Filtration Facts

Green Building Movement And Need For Filtration Keeps Rolling Along

Despite the current economic downturn, 92% of building professionals continue to support the Green Building movement. Support for LEED certification has slipped a little to just 62% among building professionals. Those are just two of the findings of the recently published 4th Annual Green Building Survey. The annual survey is a joint effort by Allen Matkins, CTG, and the Green Building Insider. It surveyed over 1,600 design and construction professionals from around the U.S., and claims to be the largest survey of Green Building professionals focusing on green and sustainable construction.

The survey results seem to indicate a realization that the Green Building movement is here to stay, aided in part by expanding government mandates and the continuing efforts of industry associations. The soon to be released ASHRAE standard 189.1 is an example of this -- a standard which sets the foundation for Green Buildings by addressing site sustainability, water use efficiency, energy efficiency, indoor environmental quality, and the building's impact on the atmosphere, materials, and resources. Another positive trend is the recent creation of the International Green Construction Code (IGCC). This code represents the merger of two national efforts to develop adoptable and enforceable Green Building codes, and represents the joint efforts of the International Code Council (ICC), the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), and the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IES). Quite a step forward in cooperation and agreement of green initiatives.

Other findings in the Green Building Survey include:

• 88% of respondents said they are more likely to include energy saving or sustainable elements in their future construction projects, which was a 14% increase from the previous year

• 97.5% said they believe energy costs will continue to increase in the future

• Of those respondents who said they had helped build and certify a LEED-New Construction project to the Gold level, 51% said the added construction costs to attain that level were 4% or higher.

• The most important reason for building LEED, green, or sustainable projects is to "save energy and other operating costs."

According to the Department of Energy, a building's HVAC system accounts for 40-60% of the total energy usage in commercial and residential buildings. So keeping that system running efficiently is one of the best things you can do. Effective cooling tower filtration is a great way to accomplish this goal.

Is your cooling tower operating at its highest efficiency? How might it benefit by a basin cleaning filtration system?

Read a bit more about how cooling tower filtration can save energy and water, or download our ROI Calculator to estimate the savings for YOUR current installation.

Industrial Water Filters Used For Water Reclaim and Re-Use

The United Nations estimates that by 2025 over half the world's population will live in water-stressed or water scarce countries. In February, 2009 the Wall Street Journal reported that water managers in 36 U.S. states anticipate water shortages by 2013. At the same time the water depleted Sun Belt and Western U.S. looks for ways to cope with dwindling water supplies. How desperate are they to find a solution? In 2008 Georgia lawmakers tried, unsuccessfully, to move the state's border north so that Georgia could claim part of the Tennessee River!

At the corporate level, implementing water reuse/recycling strategies may be the more practical answer as companies grapple with their "water footprint." As with other forms of sustainability, the possibilities for reclaim are huge. For example, Pepsi claims to have saved 6 billion gallons of water between 2006 and 2007 due to smarter water use and equipment in their operations. On the extreme side, Global Water Intelligence recently reported the lofty goal of Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD) in which no liquid waste leaves the boundary of a facility.

Regardless of size, nearly every industrial manufacturing plant -- from petroleum to lima beans -- has some opportunity to water reclaim. The driving forces behind these efforts are the same:

1. Increasing worldwide water scarcity.
2. Increasing pressure to become more environmentally responsible.
3. Increasing water and sewage costs. In the United States, municipal water rates have increased an average of 27% in the past 5 years alone.

Regardless of industry, customized water treatment and/or filtration systems must be in place for companies to even begin to realize their water reclaim goals. Sometimes the solutions are simpler (and more beneficial) than a manufacturer anticipates. A case-in-point is Gerawan Foods, Inc. of Sanger, California.

Garawan Foods processes up to 12 million pounds of lima beans a year. Washing these beans takes a LARGE amount of water, and had been producing a lot of sewage - pushing the limit on the towns' guidelines for volume and silt content. Even worse was the fact the pre-washing stage was forcing visible silt under the bean's skin, causing significant amounts of beans to be rejected for quality reasons.

A simple solution using three LAKOS centrifugal separators allowed Garawan foods to completely recycle the bean washing water, resulting in a dramatic reduction in sewage and operating costs. Furthermore, the company cut several hours of manpower a day during the wash season and totally eliminated quality control rejection due to silt in the beans. For Garawan Foods, an effective water reuse strategy supported by an equally effective filtration system was quite literally worth beans!

