Res-Kem Blog

Industrial Water Softener Maintenance

2009-05-28T09:48:00.018-04:00

Res-Kem Corp. and our sister company General Water Services offer preventative maintenance contracts for customers here in the Mid-Atlantic region. I thought it might be helpful to go over our Preventative Maintenance procedures for a commercial or industrial water softener for those of you who maintain your own water softening equipment.

For an industrial water softener we suggest our customers have bi-annual visits by our technicians. It's a very simple inspection that can prevent unscheduled downtime and the associated problems. How often our customer tests the water hardness is largely determined by how critical the application is and the availability of staff. We strongly suggest testing the water hardness on a daily basis if possible.

Res-Kem service technicians do a mechanical inspection that includes the following:
Inlet and Outlet Water Hardness - When we specify a commercial or industrial water softener we are given a water analysis, the average, high and low flow rates, hours of operation, and desired end-point. It's important to note changes against the design specification. If all things are equal, seeing hard water at the outlet points to a mechanical problem with the water softener (or no salt in the brine tank). If something else has changed - flow rate is lower or higher than specified or the inlet water hardness has increased - our technician will review the data with our engineering department and discuss the problem in greater depth with the customer.

Inlet and Outlet Pressures - Pressure testing is done when the water softener is running at the design specification. If there is a high differential the water softener might be running at too high a rate. If the water softener is running at a typical flow rate, (10 – 15 gpm/ft2) and there is a high differential pressure, the resin bed could be plugging up and preventing the water from flowing through the softener correctly. The differential pressure across a softener resin bed should generally run less than 15 psig. Of course there are many factors, which can result in higher differential pressures, i.e. depth of the resin bed, design of the internal distribution, age of resin, etc.

Inlet Chlorine (in absence of carbon filter or bi-sulfite feed) - Chlorine will break down cation ion exchange resin. Exposure to significant amounts of free chlorine, "hypochlorite" ions, or other strong oxidizing agents over long periods of time will eventually break down the crosslinking. Over time the cation resin turns to mush and will plug up the bed or eventually be flushed out so there remains much less resin than required.

Check salt level in brine tank, add if necessary

Make Note of Leaks - Our technicians are trained to look carefully for that small drip. We'll fix it if possible while we're there, otherwise we will make an appointment to come back to service the problem. You should have gaskets in on hand for both the manway and handhole openings.

Make Adjustments to the Control Valve - You should have received an operating manual with the water softener which includes information about the system settings.

If outlet water is out of hardness specification adjustments may be necessary.

Verify water softener timer is set to correct time and day.

Recalculate how often the water softener should be regenerating based on hardness and gallons and adjust control as necessary.

Optional Annual Maintenance

Valve Maintenance - There are many different types of controls and valves used on a commercial industrial water softener. In general you will need the following parts on hand to perform this service:

Aquamatic Valve Nest Systems - Diaphragm & Seal Kits, Internal Parts Kits, Seat Tools and Shaft Tools.

Fleck Top Mounted Control Systems - Upper and Lower Seal & Spacer Kits, Top Piston Kit, Lower Piston Kit.

Autotrol Top Mounted Control Systems - Internal parts kits. Specific kits depend on valve type.

Ion Exchange Resin Test - Although softener resin will last significantly longer than deionizer resin, in the presence of chlorine or other oxidants it will break down. If your water is highly chlorinated or has other contaminants such as iron, you should test the resin within 18 to 24 months of start up and every year thereafter. Otherwise, test the resin after the third year and then every year thereafter. By doing so you will know when to budget softener resin replacement as it is often a major expense.

Resin Traps-Insurance for Industrial Water Systems

2009-05-04T10:30:00.006-04:00

Recently, Res-Kem published a white paper entitled "Inexpensive Insurance for Water Treatment Systems-Resin Traps" by Ron Madden. In this white paper, three examples demonstrate how resin traps act as inexpensive insurance for costly problems that can develop when ion exchange resin reaches downstream process areas, process equipment, or the product. Depending upon the plant or process, the payback can be nearly instantaneous!

Summary:
A simple resin trap, long favored by experienced operators of water treatment
equipment, is an inexpensive form of insurance being used more frequently in water treatment systems. Should an internal lateral break or otherwise fail, resin traps eliminate the possibility of ion exchange resin or other filtration media leaving water treatment equipment where it belongs, and prevent it from traveling downstream where it does not belong. Install a resin trap. Like insurance, do not wait until catastrophe strikes to see the value.

Examples:
The three examples are from:

An automotive plant where the resin trap was installed AFTER a plant shutdown

A poultry plant where the resin trap was installed AFTER a plant shutdown and quarantine of millions of pounds of processed chicken

A refinery installed BEFORE a problem occur ed

Patented UV Technology Reduces Size and Energy Costs of UV Disinfection

2009-04-16T10:16:00.006-04:00

Res-Kem is now handling the newly patented UV light by UV Sciences. This revolutionary new UV unit has highly efficient UV reaction chambers for water disinfection. The flow chamber maximizes the delivery of the ultraviolet energy into the water stream effectively increasing efficiency 3 to 7 times when compared to an equivalent flow rate system.

