ZERMEG II – Zero emission retrofitting method ... - Fabrik der Zukunft

At the wire producer the rinsing technology was changed by the following measures:
� combination of a two stage rinsing cascade with a static tank to a three stage rinsing
cascade
� separation of the rinses in the continuous pickling plants into three stage rinsing
cascades
The volume of rinsing water in the static pickling could be reduced by 50 % until now.
Parallel to these studies a theoretical approach could be developed over the last months to
use the spent acids in another company.
In the printed circuit board manufacturer two options were implemented:
� an electrolysis plant to recover copper from etching concentrates and rinsing water
� use of caustic stripping solutions as pre-neutralisation of acid concentrates
This company could acquire a practically new used electrolysis plant. The feasibility study
showed that the plant definitely should be installed. Because of the capacity the electrolysis
plant however was not installed at the location which participated in the project, but in a
sister plant. There now 20 kg of copper daily are recycled from the waste water. In the
waste water treatment plant now caustic concentrates are used after filtration to neutralise
acidic concentrates. This saves annually 20 tons of caustic soda and a similar volume of
hydrochloric acid.
In the hot dip zincing plant a consequent separated management of pickling tanks was
introduced by separating the de-zincing and the pickling completely. Now they are recycled
completely by two other companies. The topping up of the pickling baths is done on the
basis of weekly bath analyses and the consequent application of the mixing rules. By this the
acid consumption for the year 2004 could be reduced by 50 % compared to 2003.
In the anodising company the direct evaporation of the rinsing water would be a good
opportunity to install a complete rinsing water cycle. In the distillate no organic compounds
were found and the contents in salts is very low. This process should be implemented, if
there was enough space for a third stage in the two rinsing cascades.
At the printing cylinder manufacturer the galvanising machines were equipped with new flat
nozzles with an optimised geometry and the water pressure was minimized. Thus the water
consumption was reduced by 50 % and the acid consumption by 40 %.
The following fields of action for future work could be identified:
� simple, easy to use and cheap analysis methods
� collection of real experience with the operation of existing plants to enlarge the
useful life of galvanic baths
� testing and further developing combinations of processes to enlarge the useful life of
galvanic plants (combinations of pre-cleaning and membranes, pre-cleaning and ion
exchangers) to take care of impurities in the practical processes (organic materials,
process chemicals and metals)
� programming of corresponding models to supplement the calculation routines
� focused analysis of the potential to use the spent process baths externally and
analyse the possibilities to create the infrastructure to collect the materials and
realize the potential actually
Early in 2004 the intermediate results of ZERMEG II were presented during a workshop of
the Factory of the Future. During this event the results and the potential for co-operation
with other projects of the programme were discussed intensively.
ZERMEG - Ein Projekt der Fabrik der Zukunft gefördert von BMVIT und FFF
Endbericht ZERMEG II
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