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

4 A vision of galvanizing without waste water and hazardous wasteThe treatment of waste water in electroplating companies is linked with high costs for theprocess chemicals, i.e. acids, bases, precipitation chemicals, personnel costs for thetreatment plant crew and discharge costs. Also a lot of energy is lost with the waste water.Using physical-chemical waste water treatment, after the treatment of the water and theseparation of the resulting sludge, this sludge has to be landfilled, which is also linked withhigh costs for transport and landfilling itself.Due to these high costs and the impact on the environment the goal of a sustainableelectroplating company is the Zero Emissions Galvanising Plant (Planasch, 2003).A Zero Emissions Galvanising Plant has the adventages of less consumption of processchemicals, raw materials and energy, because process streams and baths are cleanedcontinuously, and water and process chemicals are recycled instead of being discharged tothe waste water treatment plant. This means less costs for the input.There are less costs for waste water treatment, because the waste water stream that has tobe treated is significantly smaller. There are also no costs for landfilling, because instead ofproducing sludge that has to be landfilled, the plants render by products, i.e. precipitationchemicals, that can be sold, i.e. to sewage treatment plants. That means less costs at theoutput and an additional income.Because of less production costs the Zero Emissions Companies will have an economicadvantage, which results in more secure employments.It is the goal of this paper to discuss three aspects of Zero Emission concepts in galvanizing:We want to describe the differences between a common electroplating plant and a ZeroEmissions Plant on one hand.In the second part we will show that it is not just much more efficient but necessary to workin a methodic way when optimising electroplating plants. We will present a methode anddiscuss its adventages.Thirdly we will demonstrate that it is technically and economically possible to run a plantwith minimized consumption of water, chemicals and energy, and finally a Zero EmissionsGalvanising Plant.7