Conventional UV chambers absorb the UV light energy and create heat. Instead of the UV energy, photons, being absorbed by the housing chamber generating heat, the photons are kept in the water medium. This keeps the photon active until it finally absorbed by a microbe or chemical molecule such as TOC, or chloramine. To maintain an effective UV disinfection dose, it is necessary to have a uniform flow rate. UV Sciences engineers used fluid dynamics modeling tools to optimize the flow tube, and designed a UV chamber that has a uniform flow rate.

The result is a compact and energy efficient UV disinfection unit. The 500 gpm unit chamber is 4 inches in diameter and only 40 inches long. These UV units offer the smallest size and lowest cost of ownership in the industry.

Arsenic & Lead Removal From Water Using Enviroscrub Media

2009-04-08T10:18:00.006-04:00

While at the recent WQA Aquatech trade show, I met with a gentleman from a company called Enviroscrub Technologies Corporation. They have a new lead and arsenic removal media that might prove to be an interesting addition to the current mix of products available to water treatment companies. The testing is looking good although they are still looking for pilot sites. It is NSF 53 and 61 certified for drinking water standards. From what I understand it will be competitively priced.

Enviroscrub has a process patent on the media, which is a mixture of iron, manganese and diatoms. The media has gone through rigorous testing under varying water conditions at multiple sites. It has high arsenic loading characteristics and fast kinetics. This media can remove both Arsenic V and Arsenic III. This product weighs between 22-26 lbs per cubic foot with a particle size of 0.6 mm - 1.4 mm.

If you are interested in participating in a pilot study feel free to contact us. As more information on this product becomes available I will post to this blog.

Industrial Water Treatment at WQA-Aquatech Conference and Exhibition

2009-04-07T16:39:00.016-04:00

March 17th through 21st the annual WQA Aquatech Trade show was held in Chicago. The WQA is now including industrial and commercial vendors and products in the mix. This year there were a couple of new products introduced that were of interest to us here at Res-Kem. While at the show I had the opportunity to attend some of the educational sessions as well as give one. Many of the topics were "industrial" in nature.

An area I am particularly interested in is employee training and I was part of a panel that discussed this topic. Regardless of the type of company you run - residential dealership, industrial service company or manufacturer, an important part of the job is employee training. Large companies have entire departments dedicated to training. Smaller companies can and need to compete to keep good employees and maintain good morale.

Here are a couple ideas you might be able to use.

Tap your vendors
Invite your vendors in for a lunch and learn. The vendor brings the pizza and the topic you supply the audience.

Contact your local community college
Your community college will know if there are grants available for worker education. At Res-Kem, I was able to offer an electrical course in my office that ran 20 weeks for engineers and service technicians. I completed a one page application, the community college did the rest.

Use the WQA Certified Water Specialist program
Smaller independent companies don't necessarily have the framework to educate the work force. Using the WQA Certified Water Specialist (CWS) format gives you just that. Rather just giving my people the book and telling them to study, I hold a weekly class to go over each topic. I cover the book work so they can pass the test, but I tailor it to our business. We are not a residential dealership so many of the examples do not apply. Nevertheless, that doesn't stop me from taking real world problems and addressing them within the context of the Certified Water Specialist program. At the end of the course I have the test administered and proctored at the local community college.

FYI, the WQA-Aquatech 2010 Conference and Exhibition will be held March 9 - 12, 2010 at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida

General Water Services Website Finished

2009-03-18T16:23:00.012-04:00

The General Water Services website, www.generalwaterservices.com, is completely new and vastly improved. Information on deionized water system deliveries can be found there.

About General Water Services:
Located in suburban Philadelphia, General Water Services offers portable service DI water systems. General Water Services regenerates and delivers large and small deionized (DI) water systems. The flow rate through an individual bank of tanks ranges from 1 to 150 gpm and depending upon your flow requirement, single or multiple banks are used.

General Water supplies portable service DI water systems for high purity and ultra high purity water applications for virtually any process industry including, but not limited to, chemical, power, beverage, food, electronics, pharmaceutical, medical, medical device, hospitals, laboratory, glass manufacturing, and assembly industries where deionized water is critical to production available for long-term contractual service and also for short term or emergency needs.

Standard Deionized Water Service Area

For Further Information:
Visit the General Water Services website
General Water Services brochure.
General Water Services product bulletin.

Condensate Polishers Shipped for Local University

2009-03-09T17:14:00.002-04:00

Last month, Res-Kem shipped a quadruple condensate polisher system to a local university. The condensate polishers are used to treat the water in the condensate loop, reducing water treatment chemical usage and reducing heat waste from excessive blowdown.
The system is comprised of four individual ASME-code stainless steel tanks with stainless steel internals, face piping, and Aquamatic valves. All external piping was a combination of welded and flanged stainless steel. Each system has an Aquamatic 962 controller to operate the valves during the backwash and regeneration cycle. The regeneration and backwash cycles are initiated by a differential pressure switch.

The local Res-Kem representative sold and installed the system at the university. The new system replaced a twin condensate polisher that had reached the end of its life.

