The CoolQuench has deep roots in the mining industry, where access to safe drinking water is often limited. Workers are required to transport their own drinking water to their workplaces, resulting in a restricted supply that typically only lasts part of the day.
Watercare Innovations leveraged its expertise in complex process water to create the CoolQuench, a point-of-use dispenser providing chilled and safe drinking water.
Since its inception, the CoolQuench concept has found applications in various industries. Companies are increasingly recognising the need to take control of their water supply to safeguard their operations.
Traditional reliance on centralised water grids is being reevaluated due to growing concerns about water scarcity, infrastructure vulnerabilities, and the importance of enhanced risk management.
Advancements in water treatment, purification, and recycling technologies are making it increasingly feasible for companies to reclaim, treat, and reuse water from their internal processes.
This shift reduces water waste, lowers costs, and helps companies meet regulatory compliance.
The CoolQuench is now revolutionising water treatment. It has been adapted for use in various applications other than the point-of-use chilled, drinking water in remote and challenging work environments.
These applications include:
- Treating borehole water to make it potable for residential and retail complexes
- Purifying river water for residential use
- Treating mine fissure water to make it suitable for drinking within the mining community
- Converting greywater into potable water for commercial, retail, and residential reuse
- Enhancing municipal water quality to mitigate the risk of breaches
- Producing ultrapure water from municipal sources for specialised industrial applications
In these applications, the CoolQuench is integrated into more complex water treatment processes and is typically scaled for larger volumes compared to the standard Q20, which produces 20,000 liters per day.
We have two compelling case studies to highlight:
Case Study 1: Improved water quality for synthetic diamond manufacturers
In this case, our client needed de-ionized (DI) water with a maximum conductivity of 10µS/cm at an initial flow rate of 10m³/day, scaling up to 15m³/day as production expanded.
The water quality had to be maintained for up to 60 days in a buffer tank for use in the acid preparation process plant.
The DI plant was required to operate unmanned 24/7/365, with a 50% utilisation rate and a maximum downtime of seven days per year.
The design was modular for future upscaling. The unit included a recycling stream to improve overall system recovery.
Our client is a globally recognised leader in synthetic diamond and tungsten carbide super-material manufacturing.
Case Study 2: Helping a retail centre go off the water grid
The second case study demonstrates how the CoolQuench concept was incorporated into a potable water plant that polishes 20 kiloliters per day of pretreated borehole water to meet SANS241:2015 quality standards for potable water.
This water is then distributed through a major retail centre north of Durban. We assisted the client in gaining independence from the municipal water grid, saving them on water costs and enhancing the reliability of their water supply.
We recently despatched 11 CoolQuenches, destined for a large mining project in northern Mozambique. These units include a third panel, housing a reticulation pump to distribute the treated water throughout the site’s water reticulation system to the point of use.
