Cities charge manufacturers for what their facilities discharge down the drain and through municipal sewer systems. Your bill fluctuates depending on the amount you discharge through the sewer system. For many manufacturers, sewer charges can add up to tens of thousands of dollars a year.
The Sewer Charge Challenge
The SM Engineering audit team was dispatched to a plastics company to examine their water and sewer bill. The company’s injection molding presses used city water as a coolant, which was discharged into the sewer after use.
A closed-loop cooling system would have eliminated the coolant water from entering the sewers at all. The plastics company hoped to invest in a closed-loop cooling system in the future, but did not have the funds to make that costly upgrade when it called SM Engineering.
SM Engineering’s Solution
Since we knew a closed-loop system was out of reach, we came up with a more cost-effective solution. Our audit team had discovered roof drains near the injection molding machines. This could be used to discharge the water from the molding machines to the storm sewer rather than through the sewer system.
We contacted the state to obtain the needed discharge permits. Then, our team helped the facility reroute the coolant water through the roof drains.
This simple, cost-effective solution saved the company $45,000 a year in sewer bill costs. What’s better, over four years, the company had saved enough to purchase a closed-loop cooling system. The new system saves the company an additional $20,000 a year in water costs. That’s approximately $65,000 a year in savings since calling in the SM Engineering team.
How much could our crack team of auditors save your company in utility bills? Schedule a call with SM Engineering today.
