"Our parts are cleaned better than ever before!"

Solution

VACUDEST vacuum distillation systems are not only economically attractive starting from as low as 200 cubic meters of wastewater per year, but also sustainable in their use. This is because up to 97 percent clean distillate is produced from 100 percent of wastewater while only leaving 3 percent residue behind. Due to the savings in disposal costs, the investment in such a system usually pays for itself in less than 2 years. In addition, the purified water can be reused in the production, which saves fresh water and enables wastewater-free production. From these advantages now also IWIS in Landsberg is benefitting.

The VACUDEST vacuum distillation system was already known from the IWIS site in Munich, where they had already had good experience with its use in parts cleaning. In order to check whether the system was also suitable for their production in Landsberg, H2O GmbH, the supplier of the VACUDEST vacuum distillation systems, first carried out a laboratory analysis with wastewater samples from the process. It was investigated whether the required conductivity of less than 200 µS/cm and a pH value of < 9 could be achieved. In addition, the target was the reuse of the purified water as rinsing water for the parts washers. All this was confirmed by H2O GmbH: The realization of the wastewater-free production in Landsberg could be greenlit.

IWIS tested the quality of the distillate as a rinsing medium once more in practice after the prior evaluation with a VACUDEST demonstration unit. The results after 4 weeks in operation were very convincing: "Our parts are cleaned better than ever before," sums up Henning Fritz, project manager, responsible for the parts washing systems at IWIS Motorensysteme, and adds: "We would love to keep the VACUDEST demonstration system right here!"

Now a new VACUDEST XS with a treatment capacity of 300 cubic meters per year treats the used production wastewater at IWIS. The system is hereby equipped with the Aktivdest, which removes organic components such as floating and free oils from the distillate and thus lowers the COD value, a conductance probe for checking the conductance in the distillate, the innovative technology Destcontrol for pH value control and the e-Service. This modem enables remote access by the service department of H2O GmbH, so that in 40 percent of cases a service technician visit on site is unnecessary.

H2O GmbH carried out the planning and installation in close cooperation with the supplier of the new parts washing systems - this way, all requirements could be considered as a whole and solutions could be implemented easily and quickly. At IWIS, the contaminated wastewater is now treated from the first, most heavily contaminated sink. First, a collection tank with centrifuge separates the floating oils from the parts washing wastewater. Before it is fed into the VACUDEST vacuum distillation system for evaporation, the rinse water temperature in the receiver tank is lowered from 60 to 50 degrees Celsius by a cooling loop. After the treatment the purified water is then fed into the final rinse for cleaning of the produced parts. Here, the rinse water is reused through the various rinses in a closed loop over several years. IWIS Landsberg is now wastewater-free.

Even after 3 years of operation, IWIS is still completely satisfied: "The VACUDEST is running excellently!" The savings, both in fresh water and in wastewater disposal costs, are enormous. In addition, the VACUDEST keeps all quality promises: "Our parts are significantly cleaner and residue-free since cleaning with the distillate from the VACUDEST!"