The Splash

Celebrating World Water Day

Every year, on March 22nd, the United Nations observes World Water Day ; a day to celebrate water and raise awareness of the 2.2 billion people living without access to safe water. This year’s theme is “valuing water”, focusing on the promotion of water’s multidimensional value. This theme explores how and why water is valued by different people in order to more efficiently manage and conserve [...]

Monochloramine System Stops Legionella Outbreak at Regional Hospital

A regional hospital in the Western United States, with over 400 beds, suddenly experienced suspected cases of Legionnaires’ Disease among their patient population. Legionnaires’ Disease is a pneumonia caused by a species of Legionella bacteria. It typically spreads through mists and aerosols created by water-cooled air-conditioning systems, decorative water features or domestic water systems. A water [...]

Custom Plant Controls Upgrade Optimizes Aging Ethanol Facility Performance

Multiple Midwestern ethanol facilities within the same organization were experiencing controls failure due to aging PLC and HMI equipment. Current plant control equipment was more than ten years old and had reached end of life. The outdated equipment caused plant shutdowns and a loss in production, which can cost up to $10,000 per hour. Kurita America recommended an integrated controls upgrade solution to prevent [...]

Kurita America’s Integrated Solution for the City of Wausau’s New Municipal Drinking Water Treatment Plant

The City of Wausau, Wisconsin was exploring options to address aging infrastructure concerns at their existing drinking water treatment plant. In 2017, they hired a consulting engineer who contacted Kurita America for input on available treatment process and equipment options. The pending capital improvement project was an opportunity to upgrade with new technology, improving water quality and overall efficiency. The [...]

Water Treatment at the Plant Level

In this exclusive Big Picture Interview, a monthly column in Plant Services Magazine, Kurita America's Executive Vice President of Marketing Technology, Kevin Milici, sits down with Editor, Tom Wilk, to discuss how managing and protecting water resources at the plant level is taking on a new urgency. You can also learn about Kurita America’s integrated solutions approach to water treatment and [...]

Kurita America Settles into New Minnesota Headquarters

Kurita America is proud to announce that the move into its newly constructed corporate headquarters in Brooklyn Park is complete! The new address is 6600 94th Avenue North, Minneapolis, MN 55445 Built by Ryan Companies , the expansive 156,000 square foot facility brings together the company’s established legacy brands, U.S. Water, Fremont Industries and Tonka Water under one roof for the first time [...]

Optimization Considerations for Increased Ethanol Plant Efficiency

Many biofuel plants are working toward efficiency and plant optimization to increase ethanol production. Often when plants move forward with expansion efforts, the adverse impact on system efficiencies, such as cooling, is overlooked. Without proper evaluation of the existing cooling system operation, plants could spend additional capital on an unnecessary cooling tower expansion or experience an increase in [...]

Is Your Control System Built to Last?

Programmable Logic Controllers ( PLCs ) are industrial digital computers that were adapted to control manufacturing processes, such as assembly lines, robotic devices or any activity that requires high reliability, ease of programming and process fault diagnosis. The first PLC system was installed at a General Motors manufacturing plant in the early 1970’s, which allowed for a more proficient way to modify the [...]

Kurita America Partners With Florida Campus to Expand Water Reclamation to Chilled-Water Operations

The University of Central Flor­ida (UCF), the second-largest university in the nation, sought out strategic partnerships from industry-leading organizations, Kurita America among them, to develop a comprehensive water reuse and reclamation pilot program to help meet their sustainability and water conservation plans. Read District Energy's cover story to learn how Kurita America’s innovative [...]

Feed Mill Facility Increases Efficiency and Reduces Chemical Usage with EnergyOUT

A Midwest Feed Mill was treating its incoming boiler feed water with amine chemical to combat high levels of alkalinity. While amine can be effective at addressing alkalinity, unfortunately, it is one of the most expensive chemicals used in boiler water treatment. If the facility chose not to treat the well water for alkalinity, it could result in failure of the steam piping and condensate return lines, a costly plant [...]

Developing a Successful Industrial Water Management Program

A successful water-management program for a process cooling water system will rely on a number of factors, some of which may be overlooked or ignored until a problem arises. There is much to consider in order to keep equipment operating efficiently, minimize rejection rates, prevent corrosion-related failures, conserve water and energy and reduce the risks associated with waterborne pathogens such as Legionella . [...]

Acting Today with a Responsibility for Tomorrow

At Kurita America, we are starting the new year with a re-energized focus and commitment to doing our part in making the world a better place. It is our mission to help customers around the world by developing integrated and sustainable water-efficient solutions. Innovative water management is crucial to solving the environmental, social and economic issues that face us today. Together, we can transform water [...]