Global specialty chemical company Perstorp Group plans to reuse wastewater from a treatment plant for multiple uses, including renewable hydrogen, at its Perstorp Oxo operations, the company said Dec. 19.
The project will save 1.1 million liters of fresh water per year and enable Perstorp to secure the future supply of water for the Stenungsund, Sweden, plant., according to the company.
It also fits with the company’s Project Air initiative and long-term sustainability goal to become “finite material neutral,” meaning it intends not to use resources at a rate greater than nature can replenish.
In 2019, Perstorp launched Project Air, with partners Fortum and Uniper later joining the effort, to produce sustainable methanol for chemical manufacturing using circular production methods, with the goal of reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 500,000 tons per year.
Perstorp production plants use water for various production needs, including as a solvent for chemical reactions, a carrier for products, a heat-transfer medium and for cooling. Water reuse will help the company address common sustainability challenges in the industry, says Anna Berggren, Perstorp’s vice president of sustainability.
“This is an important development of core technology for Perstorp,” said Berggren in a prepared statement. “We plan to implement it at more sites around the world in the future in our drive to reduce freshwater consumption. Fresh water scarcity is already a fact around the world. The chemical industry has a responsibility to reduce its use and find new solutions that can also support society as a whole.”
