454 Water Recycling, Innovation, and Industry Wisdom with Dr. Kelle Zeiher
Release Date: 12/12/2025
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Industrial cooling is one of the biggest levers industrial facilities can pull on water use—and it’s getting harder to ignore as data centers and other high-heat operations grow. Returning guest Dr. Kelle Zeiher (Project Manager at Garratt Callahan) breaks down what water reuse looks like when you move past slogans and into the realities of pretreatment, concentrate management, footprint, and cost.
Cooling water reuse: the scale of the opportunity
Dr. Zeiher reframes “drought” beyond rainfall, emphasizing aquifer recharge and the limits of focusing only on household restrictions. She contrasts domestic use (~12%) with the much larger share tied to cooling (~50%), then connects that to why optimizing industrial cooling matters—especially when operations sit in arid, desert-like regions with limited water availability. She also shares a data-center statistic that puts “the cloud” into physical terms: ~53 gallons of purified water per gigabyte of data stored to keep environments cool enough for microchips.
Higher cycles, RO blending, and the concentrate question
The conversation moves into practical tower strategy: driving cycles up as far as the water and metallurgy allow. Dr. Zeiher describes a case moving from three cycles to six with RO blending and pretreatment, resulting in millions of gallons saved annually. From there, the engineering problem becomes unavoidable: higher cycles create a concentrated cooling-water stream, and RO adds its own waste stream. The key operational question is how to manage both streams without trading water savings for disposal and reliability issues.
Minimal liquid discharge, and the AEROS approach
“Zero liquid discharge” (ZLD) remains a theoretical target, but Dr. Zeiher is clear about the realities: ZLD can require large equipment and high energy demand. She shares a cost example where a 20 gpm ZLD concept came in at nearly $8 million in capital. Her team’s approach focuses on minimal liquid discharge (MLD)—recovering roughly 80–90% of water rather than 98–99%, while reducing energy intensity and footprint. She introduces AEROS (Aqueous Recovery Optimization System): rapid precipitation/conditioning, followed by sequential mechanical and membrane filtration, then an RO polishing step to return purified water.
Industry wisdom: proof-first projects, relationships, and AI
You’ll also hear Dr. Zeiher’s “proof-first” pathway—bench-style testing, then a 5–10 gpm flow-through evaluation in Oak Ridge, Tennessee (with BioLargo)—plus a process guarantee framework and how credits can apply toward a final system. She closes with leadership lessons on documentation, continuity of customer care, and practical guidance for working with AI: feed it strong technical inputs, then apply human critical thinking before recommendations reach customers.
Listen to the full conversation above. Stay engaged, keep learning, and continue scaling up your knowledge!
Timestamps
02:40 — End-of-year reflection becomes a professional challenge: keep learning fast enough to keep systems stable and clients confident.
05:50 — “Dry December” as a discipline story—used to tee up Trace’s broader point: habits beat calendar-based resolutions.
12:00 — Water You Know
13:10 — The events page pitch: planning early protects training time and reduces last-minute operational fire drills.
17:00 — Dr. Kelle Zeiher returns after Episode 351; AWT Louisville hallway energy turns into a deep dive on reuse.
18:40 — Mystery novels as technical storytelling: The Cupcake Caper, real lab practices, and a pen name built for a non-scientific audience.
20:50 — Data centers and water: 53 gallons per GB stored reframes “the cloud” as heat management with real resource costs.
23:40 — Macro water math: 50% of U.S. water use tied to cooling vs. 12% domestic—why industrial optimization moves the needle.
27:50 — “Pretreatment is everything”: RO’s tiny flow channels make debris control and scale prevention non-negotiable.
30:10 — Cycles example: 3 to 6 cycles with RO blending/pretreatment, plus the caution that RO-softened blends can increase corrosion risk.
31:30 — ZLD vs. MLD: energy-heavy evaporation/distillation compared to a lower-energy recovery target that still returns most water.
33:50 — AEROS explained: rapid precipitation + filtration + RO polish, with solids handling designed to keep water moving back to the front end.
37:00 — Customer pathway: bench demos → Oak Ridge pilot (5–10 gpm) → engineered system; upfront testing credits toward purchase.
43:20 — Performance accountability: process guarantee includes refund/take-back if promised performance can’t be met.
47:40 — Trust and continuity: plant presence, documentation, and relationship handoffs prevent “solution drift” when people change roles.
54:40 — Working with AI: feed it strong data, then apply human critical thinking so recommendations don’t outpace experience.
Quotes
“Water is not a limitless resource. It’s a finite resource, and we simply purify it and reuse it over and over again.”
“We have to learn to work with AI when it’s still a toddler before it grows up into the 6th grade bully and beats you up for your lunch money.”
“Persistence overcomes almost anything.”
“An AI will give you a great outline for a presentation, but it won’t give you a full presentation.”
Connect with Dr. Kelle Zeiher 
Phone: (630) 660-3457
Email: kzeiher@g-c.com
Website: Water Treatment Expertise Since 1904 I Garratt-Callahan
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelle-zeiher-6bab221/
Guest Resources Mentioned
The Cupcake Caper (Undercover Cat Mysteries) by Kelle Z Riley
Process Heating and Cooling Show Paper (Cooling Tower Cycles & MLD)
Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI Paperback by Ethan Mollick
Scaling UP! H2O Resources Mentioned
AWT (Association of Water Technologies)
Scaling UP! H2O Academy video courses
351 Maximizing Water’s Potential: Tech and Water Treaters in Perfect Harmony
Water You Know with James McDonald
Question: How much heat energy does it take to heat 1 pound of liquid water by 1 degree Fahrenheit?
Events for Water Professionals
Check out our Scaling UP! H2O Events Calendar where we’ve listed every event Water Treaters should be aware of by clicking HERE.
