Use of water processed by reverse osmosis For vapor generation in tobacco industry

Abstract

This article presents a study due to the technical use of reverse osmosis to treat the boiler water for steam generation in a plant of tobacco processing in Santa Catarina, Brazil. The monitoring was conducted between the years 2006 to 2008, presenting the results concerning the improvement of water quality with emphasis on environmental and financial gains. Water quality can be observed by the reduction of 90% in silica content and 100% hardness, leading to a reduction of incrustation and corrosion of the system. Moreover, a reduction in the discharges water from the boiler volume reduced the water consumption by approximately 6,000 m³/year and also the consumption of chemicals used in wastewater treatment plant, with a reduction of 32.76 m³/day of effluents to treatment. The reducing of energy with natural gas for water heating replacement was almost 900,000 m³/year (19.45%), because of increased in heat exchange efficiency. The reducing in the CO₂ emissions was in order of 1215,65 t/year. Finally, based on the achieved results obtained, can be possible to assume a reducing costs of production as a whole.