Sustana reduces water consumption, saves money, at recycled fiber mill plant

In Wisconsin, Sustana, a recycled fiber production company, was able to reduce fresh water consumption, which comes from an onsite well, at their Fox River Fiber mill by just under 8% per ton of fiber recycled since 2016 when the change was made.

Phil Nysse, Production Superintendent at Sustana’s Fox River Fiber Mill said, “Water is used throughout the entire manufacturing process, to carry fibers through the production system. Fresh well water itself is required for certain purposes: roughly half of all fresh water is used for seal water systems on production equipment. The remaining half is used exclusively for thermal purposes to cool down production systems in the mill.”

By working with a pipe fitter from their maintenance team to divert the cold water back to the beginning of the process and to the cold-water supply in an area that Nysse noticed was sweating, it allowed them to not only save money and production costs as well as reduce water and natural gas consumption.

“The instant benefits of this change have paid for themselves – while production output has increased over the years, from 250 tons of fiber per day since I started with Sustana 17 years ago to over 450 tons today, the amount of water used in production has only decreased,” said Nysse.