The water supplying your plant today is the same as it was five years ago. Is your treatment program?
If your answer is "I think so," that's the first sign something may be costing more than it should.
What This Means for Treatment
The source of the water, whether surface or well, has a direct impact on its quality. Seasonal variations, changes in intake, or process expansions can all change what the water demands from treatment.
Some common mistakes companies make:
- Outdated treatment program — kept in place out of inertia, not because it still fits;
- No monitoring of the raw water intake — evaluation tests, when they exist, are run too infrequently;
- Underestimating seasonal variation in surface sources — reactive adjustments instead of preventive ones;
- No correlation drawn between raw water parameters and the fouling, corrosion, and microbiological issues observed in the equipment.
The Cost Impact
A careful assessment of process requirements against water source quality is essential and can have a strong impact on operating costs. For example:
- Surface waters have higher suspended solids content and usually require clarification — cost between BRL 0.20 and BRL 0.60/m³;
- Well waters have higher dissolved solids content (hardness, iron, manganese, silica) and often require softening via resins or reverse osmosis — cost between BRL 0.60 and BRL 3.00/m³.
The difference can reach fifteen times. And the wrong decision cuts both ways: some plants spend on dissolved solids removal where clarification alone would do, and vice versa.
Conclusion
An outdated treatment program, reactive monitoring, and no correlation with the water source cost more than they appear to. The first step is simple: look at your operation and identify which of these points applies.
The strategy should be grounded in an analysis of the source and the process, not a generic template.