Water and energy are intertwined. Till very recently water and energy conservation were just little idle talks while specifying water systems. But today, companies are seriously exploring innovative ways to conserve water, reduce energy consumption, and minimize waste.
The cost of water continues to rise in most areas of the world. Water scarcity is a real problem that plagues industry and communities alike. The statistics are disturbing, with estimates that by 2030, more than 47 per cent of the world population will be living in areas of high water stress (UN World Water Development Report). The implications for industry are serious and can create risks to businesses and manufacturing of all kinds.
In particular, the pharmaceutical industry requires consistent, high-quality water for production and wastewater treatment to meet the demands of ever-stricter regulatory discharge limits. To meet these challenges, companies must question conventional thinking and typical approaches and explore new technologies and solutions in order to remain competitive.
Because of this increased focus on water and energy, companies are evaluating new technologies and integrated solutions to reduce water consumption and increase energy efficiency. These new technologies and solutions cannot, however, compromise the dependability and robustness demanded by the marketplace. There is perhaps no better example of the need for dependable water solutions and product safety than in the pharmaceutical industry.
For pharmaceutical applications, there are three main drivers that force the issues of utility conservation into product design: long-term lifecycle costs, regulatory requirements and conservation/corporate responsibility.
Operating cost reduction has become increasingly important for pharmaceutical and virtually every other industry to allow companies to operate as efficiently as possible. Reducing the cost of ownership on a water system is an important aspect of system design. Exploring new methods to reduce the cost of treating water, wastewater discharge, and utility expenses challenges decades-old system designs. Many cost savings techniques can actually offer enhanced reliability and performance of conventional water systems, while lowering cost of ownership.
Achieving regulatory requirements on a water system design usually includes two distinct areas of responsibility in a pharmaceutical application: maintaining minimum water quality standards for discharge or reuse within in the facility and meeting discharge volume from the facility.
There are specific contaminant limits on the discharge of water into municipalities or other waste streams. Exceeding these limits can result in severe financial penalties or put a plant’s operation at risk. In particular, pharmaceutical manufacturers must operate within strict national and local regulatory limits.
Finally, conservation of natural resources and public perception of the pharmaceutical manufacturers is critical for the image of these companies. Companies can receive negative public perception and ratings from regulatory bodies as well as shareholders, if not operating at an optimal level.
More and more companies now want to be recognized for the efficient use of natural resources and a gentle global footprint. In addition, companies experience increased scrutiny and pressure from various entities including the public, regarding concerns about pharmaceuticals in drinking water. So, ensuring tight management of water supply is a serious and critical point for pharmaceutical manufacturers—both in the manufacturing process and in product development.
Microbial contamination , key to current technology system design
Water is used widely during the production of pharmaceutical products as a direct ingredient as well as indirect uses such as formulation, rinsing, sanitizing and cleaning. Most high quality makeup water systems used within pharmaceutical production have some element of recirculation inherent in the system design. When water is not needed, water systems typically go into a recirculating standby mode to control microbial proliferation within the water and on the wetted surfaces of the water system. This conventional approach has been used for decades and has been considered the best ‘in situ’ approach for controlling microbial contamination. Often, microbial contamination is the most difficult, and costly, aspect of the water system design. While chemical and organic impurities can usually be managed with little difficulty, proliferation of bacteria, viruses and other organisms can challenge even the best system designs.
In an effort to build robustness into the water systems of a pharmaceutical facility, many of these systems are built with a 2 x 100% redundancy approach. This ensures the water system is always available when needed. All water systems require periodic maintenance monitoring and adjustments, and a redundant water system approach allows one train to be available while the other train is being serviced or maintained. This redundant water train will continually recirculate while in the standby mode, and will consume water and electricity, and produce wastewater, nearly 100% of the time since it is by nature a standby or backup system.
Technology developments - reduce energy and water consumption
Recent technology developments for pharmaceutical water systems eliminate the need to continually recirculate water. The S3® system, a new technology provided by Siemens Water Technologies, uses a sanitize/start/stop approach rather than a recirculating water system design. A traditional water system constantly recirculates water, which consumes electricity for pumps, ultraviolet lights, instruments and other devices. Often the water must be heated or cooled to maintain adequate water temperature specifications. Additionally, certain unit processes such as reverse osmosis produce a waste stream during operation. A recirculating water system, even if it is not currently producing water for production, is producing waste that must be discharged or treated prior to discharge. These systems can quickly consume valuable raw water, consume electrical and steam utilities and produce a wastewater stream even if the water system is not being used in the production process.
A sanitize/start/stop design eliminates most of this waste by shutting down the water system when not needed. While in the standby mode, the system will briefly turn on and receive periodic heat sanitization during extended periods of non-use. These sanitization periods are quick and relatively low temperature (typically 60°C) rather than the more typical 80 to 85°C. The brief but frequent sanitization periods are very effective at challenging microbial proliferation within a water system. When the pharmaceutical production requires water, the system performs a brief pulse sanitization just before water is sent to the manufacturing process. This ensures the water system is freshly sanitized for optimal water quality when it is needed. Standby or redundant trains can now sit relatively idle, receiving periodic pulse sanitizations to maintain water quality. Just like conventional water systems, the sanitize/start/stop design can be combined with chemical cleaning, chemical sanitization and conventional heat sanitization to address microbial contamination and biofilm formation within the water system.
The economic and water volume savings from the sanitize/start/stop approach can be dramatic, sometimes saving many millions of gallons of water per year. Large water systems, redundant trains, high raw water costs, high discharge water costs, and water discharge limitations can greatly impact the total savings. While the savings are greater on larger systems, even single-train, relatively small water systems with moderate water costs still result in rapid payback and significant savings.
Operating cost reduction
Reducing operating costs increases efficiency and maximizes profits, allowing reallocation of savings to other areas of your business. Because of this,it is extremely important to explore new methods of reducing the cost of water, water disposal and utility costs without compromising quality, reliability an overall system performance.
Achieving regulatory requirements
Companies in the pharmaceutical industry must operate under strict regulatory requirements. Maintaining acceptable water quality standards for discharge or reuse elsewhere in the facility is extremely important as regulatory requirements can place restrictions on the limit or even presence of specific waste contaminants.
Therecan also be volume limits on water discharged into municipalities or other waste streams. Exceeding these limits often result in severe financial penalties or put a plant’s operation at risk.
Conservation of natural resources
As environmental awareness continues to rise around the globe, companies are realizing the importance of efficiently using natural resources to ensure a gentle global footprint. This increase in awareness, combined with strict regulations, makes it critical for pharmaceutical manufacturers to adopt conservation as a standard business practice. Since water and energy are essential resources for our communities ,reducing the consumption of these resources in a pharmaceutical plant ensures sustainability and acceptability.
Reduction
System or brine recovery process, help reduce raw water needs, electrical consumption and waste production, dramatically lowering operating costs while maintaining water quality and product safety.
Our solutions helps in optimizing process for highly efficient operation and maximize water recovery for lower water consumption, decrease cost of disposal and waste treatment Achieve more production with less waste.
Reuse
Water reuse provides savings through the reduction of waste disposal costs and feed water requirements, offsetting operational costs associated with the waste reuse process. Siemens solutions for reuse in both validated and non-validated systems:
- Ensure the treated wastewater quality exceeds the feed water quality for high operational efficiency, water quality and product safety.
- Recover and treat waste stream for reuse as feed water
- Lower water demand and waste production ,
- Dramatically increase plant production and give effectively maximum output.
(The author is Managing Director of Nilsan Nishotech Systems Pvt Ltd, Mumbai)