Innovation

The innovation utilized by Vehtek that caught our attention when looking for a sustainability focused business was an oil water separator. While they did not develop this technology or the machine that utilizes it to clean their wastewater, this innovative system allows the company to avoid paying large fees to clean their industrial wastewater. The large separator was purchased by Vehtek in order to reduce the amount of wastewater produced by the company during their daily operations of creating car parts.

“Parts go through the a furnace to get hot stamped. When the metal gets put into the die, the metal gets cold really quick making the metal stronger.”

Vehtek is a metal stamping company that makes parts for car manufacturers. During the manufacturing process, the parts are hot stamped, and go through a furnace. When they come out, they are put into a die, to mold them into shape. Then, to cool the parts and solidify their shape, they must run water over them. In doing this, oil mixes with that water, and produces industrial wastewater that cannot be sent down the drains. To quote Marissa; “Water goes through the die to make the metal cold, and when they change out dies or there are leaks, it generates the waste water which cannot be dumped down the drain.”

It would be very expensive to pay for all the raw industrial wastewater to be taken away and disposed of properly. They use an oil and water separator that filters this water, enabling them to either reuse it, or release it as a harmless byproduct. The specific design of the separator involves a series of membranes and filters. The water enters and a series of pumps pushes the water through the system, forcing it to pass through the membranes. As the water is filtered and treated, the cleaner water is sent out to the city. The particles and oil are filtered out and collect in the membrane. As more and more of the initial input of water is filtered out each time through the process, the oil condenses and collects in the process sink. Once the system is completely out of water, the oil is thick enough to be pumped off and collected. The water that is filtered drains out through the sanitary lines, and the collected oil is recycled.

Inspiration

This innovation comes from a variety of inspirations. Many of the inspirations are based on monetary reasons, because reducing costs is a motivating factor for almost any company. Marissa further explained, saying, “It’s extremely expensive to dispose the water as waste which is why we treat it ourselves”. While it helps the environment and ensures clean water for the city, it is clearly not done as a charity act, or simply for good publicity or philanthropic accolades. This is done as a business measure, to save costs. Some of the costs they were able to eliminate or reduce include the cost of transporting all of the wastewater to another treatment plant elsewhere, or the fines imposed from dumping that much contaminated water down the drain. The separator is cheaper than the previous ways of disposal that Marissa told us about the previous process, saying “The original method of disposing the water was collecting the water into totes and having a disposal company pick up the water.” The separator is not required specifically by any regulation, but prior to its use the company would pump all of the wastewater into excess totes, which would be picked up by a waste company. This proved to be very costly to Vehtek, and they realized that treating the water on site and allowing it to drain to the city as cleaned water would be less expensive.

The separator does fulfill some of the core values of the company though. Vehtek is an ISO 14001 certified company, which means they are held to very high international standards. To reach this certification they undergo environmental audits, which Marissa was in the process of undergoing right before our interview. The audit is very strict, and expects excellence. They do not just ask that companies show environmental compliance, but that they instead show a level of environmental performance that sets them apart. Due to their wastewater being a significant aspect of their processes, they are audited annually. These audits look to see that they have not only been keeping up their good work from the year before, but that they have actually improved their processes. The goal of Vehtek is to eventually have zero wastewater at the end of production each day. “The water pumps through the system and goes through membranes where the oil is collected, then the water is dumped down the drain to the city.” Currently they use around 2,000 gallons of water per day that gets disposed of out of the filter and sent to the wastewater treatment plant. But they are working to improve their equipment and processes to get them to a point where they don’t need to get rid of any wastewater, and for it all to be recycled right there at the plant.

Overall impact

The impact of this innovation is cleaner water and sanitation, fulfilling the UN sustainability goal number six. By ensuring their water is clean before it leaves the plant, they are eliminating extra contaminants that would have ended up in the water or sanitation systems.

“If we sent oily wastewater to the city, it could mess with the drinking water provided in the city of [Bowling Green].” -Marissa

Business benefit

While initially the cost of this machine is quite expensive, in the long run it benefits the company. Marissa was unable to get permission to share the details about the costs to Vehtek of purchasing the separator, though we appreciate her efforts in trying to get us that data. Although we do not have the exact numbers for the daily costs, the initial costs, or the cost of transporting untreated wastewater to a third party company, we found information online that was beneficial. This information does not directly represent Vehtek, but since oil water separators are utilized by many companies, we were able to create an estimate. There were no straightforward costs available on the web, and not knowing the size of Vehtek’s unit or any of the specifics made it difficult to compare directly. I was able to get a quote for a Oil Water Separator that could handle 2,000 gallons per day from a sales rep at Oldcastle Infrastructure, at around $20,000 to $40,000. Using $40,000 as the initial cost, we then used the numbers for how much wastewater is recycled instead of being sent out into the city. Marissa said “It saves the company money and saves about 100,000 gallons of water sent out to the city per year”, so using this, we found out how much it would cost to pay for 100,000 gallons of wastewater to be treated each year. Using a powerpoint from Big Fish Environmental, we calculated that it would cost Vehtek $134,400 per year to have their wastewater treated. This price far outweighs any numbers we have seen for prices on Oil Water Separators, which means that over the last two years, this has saved them nearly $270,000 dollars. The system has been there since at least 2012, meaning it has likely been paid off by now, and will continue to save Vehtek large sums of money annually.

Social and environmental benefit

This also benefits the city of Bowling Green, because the city does not have to waste money on upgrading their water treatment plant and related infrastructure. Another goal satisfied is responsible consumption and production.This is satisfied because Vehtek is responsibly producing their materials in a way that doesn’t cause extensive negative environmental or societal impacts.

Interview

Marissa Lange, Environmental health and safety specialist