The Splash

Water is a Resource: Get Flowing on Sustainability Goals with Kurita America's Comprehensive Site Assessment

In 2020, a food and beverage customer in the Upper Midwest, United States, approached Kurita America to take a proactive method to address water consumption, production, and wastewater discharge at a world-class campus. Kurita set forth with its Comprehensive Site Assessment (CSA), which looks holistically at plant operations, production, and the use of resources. This is one of several approaches of our [...]

Antioxidant Chemistries Maximize Coproduct Value

Kurita America’s development and application of antioxidant chemistries improve the quality of ethanol plant coproducts. The years of international experience coupled with local legacy to create OxiOUT, which is a stable solution of sodium metabisulfite and other proprietary antioxidants. After thorough review of the coproducts and what the quality issues are, our innovative chemistry leads into the [...]

Suspended Solids Removed by Basin Sweep

At an ammonia production facility located in rural Nebraska with surrounding cornfields and gravel roads through the facility, the cooling tower collected high amounts of solids and silt through the natural air scrubbing of the system. These suspended solids circulated through the cooling system and accumulate over time. No filtration system had been installed to remove these suspended solids, thus the number of [...]

Successful Plant Startup with FDA Approved Cetamine Boiler Technology

A new Midwest dry-mill ethanol plant needed a complete boiler treatment program in place for the initial startup. The facility required a safe and FDA-approved product for potential contact in Distillers’ Dried Grains with Solubles (DDGS) used in animal feed and corn oil. Using efficient chemical feeds with minimal operational maintenance was priority. Additionally, this facility's two boilers had sustaining [...]

SaltOUT: Innovative Technology for Environmental Discharge and Reuse

Kurita America’s experience with cold lime softening (CLS) has culminated in the creation of SaltOUT, an innovative enhancement chemistry that precipitates hard-to-remove ions and trace metals into a stable solid waste. SaltOUT is a next-generation solution that will expand reuse and zero liquid discharge (ZLD) opportunities while meeting stringent discharge requirements and mitigating waste disposal [...]

A Sustainable Future: UN’s World Food Day and Kurita

As we approach World Food Day on October 16th, Kurita continues to believe in the harmony between man, nature, and technology. All three combine to recognize these United Nations’ days, which include World Food Day, World Water Day, and World Environment Day. These fall under the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). World Food Day encompasses Kurita’s sustainable efforts in [...]

Success in Zero Liquid Discharge to Guide Reuse Applications

In 2006, a groundbreaking ethanol plant began operation in the San Joaquin Valley of California. As one of the world’s most productive agricultural areas, this was a prime location; however, to address environmental challenges, the region had strict regulations on industrial discharge streams. To make this plant a reality, Kurita America designed a unique water system that required no environmental discharge, a [...]

The Importance of Keeping Your Cooling Towers Clean

As featured in Process Cooling.

Dirty and fouled cooling tower water often plagues maintenance teams that manage industrial cooling towers. A dirty cooling tower can have a detrimental effect on the overall health of the plant’s water infrastructure, leading to lower efficiencies and increased costs. Cooling water full of fine sand, grit and biological matter can contribute to damage to analytical instrumentation, creating inaccuracies and [...]

Integrated Treatment System Removes Iron, Arsenic and Radium in Wisconsin

The City of Elkhorn is a long-standing customer of Kurita America, utilizing equipment at multiple water treatment plants since the late 1970s. Elkhorn’s existing water treatment plants used aeration followed by pressure filtration and ion exchange, in series, to remove iron, arsenic and radium from the groundwater supply wells. When it came time to replace an aging treatment system, the city wanted to include [...]

Effective Water Management Through Reuse

Water is vital to the operations of our customers who entrust Kurita America to provide the best solutions for managing their water resources. Understanding how water integrates into the bigger picture allows us to approach your water challenges from multiple angles and develop programs that deliver the most effective results; increasingly these involve some level of water reuse. Whether enabling the use of graywater [...]

Investigating the Effectiveness of Antibiotic Combinations Utilized in Fuel Ethanol Production

As featured in Ethanol Producer Magazine.

Bacterial infections during fuel ethanol fermentations can negatively impact the fermentation process and lower ethanol yields. Lactic Acid-Producing Bacteria (LAB), such as Lactobacillus , Lactococcus , Weissella and Pediococcus , are a common source of contamination due to their ability to grow in the harsh conditions, low pH, high temperatures, and high concentrations of ethanol, present during fermentation. [...]

OptaCell™ Plus Configured for Calcite Contactor Provides Flexible Operation While Stabilizing Aggressive Water

Craven County is located in the Eastern part of North Carolina at the mouth of the Neuse River. Their new water treatment plant was to include a reverse osmosis/nanofiltration (RO/NF) membrane system; however, the small membrane pore size removes many beneficial minerals, often resulting in a corrosive water. To stabilize the water before sending to distribution, Kurita America furnished a calcite contactor [...]