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Building Water Management System in Third World PlantsKhaled Alnobani, M.Sc. Chemical Engineer, Jordan

Not always one encounters a problem of no water management system in a refinery

nowadays. Sometimes decades of ignorance may result in a poor or no water management

in all aspects. Low water prices, absence of laws to comply with, lost awareness, absenceof policies, etc. all are factors that lead to not implementing a functional water

management system. In this article the water management system is treated as a functional

system because engineers are familiar with the structure of a system of functions. Todetermine the functions of the system it is required first to determine the arguments of

these functions, and those include :

Decision makers,

Consumers, Treatment units,

Equipment,

Uses and

Policy.

There is no use in working long time to save 10 m3 of water in 10 usages while onedecision maker can decide to waste more than 100 m3 at once and send them to the

treatment units without studying any alternatives. Sometimes part of the water network is

deteriorated with time and it reached a poor condition to the degree that it must be

replaced, but in the third world budget is limited specially for reasons such as waterreservation. It is not clear why they cannot pay for such important reasons while in other

parts of the world the industry pay for itself but surely the reasons could be related tocorruption. The functions of the system are:

Minimizing water consumption,

Achieving compliance,

Maintaining treatment units operation,

Maintaining operational integrity,

Fulfilling process units demands.

Each system argument has functions related to it. The results of all functions are commonand should be:

Sustaining the business,

Complying with the laws,

Protecting the environment and

Water reservation.

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There are functions of the system, the arguments and the relations that relate the argumentsto the functions they are the tools which make the whole process working and moving, and

those may be summarized as: decision making, monitoring, alternatives creative thinking.

1. Decision making: the personnel who are responsible for the water management

system must take their role and share the decision making process, prior and afterthe decision is taken.

2. Monitoring: there are two kinds of monitoring; compliance monitoring and control

monitoring; the first is performed to insure compliance with the laws and it is doneon all streams of water leaving the refinery and that part used for irrigation inside

the refinery, the second kind of monitoring is performed to insure that all water

treatment units is functioning properly. For example in one refinery there was only

API separator, DAF unit plus Aeration ponds, in this kind of waste water treatmentmaking detailed analysis of all water constituents inside the envelope of the

refinery is a waste of money and time because the effluent water will be no longer

acceptable for reuse and will be disposed someway. This limit is possible becauseof absence of restricting laws that force the owner to properly manage his waste. In

planning for monitoring attention must be given to: lab time, lab capabilities and

information flow channels, there is large amount of information flow so usual mailusing paper is not practical. Samples are taken from different places so different

people are involved. The monitoring program is not primitive unless the treatment

units are primitive in nature, at the same time all compliance tests must be done.Field monitoring of the uses; all uses that exceed a certain threshold value must be

monitored and alternatives must be studied and the usage monitoring should bedone before using water not after that.

3. Alternatives creative thinking: creative thinking is a skill here and the key point is

that water is not the only liquid created on earth, there are other liquids which can

be used for pressure testing and cleaning equipment and other uses. The only use

which has no other alternative is drinking, so reserve clean water for drinking forevery bodies benefit. If water usage could be avoided by changing procedures then

why not. In advanced plants every thing is studied in the design stage but even then

creativity could never be discarded, just put your head out-of the-box for a moment.There are methods to implement different management systems and here is a

suggestion for the implementation of the functional water management system

described here, this includes several steps:1. Obtaining top and senior management commitment.

2. Proper training

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3. Executing the monitoring program on stages for Change Managementreasons.

4. Performing a preliminary water survey by distributing a water survey.

5. Performing a comprehensive water survey following the preliminary one via

field visits to all concerned parties in the plant.6. Sharing decision making.

If the responsible person cannot discuss, decide or do not have the proper training then thewater management system as a whole will be another waste and need treatment. There are

ways to check for the system ill function:

1. Comparison of consumption with similar industries.

2. Compliance reports.3. Real and possible recycling opportunities.

The water management in the third world is subject to a culture that rise many obstacles

most of them managerial, water is treated as something that could be bought and not asa valuable resource. The aim of any management system is achieving its objectives and

those are found in the definition from our perspective - of management itself

Optimum use of resources.