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The Municipality of Valparaíso has requested
a team of professionals, lead by Dra. Lorna Guerrero S., and academician
from the Department of Chemical Processes, Federico Santa María Technical
University, to conduct an evaluation of the industrial sector in terms of
the environmental standards, aiming at the prevention of contamination.
The objective of the study is to make a
diagnosis that allows for the maximisation of different aspects relative
to processes in each industry. Among the processes we have: the use of raw
material, to minimise the generation of waste, reuse, recycle and recover
material when possible, without affecting the quality of final products,
generating input savings especially in the case of water and minimising
requirements in the treatment of effluents.
As a first strategy in the development of
the study a survey will be conducted with the industries of the community.
The most relevant items will be selected, from the economic point of view,
or those including processes with a higher environmental impact.
According to the above, the following
companies have been chosen: instant coffee manufacturing industry, cured
meat industry, fish processing industries, frozen seafood industries and
mechanical service companies.
It must be pointed out that in some of the
selected areas there was a need to change the most representative company
as a result of the latter’s denial to participate in the project. This
activity reflects the ignorance regarding achievements that may result
when applying prevention to contamination.
The study itself will take place in two
parts: pre-diagnosis and diagnosis. In the first stage which lasts
approximately 1 or 2 days at the plant, a superficial vision is achieved
in terms of the processes and opportunities are identified to optimise
processes and minimise waste.
During this first phase several
opportunities were detected –in terms of magnitude and/or relevance—so
as to proceed with the diagnosis phase. In this case, a statistical survey
of data will be conducted, the management of processes will be observed
together with the quantification of parameters and an analysis of critical
points.
Following the information obtained during
the diagnosis phase, steps and equipment will be recommended to implement
the opportunities to prevent contamination. Implementation costs and
savings due to less consumption of water and other input will be
estimated.
The achievements of each company, the
associated costs and other specific background information are indicated
in chapter 4. However, in general, we may say that all of them were able
to reduce the consumption of water by around 30 to 70%. We are not taking
into account the mechanical services company, as it operates efficiently
from the environmental point of view.
The costs to implement prevention
opportunities vary between $15,000 and $410,000. All companies can recover
this investment in less than two months.
As a general conclusion, this study is an
example of the importance of CONTAMINATION PREVENTION.
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