Dow Water & Process Solutions (DW&PS) is beta-testing software it calls the Water Application Value Engine (WAVE). Slated for commercial launch in 2015, WAVE is a digital modeling tool for evaluating water system components and designing water treatment systems.
DW&PS has a number of water treatment products and technologies for use in F&B manufacturing. These include ion exchange (IX) resins, chromatographic media, adsorbents, reverse osmosis (RO) elements and nanofiltration (or ultrafiltration, UF) membranes.
Processors can use WAVE to determine which of those technologies should be used and where they should be placed within the overall process, according to Nanette Hermsen, associate marketing director, DW&PS.
Not for novices
“The software was designed to be intuitive and easy to use, but the person using it still has to have some experience or training in basic water system design,” Hermsen told FoodProductionDaily.
“On the other hand, WAVE is not a blueprint for an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) to use in designing a water treatment system from the ground up.”
She noted that water systems in F&B manufacturing plants can be particularly complex, as different levels of water quality are needed in different parts of the system.
For example, she said, the software takes into account the difference between water used for cooling, boiler water, water that's being used as an ingredient, and waste water.
"At some points in the system, a manufacturer may be able to reuse water," Hermsen said. At such a point, "you may need to use ultrafiltration before treating the water by reverse osmosis."
Built-in flexibility
Once a plant has set up its water system design, those who have access to the system can quickly iterate, Hermsen noted.
"Companies don't actually download software onto their computer systems; the program is hosted on a secure IBM cloud-based server," she added. "So, if a company has various locations and their engineers want to share a design across those locations, they can save a file as a PDF and email it — or someone at another location can log into the cloud server and look at the file."
In addition, the cloud server is accessible via mobile devices. An approved user can log in from a cell phone or tablet, running on either Apple or Android operating systems. Each account is password-protected for security.
"To ensure 24/7 availability of the WAVE platform, we use redundant servers and backups are done regularly," Hermsen added.
