Lecture 21

WATER CONDITIOING FOR INDUSTRIAL

PURPOSE

1
Key Concepts
■ Similarities between Water Softener and Water Conditioner
■ Differences between Water Softener and Water Conditioner
■ How does Water Softener Works?
■ How does Water Conditioner Works?
■ Types of Water Conditioners
– Sources Based
– Nature Based
Similarity Between Water Softener
& Water Conditioner
water conditioners and water softeners.
These terms are often confused, so we'll clarify the difference and
explain how each works.

The similarities.
Water conditioners and water softeners are both used to address the
common problem of water hardness. Hard water is water that is rich in
minerals like calcium, magnesium and silica.

These minerals can cause serious problems for heat-exchange

surfaces, pipes and water fixtures throughout your home and business.
Over time, pipes could become completely clogged by scale buildup.
When limescale builds up on a heating element, it insulates it and
prevents it from doing its job efficiently. Hard water can cause ongoing,
everyday problems, too. It's no wonder that homeowners and
businesses alike want to find a way to combat this issue.
 Difference Between Water Softener & Water Conditioner

The confusion about the two systems brings the questions like “Is a water conditioner the
same as a water softener?”
The difference between a water softener and a water conditioner
is that the conditioner will alter hard water minerals, but doesn't remove them.
A water conditioner will reduce scale but a water softener will eliminate scale
from calcium and magnesium by using salt in the regeneration cycle

Water softening is the removal of Ca, Mg and certain other metal cations
in hard water. So TDS increases but calcium hardness decreases.
The presence of certain metal ions like Ca and Mg principally
as bicarbonates, chlorides and sulfates in water causes a variety of problems. Hard water
leads to the buildup of limescale, which can foul plumbing, and promote galvanic
corrosion. In industrial scale water softening plants, the effluent flow from the re-generation
process can precipitate scale that can interfere with sewage systems.
Water conditioner is not a softener or filter. A conditioner helps to minimize the adverse
effects of many of the undesirable substances in water.
Water conditioning aims to address three major issues that are present in most water
sources: limescale, bacteria and algae.
These problems can cause a whole host of issues in water systems, including on the insides
of pipes, on heat exchangers, on fixtures and more.
Difference Between Water Softener & Water Conditioner

Water Conditioner vs. Water Softener: What's the Difference?

what's the difference between them?
When it comes to the issue of hard water, a traditional water softener actually removes
calcium, magnesium and silica ions, leaving it with small quantities of what is known
as “temporary hardness”. The softener replaces these ions with salt through a process
called ion exchange.
A water conditioner, on the other hand, is a more innovative solution that manipulates
the way the hardness minerals in a liquid solution behave. The result is that they are
still present, but they don't build up on surfaces and cause problems.
Since calcium, magnesium and silica are healthy minerals to humans and other animals,
keeping them in the water is a great advantage, as long as they aren't damaging your plumbing
system.

While both water softeners and water conditioners are designed to address the problem of water
hardness in some way, a water conditioner typically tackles other water issues, too — such as
biological contaminants, including bacteria and algae, which can collect on surfaces. When
these substances build up, it is referred to as biofilm. A water softener alone is not designed to
address the issue of biofilm — only scale.

"water conditioner" is often used as a fairly broad term that may refer to any type of water
How Does a Water Softener Work?
How Does a Water Softener Work?
A water softener typically removes excess minerals from water through a process called ion
exchange. To understand this process, you need to first understand that minerals are ionic. In
other words, they are electrically charged. It's also important to understand that ions of
opposite charge are attracted to each other.

Minerals such as calcium and magnesium, both have a positive charge. Sodium, the mineral
that water softeners use to replace hardness ions, also has a positive charge, so none of
these ions are attracted to each other. However, sodium's charge is weaker than that of
calcium and magnesium. If ions aren't attracted to each other, how can an exchange take
place? There is one other crucial element needed to make the process work: a resin bed
consisting of lots of tiny, negatively-charged beads.
The salt added to a water softener clings to these beads since opposites attract. Then, when
the calcium and magnesium-rich water flows through the water softener, the negatively-
charged resin attracts the positively-charged ions of calcium and magnesium. Since these
ions have a stronger positive charge than sodium ions, the sodium ions get displaced and are
exchanged for calcium and magnesium.

The water that flows out of the tank now contains dissolved sodium chloride (salt) instead of
dissolved calcium or magnesium, resulting in what is called “soft water”.

To keep this process up, you have to periodically add bags of salt to the water softener. This
recharges the beads, so the ion exchange process can continue to work.

Some of the downsides of this process are that it wastes water since the excess minerals
 How Does a Water Conditioner Work?
How do water conditioners affect water? Remember,
there are different kinds of water conditioners. They use various
methods to create a catalytic reaction that changes the way minerals
and biological contaminants behave in a liquid solution.
The end goal is to keep this matter from building up on surfaces and
causing serious issues like biofouling and scale buildup.