Want to learn more? Read the entire Case Study of the Garawan Foods filtration system.

Photo by: druclimb

LAKOS Separators To Highlight Water Conservation At AHR Expo

Sustainability, energy savings and water conservation will be three of the main topics at next week's annual AHR Exposition in Orlando, Florida. Sponsored by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) the expo is the largest HVAC show in North America. With travel budgets cut in a tight economy, and many of the technical sessions being offered via "LIVE" webcast for the first time, many expect the attendance at the show to be lower than previous years. But interest in industry topics has never been higher.

"Water conservation and energy savings are becoming more important every day," says Allyn Troisi, an Application Engineer for LAKOS Separators and Filtration Systems. "And in HVAC systems, the cooling tower itself and how efficiently it uses energy and water has become an area of greater focus." As both an ASHRAE member serving on several technical committees relating to cooling towers and water use, and a LEED Accredited Professional (AP), Troisi sees increased efforts by both organizations to create new and improved standards that will help facilitate greater water and energy savings into the future. "There are methods and best practices that can really help increase efficiencies which in turn will lead to greater energy and water saving," adds Troisi.

In fact, of those companies planning to exhibit at the exposition, 62% say they will be announcing a new product at the show. Of those products, 45% claim to increase energy efficiency, according to the Ashrae Journal. And due out later this month is ASHRAE standard 189.1-2009, a new Standard for the Design of High-Performance Green Buildings. Developed by ASHRAE, the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), and the Illuminating Engineering Society (IES), the standard covers site sustainability, energy efficiency, and other ways in which a building impacts the environment.

Effective filtration is one way to make more efficient use of water in an HVAC system. Using a centrifugal separator, there are no moving parts to wear out or replace, minimal water loss, and a low and steady pressure drop. LAKOS will be exhibiting at the expo (booth 3230) and will highlight healthcare filtration, preventing Legionella, and our new Cooling Tower Energy and Water Savings Calculator.

Wish to learn more about filtration solutions for HVAC applications?
Download our HVAC Engineering Catalog, containing solutions and installation information (and case studies) for a wide range of HVAC systems.

Cooling Tower Filtration Saves Water Though Often Overlooked

The seventh annual report on the Green Building movement was released in November by the publishers of Building Design+Construction magazine. Co-sponsors include the Department of Energy, the Construction Specifications Institute (CSI), and the U.S. General Services Administration, among others. This time the focus is on water, and how its growing scarcity is creating special challenges for sustainable design and construction. The challenges are many.

Among the findings:

• Virtually every state and region in the USA will experience some degree of water shortage in the next 10 years
• Landscape irrigation and cooling towers use much more water than all the household plumbing fixtures like toilets and faucets combined
• Although there have been great efficiency improvements in plumbing products the past 20 years, older plumbing systems and waste caused by other components of water systems still lead to considerable waste
• The entire report can be downloaded here 

Despite the length (48 pages) and the publisher's well written Action Plan list of 21 detailed recommendations for the building industry and government agencies, there appear to be several glaring shortcomings in the report:

1. Neither California, New Mexico, or Michigan completed surveys that provided the data for the report.
2. Several water usage benchmarks cited in the report might be questioned by industry professionals, including typical water consumption of cooling towers.
3. One of the most effective methods to make water and the equipment used in "water handling processes" more efficient (eg HVAC, irrigation, residential water supplies, process cooling, etc) is effective FILTRATION. By keeping the water in "water systems" as free of troublesome solids as possible, the components can work at their highest efficiency. However, when dirt and silt and scale or other solids are in the system, nothing works as well as it should. Yet, the word "filter" was only used twice in the 48-page report, and that was not related to cooling towers or irrigation at all -- the two biggest uses of water.

Cooling Tower Filtration Omitted

Nothing was mentioned in the report how cooling tower filtration prevents the need to shut down the system for manual basin cleaning, or how blowdown is reduced as a result, or how proper filtration can reduce the spread of Legionnaire's Disease and other diseases. And filtration using centrifugal separators is even more effective, since it eliminates the need to replace cartridge and bag filters that absorb water and lead to water waste. Not to mention the waste of the bag/cartridge itself.

Want to see examples of how different filtration solutions can be applied to cooling towers?

Download our Cooling Tower Filtrations Brochure and see the many ways in which effective filtration can maximize the efficiency of cooling towers and other key components in an HVAC or process cooling system. And yield many other benefits as well.