Sphagnum Moss All-Natural Treatment System in Cooling Towers

A talk by Kevin Conkright
Senior SHE Specialist, AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals

Approximately 1.1 billion people (1 in 7) lack access to safe, fresh water. As an industry, we need fresh water to maintain our operations with a large amount of this precious resource used in cooling towers. Typically, incoming water is chemically treated to meet water quality and then treated again prior to discharging to meet effluent standards.

At Mt. Vernon, we have implemented an innovative, natural, and sustainable water management process for our cooling towers by using sphagnum moss in lieu of chemicals that achieves three sustainable goals: 1.) eliminates the vicious chemical treatment cycle, 2.) reduces water demand for the cooling tower as flushing is greatly reduced and 3.) improves the quality of water released. Oh, and by the way, studies show that sphagnum moss functions as a carbon sink, which actively participates positively in the carbon cycle.