Without enough water or suitable water quality, it is not possible to process crude oil into gasoline, or convert petrochemical products into plastics or generate power. Unfortunately, the quality of water available from rivers, lakes, and wells is normally not suitable for use in most industrial manufacturing operations, such as for boiler feedwater or cooling-tower makeup, nor for use as potable water.

The technologies required to produce water for each of these applications differ depending on the water source, its characteristics and the specific application. They include clarification, micro- or ultrafiltration, hot or cold lime softening, ion-exchange softening, deionization and reverse osmosis (RO).

While some technologies, like gravity separation, are relatively simple in concept, other technologies such as RO and microfiltration are more complex in design, while offering significant cost savings over their traditional counterparts. Such technological advances make it even more difficult to evaluate and select the most technically appropriate and cost-efficient solution, based solely on the raw water source and ultimate water usage.

Although some technologies used in a specific application may offer ease of operation, they may also require multiple treatment steps, take up large amounts of real estate, or generate residual solids needing disposal. However, other technologies used for that same application might combine treatment steps, drastically reduce the space required or eliminate the generation of residual solids. Each technology has its own benefits and considerations in terms of capital and operating costs.

Because of the wide range of technologies available for process-water and wastewater treatment, many chemical-process companies have chosen to outsource this operation to a third-party, water-management company.

Without enough water or suitable water quality, it is not possible to process crude oil into gasoline, or convert petrochemical products into plastics or generate power. Unfortunately, the quality of water available from rivers, lakes, and wells is normally not suitable for use in most industrial manufacturing operations, such as for boiler feedwater or cooling-tower makeup, nor for use as potable water.

The technologies required to produce water for each of these applications differ depending on the water source, its characteristics and the specific application. They include clarification, micro- or ultrafiltration, hot or cold lime softening, ion-exchange softening, deionization and reverse osmosis (RO).