Silica filter enhances reuse capabilities for highest U.S. freshwater consumer

摘要

To keep the lights on for millions of Americans, power facilities in the U.S. use about 1.9 trillion L/d (500 billion gal/d) of freshwater for equipment cooling - that's equivalent to about 750,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools and is more than half of the nation's total freshwater use. While power facilities routinely reuse freshwater, each instance of reuse concentrates silica, a naturally occurring substance that forms hard-to-remove scales on equipment that can affect function. Silica build-up significantly increases the costs associated with power facility water reuse and limits the number of times each batch of freshwater can be recycled.