Answering a vital ecological and economic need
Saving water answers a fundamental environmental need. Saving water also allows for cost reduction, without necessarily affecting the quality of the products or services. The implementation of suitable technologies for water treatment in certain high-consumption areas, such as the agri-food industry, hospitals, hotels and obviously group housing gives an immediate reduction in water consumption, and the costs of maintenance and operation.
AIGA SAS contributes to this vital action in two ways : the possibility of no longer needing to soften the water in the chemical sense of the term, and the reduction in the need to purge in cooling networks.
To soften water, a conventional softener uses a resin charge called an ion exchanger. When water charged with calcium and magnesium passes over these resins, they are changed into non-scaling sodium. When the resins are saturated with calcium and magnesium ions, a regenerating cycle must be carried out to restore them. This regeneration is done with salt. To do so, the softener has to go through several phases of regeneration (thinning of the resin, pumping in brine, rinsing and creating brine), all of which use water.
Depending on the uses (individual, group housing, industry …), on the hardness of the water and the technologies (one or two units), the need for water for regeneration varies from 4 – 10% depending on the region, bringing with it not only an over-consumption of water but also the discharge of chlorides into the drains. By using AIGA SAS physical water treatment method, there is no wasted water, because the physical neutralisation of the scale is carried out as it passed through the equipment. The water retains all its qualities.
Conventional treatments based on chemicals for cooling circuits are obliged not to exceed a certain concentration of mineral salts, the threshold above which the products are no longer effective. On average, it takes a factor of 2.5 on the water networks in question, which means that a cubic metre of water is thrown away to produce 2.5 cubic metres of water. AIGA SAS physical treatment is not subject to the same limitations as chemical treatments.
With conductivity in the tower identical to that of a chemical treatment, the draining is less: in fact, the addition of anti-scalants, of filmogenics and of bactericides artificially increases the conductivity of the top-up water. This means that to achieve a precise conductivity within the basin, with the same requirement for evaporation, much less drainage is required. On sites where our solutions are installed, we record water savings in the region of 15%. If the water is softened (see above), a saving of 25% can be achieved.
The counter on our Home Page calculates the potential savings made thanks to our equipment, by taking 30% of the maximum outflow of all AIGA SAS equipment installed, and by estimating the saving at 12% of current use (replacement of softeners or treatment of drainage).
