Established near Grasse (Alpes Maritimes) for 150 years, the Mane group is one of the five largest perfume and aromatic manufacturers in the world, and the first in France, with 1,800 employees in France. and 7,500 internationally.
An independent family business founded in 1871, Mane has built its growth on solid know-how in technological innovation, particularly in natural extractions, encapsulation and flavoring and perfume solutions for complex formulations.
Located in Bar-sur-Loup, the company’s headquarters centralizes research, creation and extraction of natural raw materials, as well as industrial production.
A goal of 40 % reduction in site water consumption
Producing continuously (24/7), apart from a period of technical monitoring and maintenance of the installations of 3 weeks in August, the site has a total of 7 air-cooling towers (TAR) and 3 boilers, consuming at total approximately 45,000 m³ of osmosis and/or softened water per year.
In 2019, to respond to the challenges of water withdrawal from the Bar-sur-Loup water basin, but also and above all in its own desire to optimize the environmental footprint of its industrial processes, Mane is launching a project to replace the station osmosis system of 14 m³/h, in place for 10 years, in order to maintain the quality of make-up water for the steam and cooling circuits, and to optimize their industrial performance.
In addition to too frequent and costly cleaning of the osmosis membranes (every 3 months) and a limited degraded mode due to the existing installation (a single osmosis station supplied with raw water with sequestrant and two softeners as a finish) , the conversion rate of 70/30 with a conductivity of 30 µS/cm was insufficient to reduce raw water consumption.
In this context, the target conversion rate objective for the new installation is then set at 90/10, with a conductivity of 10 µS/cm: a concentration level making it possible to considerably reduce water consumption.
BWT : an installation guaranteeing continuity of production
Among the offers submitted to Mane at the beginning of 2021, and despite a technical room with limited space and volume, BWT was able to offer a more complete system than the initial request in the specifications, with a system integrating a reverse osmosis unit (2 x 8 m³/h) and three softeners. This double osmosis device guarantees Mane continuity of production (24/7), even in the event of maintenance on one of the osmosis units. As for the softeners installed upstream of the water loop, three in number, always with a view to business continuity (relay mode if necessary), they limit the clogging of the osmosis membranes, while avoiding the use of to the sequestrant. “ The originality of the BWT solution and especially the consideration of our very strong business continuity constraints were particularly decisive. », testifies the Utility Manager of Mane.
In order to avoid any suspension of industrial activity, it is decided to take advantage of the three-week annual technical shutdown, during the month of August 2021, to successively dismantle the existing osmosis installation and the installation of the new BWT osmosis units, and especially the return to service of the whole
In practice, one week was enough for the dismantling of the existing equipment and the installation of the new equipment, before the operations of recommissioning and refining the settings lasting 15 days. « On the scheduled date, everything was ready thanks to the availability, involvement and responsiveness of the BWT teams in charge of the installation, in conjunction with the VMF teams. ».
Stable results over time, a return on investment in less than 6 months
Before this new project, BWT was already present on the Mane site: for several years, the company had chosen the BWT ECO-MX solution, for the in situ generation of fresh biocide solution by salt electrolysis, all connected to BWT BLUWELL to monitor installations remotely and in real time. Seven in number (one per TAR), BWT ECO-MX equipment allows Mane to control the bacteriological risk.
The osmosis station renewal project was an opportunity for BWT to confirm with Mane its perfect technical mastery of water treatment in an industrial environment of course, but also its ability to offer efficient solutions for the benefit of complex industrial processes, and end-to-end support, both in the project phase and throughout the life cycle of the installation. “ The proximity of the BWT Sud-Est agency and the responsiveness of its teams are also real assets for frequent inspection visits. » underlines the utility maintenance manager.
Eighteen months after its commissioning, the osmosis installation meets the company’s expectations, and even more. It made it possible to achieve, on the cooling circuits, concentration rates higher than those initially estimated, thus allowing water savings of more than 13,200 m³ annually on these installations. On steam boilers, a reduction of 400 MWh per year in gas consumption was measured as well as a limitation of chlorine reducer requirements (1,325 to 350 l/year) and the total elimination of use of sequestrant (415 l/year).
Concretely, the supervision carried out by the BWT BLUWELL solution, and especially its alert systems allowing better operator responsiveness, have for example enabled a reduction of 6,449 m3 in water make-up between 2018 and 2019, representing a saving of €47,000 Excl. tax.
So many minimized costs which, combined with 65% of the project being covered under the energy savings certificate (EEC) system, offered Mane a return on investment in less than six months. These concrete operational and financial results now lead the company to continue its efforts to reduce the environmental footprint of its industrial processes, both in terms of water savings and energy reduction and the limitation of chemical products, in particular by the future use of BWT innovations concerning their green chemistry strategy.
