Closed Water Circuit

Up to now our annual water consumption was 26,500 m³, most of which was used to cool our pearl mills. This unpolluted water didn't make sense from an ecological point of view, but represented also a considerable cost factor.

At the end of 2007, we installed the necessary equipment for a closed water circuit (see below):

This investment enables the cooling of the pearl mills by two closed circular pipelines. The mills are cooled by the secondary loop which contains 5 m³ of water. A solution of ethylene-glycol and water, cooled by outside air, is pumped round in the primary loop. The energy is transferred in a heat exchanging device from the primary to the secondary loop. The air cooler can be strengthened by a refrigeration unit if the air temperature gets too high. An air cooler with refrigeration unit has been installed on the roof of the building.

The installations were completed at the beginning of February 2008 and the closed circuit water system was put into operation.
Since then, the water consumption has been recorded on a weekly basis and, after only a short time, savings of 95 - 98 % have already been achieved! Instead of an average of 520 m³, the water consumption is now at approx. 15 m³ per week.