CASE STUDY

Saving water/energy and reducing waste water, Japanese style

How to save water and reduce waste water while improving end wash quality?

Read the story of D&W Laundry in Japan.

D&W’s Story

Founded almost 30 years ago in the old imperial city of Kyoto, in Japan, D&W Laundry is an important laundry in a city which greets millions of tourists every year. D&W Laundry washes around 120 tonnes of textiles per week. D&W Laundry was a trailblazer for The Dutch Water Company, as they were the very first laundry in Japan to install our equipment.

D&W Laundry serves the hospitality and workwear markets in a country where waste management is taken very seriously. D&W Laundry goes further than most – it has its own waste water treatment plant, its goal being to reduce waste for discharge to an absolute minimum. So what else could be done to use process water even more efficiently?

Moreover, D&W Laundry was also keen to improve end wash quality further, as the level of lint on some flat linen was not up to their standards.

The challenge

How could D&W best manage process water for minimum waste? D&W Laundry has two tunnel washers processing flat linen as well as several washers processing workwear. Space in the laundry is really at a premium, so compact equipment was a must.

The Solution

On the advice of Wientjens partner Ecolab, D&W choose to install three Wientjens units:

  • An AquaMiser type B, to recycle process water from the tunnel washers as well as providing filtered water to the washer extractors to help reduce fresh water consumption there.

  • An AquaBatch, to constantly filter process water in the rinse zone of one of the tunnel washers, so removing hair and lint completely from the process water in that zone

  • An AquaDrain, to capture all lint, hair and solids in the backflush water coming from the AquaMiser and AquaBatch, giving cleaner discharge water

The results

What benefits has D&W seen from their water and energy recycling equipment?

After installation, D&W saw a reduction in water consumption of around 50%, thanks to the Wientjens AquaMiser. The AquaBatch has ensured that lint and hairs on the flat linen is no longer an issue, they are very pleased with the quality improvement there.

Being able to remove the sludge thanks to the AquaDrain has meant gains for their on-site water treatment plant, which now experiences fewer problems in treating the discharge water.

D&W Laundry is an inspiring example of how to get the absolute most out of process water thanks to clever configuration of water and energy recycling equipment to complement their existing washing process. As the photos show, the compactness of the Wientjens equipment was a real advantage for D&W as the space available in the laundry was indeed limited.

Wientjens The Dutch Water Company is proud to help D&W Laundry in their mission to use water sustainably as well as reducing waste discharge to a minimum.