Assisting The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan to Conserve Water

Recently, PERI completed an assignment for USAID under the water IQC Water Reuse Project in Jordan. During this assignment, PERI provided expertise aimed at identifying strategies that encourage industry to reuse and recycle water.

Jordan is a country of severe water stress. Projections show that by 2020, Jordan will have a major deficit in water. Many regions of the country already exhibit shortages and rationing. While industry's demand on renewable water resources is only 5%, nearly 15% of the country's workforce is within industry sectors that require water for manufacturing purposes.

PERI's efforts have helped to define industry baseline practices for water use and management, enabling a benchmark for key industry sectors to improve their water management performance. This has been applied to developing national strategies that could help improve water-use efficiency in the industrial sector by more than 30%. Among the activities completed are:

• Detailed audits of seven industrial operations, where hundreds of thousands of cubic meters of water were identified for recycling and reuse.
• Several million dollars in pollution prevention and waste minimization savings identified along with water recycling opportunities.
• A strategy for raising more than 2 million dollars in funds to help finance small business loans and grants for water recycling technologies.
• Completion of a major workshop for more than 80 attendees from industry and regulators on pollution prevention and the application of Environmental Management Systems for improving water recycling and reuse.
• Development of a training CD on pollution prevention and water recycling that major industry players were provided guidance on in developing EMS and P2 programs within their companies.
• Recommendations for improving regulatory enforcement and institutional capacity building that will encourage industry to use water to its maximum efficiency.

The Jordan Phosphate Mine Corp. is the largest company in Jordan and the world's third largest supplier of phosphate. The Aqaba fertilizer complex makes DAP, MAP, fluorosilicates, and phosphates for the world export markets.

PERI engineers worked with JPMCs corporate environmental manager, to identify P2 opportunities that focus on maximizing efficient use of water. Opportunities such as waste heat recovery from phosphoric acid production and reuse in desalination plant operations to provide feedwater, steam traps for fugitive steam emission recovery/condensation and return, and recycle blowdowns from cooling towers and boiler operations were identified.

The phosphoric and sulfuric acid plants shown in the photos, along with significant steam venting from numerous stacks and inefficient processes are now the subject of intensive P2 assessments by in-plant personnel that have been trained by PERI experts.

PERI engineers worked with the Jordan Phosphate Mine Co. at their phosphate ore and beneficiation plant in Eshidiya, Jordan. In a P2 audit, more than 450,000 cubic meters of water per month were discovered unaccounted for from material balances.

These losses represent more than one million dollar per year in losses to JPMC.

Because of PERI's efforts a program is now underway to recapture water losses and recycle them through the system. Other benefits that JPMC will quantify from the recycling effort include:

• Higher productivity and throughput for ore processing
• Higher worker productivity from reduced accidents and improved workplace environment
• Lower energy costs resulting from LDAR (Leak Detection and Repair) programs that will improve pumping efficiency

PERI's Director of Clean Technologies and P2, Dr. Nicholas Cheremisinoff, conducted waste minimization assessments, focusing on water reuse and recycling at more than 8 major industrial complexes in Jordan. Among the industry sectors PERI helped to identify water saving and recycle opportunities are

• Jordan Phosphate Mine Co. (phosphate, phosphoric acid, and fertilizer production)
• Al Rhiad Detergent Co. (soaps, detergents, edible oils)
• United Coffee Co. (instant coffee plant)
• Coca Cola Co. of Jordan (beverage manufacturing)
• Jordache of Jordan (men' and women's apparel, textiles manufacturing)
• Jordan Oil Refinery Co. (oil refining)
• Arab Potash Co. (potash and fertilizers)
• Several industrial estates (textiles manufacturing)

PERI provided on site engineering expertise and trained personnel on how to conduct P2 audits. Additionally, PERI provided extensive training and produced a training CD on ISO 14001 and P2 with a focus on water recycle and reuse for industry. More than 80 regulators and industry representatives were trained in a two day workshop.

For more information on this project and/or PERI's environmental sector capabilities please contact:

Dr. Nicholas Cheremisinoff
Director of Clean Technologies/Pollution Prevention Programs
301-468-8492
ncheremisinoff@perihq.com

An article about this project was published in the Jordan Times. Please click here for text from that article. (PDF)

 

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