Dow Chemicals in Hamburg

Van Heck had advised and assisted Dow Chemicals in Hamburg on a previous occasion. And they must have been satisfied because a red pump from Noordwolde was busy somewhere on Dow’s gigantic site last winter. To be precise, it was located between the channels used to supply and discharge cooling water. But why?

Used water flows back to the river

The factory is supplied with cooling water that enters via a canal from the river Elbe. After use, this water flows back to the river through a parallel canal. During certain weather conditions – a combination of wind direction and freezing temperatures – the incoming water can partially freeze, thus turning it into a Slush Puppie-like substance unfit for pumping into the cooling water system. Since this arises only now and then (and even then for just a few hours a day), Dow itself had already devised a solution that involved recycling the spent cooling water. Although this recycling cannot continue indefinitely, using it to correct a couple of ‘Slush Puppie’ hours a day is feasible. The electrically driven VP800 pump sent spent cooling water back into the supply channel on command. Before next winter arrives, however, the chemical giant plans to have a permanent solution built.

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