Even as the world’s population grows to an estimated nine billion in 2050, the lack of access to clean water is already causing severe stress. GE is helping businesses and communities tackle water scarcity by using new approaches to conserve, clean and reuse water.
A Vital Resource
Water is a vital, finite and irreplaceable resource. Less than one percent of all water on the planet is accessible fresh water, yet it often plays an invisible role in our lives, especially in parts of the world where it is abundant. We are increasingly taking water out of natural cycles, and in many cases, polluting it with toxic substances so that it is no longer clean enough to use. Climate change is also shifting patterns of rainfall, exacerbating existing droughts and in some cases transforming once water-secure regions into arid land. As the world’s water supply decreases with time, GE is working on meeting increased demand with innovative strategies around key technologies.
The repercussions of water scarcity and pollution are sobering. Without dependable sources of clean water, human health declines, growth and development slows, and the potential for conflict and political instability increases. We can only overcome these challenges if governments, businesses and communities work together to find new ways to conserve, clean and reuse water.
“Access to water will be a key enabler — or inhibitor — of growth in the future. Globally, we all rely on the same scarce water resources, so technologies that can increase the amount of water available and the quality and cleanliness of that water will play a vital role in preserving human health and driving growth.”
— heiner markhoff, ceo of ge water & process technologies
GE engineers inspect water pipes at the Global Reserarch Center
Minimizing Excess Water Use
One of the most straightforward ways to increase available water supply is to identify where water is used in excess. GE is working to identify ways to minimize the company’s own water footprint, starting first with knowing how water is used at our facilities, eliminating and/or reducing water throughput, and replacing outdated, water-intensive processes with new technological approaches. The goal is to reduce GE’s total water consumption 25 percent across the entire portfolio of businesses by the end of 2015, as measured against a 2006 baseline.
Over the past year, GE has hosted water use reduction “Kaizen blitz events” at three GE sites. These water kaizen blitz events were led by the Corporate Environmental group and our Global Research Center, and brought together cross-business teams including site managers and representatives from our GE Water & Process Technologies and GE Sensing & Inspection businesses.
The first step during these events was to learn how water is used in each facility using technology in the form of GE Sensing & Inspection’s Ultrasonic Flow Meters. These are clamped on externally to pipes and provide an accurate reading of water flow. By using the flow meters, GE teams were able to identify locations of excess water use and other unexpected flow variations, thus helping to map out solutions to minimize and/or eliminate water waste. This process also identified where other GE water filtering and purification technologies could be implemented to recycle facility water.
One of the valuable outcomes of the water kaizen blitz events is the formalization of the water use discovery process and methodology. GE shares this information across the different GE businesses and with customers so that they can also take advantage of the opportunity to minimize their water footprint.
One successful example of GE’s own water reduction is happening today in Wilmington, North Carolina. A joint venture among GE, Toshiba and Hitachi, called GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GEH) and Global Nuclear Fuel (GNF), has resulted in a co-sited wastewater and power generation facility. An energy-efficient wastewater system has reduced water usage by 25 million gallons annually and resulted in annual savings of $160,000 in water and energy costs. At the same time, GE membrane bioreactor technology installed at the plant is transforming up to 65,000 gallons per day of wastewater into a drought-proof supply of high quality, non-potable water.
The ZeeWeed 1500 Pressurized Ultrafiltration Membrane
Cleaning Up Wastewater
GE partners with scientists in universities and labs around the world to research advanced purification technologies that can clean even the most contaminated wastewater and make it suitable for reuse. Ahead of the reuse curve is the island nation of Singapore, which is already incorporating water reuse as a critical part of its national water strategy. By virtue of its geography, the country’s only natural source of freshwater comes from rainfall, thus making water conservation, purification and recycling imperative to sustaining the vitality of both Singapore’s population and its economy.
Advanced purification and treatment technologies are making it possible for Singapore not only to recycle water for industrial purposes, but also to recondition water for drinking and other human uses. GE’s ZeeWeed™ hollow fiber ultrafiltration membrane technology enables water treatment facilities in Singapore, including the Bedok NEWater and Ulu Pandan plants, to produce high-quality reclaimed water from treated wastewater. Singapore will soon be meeting 30 percent of its total water needs with recycled water.
