Brine softening and the treatment of solutions with high total dissolved solids (TDS) require ion exchange technology, particularly when hardness reductions to extremely low levels are desired.
Ion exchange is a chemical reaction by which ions are exchanged between the solution and an ion exchange resin. This resin consists of small polymer spheres of 0.3-1.6 mm in diameter. In general, ion exchangers are either cation exchangers that exchange positively charged ions (cations) or anion exchangers that exchange negatively charged ions (anions). This is a reversible process as the resin can be regenerated for reuse.
This purification technology is widely used for producing high purity water in many applications such as produced water softening in the energy industry and deionization or demineralization across many industrial processes.
Demineralized Water and Condensate Polishing
The presence of any dissolved salts can cause deposit build up, corrosion and other serious scaling problems for heat transfer equipment which can increase the risk of potential catastrophic failure across many plant operations.
Veolia provides high-capacity cation and mixed-bed ion exchange polishers that maximize demineralizing and condensate polishing performance and minimize operating costs by effectively removing both soluble and insoluble contaminants from boiler feed-water. Learn more about Demineralized Water and Condensate Polishing
Produced Water Softening
Following the produced water softening step in a warm lime softener, hardness levels are still too high for feeding Once-Through Steam Generators (OTSG) or high pH reverse Osmosis filtration systems. Thus, further softening using ion exchange is required to achieve lower hardness levels. In general, ion exchange softening is required upstream of high-pH reverse osmosis treatment of produced water when boron, silica and soluble oil levels are still considered too high after upstream removal processes.
Veolia’s Series Strong Acid Cation (SAC) and Weak Acid Cation (WAC) brine-regenerated softeners can help the oil industry to increase yields by providing high-quality produced water with minimal hardness residual to high-pressure steam generators. Learn more about Produced Water Softening
Brine Softeners
The production of chlorine and caustic utilizing membrane cell electrolyzer technology has resulted in the requirement for higher purity brine with hardness not exceeding 10 ppb. This extremely low concentrations are efficiently achieved using brine softening technology.
Veolia’s Brine Softeners are specially designed to help Chlor-Alkali producers achieve high quality concentrated brine.
