Turkey’s Industrial Water Needs Restrained by Expensive Power

Location: Istanbul, Turkey
Project: Colakoglu Metalurji A.S.
Capacity: 9,600 m³/ day
Energy Savings: $USD 800,000 or 6.2 million kWh/year* CO2 savings: 3,627 tons/ year**

* energy savings estimates based on Turkey’s power cost of $0.13/kWh

** based on Energy Recovery’s proprietary Power Model analysis

The Challenge: 
Industrial Water Needs Restrained by Expensive Power

The quality and availability of freshwater supplies in Turkey are unpredictable. This is because rainfall variations, geographical irregularities, urbanization, industrialization, and agricultural modernization all complicate water use for human, industrial, and agricultural purposes. Turkey has no natural oil or gas resources and must make deliberate and thoughtful decisions about its energy acquisition and use. In designing Turkey’s largest desalination plant for Çolakoglu Metalurgi Company in Istanbul, Aquamatch considered many energy-saving options including DWEER and selected Energy Recovery’s technology over the competition because it saves the most energy, has the highest efficiency, and requires little to no maintenance.

The Innovation Solution
: Energy Recovery PX Pressure Exchanger

The isobaric energy-recovering PX technology captures and recycles energy. This innovation reduces the energy required for desalination, lowers capital costs by complementing a smaller pump, decreases the carbon footprint of desalination processing, and offers maintenance-free operation for the life of the plant. The PX device made the most financial and environmental sense for the plant since it offered Aquamatch the highest return on investment for the life of the plant.

The Result
: Energy Savings Mean Viable Independent Water Source

The considerable energy saved using PX technology means Aquamatch is able to supply the Çolakoglu Metalurgi Company with more affordable process water, leaving freshwater resources available to residents. Increasingly, industrial customers seek out Energy Recovery for these benefits: companies require an independent water source that does not disrupt municipal supplies and that minimizes cost and energy use. In the case of Istanbul’s SWRO plant, Aquamatch is making economic growth possible by reducing the plant’s energy needs by more than 6 million kWh of energy per year. This has lowered the annual cost by nearly $800,000 each year for the seven years the PX solution has been operating in Turkey.

EPC contractors all gave the same answer when Aquamatch and Colakoglu Metallurgy asked for information on building an environmentally friendly and efficient desalination plant: Energy Recovery.