The design flow rate is: 450 gpm
The peak flow rate is: 600 gpm
As stated above, the regeneration is initiated by a DP Switch.

The qualification process by the university was very rigorous. First university personnel visited out manufacturing facility in Aston, PA to see a similar system being built in our assembly facility. Afterwards, university personnel visited a local customer with a water softener and water dealkalizer. After we were qualified, our engineers worked with the site personnel to modify our standard design to fit the site's requirements.

Buckyballs Could Reduce Biofouling of Membranes and Pipes

2009-03-06T16:04:00.005-05:00

An interesting article in the March 6, 2009 issue of The R&D Daily e-newsletter entitled "Buckyballs could keep waterworks from clogging" introduced how using buckyballs, engineers in Duke University's Environmental and Civil Engineering department hindered the ability of bacteria and other microorganisms to accumulate on the membranes used to filter water in treatment plants. This leads these researchers to propose coating pipes and membranes with these nanoparticles may reduce biofouling. The results of these experiments were published March 5, 2009 in the Journal of Membrane Sciences.

Water Analysis Article

2009-03-06T13:43:00.013-05:00

I came across an excellent article in an old issue of Water Conditioning & Purification magazine entitled "Making Sense of an Incomplete Water Analysis" by Frank DeSilva of ResinTech Inc. This article defines what the minimum required water analyses are for:

Cationic Applications (hardness removal, metals removal, radium removal)

Anionic Applications (sulfate removal, nitrate removal, chromate removal, uranium removal, organics removal, perchlorate removal, fluoride removal, dealkalizers, boron removal)

Deionizer Applications

Prior to quoting a residential, industrial, commercial, or municipal water treatment system, the first question we ask at Res-Kem is an inlet water analysis. Often we need to work with incomplete or missing information. The main thrust of the article explains how an educated water treatment person can deduce a missing cation/anion value when there are other known water test values available. As a result, you will be able to properly size the water treatment system.

One great piece of information was the following chart. This chart makes it extremely easy to calculate the cation-anion balance and how to size the system. The conversion factor takes the concentration of an ion in mg/liter to ppm as CaCO3

Fleck and Autotrol Valve Seminar

2009-02-18T21:03:00.008-05:00

On a recent, very snowy day, twenty-two plumbers, well drillers, and dealer personnel braved dangerous driving conditions to attend the Res-Kem hosted, hands-on seminar on Pentair and Autotrol multi-port valves for residential water treatment systems. These 22 people are owners or employees of 11 Homestead System dealers, www.homesteadsystem.com, from Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. The seminar was taught by Dave Smith, Dealer Development Manager, and Kathee Srygley, Regional Account Manager of Pentair.

The valves the seminar primarily focused on were two multi-port valves with advanced electronic controls. The Pentair Fleck 7000 XTR valve and the Pentair Autotrol 268 760 valve were studied, broken down and reassembled. Attendees learned how to diagnose and fix common problems. These valves are used respectively in the 3000 and 2000 series Homestead System softeners, neutralizers, carbon filters, city systems, odor removal and iron removal systems. To add realism to the class, Res-Kem enhanced the normal Pentair program by giving a live demonstration of an installed water softener in the Res-Kem wet test area.
Typically, Pentair graciously sponsors similar seminars at a local hotel. We felt having the live demonstration and access to Res-Kem’s complete warehouse of valves and parts would enhance the learning experience. Michael Urbans, Res-Kem Residential Technical Manager instructed this part of the seminar.

In addition to learning about softeners and filters, attendees were introduced to the Pentair Fleck 5600 SXT, Homespring, FreshPoint and RO membrane systems. They were given a sneak peak at the new iron removal valves Pentair will introduce based upon the Pentair Fleck 7000 AIO valve and SXT controller.

WQA members were given .65 Continuing Education Units (CEU) for attending the seminar. If you would like to be on the invitees list for other courses, please contact us.

General Water Services Website Being Revamped

2009-02-05T08:30:00.003-05:00

The General Water Services website, http://www.generalwater.net/, is currently under construction. The new and vastly improved website will be back up not later than March 1, 2009. If you want to be notified when the site is refreshed, send us an email to us or subscribe to this blog using any of the links on the left side of this page.

About General Water Services:
Located in suburban Philadelphia, General Water Services offers portable service DI water systems. General Water Services regenerates and delivers large and small deionized (DI) water systems. The flow rate through an individual bank of tanks ranges from 1 to 150 gpm.

Depending upon your flow requirement, single or multiple banks are used. We supply portable service DI water systems for high purity and ultra high purity water applications for virtually any process industry including, but not limited to, chemical, power, beverage, food, electronics, pharmaceutical, medical, medical device, hospitals, laboratory, glass manufacturing, and assembly industries where deionized water is critical to production.

DI water systems are available for long-term contractual service and also for short term or emergency needs.

Our standard service area runs north to south from New York City to Washington DC and east to west from coastal New Jersey to Harrisburg, PA. On a case-by-case basis, and depending upon the economics, we provide deionized water systems significantly outside our standard service area.

