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

2 AbstractZERMEG II is the follow up project of ZERMEG (Zero Emission Retrofitting Method forExisting Galvanising Plants), which was commissioned after the first call of the Austrian„Factory of the Future“ program in 2001 2 . The objective of ZERMEG was to develop amethod to revamp existing galvanising plants in order to operate them with a maximumreduction of the use of chemicals and maximum recycling. The approach consists of a stepby step optimisation sequence, a computer program to calculate the ideal consumption ofwater and chemicals, checklists for options and data banks with technologies to improve theworking life of process solutions and for recycling. The method was successfully applied inthree pilot projects. A reduction of the specific consumption of water in the range of80 – 95 % and clear reductions of the specific consumption of chemicals were the results ofZERMEG.ZERMEG II is the continuation of ZERMEG in two dimensions:One objective of ZERMEG II is to improve detailed knowledge: it could be shown that fortotal recycling and a serious zero-emission-concept in depth research of degreasing andpickling in galvanising companies is necessary. This research, the development of semiempiricparameters to account for non-idealities in real plants comparing literature, theoryand real performance and modelling in co-operation with industrial partners form the firstpart of ZERMEG II. As in ZERMEG measures identified were implemented immediately in theplants of the industrial partners. This currently includes changing the rinsing cascades inthree plants at Pengg (Reduction of the water consumption in the batch pickling plant by50 %), the use of spent caustics to pre-neutralise spent process baths and theimplementation of an electrolysis plant to recover copper at AT&S (recovery of 20 kg per dayof copper), optimising the topping of the pickling baths of the hot dip galvaniser Mosdorfer(50 % reduction of consumption of acids) und the optimisation of the spray rinses in theautomatic copper plating plants of Rotoform (reduction of water consumption by 50 %,reduction of acid consumption by 40 %). Further work concentrated on the research of newapproaches to increase the life time of baths, the separation of impurities and the use ofspent solutions in other sectors for Pengg, Heuberger and Mosdorfer.Additionally, ZERMEG II aims at disseminating the approach. By involving new projectpartners the number of applications of the method is drastically increased. At the same timethe feedback from the applications renders a broader data basis. Benchmarks from theseapplications, the documentation of the demonstration projects, a manual and a program forself analysis of interested companies are made publicly available on www.zermeg.net. Thehomepage was accessed by 8.500 users in 2004.Thus the project and the method can be considered a light house for the effective andefficient spreading of the idea of waste and waste water free galvanising plants byimplementing clear and successful demonstration plants and a new methodologicalapproach.2 Fresner, J., et al, ZERMEG, Schriftenreihe des BMVIT, 2004ZERMEG - Ein Projekt der Fabrik der Zukunft gefördert von BMVIT und FFFEndbericht ZERMEG IISeite 10