Aplicação do Diagrama de Fontes de Água (DFA) para redução do consumo de água de processo em uma indústria de beneficiamento de arroz na região da campanha

Abstract

With each passing year, the scarcity of natural resources becomes even more evident. Among these resources, water is one of the main affected. Given this, several studies are being carried out seeking its rational and sustainable use. One of the sectors that most impacts the use of this resource is the manufacturing sector, it is estimated that together with the energy sector, they consume about 19% of all fresh water in Brazil. Process integration (IP), either by mathematical programming or algorithm-heuristic, can serve as an important tool to achieve this goal. The Water Source Diagram (WSD) is an algorithmic-heuristic methodology based on the water pinch circuit that analyzes the current to find reuse scenarios with or without regenerative process. The WSD has already been used in several industrial segments such as refineries, pulp and paper and breweries. However, in the grain processing industry, the methodology is still in the implementation phase, but it should soon be expanding because it is an area that needs a high volume of water. The MINEA 2.0 software is a tool in .NET language, which allows a quick and effective response, managing to generate several reuse scenarios. In the work in question, to verify the applicability and effectiveness, the study parameter was the electrical conductivity with pH as a participatory component. As a result, the percentage of water reduction was generated in two scenarios, modifying the electrical conductivity values of the external water source (FEA) seeking to have a comparison on the advantages of using a cleaner FEA. As one of the operations was the turbine, which requires a high volume of water to transform hydraulic work into mechanical work, the percentage of reduction was based on the operations of the parboilers and the boiler. In the first scenario, the reduction was 57.23% and in the second, 54.79%. It emphasizes that despite the results having good numbers, a study with a greater amount of contaminant should be necessary to verify the possibility of implementing reuse in the studied process.