Unmatched Quality Control Procedures
Meeting high purity water quality immediately after regeneration is the easy part. Having your DI water tanks reach projected capacity at the specified water quality is the bigger challenge. Each batch of mixed bed resin regenerated by General Water Services is laboratory tested for both quality and capacity to guarantee predictable capacity at the specified water quality. Retained samples of each lot of regenerated resin are kept for a period of two years. General Water Services takes the time and bears the expense to test for capacity prior to shipment. It is this consistency that sets General Water Services apart from the competition.

Segregated Resin
General Water Services maintains cation, anion, and mixed bed resins for specific customers. These resins will only be used for your plant and will not be mixed with any other company's ion exchange resins. Depending upon the agreement, the resin can be your property or General Water's ion exchange resins; we can use your tanks or ours. We'll regenerate the resin at our plant, put in the tanks, and return the tanks to you as required. Extra resin is tagged and stored in our warehouse for your future needs.

Complete Resin & Tank Traceability
Each General Water Services DI water exchange tank has its own serial number regardless of tank size. Serial number tracking is used in combination with resin lot traceability to track each DI tank and, its ion exchange resin lot, back to its applicable regeneration and retained sample. This gives you complete ion exchange resin traceability for any and all DI water tanks delivered to your site. This process is carried back even one step further in that all of General Water Services' ion exchange resin lots can also be traced back to the ion exchange resin manufacturer's production documentation.

For Further Information:
General Water Systems brochure.
General Water Systems product bulletin.

Aquamatic Valve & Control Lines Discontinued

2009-01-23T16:07:00.006-05:00

In addition to the announcement of the A200 series impulse control stager being discontinued, the letter from Pentair has other Aquamatic discontinuations. The following Aquamatic Valve & Control Lines will be discontinued after March 13, 2009. Also, certain Aquamatic Valve & Control options will be discontinued after March 13, 2009. Orders can be placed until March 2, 2009. Contact Res-Kem if you need help finding a potential replacement.

Discontinued Aquamatic Valve & Control Lines:
Product Family: V82 Series
Product Type: Diaphragm valves
Description: High pressure brass line
Potential Replacement: V46 Series

Product Family:V44 Series
Product Type: Diaphragm valves
Description: Iron and brass isolated bonnet line
Potential Replacement: V42 Series, K55 Series

Product Family: 59 Series
Product Type: Stager
Description: 16 port brass stager line
Potential Replacement: 58 Series

Product Family: 96 Series
Product Type: Stager
Description: 8 port high pressure line

Discontinued Aquamatic Valve & Control Options:
Description: Drill and tap Options 5(all four bosses) and 7 (bosses #1 and #3) on K52 Series and K53 Series valves
Potential Replacement: Drill and tap Options 1-4, 6

Description: FKM (Viton) diaphragm on K53 Series
Potential Replacement: Buna-N diaphragm: K52 series FKM diaphragm

A200 Stager Control from Aquamatic Discontinued

2009-01-20T15:12:00.003-05:00

Soon after we completed changes to our website, discussed in our previous blog post, a discontinuation notice was Res-Kem just received in the mail from Aquamatic about the A200 Stager Control. After March 13, 2009 the controller, also called an A200 Impluse Stager Control, will no longer be available. The reason given was "despite their lengthy time on the market, (these products) have experienced low demand and declining sales in recent years. As a result, Pentair is making the difficult decision to eliminate these lines so it may focus on growing its core Aquamatic Valve and Control business."

Possible Solution:
A potential replacement could be the 962 Stager Control series from Aquamatic. If you contact Res-Kem we can help you determine if it will work for your application and how it may need to be configured to work.

Aquamatic Stager Controls Information for GE/Osmonics

2008-12-31T08:02:00.043-05:00

Res-Kem added a significant amount of information on Aquamatic Stager Controls to our website including Product Specifications, Manuals and Ordering Guides. We wanted to make the information more easily accessible for our customers and others who use Aquamatic stager controls in their water treatment equipment.

Res-Kem uses Aquamatic Stager Controls for many of the systems we manufacture. Stager controls are used to automatically control softeners, dealkalizers, sand filters, multi-media filters, cation and anion deionizers. Also, we use these same stager controls, with a valve nest, to retrofit old Permutit, and Brunermatic multiport valves. Also, given our system expertise, we service these units in the field.

Aquamatic Stager Controls:

Res-Kem uses Aquamatic Stager Controls for many of the systems we manufacture. As the name implies, it is comprised of an Aquamatic Stager and an Aquamatic Control. Res-Kem uses Aquamatic valves with a variety of stager control combinations to automate the operation and/or regeneration of valve nest type water softeners and filters. Aquamatic Stager Controls are used to automatically control softeners, dealkalizers, sand filters, multi-media filters, cation and anion deionizers. These same stager controls can be used with virtually any other valve manufacturer with pneumatic actuated valves ONLY if their actuators are air/spring. These manufacturers include Keystone, Bray, George Fisher +GF+, Hayward, and Asahi. Also, we use these same stager controls, with a valve nest, to retrofit old Permutit, and Brunermatic multiport valves.

