Sustainable development: it’s always the right answer

What we do: Nalco’s 11,000 employees work with more than 70,000 customers, in 130 countries across six continents, to solve and prevent water treatment and process-related problems encountered by industry and institutions. We also develop and implement integrated solutions that positively impact the environmental performance of our customers. Our focus on resource conservation strategies, emissions reduction and compliance, and innovative cost management, contributes to the sustainable development of customer operations. By drawing upon our wide experience and expertise, we ensure greater asset reliability, improved operating and production efficiencies, with minimised concerns over the environment, health & safety.

Who we serve: We serve customers in many industry segments including electronics, food & drink, automotive, aerospace, light to medium manufacturing, mining and mineral processing, pulp and paper, chemicals, petroleum, steel, power generation, metalworking, refining, commercial property, healthcare, personal care, municipal, and education.

Our philosophy of building value: For over 75 years, Nalco has been a pioneer in the development of unique water treatment and process solutions. Nalco creates value for its customers by developing and implementing innovative, differentiated solutions that are environmentally, economically, and technically sustainable. We work to meet customer needs by listening to the customer, identifying key concerns, developing a business relationship, and deploying our best available technology and practices to maximise the environmental performance of the customer operation. The Nalco sales person is key to the delivery of the best solution, tailored to address customer concerns, and acting as on-site expert, problem-solver, and business partner. Our on-site staff are backed-up by a global network of support teams, infrastructure, and research, development, and business staff, including over 100 specialists based at Nalco’s European Business & Technical Centre in the Netherlands to support the needs of our customers across the region.

Connecting water & energy: Water is the medium used to transfer the energy that runs our lives. Nalco’s unique combination of expertise and experience in water management and energy efficiency keeps us at the forefront of innovation. The application of this knowledge and innovation protects the environment in which we live through better management of both non-renewable and renewable resources, as well as better control and minimisation of emissions.

Our focus on the link between water and energy goes back to the time when Nalco was founded in 1928, when we treated steam locomotives and industrial boilers to prevent scale. We transferred that experience to the water used in cooling systems, oil and gas production, pulp and papermaking, and to virtually every industrial process, plant, and large building.

Wherever water is used, several dynamic problems can occur. Minerals dissolved in the water can be deposited upon surfaces as scale. The water itself is corrosive and will attack the metals it comes into contact with. Under the right conditions, especially when it contains contaminants and is heated, water becomes the perfect medium for microbiological growth. All three problems can interact to generate additional damaging impacts, and all of these become intensified in industrial water systems.

Impacting environmental performance
Boilers: Scale formation on boiler tubes can significantly impair heat transfer, requiring more energy to be expended to create the necessary volume of steam. This directly impacts the environmental performance of the customer plant by increasing the amount of energy required per unit of production. This loss in efficiency leads to the unnecessary additional use of the non-renewable fossil fuels used in energy generation, but also additional emissions of the greenhouse gases produced during combustion. Scale formation can also lead to asset damage or even catastrophic boiler failure. Either way, poor environmental performance means poor financial performance.

Nalco’s NexGuard® programme combines the best available technologies in the industry. As a result, we estimate that the 6,500 customers currently using NexGuard reduced their greenhouse gas emissions by 4.4 million tonnes in 2006, directly impacting their environmental performance through better resource use and emission control, improved cost management, and a larger contribution to environmental sustainability.

Cooling systems & wastewater: Nalco’s 3D TRASAR® cooling water technology controls scale, corrosion and microbiological fouling through precise system monitoring and control. This minimises the demand for fresh water, maximises heat-exchange efficiency, minimises chemical use, and minimises wastewater flow and the content of treatment and other chemicals within it. During 2006, this composite contribution to environmental performance at some 2500 customer sites where the programme is in use saved an estimated 81 million m3 of fresh water, with a consequent reduction in waste water flows.

Papermaking: Making paper is very water and energy-intensive. Our PARETO™ technology reduces demand for freshwater and heat energy during the papermaking process. Customers using this new programme during its first year of operation reduced their annual water demand by 2.3 million m3, and energy demand equivalent to 15,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions.

Energy: Our business offering for the oil and gas exploration and production industries includes a comprehensive range of process and production additives. These target    operational efficiency and asset protection, ensuring minimised demand for the non-renewable resources involved, in particular those linked to asset replacement. Programmes used offshore meet the most stringent environmental criteria, ensuring the protection of the oceans. These offerings are continuously improved through the work of a specialist team of research and regulatory staff dedicated to the delivery of green chemistries.

Once extracted from the earth, the transportation, storage, and refining of the crude materials demand specialist services and treatment. Our downstream business offers a comprehensive portfolio of process programmes to assist the refining and product processing itself, as well as water treatment programs tailored to the cooling water, steam production, and waste treatment requirements of the operations involved. Nalco’s market-leading programmes represent a significant contribution to improving the environmental performance of production units, both through lower resource use, reduction in emissions, and the innovative management of cost. This also contributes to the sustainable operation and development of the processes involved, both though lowering the demand for non-renewable resources, and working to reduce global warming potential and climate change through lowering emissions of greenhouse gases.

Building management: In 2006, the United States Environmental Protection Agency identified Nalco as an ENERGY STAR® Service & Product Provider for supplying energy-efficient products and services, including the new COIL-FLO® HVAC coil cleaning programme.

Product focus: Nalco programmes also help improve environmental performance in other ways. For example the use of Ultimer® polymer technology, which is based upon water instead of the traditional oil emulsion, eliminated the use of around 2200 tonnes of mineral oil in 2006. This reduced the demand for this precious non-renewable resource, but also avoided its emission to the environment in wastewater.

In the end: For over 80 years, Nalco innovation and Nalco people have successfully helped customers protect the environment through reduced consumption of precious environmental resources. Along with increased operational efficiencies and asset protection, Nalco’s efforts continue to support the environmental and economic sustainability of our customers’ operations. We will continue to build upon that success in the years ahead.

NexGuard, 3D TRASAR, PARETO, COIL-FLO, Ultimer are registered trademarks of Nalco Company. ENERGY STAR is a registered trademark of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.