“SCALEBAN” CASE STUDY – PROJECT AT UNITED PHOSPHORUS LIMITED (UPL)

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SYNOPSIS

United Phosphorus Ltd. (UPL) is a leading global producer of crop protection products, specialty chemicals and other industrial chemicals. UPL operates in every continent with offices in 23 countries and customers in 86 countries.

UPL’s approach towards environmental protection has always been proactive and they strongly believe in ensuring harmony with the society and environment.

Problems Faced by UPL

UPL had made it mandatory for most of their units to achieve ZLD objectives & water conservation by means of various available conventional technologies. In order to achieve ZLD objectives, the units had to make in house arrangements of effluent recycling with conventional technologies which were very costly to operate besides high CO2 emission. Under the given circumstances, they were looking for a techno-economically viable solution to achieve the above objective.

UPL APPROACH

Looking at the benefits of Scaleban technology, UPL decided to install Scaleban equipment at their 125TR YORK chiller condenser cooling tower at Unit I – Ankleshwar (Phase – 1) wherein, process effluent having 20,000 PPM TDS, 4,000 PPM chloride, 10,000 PPM sulphate etc. was utilized as make up in place of fresh water. After due observation & evaluation, a designated committee of technical experts declared this project as successful. Below is the copy of MOM for ready reference

Parameters of wastewater (Makeup) / cooling tower Recirculation water

Type of Industry 

Agrochemical

Type of Effluent

Wastewater Ro Reject 

Parameters 

Wastewater/ Makeup water parameters

Recirculating water parameters

Unit

pH 

6.5-7.5

7.8-8.3

–

TDS

10000-20000

90000-100000

ppm

TSS

100

<100

ppm

COD

5000

15000

ppm

Chloride

400-500

10,000

ppm

Sulphate 

6000-12000

50000-60000

ppm

Ammoniacal Nitrogen

30

100-130

ppm

Achievements of the “SCALEBAN” Project

  • Achieved ZLD objective on a sustainable basis.
  • Saving in high OPEX of MEE (Evaporator).
  • 100% saving of fresh water consumption in cooling towers.
  • Completed project in 6-8 weeks time.
  • Considerable reduction in Carbon footprint.
  • High COC operations of the cooling tower.
  • Substantial reduction in cooling tower blowdown quantity.
  • Zero scale, corrosion & biofouling free operation of the condensers/coolers.
  • By implementing Scaleban technology UPL contributed in achieving UN sustainable development goal no. 6,7,13,14

125TR Chiller Condenser Copper Tube Condition WITH high TDS operation of Cooling Tower

Post the success of this trial, UPL management has implemented Scaleban technology at different plants for OPTIMIZING THEIR WATER CONSERVATION & ZLD OBJECTIVES ON A COST EFFECTIVE BASIS

"SCALEBAN" Installation