Aquamatic 962 Stager Controls:
The AquaMatic 962 stager controls combine an AquaMatic stager with an Autotrol 962 series electronic control, mounted and prewired in a NEMA-rated enclosure. When combined with a flow meter, the series 962 electronic controls provide sophisticated, demand-based water conditioning by monitoring the amount of water used. Time-based and/or external signal initiation is also available as a standard feature.

Aquamatic A100 Stager Controls:
This series of AquaMatic controls combines an electromechanical timer with a stager. The A100 series initiates a regeneration based on a time set on the built-in time clock.

Aquamatic A200 Stager Controls:
This series of AquaMatic controls combines an electromechanical timer with a stager. The A200 series initiates a regeneration when a signal is received from a water meter, sensor, pressure differential switch, push button or other remote device.

Aquamatic 7000A Programmable Regeneration Controller (DISCONTINUED):
These units are no longer sold. Through some careful engineering, the 7000A controller can be replaced with a Aquamatic 962 Stager Control. The Aquamatic 7000A was an electronic programmable regeneration designed to control the regeneration of filters and ion exchange processes. The 7000A was used in combination with an Aquamatic 48 Series Stager, Aquamatic 51 Series Stager, or Aquamatic 58 Series Stager.

Aquamatic Stager:

Added are product specifications on Aquamatic Stagers . A stager is a motor-driven rotary multiport pilot valve, which is used to control a set of individual diaphragm valves in a predefined sequence.

There are five stager designs available:

Aquamatic Series 48 brass stager with six ports. The 48 stager can control typical softener or filter systems as well as sequential backwash filters.

Aquamatic Series 51 brass stagers with eight ports. Used for more complex systems such as non-standard softeners, twin alternating softeners or filters.

Aquamatic Series 96 brass stagers with eight ports. Used for more complex systems such as non-standard softeners, twin alternating softeners or filters.
The 96 stager design is similar to that of the 51, but is rated for 250 psi (17 bar) and used for high pressure systems.

Aquamatic Series 58 PVC stager with sixteen ports. Used for more complex systems such as non-standard softeners, twin alternating softeners or filters.

Aquamatic Series 59 brass stager with sixteen ports. Used for more complex systems such as non-standard softeners, twin alternating softeners or filters.

Given our expertise building systems with Aquamatic Stager Controls, we can help you select the correct parts, select/troubleshoot stager controls or service stager in the field.

Water Analysis Could Have Saved $57,000

2008-12-18T14:53:00.004-05:00

In the white paper, "A $150 Water Analysis Could Have Saved $57,000 in Capital and RO Cleaning Costs" by Joseph Urbans-Sales Engineer at Res-Kem Corp., he details how a water analysis is extremely important in the design phase of a water treatment plant design.

Summary:
The paper shows after spending $52,000 in capital and installation for water treatment equipment, technical and service personnel from Res-Kem Corp were called in to diagnose a major problem with a three week old reverse osmosis (RO) system specified, built, and installed by others. Upon investigation, an inlet water analysis may never have been done, or at least no one could produce the analysis used to originally size the plant. It appears the engineering firm sized and designed this project without one.

The Costs:
If the system had been designed correctly from the start, Res-Kem conservatively estimates the savings to be $57,000:

Total capital and installation costs of original system $52,000

Membrane cleaning costs of $5,000

In addition, if the RO membranes cannot be cleaned, the cost will be $15,000 for new membranes plus installation service.

Frozen Ion Exchange Resin

2008-12-11T07:43:00.017-05:00

During the winter months here in the Northeast we are often asked about how to handle frozen ion exchange resin. The best way to avoid frozen resin is to make sure the ion exchange resin is shipped in a climate controlled reefer type van. There is usually additional expense involved with use of this truck but it is an option to consider if you are located in a cold climate and need to install the resin upon arrival at your plant.

How can I avoid freezing ion exchange resins?
You can avoid the frozen ion exchange scenario by making sure your vendor doesn't ship on a Friday. Shipments that go out on Friday often will sit over the weekend allowing enough time for the resin to freeze. That's not to say the resin wouldn't freeze over night if the vendor shipped on a Monday and delivered on Wednesday. You just cut the odds of having frozen resin delivered.

What do you do if the resin is frozen?
On Page 5 of a Purolite brochure addressing transportation and packaging of ion exchange resins, Purolite states:

"Although it has been found that Purolite Resins will withstand temperatures as low as -40 degC, (-40 degF), successive thawing and freezing may damage the product, and/or the packaging. Hence it is recommended that the resins are stored above 0 degC, (32 degF). If for any reason resin becomes frozen it should be left to thaw out gradually. No attempt should ever be made to free frozen mechanically. If it is anticipated that it will be necessary to handle resin at sub-zero temperatures, the resin may be conditioned with saturated brine prior to storage. During transportation of resins precautions should be taken to avoid the extremes of temperatures as outlined previously. If product becomes frozen during transportation, thawing should take place gradually, with out any physical interference."

So if you have frozen resin, put it in a sunny spot and let it thaw, don't go at it with an ice pick!

