Water – A valuable resource

Water plays an important role for a chemical company. Since Merck does not have access to surface water from a river, for example, water requirements have to be covered by groundwater. Most of the water required comes from Merck’s own well systems; the remainder is obtained as drinking water from the public network.

The sparing use of water resources has paid off for Merck’s largest production site. Groundwater extraction was reduced in the 1990s from 6 to 2.5 million cubic meters. Together with the Chairman of the Darmstadt Regional Council and the Hesse Federal Association for the Environment and the Protection of Nature in Germany (BUND), Merck has set a target of maintaining water extraction at this low level up until 2010.

All of the plant’s wastewater is transferred to Merck’s wastewater treatment facility. At its inauguration in 1965, this was the first plant throughout Europe for the biological purification of industrial wastewater. The company continued to develop it further, thus continuously improving the quality of the wastewater.

We operate a new, state-of-the-art wastewater analysis at the Darmstadt site, which has made us a technology pioneer: It delivers real-time values of more than 50 substances fully automatically around the clock. Thus it is possible to optimally control the wastewater treatment plant depending on the composition of the wastewater. By constantly monitoring the concentrations of the various substances, the quality of the wastewater has significantly improved even beyond the specified limits to ensure optimum water protection.