The goal may be to reduce the formation of limescale, to slow the rate of scaling or
to change the makeup of the scale so that it precipitates and doesn't adhere to
surfaces at all.
They all have some key things in common. Conditioners, as opposed to traditional
water softeners, do not actually remove mineral ions, but they do prevent those ions
from building up around the insides of pipes, on the heating element, nozzles,
and plumbing fixtures. This solves one of the major problems hard water presents without
adding salt. This is why you'll sometimes hear water conditioners referred to as "no-salt
softeners”. This water treatment option is preferable for many people since water conditioners
tend to be much lower maintenance and lower cost than traditional water softeners and do not
add sodium to the water.

Another advantage of the water conditioning process is that it can address biological
contaminants, as well. Water conditioners can break up biofilm so that it doesn't adhere to
surfaces. Some conditioners can even deactivate these biological contaminants.
Types of Water Conditioners
Source Based
• External Water Conditioners

• Internal Water Conditioners

On the basis of source, water conditioners are divided into two groups:
External Treatment
This phase of industrial water conditioning has many names. Whatever it is called, it means doin
something to water to make it more suitable for it’s intended application before it reaches the
point of use.
External treatment usually requires the use of equipment, which may include hot or cold process
lime-soda softeners, zeolite, and other ion exchange systems; de-aerators, filters, clarifiers, etc.
Such equipment used for the purpose of reducing hardness and alkalinity, eliminating dissolved
oxygen, and for the removal of suspended solids.
Regardless of the purity of the water provided by the use of such equipment, additional chemica
treatments normally are required for complete protection against scale, corrosion and a host of
other potential sources of trouble.
Internal Treatment

Like external treatment, this phase of industrial water conditioning

is known by several names. In this case, it means doing something
to water at the point of use to make it suitable for it’s intended
application.

In boiler water systems, the objective of internal treatment is to make possible the control of
scale formation and corrosive action. It may also be necessary to use internal chemical
treatment to prevent return line corrosion due to dissolved gasses liberated in the boiler
system. Internal chemical treatment is used also in cooling water systems for the prevention
of scale and corrosion, as well as conditions brought about by biological growths. Proper
application of internal treatment results in improved heat transfer by eliminating these
insulating deposits.

There are cases, too, where internal chemical treatment is used in the solution of specific
water problems other than in boiler and cooling systems. Water conditioning is in many
respects unlike any other field of engineering. It demands an unusual variety of talents
including those of the chemical, mechanical, corrosion, and sanitary engineer, microbiologist,
physical chemist, and bacteriologist. An Industrial Water Treatment Company provides these
services.
Types of Water Conditioners
Nature Based

• Physical Water Conditioners

• Chemical Water Conditioners

There are two types of water conditioners, known

as physical conditioners and chemical conditioners.
As name depicts physical conditioners do not
change chemical nature of materials, whereas
chemical conditioners affects chemical nature of
materials.
Physical Water Conditioners
• Magnetism
• Electromagnetism
• Electrolysis
• Template Assisted Crystallization (TAC)
• Electrical Induction
Physical water Conditioners

Magnetism: Some conditioners use magnets to create a magnetic field in your water that
affects the way the hardness ions behave. Normally, these ions are prone to forming clusters
that stick to surfaces, but the magnetism is intended to make them less likely to do this by
changing the shape of the clusters.

Electromagnetism: This method is similar to using magnetism, but in this case, there is a
source of electricity. Electromagnetic conditioners have the same disadvantages as magnetic
ones. Their only advantage over traditional magnetic conditioners is that you can turn off the
signal if need be.

Electrolysis: This method uses what is essentially a battery. Metal electrodes are immersed
in the water and release positive zinc ions, which also release electrons that move through the
wire to the cathode. This process eventually ceases when the zinc anode dissolves. When this
conditioner is exhausted, it will no longer affect your water, and you may not know this has
occurred until the hard water has caused damage.

Template-Assisted Crystallization: Shortened to TAC, this method uses resin beads as a

catalytic nucleation site where hardness mineral ions are changed into a stable crystalline
form that will not cling to surfaces. These crystals are microscopic and flow normally through
the water. Unlike with a softener that uses ion-exchange, this tank of resin beads does not
require ongoing regeneration.
Chemical Water Conditioners
• Chelation
• Clark’s Process
• Reverse Osmosis
 Chemical Water Conditioners
Some water treatment methods change the chemical makeup of water rather than
manipulating the way of ionic behavior. You may hear these treatment methods referred to as
water conditioners, but they use chemicals to treat the water and are not physical conditioners.
A water softener that uses ion exchange is one example of a chemical treatment process. Some
other examples of chemical treatment methods include:

Chelation: is a method to introduce a chemical compound that acts as a chelating agent.

Magnesium and calcium bind to this chelating agent and remain suspended in the water rather
than building up on surfaces. However, if they remain in one place for long, as they might in a
water heater, the buildup could still occur.

Clark's Process: This process is also called lime softening. Calcium hydroxide, also called
limewater, is added to water, which causes the hardness ions to precipitate. The alkalinity of
the water is raised above 9.6, so carbon dioxide must be added to re-carbonate the water and
bring the pH back down.

Reverse Osmosis (RO): With reverse osmosis, pressure forces water to pass through a
semipermeable membrane that takes unwanted ions, molecules, and larger particles out of the
water. RO requires ongoing filter replacements, which can become costly.
Difference Between Water Softener
& Water Conditioner