Corning’s clean water system voted top project by partners
Corning’s Project Clean Water, initiated at the Hickory Manufacturing and Technology Center in North Carolina, was recently named a top project by peer companies who are also members of Energy Star.
Corning was one of nine companies with new projects that save natural resources recognized at the Environmental Protection Agency’s annual industrial partners meeting in Washington, D.C.
Project Clean Water recycles the water used in manufacturing and greatly reduces the amount of water discharged from the Hickory plant to the local municipality’s treatment facility.
To do this, the company installed an ion exchange water treatment system that removes contaminates from the process water, while an ultraviolet lamp controls any biological growth.
The water is then filtered and returned in a closed-loop design to be used for manufacturing multiple times.
This has achieved an 11% reduction of annual water usage and improved the production line efficiency, previously dedicated to cleaning and maintaining the water system.
The technology behind Project Clean Water has been installed at additional Corning manufacturing facilities.
Image: JT Hufnagel, operations manager, Global Energy Management, accepts a top project award from Chris Grundler, director, US EPA’s Office of Atmospheric Programs, at the Energy Star conference held in Washington, D.C.
