IG-R-3: Water procurement in the processing industry | Umweltbundesamt

IG-R-3: Water procurement in the processing industry

Water-saving enterprises are better equipped to cope with the impacts of climate change. In the processing industry, water procurement decreased significantly since 1991. However, this decrease was less significant from 2001 onwards. If one relates the water procurement to the gross value added, a stronger, equally significant decrease becomes apparent. This means that more value is generated with the same amount of water – in other words, water is used more efficiently.

Economical use of water supports adaptation to climate change

Any thermal discharge from industrial and commercial enterprises is subject to the same legal regulations as energy plants. Therefore, industrial and commercial enterprises might encounter situations where they have to decrease their thermal discharge thus reducing their productive output in order to comply with the discharge conditions laid down in their licence. This risk often perceived as an abstract concept actually arose, for example, in the hot summers of 2003, 2006 and 2018, when owing to prolonged heat and drought, restrictions were imposed on thermal discharge into various water bodies. In the summers of 2020 and 2022 production activities did not have to be reduced. However, for the river Rhine warning level 1 was declared owing to high water temperatures.

The changing climatic conditions may lead to such dry and hot phases occurring more frequently in future, becoming more intensive and more prolonged. As shown by the hot and dry summers of recent years, the heat can also cause the temperatures in watercourses to rise in summer months (cf. Indicator WW-I-10) and discharge volumes decrease (cf. Indicator WW-I-3). Apart from challenges caused by low water levels (cf. Indicators WW-I-6 and VE-I-2) situations may arise more frequently where feeding back used and heated coolant water or the abstraction of water for cooling purposes would be permitted only in limited amounts. Industrial processes that are, as far as possible, independent of water resources are better equipped for the impacts of climate change than processes which require a lot of water. In order to use as little water as possible in terms of raw or processing material, and in order to use the abstracted water as efficiently as possible, companies might for instance consider embracing an in-house water management system, using water in a circulatory system, employing water-saving technologies or using other substances such as emulsions in lieu of water.

An important starting point for the processing industry in this context is, above all, the economical use of coolant water in production processes and regarding in-house energy production. Currently, coolant water use accounts for roughly three quarters of the entire water use in this sector. Besides, the abstraction of water for refrigeration purposes and the discharge of used coolant water are subject to temperature-related regulations, which may lead to restrictions being imposed on production during hot summer months. The abstraction of water for production-specific or personnel-related purposes, however, is less dependent on temperatures.

The water procurement in the processing industry is composed of a company’s own water withdrawal plus their external water supply, for instance from the public water supply or from other companies, facilities and associations, minus water delivery to third parties. After 1991, water procurement first decreased considerably. At that time, it amounted to 700 million cubic metres, still approximately 50 % more than the procurement in 2001. Ever since, the value has been fluctuating around 5,500 million cubic metres annually.

If one relates water procurement to the price-adjusted valued added, the strong decline in the years after 1991 continues also after 2001. In the processing industry the water procurement in 2019 amounted to almost 30 % below the value of 2001. This means that it was possible, even after the turn of the millennium, to attain a continuous increase in the efficiency of water use and – at an almost identical volume of water – it that it was possible to generate greater added value. At the same time, however, the figures also show that in the processing sector, despite a distinctly rising value added, it was still possible to reduce the water procurement slightly overall since 2001.