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

4 Extended 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 4 . 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 sequence, a computer program to calculate the ideal consumption of water andchemicals, checklists for options and data banks with technologies to improve the workinglife of process solutions and for recycling. The method was successfully applied in three pilotprojects. A reduction of the specific consumption of water in the range of 80 – 95 % andclear reductions of the specific consumption of chemicals were the results of ZERMEG.ZERMEG II is the continuation of ZERMEG in two dimensions: With ZERMEG I a procedurewas developed, which consists of the following steps:1. Analysis of the existing plant: Measurement of the water consumption and the consumption of chemicals in thegalvanizing plant Identification of the actual drag out of process solutions Identification of the actually necessary rinsing criteria to reach the necessaryproduct quality2. comparison to calculation of ideal consumptions calculation of the ideal water consumption calculation of the ideal consumption of chemicals3. identification of the potential for external use and disposal of spent process baths4. identification of the potential for recycling5. evaluation of the options6. optimisation of the waste water treatment plantA tool for the evaluation of galvanic process was developed: ZERMEG-Grid. It uses aspider plot with six poles. On the six poles the following parameters are represented bythe ratios of their actual values and the ideal values: rinsing criteria, drag out, rinsingwater consumption, material loss in pickling, useful life time of process solutions andratio of external recycling and reuse of the spent process solutions. For theseparameters, ideal values are given.4 Fresner, J., et al, ZERMEG, Schriftenreihe des BMVIT, 2004ZERMEG - Ein Projekt der Fabrik der Zukunft gefördert von BMVIT und FFFEndbericht ZERMEG IISeite 16