We have been turned down by GBCI for our documentation for an ID credit for the documentation we presented. Does anyone have advice on how to document and earn and ID credit for chemical free treatment of water for process water? See the narrative we put together below.
Technical advise given from reviewer: Please provide the following.
1. Evidence of the quantitative performance improvements (establishing and comparing a baseline to the final design case) of this strategy.
2. Evidence of a comprehensive strategy. Note that in order for a strategy to be comprehensive, it must incorporate more than one product or process.
Narrative from our template: The magnetic water treatment system described here is being used to treat water from the blow-down from the (2) 73-ton packaged HVAC units which are evaporatively cooled.
In order to treat process water without toxic chemicals, a safe low DC current (like that of several flashlight batteries) is passed through a set of copper and silver alloy anodes. As the water passes through the sealed chamber, metallic ions are generated to purify the water. The microscopic action of the ions with the algae and bacteria are twofold. First, the algae and bacteria are destroyed through a change in their enzyme processes. Second, all these charged particles flock together and then they are discharged with the blow-down of cooling towers or pulled out by a filter. The ions maintain a stable sanitizer residual in the water. See uploaded document titled "Descal_A_Matic.pdf" for more information as well as letters from several previous clients (including the Army Corps of Engineers) documenting that their equipment is operating successfully. It is estimated that this alternate process water treatment is saving 70 gallons of chemicals, such as Sanacor 2605 C Inhibitor, each year in 41,000 gallons of water discharge at the Zion facility. The list of benefits over conventional chemical treatment also include:
-Prevents scale build up - molecules that cause scale tend to remain in fluid suspension instead of attaching to pipe walls and other surrounding surfaces, thereby decreasing or eliminating the need for chemical flushing agents
-Reduced corrosion and increased durability on water conveyance equipment - NASA tested magnetically vs chemically treated water and found that magnetically treated water did not contribute to corrosion at all while chemically treated water produced corrosion rates of up to 50 mils per year. Therefore, magnetically treated water drastically increases the life of piping.
-Reduced energy costs - the US Bureau of Standards has found that just a 1/16th of an inch of scale build-up in piping results in a 15% increase in additional energy to convey water. Magnetically treated water creates no scaling/build-up and therefore reduces energy costs in comparison to chemically treated water.
Tristan Roberts
RepresentativeVermont House of Representatives
LEEDuser Expert
11478 thumbs up
April 22, 2010 - 6:37 pm
Lisa, what are your thoughts on the reviewer's comments? While I think your proposal for the ID credit has potential, it looks like their requests for clarification, particularly item #2, are fairly reasonable.
Lisa Marshall
Sustainability ManagerDNV KEMA Energy & Sustainability
61 thumbs up
April 26, 2010 - 3:08 pm
I wish the reviewers comments were a little less generic. If I take item #2 at face value, it appears we can not earn this ID credit as we are only using one product/service to achieve this credit. We did make an attempt to put some quantitative measures in the text above, but we did leave out some baseline cases.
Kristy O'Hagan
Project ManagerKGO Consultants
33 thumbs up
April 26, 2010 - 4:44 pm
Lisa, I would also suggest taking a look at LEED-EBOM WEc4: Cooling Tower Water Management and see if you can design the ID credit around that credit language. Incorporating a training program for the facility staff is one way to address the "comprehensive strategy" issue.
Barbara McCrary
Mechanical Engineer, PE, LEED AP BD&CHHB Engineers, P.C., Prattville, AL
119 thumbs up
May 6, 2011 - 2:10 pm
Lisa - I came across your post because we would like to also pursue an ID point for using chemical -free water treatment for our cooling tower. We've been told by the manufacturer that project teams have achieved on other projects that used their product. Have you looked at the ID/CIR catalog published in 2008? You can view/download here: http://www.usgbc.org/ShowFile.aspx?DocumentID=3569
It has some guidance. I had been told to provide plenty of calculations showing water use reduction (due to reducing blowdown), and a narrative explaining advantages of not having the chemicals onsite.