing techniques to examine water flows within a petroleum refinery, concurrently identifying practical ways for achieving water conservation. The work demonstrated that, even in a refinery with processes considered highly efficient within the industry, many opportunities existed to improve water conservation through technical, cultural and behavioural adaptations. These included the use of alternate water sources such as rainwater runoff, reuse of water within process units, and the introduction of an overarching company policy to minimise water use and effluent discharge. Water auditing was shown to be a simple yet effective method for exposing water management procedures which could be adopted for continual improvement, contributing to the emerging ideal practice of zero liquid discharge.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. This is an author produced version of a paper published in Journal of Cleaner Production. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | Water minimisation; Water conservation; Water auditing; Zero liquid discharge; Oil refinery; Petroleum refinery |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Engineering & Physical Sciences (Leeds) > School of Civil Engineering (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 01 Apr 2019 15:04 |
Last Modified: | 01 Apr 2019 19:57 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Elsevier |
Identification Number: | 10.1016/j.jclepro.2013.03.032 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:123832 |
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