Circular Water Reduces Costs, Water and Energy Usage for Linde Gases (Yantai)

Linde is one of the leading global industrial gas and engineering companies. It operates in more than 100 sites throughout China.

Linde Gases (Yantai) is the company's largest standalone gas production site in the Asia-Pacific region, providing industrial gases to customers in Yantai Wanhua Industrial Park, located in Yantai, a coastal city in Shandong Province.

The low-lying plant areas of Linde Gases (Yantai) are in a water-stressed area. Linde Gases (Yantai) operates air separation plants, which consume significant amounts of water for their cooling systems. As production capacity has expanded, freshwater demand has increased.

Linde Gases (Yantai) was looking for solutions that would improve operational efficiencies, meet regulatory requirements, enhance productivity and conserve water and energy.

Ecolab's water and process management business, Nalco Water, collaborated with Linde Gases (Yantai) to implement circular water solutions to reduce, reuse and reclaim water.

Together, the companies established a rainwater recovery network and smart water management to ensure that the recovered water met cooling water make-up standards.

A non-phosphorus solution was implemented to clean and treat discharge water for reuse in the cooling system. The solution enhanced system efficiency and led to reductions in both freshwater use and wastewater discharge.

Ecolab helped Linde Gases (Yantai) reduce the makeup water needed for the cooling tower, which decreased the amount of energy required to pump water into the tower and discharge it for wastewater treatment.

By optimizing operations and implementing a circular water solution, Linde Gases (Yantai) realized significant cost savings and conserved substantial amounts of water and energy, helping the company advance toward a greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction target of 35% by 2035 and climate neutrality by 2050.