Water is an essential for a better life and a critical resource for the pulp and paper industry and Kimberly-Clark (K-C) because all our products require some amount of water for their manufacture. In addition, water resilience creates social values. Due to increasing governmental and NGO scrutiny of water use, our businesses continue to face new regulatory changes in the areas of freshwater use and wastewater discharges. We recognize that water quality and availability can lead to business disruption and other production impacts. Our S2030 water strategy has shifted focus to site specific sustainable water use targets at Mills in water-stressed regions we have around the world. Our Fullerton Mill is located in a high water stressed region. This Mill produces seven hundred twenty thousand (720,000) gallons per day of wastewater from the tissue paper making processes. The wastewater is treated for reuse back in the Mill using Clarification, Ultrafiltration (UF) and Reverse Osmosis (RO) to meet the quality requirements for reuse purposes. The quality of the clarified wastewater is highly variable due to the changing paper manufacturing operations. As a result of the challenging feed water conditions, the current UF system is not able to meet reuse production requirements due to shutdowns during difficult feed water quality periods and also lengthy downtimes required for chemical cleanings of the membranes to recover their permeability.
This presentation is available to AMTA Members only.
Speaker
- Vetrivel Dhagumudi
Company
- Kimberly-Clark Corporation
Event
- AMTA/AWWA Membrane Technology Conference, West Palm Beach, FL
Session
- AMTA/AWWA Membrane Technology Conference
Date
- 07/20/21
Media
Keywords
- Ceramic Membranes, Ultrafiltration, Reverse Osmosis
Reference
- 9710-DP2689