2. Water, an essential... and little-known fluid

2.1 Principle of water production, use and treatment in industry

Within an industry, water supply can come from a variety of resources generally referred to as raw water (drinking water, surface water, deep water, etc.). These water supplies are frequently treated to modify their quality to match the needs of the application (e.g. demineralization for thermal applications, filtration to prevent the formation of sludge in networks, conditioning by the addition of chemicals).

After use, residual volumes of water are generally considered as liquid waste, or effluents, and their quality depends on the quality of the water used and the nature of the use. These effluents must be treated in purification facilities (on-site or off-site, with physico-chemical and/or...