Cut Cost with Vacuum Distillation Systems! Don’t Waste Money by Focusing on Investment Cost Only - Dipl.-Ing. Jochen Freund

Which method is the best for the treatment of industrial waste water occurring in my production?

Very often it is easy to answer this question: Vacuum distillation.

Vacuum distillation is established on the market as most feasible and reliable method for the processing of industrial waste water. But which evaporator is the best one for my application? How can I compare the different vacuum distillation systems on the market?

Lifecycle cost analysis (LCC) has proven to be an excellent instrument to prepare investment decisions. To show the procedure the following example has been chosen: A metal processing company has to dispose of 2,500 m³ spent cooling lubricant emulsions per year. Currently they have disposal cost of € 80.00 per m³, amounting to € 200.000,00 per year.

If processed in a vacuum distillation system savings of € 1.2 to 1.3 million can be achieved during the ten year lifecycle of the machine. The company inquired with different suppliers of vacuum distillations systems and found out that comparison of quotations is not easy. Information regarding capacity and electricity consumption are not standardised. In addition this information is insufficient to determine feasibility of a vacuum distillation system.

Other important factors are disposal cost for evaporation residue and required man hours for operation and maintenance.

To get a better picture it was decided to prepare a simple LCC including the following costs:

•Depreciation

•Operation and maintenance efforts

•Electricity consumption

•Disposal cost for evaporation residue

•Spare parts, consumables