Reclaimed water has valuable benefits to offer industries.
As implied by the name, once-through cooling water systems involve a simple pass of cooling water through heat exchangers. There is no evaporation, and therefore, no consumption or concentration of the cooling water. Very few once-through cooling systems use reclaimed water and, in most instances, are confined to locations where reuse is convenient, such as where industries are located near an outfall. For example, Bethlehem Steel Co. in Baltimore has used 100 million gallons per day of treated wastewater effluent from Baltimore's Back River Wastewater Treatment Facility for processes and a once-through cooling water system since the early 1970s. The Rawhide Energy Station utility power plant in Fort Collins, Colo., has used about 245 million gallons per day of reclaimed water for once-through cooling of condensers since the 1980s. The reclaimed water is added to a body of water and the combined water is used in the once-through cooling system. After one-time use, the water is returned to the original water source (lake or river).