Triple Softener System for Steam Heat Peaking Plant Sized for 750 gpm Flow

2008-12-08T17:04:00.024-05:00

Here is another example of number of the industrial, commercial, residential, and/or residential water treatment systems being designed, assembled, shipped and installed by Res-Kem engineers, pipefitters, and/or contractors within in the past few months.

A Boston steam heating company needed to replace their aging Permutit triple softening system. These units, with Permutit multiport valves, had reached the end of their life.

Res-Kem was selected based upon the recommendation of a sister company in Cambridge, MA which had a Res-Kem triple softening plant at their facility. Since the Permutit multiport valves are no longer commercially available, the Res-Kem design used Aquamatic valves instead of the Permutit valves. Also, it appears the size of the existing Permutit units was too large for the plant flow requirements. Res-Kem used a peak design flow from the softeners of 750 gpm. Upon careful review and competitive bidding process, Res-Kem was selected to provide the replacement system.

Several design changes from the standard Res-Kem industrial softener design were needed to meet the unique requirements of this peaking plant. In particular, the valves needed to be changed from our standard normally open (air to close) actuation to normally closed (air to open) actuation. This was done so the valves will fail closed in the event of loss of air pressure. Normally air pressure is used to stop the water flow during periods of downtime. In this case, when the plant is not being used to generate steam, virtually all power is turned off including tha air compressors to save energy.

With precise drawings by Res-Kem engineers, accurate assembly by Res-Kem pipefitters, and excellent coordination with the site mechanical contractor, the water softeners are being rapidly installed. Commissioning is scheduled for the week of December 15, 2008 only 5 business days from shipment! When our start-up engineer visits for operator training, we will post a picture of the installation.

Triple Sand Filters Shipped and Installed Treat Sized for Peak Flow of 1000 gpm

2008-12-08T09:24:00.022-05:00

It has been a very, very busy couple of months at Res-Kem. Systems of all sizes have been designed, built, shipped, and installed for industrial, municipal, commercial and residential customers throughout the US. As a recent example, on November 20 we shipped a triple sand filter to a customer on the California/Arizona border.

With precise drawings by Res-Kem engineers, accurate assembly by Res-Kem pipefitters, and excellent coordination with the site water and wastewater contractor, the sand filters were rapidly installed and commissioned by December 8, 2008! Please note, there was shipping time of 3 days and a Thanksgiving holiday in between!

The triple 84-inch diameter sand filtration system is sized to treat a peak flow of 1000 gpm. The sand filters are used to treat all of the potable water going to an 823,000 gallon reservoir tank after chlorination. Most of the storage capacity is for fire water requirements.

Dealkalizer Control Upgrade

2008-11-15T16:42:00.017-05:00

The Problem:
A seafood processing plant called Res-Kem Corp to service their Brunermatic Dealkalizer. Their problem was of water running to drain during backwash and rinse stages. To repair the valve, Res-Kem service personnel would need to replace or rebuild the backwash outlet port and rinse outlet port.

The Analysis:
The Res-Kem service manager noted during the site visit that the control on the dealkalizer is no longer manufactured and the caustic pump was not functioning. With a dealkalizer, caustic can be fed during the regeneration cycle to enhance dealkalizer performance. The addition of caustic to the brine gives greater capacity to the Type II strong base anion ion exchange resin used in the dealkalization process. The following shows the increase in dealkalizer capacity with the addition of caustic to the brine regeneration step.

The Solutions:
Having seen this problem before, the Res-Kem service manager suggested the customer consider an upgrade to a current design that incorporates the Signet Flow Sensor and caustic pump. Res-Kem uses the Aquamatic 962 Controller and Stager. The Aquamatic 962 controller is a programmable electronic control with a relay that can be used to signal the chemical feed pump. The cost to repair the existing caustic pump exceeded the cost of a new one and the customer was happy to learn the pump manufacturer they use elsewhere in the boiler house could be used in conjunction with the new Aquamatic 962 controller.

The Benefits:
This simple upgrade to the existing dealkalizer benefits the customer by:

Allowing use of their standard pump manufacturer and enabling them to keep "standard" repair parts on hand

Allowing continued successful operation of the existing dealkalizer

Gets them back to the original design - automatic operation of the dealkalizer.

Condensate Polisher Savings of 23% Realized Through Value Engineering

2008-10-27T17:03:00.016-04:00

The white paper, "Condensate Polisher Savings of 23% Realized Through Value Engineering", shows how a value engineering team comprised of personnel from a well-known university, Res-Kem Corp, and a mechanical contractor yielded the best system for the money.

These savings substantially improved the return on investment. This was accomplished without making any compromises on the installation costs, reliability of operation, or desired operating efficiency of the powerhouse.

The Problems:
All the qualified bids exceeded the set aside level of funding. During the time lag between project approval and initiation of the bidding process, a number of variables arose which collectively now jeopardized the project in its entirety.

The cost of stainless steel, while recognized to be escalating, continued
to climb beyond all reasonable expectations.

The university’s internal cost of capital was adversely affected by a tightening of available funds within the credit market. Almost immediately, the university comptroller put the project on hold and demanded an even higher return on investment in order for the project to proceed.

