Water use at Industriepark Höchst

Responsible management of water resources

Water is an essential resource for the chemical and pharmaceutical industry. Large quantities of water are also needed at Industriepark Höchst for purposes ranging from product manufacturing to process cooling.

And that makes it doubly important to responsibly manage valuable water resources. The water supply system at Industriepark Höchst relies mainly on the Main River: 95% of the water used at the park is drawn from the Main – hence its name, “river water”. Approx. 66 million m³ of river water are currently extracted from the Main every year.

As with any valuable resource, it is important to get the most out of extracted water. That is why it is “recycled” in sophisticated processes and then reused up to 50 times. In every cycle of this procedure, treated river water passes through evaporative cooling systems, where its temperature drops as much as 8 degrees Celsius, before returning to the companies’ production processes. Once it has served its purpose, the water is extensively purified and discharged back into the Main River.

Infraserv Höchst is also investing in a new automated river water works to replace the current plant, which is nearly 100 years old.

Water sources at a glance

95.1% of the water used at Industriepark Höchst is river water. Where does the other 4.9% come from?

• Another 4.5% of the water is well water. It is extracted from wells at the park and only used where other grades of water are not allowed.
• Municipal drinking water is only used as a backup for the park’s own drinking water supply and makes up the remaining 0.4%. That avoids any additional burden on the Rhine-Main Region’s already somewhat strained supply of drinking water.

Drinking water only used for high-end purposes

Infraserv Höchst produces the vast majority of the drinking water required at Industriepark Höchst itself. Drinking water is made from water taken out of the park’s drinking water wells. We only use drinking water for purposes that allow no other grades of water. That includes supplying drinking water for the employees at the park. However, the bulk of the drinking water is processed into high-purity water, known as “purified water”, for pharmaceutical production. Infraserv Höchst always performs this process to rigorous quality standards.