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Khoo Teng Chye, Chief Executive of Singapore’s Public Utilities Board, discusses Singapore’s approach to water reuse.
In June 2009, continuing GE’s decades-long relationship with Singapore, GE Water & Process Technologies and the National University of Singapore (NUS) celebrated the opening of the NUS-GE Singapore Water Technology Center. The Center brings together GE and NUS scientists and engineers to pursue innovations in advanced water treatment and collaborate with governments and industry in Singapore and beyond to test, demonstrate and commercialize new water technologies.
Kyrene Water Reclamation Facility in Tampa, Arizona
Creating New, Dependable Sources Of Water
Following Singapore’s lead, many communities in water-scarce regions are seeking to maximize the usefulness of the water they take from streams, lakes or aquifers by recycling it many times over. In effect, creating a “new” water supply.
The power generation sector is a perfect candidate for the implementation of water reuse technologies. Water is required for nearly every step of producing power; for every doubling of energy demand, the amount of water needed to generate that power triples. The reverse is also true: lots of energy is needed to pump, treat and transport water. So an ideal scenario is to co-locate power plants and wastewater treatment centers so that treated wastewater can be reused immediately.
In the arid community of Tempe, Arizona, finding ways to reuse as much water as possible is becoming increasingly critical. To meet the growing wastewater treatment needs of the area, and to reduce demand on the potable water supply, the city decided to expand the existing Kyrene Water Reclamation Facility, using GE’s ZeeWeed Membrane Bioreactor system to upgrade and expand the existing conventional treatment facility. Since a ZeeWeed MBR requires a fraction of the space of a conventional wastewater treatment plant, the retrofit also doubled treatment capacity without increasing the plant footprint.
The expansion has resulted in the reuse of an additional 2.5 billion gallons of water a year for commercial and industrial applications, and the reclaimed water has played a critical role in the city’s long-term water management strategy. High quality, treated effluent is used for non-potable applications such as cooling at Kyrene station, a major electrical power plant nearby.
Looking To The Future
Although existing technology gives us powerful tools to conserve, clean and reuse water, solving water shortages around the world will require further innovation in addition to the implementation of new water policies, regulations and incentives.
GE is working with governments, communities, nonprofit organizations and thought leaders around key water issues. In 2008, GE issued a white paper titled, “Addressing Water Scarcity Through Recycling and Reuse: A Menu for Policymakers,” that examined four major policy approaches to increase water recycling and reuse, including support for education and outreach, removing barriers, providing incentives and establishing mandates and regulation. And at the “From Used to Useful” water summit held in November 2009, GE convened water experts from the public and private sectors to establish a dialogue about how best to promote and facilitate water conservation and reuse.
“Companies such as GE, Black & Veatch, Coca-Cola, and Pepsico recognize that water reuse is an essential component of water supply. At the same time, we’re trying to deal with 21st century water problems with 20th century legislation. The WateReuse Association, in partnership with other water associations and companies like GE, is working to identify what consistent, national-level policy and legislation for water reuse could look like.”
— g. wade miller, executive director of the watereuse association
It is critical also to recognize water’s relationship to the issue of human rights. The private sector’s role in this relationship is vast, complex and affects or involves a wide range of industries. Recognizing the human rights implications, and resulting societal consequences, of restricted water access, GE joined with the Institute For Human Rights and Business and other leading partners to understand collectively the links between water and human rights, in an effort to advance the overall debate on this important issue.
The Global Water Sustainability Center in Qatar
Developing A Global Standard
GE is also helping to create a standardized approach to measuring and understanding the water risks affecting corporations and their investors. In 2009, GE celebrated the opening of the Global Water Sustainability Center, a joint venture between GE Water & Process Technologies and ConocoPhillips, also announced a partnership with the World Resources Institute and Goldman Sachs on a new initiative to develop a Water Index. By aggregating nearly 20 factors related to water quality and availability, regulation and reputational issues, the Water Index will inform better investment decision-making and will help individual companies more accurately capture and assess the various elements of their water-related risk and opportunity.
Through GE’s own Global Research Center, our alliance with the Alberta Water Research Institute, our partnerships with national and international water organizations, and our water research centers in Qatar and Singapore, GE is excited about the potential for developing and scaling up innovative water solutions for years to come.
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- Expert Perspective
- Growing Business Risks from Global Water Scarcity