The Solution:
In an attempt to move the project forward, it was decided the university utility manager would work directly with the condensate polisher manufacturer and the winning bid mechanical contractor to see how best to value engineer the product offering. The targeted goal of the value engineering team was to reduce the purchase price of the condensate polisher by a minimum of twenty percent. This together with some labor saving initiatives taken on by the mechanical contractor installing the system would hopefully rescue the project.

Value Engineering Study Items and Savings

Downsize Vessel Size -- 4% Savings

Retain stainless steel vessel -- 0%

Retain C-150 resin -- 0%

Modify external piping -- 13% Savings

Modify control valves -- 6% Savings

Total Value Engineering Savings -- 23%

As shown in the above summary, the benefits of joining together a team of
knowledgeable and experienced individuals can be readily apparent. This is particularly true when the individuals come to the task with complementary but differing skill sets combined with a shared sense of purpose.

Stainless Steel vs Lined Carbon Steel Vessels for Industrial Water Softeners

2008-10-01T12:06:00.014-04:00

Recently we received the following question from a prospective customer:
Question:
We are trying to decide whether to purchase stainless steels or lined carbon steel vessels for our industrial water softeners. We currently have old stainless steel units we inherited from a sister plant. These tanks are corroded. What is Res-Kem's position on buying stainless steel versus lined carbon steel tanks for our water softeners?

Our Answer:
Res-Kem is of the opinion that a stainless steel vessel is "usually" the more cost effective alternative when compared to a lined carbon steel vessel for water treatment applications. This assumes that the end user has the financial capacity to handle the higher upfront cost and that the vessel internals are properly designed. We added the word "usually" as the possibility of stainless steel chloride corrosion can be problematic in high temperature applications or those with improperly designed vessel internals.

Used with properly functioning internals, stainless steel vessels will last for a very long time on a simple water softening application. A carbon steel vessel on the other hand is very much dependent on the condition of the vessel lining. Eventually every lining will develop a pin hole failure leading to corrosion, a subsequent leak, and full vessel failure. Obviously this is not a concern with unlined vessels constructed of stainless steel.

In the case of the corrosion of the existing stainless steel vessels at this customer, there are two explanations for the corrosion they are experiencing. For starters they are not diluting the regenerant brine. This only increases the chloride levels during the regeneration cycle. It's worth mentioning that ordinarily any water softener is only subjected to high chloride levels during the 30 minutes or so as brine is introduced to the vessel. At this customer, not only is the brine saturated, but there is little assurance that the design of the internals gets all the brine out during the following rinse steps. Should this be the case, the bottom dome of the vessel would have a stagnant brine solution remaining in it well after the regeneration cycle is finished. This would particularly enhance the corrosion process especially if the water contains an appreciable amount of dissolved oxygen. One can only assume this condition applies at this customer and things are exacerbated with the higher concentration of brine being used.

It's worth pointing out that General Water, the service DI arm of Res-Kem has a rental fleet of well over 200 skid mounted DI exchange vessels. All are 36" diameter and all are constructed of stainless steel. The decision to purchase stainless vessels over lined carbon steel was not done because we like to spend money. It was done as it's a good investment over the long haul.

How to Measure pH Accurately in Steam Condensate

2008-09-30T15:03:00.022-04:00

Keeping within ASME guidelines for total iron in boiler feedwater below 0.1 ppm and total copper below 0.05 ppm copper requires attention to the maintenance of steam traps, knowledge of the metallurgy of the steam/condensing equipment in the steam distribution system and in particular the pH of return condensate.

When measuring pH in condensate, it is important to cool the sample with an in-line water sample cooler to minimize the CO2 flashing off from the sample. When the CO2 flashes off it is not present in the condensate sample so it will not form carbonic acid. Without carbonic acid present, the pH will be measured with a false high pH. The difference between in-line cooled condensate samples and ambient cooled condensate temperatures can be 2.0 or more pH units. This difference in pH will dramatically increase the corrosion rate.

The following chart shows how equipment with large steam demands and therefore condensate flow with elevated CO2 levels will likely have elevated corrosion rates.

In addition to ensuring proper measurement of pH, an in-line water sample cooler enables safe handling of the high temperature condensate. Water sample coolers are available in carbon steel or stainless steel. Certain sample cooler models have easily accessible coils that can be cleaned or replaced as needed.

Uniform Particle Size Ion Exchange Resins

2008-09-15T19:12:00.024-04:00

We received notice today that Purolite Ion Exchange Company will no longer be selling the anion resins, A-300 and A-400. These resins will be replaced by Purofine PFA-300 and PFA-400. The Purofine line of resins is uniform particle size (UPS). Dow did this a number of years ago when they introduced the Marathon grade of Dowex Ion Exchange Resins. The Marathon line of Ion Exchange resins pretty much replaced the entire line of standard Gaussian resins.

In general there are many advantages to using UPS resins.

