Efficient treatment of used process water in the aviation industry

The issue of sustainability is becoming increasingly important in the aviation industry due to the growing environmental awareness and ever more stricter limits. New demands are also being placed on the maintenance service providers from the MRO (Maintenance Repair Operations) industry, who accompany an aircraft throughout its entire life cycle.

Component cleaning, galvanic coating processes and crack detection as well as mechanical production generate a wide variety of process water which have to be expensively treated or disposed of at high cost. The VACUDEST vacuum distillation system can efficiently treat both the individual streams and mixtures of these different process water types. The distillate can be reused in a great number of application examples, which significantly reduces the environmental impact. The drastic reduction of the amount of wastewater to be disposed of results in a correspondingly high savings potential.

Tracking down the smallest cracks - waste water treatment in crack detection

Tiny cracks can appear in plastic and metal parts due to heavy strain, material fatigue or material defects. These are so small that they are not visible to the naked eye. Nevertheless, they can be safety-relevant - as in the wings of a passenger aircraft, for example. For this reason, these parts are regularly checked for micro-cracks.

One method of such crack testing is the dye penetrant method. Here the part to be inspected is first thoroughly cleaned. Using special paint and a suitable developer, the smallest cracks on the surface become visible. Defective parts can thus be easily identified and replaced. If the crack test did not give rise to any complaints, the test materials are washed off and released for further operation.

Due to the chemical contamination, the wastewater produced must of course not be discharged into the public sewage system.

The VACUDEST vacuum distillation system offers an economical alternative to disposal by a specialised company. With this in-house wastewater treatment, your crack detection process becomes wastewater free and you save up to 98 percent of disposal costs!

An advantage of this solution is the quick return on investment: Thanks to the low operating costs of the VACUDEST and a sophisticated energy recycling system, the investment in the vacuum distillation system usually pays for itself after considerably less than 2 years.

Possible types of wastewater:

• crack detection water
• Used cooling lubricants
• Oil-containing wastewater from washing and cleaning processes
• Heavy metal and salt-containing process water from electroplating and hardening
• and many more

Your solution could look like this

Wastewater treatment in the aviation industry can be very complex. Depending on the application and type of wastewater, different components may be necessary to achieve the best possible treatment results.

This begins even before the actual distillation in our VACUDEST vacuum evaporators. The process water collected in the holding tanks is pre-treated by a neutralisation unit so that it can already enter the evaporator under optimal conditions. Additional pre-treatment steps, such as an oil skimmer, a three-phase separator or a belt filter are also conceivable depending on the wastewater composition.

Within the VACUDEST vacuum evaporator, our innovative technologies such as Clearcat, Purecat, Destcontrol and Activepowerclean support an optimal treatment and ensure high quality results and process reliability.

Where needed an after-treatment with activated carbon, ion exchangers, UV light is possible. In addition to that also a distillate cooling can be supplied to consistently ensure the possibility to reuse the distillate or discharge the water into the sewer according to the specifications.

To illustrate this, we have presented here a comprehensive solution of size L for up to 6,000 m3 of wastewater per year, which covers all possible eventualities. It should however be noted that only few projects actually require the full scale of all these modules.

Our experts will be pleased to advise you on your individual circumstances.

Your benefits at a glance

• Sustainable recycling of rinse water
• Consulting & wastewater analysis by the H2O application centre
• Individual solution for your process
• Space-saving turnkey system
• Low operating costs thanks to maximum energy efficiency
• Low operating efforts thanks to fully automatic operation
• User-friendly Vacutouch machine control (Ready for Industry 4.0)
• Reliable compliance with internal and external limit values

For more advantages of the VACUDEST vacuum distillation units please follow the link.