Bringing in the Green with AquaRecycle

The hospitality industry has been focusing more and more over the years on best environmental practices as a critical component of Environmental, Social, and Governance or ESG. To better score, a company’s performance using ESG criteria is an increasingly popular way for investors to evaluate companies they might want to invest in.

 

For hotels that have their own in-house laundry, also known as an On-Premise Laundry (OPL), the water usage can be as much as 30% of the water used in the hotel. Factor in that 70% of the water is hot water and you have a huge impact on your ESG. And due to the ever-rising water, sewer, and energy costs, there is a huge financial opportunity for substantial savings.

 

One company, AquaRecycle, has an innovative technology designed to substantially reduce the amount of water and energy used by recycling laundry wastewater. AquaRecycle specializes in laundry water recycling and has been doing it for over 20 years. With over 400 systems worldwide and 12 billion gallons recycled, their patented, closed-loop system, reduces incoming water usage by 80% and cuts the energy used to heat the water by 50%.

 

Jeff Lebedin, founder of AquaRecycle and its Chairman, says the majority of his company’s installations are in hotels or centralized laundries that service hotels. “Every hotel brand has approved our recycle system. 90% of the installations are installed in existing hotels. And due to the compact and modular design, the system can fit virtually anywhere, inside or outside.”

 

The key to reusing laundry wash water is making sure the water is properly sanitized with all the contaminants and chemicals filtered out. “We take the wastewater directly out of the trench or wastewater pit, run it through a vibrating microscopic screen to remove all the solids in the water,” Lebedin says. “We then run the water through pressure filters filled with different types of ground media to any additions solids as well as absorbing all the organic matter and contaminants. The end results of recycled water is then used in the next loads of linen and towels. Since the whole process is done in less that 10 minutes, the recycled water maintains all the heat in the water as well. And at 80% recycled water, we add 20% fresh drinking water so that the recycle life is 5 reuses.”

 

Lebedin says most laundries only operate about half the time, so it’s very important to kee3p the recycled water free from bacteria 24 hours a day. The AquaRecycle system uses a combination of Activated Oxygen Process (AOP), Ultraviolet Light, and specialized media to keep the water clean and germ-free.

 

And, AquaRecycle’s AquaSmart 6.5 monitors all the recycle systems worldwide with its high-speed Secure Private Network. . This provides a tunnel-to-tunnel connection to track performance, operations, and troubleshooting. We track everything using a PLC (Programmable Login Computer located in the control panel of every recycling system. The PLC tracks how much water is recycled, how much fresh water is added. In addition, the system tracks the temperature of the water as well as the quality of the water with PH and TDS probes. All performance documentation is gathered daily so we can always tell how the system is performing. And we also provide monthly savings reports so our customers can fully measure their water, sewer, and energy savings.

 

Over the last 25 years of existence, AquaRecycle has invented and patented many products used in hotel operations other than just laundry water recycling. For Example, one of our divisions, ThermalRecycle, has developed a way to reuse dryer exhaust back into the dryer, reducing energy by 50% and drying time by 30% without any contaminants getting reintroduced into the drying process. Named MR HEAT (Heat Exchange Air Transfer) this product not only saves tremendous energy savings, it also increases the productivity of its driers by speeding up the drying process so more products move through the laundry and eliminate bottlenecks.

 

Recently AquaRecycle introduced a new way to track the water usage and water quality of all the water used in a hotel property. AquaTrakx™ is a completely wireless, non-evasive water tracking and testing system that meters all water lines desired within a property or facility. The system uses set parameters to monitor daily water flow and indicate changes in water usage or quality.

• •As an ESG provider,  AquaTrakx™ can systematically identify, assess, and mitigate any risk associated with water distribution in a property
• Wireless and external so AquaTrakx™ can be installed anytime with no interruptions in operations
• Daily monitoring for immediate coverage is available as well as bumper-to-bumper parts replacement and monthly usage report

 

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