In this exclusive article, the Head of NBC (Nordic Baltics Countries) Torbjörn Lundberg from SMC shares insights on the ever-evolving world of automation and its profound impact on various industries.
Long-term sustainability has many aspects, some more obvious than others. Water is something that is often assumed to be available in unlimited quantities. An abundant supply of clean and cheap water is a matter of course for most people, but is it really the case in the future? Almost 70% of all water consumed in Sweden, today, is used by industry. For many of the uses, there are alternatives that are both better in the long term and that give a better result immediately.
Industrial water management
A prerequisite for long-term sustainability is a circular process, where raw materials, materials and energy are recycled or circulated. If the compressed air is often an overlooked part of the circuit and is often taken for granted, it is somewhat the same with water. Water is perhaps the most important prerequisite for human life, indeed for all living things water is an absolute necessity. Abundant access to clean water is something we take for granted. Water is not only a prerequisite for life, it is a fundamental prerequisite for a functioning society and business.
A sustainable use of water resources needs to be in balance with the available amount of water. The global water balance has changed dramatically in recent years as a result of changes in the climate, probably due to man's environmental impact. Although as a whole it is in some form of balance, in recent times the distribution, between different geographical areas, has shifted in a shocking way, with droughts and floods every other time as a result.
Therefore, the Government has tasked Director General Ulla Sandborgh with coordinating the work with the business world's water management. The mission is to promote responsible use of the country's water resources.
"Changed rainfall patterns can lead to both droughts and floods. Sweden has a water-intensive industry and agriculture where water is an important resource. There is a need for an increased dialogue with the business world, including the agricultural and food sectors, in order to promote the exchange of experience and cooperation. It is also important to support ongoing work, propose forms of development and coordination, identify development needs and analyze the impact on Swedish competitiveness," writes the government in connection with the publication of the assignment.
Industry uses the most water in Sweden, nearly 70% of the country's water consumption takes place in industry. The water is used there as part of the process and as cooling partly for electricity production and partly for a number of other purposes when you want a controlled temperature for what you are doing. The water usually comes from local freshwater sources, but seawater is also used to a certain extent. Regular tap water is very often used!
What happens to the water when it has finished cooling or the process is finished? An absolute majority is simply "washed away" and goes to treatment plants - in and of itself for a form of recycling. But isn't this a waste of resources? It is definitely a big burden on the sewage treatment plants.
Sometimes we take what is close at hand and in Sweden we are lucky to have clean and cold drinking water within constant reach, but we too have experienced climate change that affected water availability. And the treatment plants cannot receive unlimited amounts of waste water either.
Cooling with potable water
- Do you cool with drinking water? There are options!
Today, a lot of drinking water is used in industries where water of drinking water quality is not really required.
Cooling in industry is often about taking care of excess heat from the process. In metal, foundry, electronics, petrochemicals, food, yes really everywhere, temperature control is important for a good result. Some equipment is completely dependent on accurate temperature control, for example lasers for industrial and medical use, X-ray machines, spot welding machines. The result of what the machine does is entirely dependent on an accurate and constant temperature.
Instead of cooling with drinking water which is then flushed away, you can use closed systems where the cooling water is circulated. A circulation cooler works with a closed circuit of coolant and cools the application to exactly the temperature needed. The same coolant, usually water, is used again and again, nothing is flushed down the drain.
In addition to the risk of a lack of cooling water, with traditional cooling, and the handling of waste water, where treatment plants reach their maximum capacity, circulation coolers have a great operational advantage. The accuracy of the temperature is significantly higher than for traditional water cooling. The temperature is also not seasonal. Water from fresh water sources can differ by 10 degrees between winter and summer. The accuracy of a circulating chiller is fractions of a degree - all year round!
It is not only the quality of what is produced that improves with accurate temperature control, but the life of the machine is also positively affected.
The result of replacing cooling and temperature control with the help of "tap water" and instead using a circulation cooler is an environmentally friendly, cost-effective solution that provides higher quality.
SMC Automation has a wide range of coolers for different temperature ranges and power requirements as well as different temperature variations with extremely high accuracy. It is also easy to monitor the cooler and thus ensure that the temperature stays at the right level.
