The PMA steam condensate system was retrofitted with collection/storage and conveyance equipment to recover this wasted water and use it to offset the makeup water being used in the facility air conditioning cooling towers.

The steam condensate water is essentially distilled water since the steam generating process eliminates most of the total solids in the water. The mixing of the steam condensate with potable water to lower its temperature ends up with an ideal water quality to be used for end user purposes such as cooling tower makeup water, plumbing toilet flush water and landscape irrigation water, thus offsetting part of the costs for purchased water. This represents a potential opportunity to recover not only the condensate water but also the cooling water being discharged, which represents energy and water cost savings for the end user of the district heating systems.

In this case the recovered water is being used for makeup cooling tower water. The PMA cooling towers are used to remove heat from the building air conditioning system. Cooling a stream of water to a lower temperature using evaporation does this. Therefore, this evaporated water in the cooling towers needs to be continually replaced in the cooling tower process.