About Water Softening Equipment

In daily life, scale will form on the inner wall of the kettle after a long time, because the water contains a lot of inorganic salts, such as calcium and magnesium salts. These salts cannot be found by naked eyes in water at normal temperature. Once they are heated and boiled, a lot of calcium and magnesium salts will precipitate out in the form of carbonate, and they will cling to the walls of the pot to form scale. We usually use the index of "hardness" to express the content of calcium and magnesium ions in water. 1 degree of hardness is equivalent to 10 mg of calcium oxide per liter of water. Water below 8 degrees is called soft water, above 17 degrees is called hard water, and between 8 and 17 degrees is called moderately hard water. Rain, snow, rivers, rivers, and lakes are all soft water, while spring water, deep well water, and sea water are all hard water.

Softened water treatment is to use strong acidic cationic resin to replace calcium and magnesium ions in raw water, and then the boiler feed water filtered by the softened water equipment becomes softened and purified water for boilers with extremely low hardness.

Ion exchange method

Method: Use a specific cation exchange resin to replace the calcium and magnesium ions in the water with sodium ions. Due to the high solubility of sodium salts, the formation of scale with the increase of temperature is avoided.

Features and effects: The effect is stable and accurate, and the process is mature. Can reduce hardness to 0.

Scope of use: in catering, food, chemical, pharmaceutical and other fields, air conditioning, industrial circulating water and other applications. The most commonly used standard method at present.

Membrane filtration method

Method: Both nanofiltration membrane (NF) and reverse osmosis membrane (RO) can intercept calcium and magnesium ions in water, thereby fundamentally reducing water hardness. The hardness can only be reduced to a certain range.

Features and effects: The effect is obvious and stable, and the treated water has a wide range of applications. There are high requirements on the inlet water pressure, and the equipment investment and operation costs are relatively high.

Scope of application: generally less used for special softening treatment.

Dosing method

Method: Adding a special scale inhibitor into the water can change the characteristics of the combination of calcium and magnesium ions and carbonate ions, so that scale cannot be precipitated and deposited.

Features and effects: Less one-time investment and wide adaptability. When the water volume is soft, the operating cost is high.

Scope of application: due to the addition of chemical substances, the application of water is greatly restricted, and generally cannot be used in drinking, food processing, industrial production, etc. It is rarely used in civilian fields.

Softened water equipment workflow and work requirements

Working (sometimes called water production, the same below), backwashing, salt absorption (regeneration), slow flushing (replacement), and fast flushing five processes. All the processes of different softening water equipment are very close, but there may be some additional processes due to different actual processes or control needs. Any water softening equipment based on sodium ion exchange is developed on the basis of these five processes (among them, fully automatic water softening equipment will increase the brine reinjection process).

Backwash: After working for a period of time, the equipment will intercept a lot of dirt brought by the raw water on the upper part of the resin. After removing these dirt, the ion exchange resin can be fully exposed and the regeneration effect can be guaranteed. The backwash process is that water washes in from the bottom of the resin and flows out from the top, so that the dirt intercepted by the top can be washed away. This process usually takes about 5-15 minutes.

Salt suction (regeneration): the process of injecting brine into the resin tank. The traditional equipment uses a salt pump to inject brine, and the fully automatic equipment uses a special built-in injector to inhale brine (as long as the water has a certain pressure) . In the actual working process, the regeneration effect of brine flowing through the resin at a slower speed is better than that of simply soaking the resin in brine, so the softened water equipment is regenerated by flowing brine through the resin at a slow speed. This process generally takes 30 Minutes or so, the actual time is affected by the amount of salt used.

Slow flushing (replacement): after brine flows through the resin, the process of slowly flushing all the salt in the resin with raw water at the same flow rate is called slow flushing, because there are still a large number of functional groups on the resin during this flushing process. Calcium and magnesium ions are exchanged by sodium ions. According to practical experience, this process is the main process of regeneration, so many people call this process replacement. This process is generally the same time as salt inhalation, that is, about 30 minutes.

Quick flushing: In order to thoroughly flush the residual salt, the resin should be flushed with raw water at a flow rate close to the actual work, and the final effluent of this process should be soft water that meets the standard. Under normal circumstances, the quick rinse process is 5-15 minutes.

Benefits of Water softening equipment

1. The use of Water softening equipment saves a lot of wasted fuel

When the boiler is scaled, for a boiler with a working pressure of 1.4MPa, 1 mm of scale will be formed, and 8% of the fuel will be wasted.

2. Water softening equipment improves thermal efficiency and reduces output

When scale is formed on the evaporation surface of the boiler, the heat from the fire side cannot be quickly transferred to the water side, which will reduce the output of the boiler. If the boiler is scaled due to improper water treatment, the evaporation capacity of the boiler is reduced by one-third, and the automatic operation line cannot be started due to insufficient gas supply.

3. The use of Water softening equipment reduces boiler maintenance

It is very difficult to remove the scale after the boiler plate or pipe is formed, especially the leakage, crack, breakage, deformation, corrosion and other diseases of the boiler caused by the scale. It not only damages the boiler, but also consumes a lot of manpower and material resources to overhaul, which not only shortens the running time, but also increases the overhaul cost.

4. The application of Water softening equipment reduces the risk to safety

Accidents caused by boiler scale account for more than 20% of the total number of boiler accidents, which not only cause equipment loss, but also threaten personal safety. The infrastructure and operating costs of water treatment account for a quarter of all savings.

More inquiries related to Water Softening Equipment please contact:

Mob& Wechat& WhatsApp: (+86)13544774483

Email: sales010@water-sy.com

We will provide high-quality, all-round comprehensive professional services for project consulting, system design, manufacturing, installation and commissioning, personnel training, etc