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With the challenges of drawing water from the Bar-sur-Loup water basin becoming more and more restrictive, and the company's desire to reduce its environmental footprint, Mane wanted to replace its 14 m³/h osmosis station, used to maintain the quality of top-up water for steam and cooling circuits. The aim was twofold: to optimise industrial performance and reduce raw water consumption.

In fact, the existence of a single osmosis station (supplied with raw water with sequestering agent and two finishing softeners) limits the use of downgraded mode for cleaning the osmosis membranes, which is otherwise too frequent and costly (every 3 months). In this context of change, the target conversion rate has been set at 90/10, with a conductivity of 10 µS/cm, enabling a considerable reduction in water consumption compared with the existing system (conversion rate of 70/30, conductivity of 30 µS/cm)

Despite extremely limited technical space, BWT succeeded in developing a system incorporating two osmosis units (8 m³/h each) and three softeners, installed upstream of the water loop. The aim was to guarantee business continuity, even in the event of maintenance, while avoiding the need for sequestering agents.

What's more, to avoid any further suspension of industrial activity during the installation of the new water treatment system, implementation had to be carried out during the three-week annual technical shutdown in August 2021. After a week of dismantling, the new equipment was installed, put back into service and the settings fine-tuned in just 15 days, so that the plant could be restarted on the date initially scheduled.

This reverse osmosis system complements BWT's ECO-MX solution for in situ generation of fresh biocide solution by salt electrolysis, and BWT's BLUWELL solution for remote, real-time monitoring of installations.

"Despite time and space constraints, the new system was ready on schedule, thanks to the availability and commitment of the BWT teams in charge of installation, working in tandem with our in-house teams," explains Benoît Dubart, Utility Maintenance Manager at Mane. He also points out that "the proximity of the BWT South-East branch and the responsiveness of its teams are also real assets when it comes to frequent inspection visits".

"The better-than-expected results obtained thanks to the technical system proposed and installed by BWT have enabled us to considerably reduce the environmental footprint of our industrial processes. In financial terms, the return on investment has been particularly rapid, thanks to BWT's support in covering 65% of the total cost of the operation through energy saving certificates (ESC)".