Higher Regeneration Efficiency:
According to Dow regeneration is the least efficient step in the ion exchange process. Large beads regenerate more slowly than small beads. The typical Gaussian mesh range is 16-50 whereas UPS resins are 30-40 mesh, a much tighter specification. The UPS resins have a smaller average particle diameter and will regenerate more quickly resulting in more efficient use of regenerant chemicals. So you use less and get a higher operating capacity.

Greater Operating Capacity
The kinetics of the UPS resins is more favorable than that of Gaussian. "This leads to an increase in usage of the entire resin capacity from the top to the bottom of the bed...the net effect of the more efficient regeneration....is higher throughput."

Better Rinse Efficiency:
Excess regenerant chemicals diffuse more quickly from within the beads, thus decreasing the time required to reach the specified endpoint. Faster rinse times trim water and wastewater disposal costs.

Reduced Leakage:
The result of these increased efficiencies is an increase in production of pure water for a longer time since the leakage endpoint is extended

Better Separations for Mixed Beds:
For many years now Res-Kem has been advising customers to use UPS resins in their mixed bed units. In fact, our sister company, General Water Services, uses UPS resins to service their high-purity customers. One reason for doing so is better separation prior to regeneration. With Gaussian resins, the smaller cation beads are easily trapped with the larger anion beads. With better separation you get lower leakages, a better regeneration and greater throughput.

Operating Considerations:
Backwash Rates are lower when using UPS resins. Consult the engineering graphs, Dow Marathon, Purolite Anion or Purolite Cation, prior to installation or contact a qualified equipment manufacturer to determine the changes required when upgrading to Uniform Particle Size resins.

Helpful Links:
I've included a couple helpful links from Dow and Purolite with more detailed information if you'd like to read more about the advantages of using UPS resins in your water treatment system.

Here is information from Dow:
UPS (Uniform Particle Size): The Key to Greater Productivity in Ion Exchange

Here is information from Purolite:

Notice of Product Replacement for Purolite® A300 and A400

Setting Brine Tank Refill Time on Fleck Softener Valve

2008-09-11T10:43:00.011-04:00

The Pentair^® Fleck^® multi-port softener valve controllers, electronic versions SE, XT, XTR and SXT and non-electronic versions, are very flexible allowing for customization of the regeneration cycle of the water softener. This flexibility requires that you know a little bit about the system and a simple calculation -"Brine Refill Time". Although a simple calculation, "Brine Refill Time" is often misunderstood.

Definitions:
The "Brine Refill Time" is easy to calculate and is the same regardless of valve and controller type.

The following values are based on the design of the softener and valve.

T = Brine Tank Refill Time (minutes)
X = Brine Line Flow Control Rating (gpm)
Y = Salt Dosage sometimes called Regeneration Level (lbs/cuft)
Z = Amount of Resin in Softener (cuft)

In order to set the time you need to know the concentration of saturated brine

C = 2.6 lbs/gallon = Concentration of Saturated Brine

So the equation is:

T = (Y * Z)/(X * C)

Example:

X = 0.5 gpm
Y = 12 lbs/cuft
Z = 2.5 cuft

T = (12 * 2.5)/(0.5 * 2.6) = 23 minutes for brine refill step

Parts for Solo, Solomatic, Bruner, Brunermatic, Permutit, Aquamatic, Culligan HiFlow Multiport Valves & Others

2008-08-29T08:01:00.025-04:00

Routinely, Res-Kem receives requests for quotes for water treatment systems and their replacement parts. One area that frequently needs explanation is replacement parts for multi-port valves including Solo^®, Solomatic^®, Bruner^®, Brunermatic^®, Permutit^®, and Aquamatic^®.

We get questions like:

Please quote the following.:

AQUAMATIC valves with 6 ports total. 5 ports are 3". One in the rear and 4 in cross form. The 6th port is 2", which is the regenerant inlet port.

The fluid flowing through the valves is composed as follows:

1) Hydrochloric acid (HCL) 32% at ambient temp.
2) Sodium Hydroxide NaOH (caustic soda) 50% at ambient temp.
3) Water at ambient temp.
4) Picture of valve attached.

Another Question:

I have a Kisco water softener system with Aquamatic Solomatic Valves. The model number of the system is TWSKOM-300. I need replacement valves. What can I do?

Res-Kem Solution:
As a service company, Res-Kem frequently comes across many different water treatment systems, which have Solo, Solomatic, Bruner, Brunermatic, Permutit and Aquamatic Multiport Valves as well as other manufacturers. Unfortunately, many of these valves and controls for the valves have been discontinued or parts are extremely difficult to find, (which may be due to industry consolidation), and those parts which are available are very expensive. The Res-Kem solution is to replace the multi-port valves with a "valve nest" and an appropriate control system.

A valve nest performs all the functions of a multiport valve using Aquamatic diaphragm, Keystone butterfly, or other valves as specified by the customer. Using a standard layout with flexibility to account for various tank sizes, a valve nest is a very cost-effective alternative to a multi-port valve.

Valve nests can be supplied in a wide variety of materials: Cast iron valves with steel piping, Bronze valves with copper piping, plastic valves with PVC piping, stainless steel valves with stainless steel piping. They can be adapted to filters, softeners, dealkalizers, demineralizers and deionizers.