Reduce single pass cooling


Photo: Pipes
Autoclave wastewater and steam drain. The water and energy loss can be reduced with timers and water miser valves.

Problem: Water is often used to cool solvent distillations or the condensers in icemakers, etc. Be sure they are not running continuously, and there may be more efficient techniques. If left on for several hours per day at 0.2 lpm, over 50,000 liters per year of drinking water may be wasted in one lab.

Solution: Install timers or rigorous habits to turn off cooling water. Some cooling water can be diverted to irrigation or to flushing toilets. Re-circulating systems may be possible using air-cooled water. When solvent still switches are designed, be sure to include automatic turn off of water valves when safety cut-off switches de-energize heating elements

Benefits: Each lab with continuous flowing process water may save tens of thousands of gallons of water each year.

Costs: Alternate destinations for clean process water are easiest to implement during building design, and expensive to retrofit.