Ford wants to dry up water use by 30% by 2015

Filed under: Etc., Manufacturing/Plants, Ford

There's a surprising amount of water in pretty much everything - first-gen biofuels, anyone? - and Ford thinks it makes sense to get some of that precious liquid out of the process of making vehicles. Thirty percent, to be exact.

That's the target that Ford recently set for global water reduction, per vehicle, by 2015. It's just the latest in a reduction effort that has been going on since 2000, when the company started its Global Water Management Initiative. Ford claims it's already reduced the water used per vehicle by 49 percent between that year and 2010. The 30 percent reduction target is going to be compared to the company's 2009 levels.

How does the water get cut? By using something called Minimum Quantity Lubrication (MQL) machining (aka dry-machining) and by paying special attention to ways to treat and reuse "wastewater," to cite two examples Ford offers. Dry-machining, "lubricates the cutting tool with a very small amount of oil sprayed directly on the tip in a finely atomized mist, instead of with a large quantity of coolant/water mixture." The end result? Hundreds of thousands of gallons of water that don't need to be sent through a Ford factory.

When looked at overall, Ford cut its water use by 62 percent between 2000 and 2010, which equals 10.5 billion gallons. That number can be looked at in a number of ways, including the amount in 15,909 Olympic pools, a billion five-minutes showers and other quirky comparisons that are available after the jump.

Continue reading Ford wants to dry up water use by 30% by 2015

Ford wants to dry up water use by 30% by 2015 originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Mon, 02 Jan 2012 08:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.green.autoblog.com/2012/01/02/ford-wants-to-dry-up-water-use-by-30-by-2015/

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