process water
Application - Process Water
Process water is broadly defined as water used in industry, manufacturing processes, power generation and similar applications., for example: boiler make-up water; cooling tower make-up water; coating and plating; rinsing and spraying; washing and many others. But municipal and ground water supplies are not directly suitable for many processes in manufacturing facilities, because they often contain dissolved minerals which can cause a multitude of problems than can affect product quality and manufacturing costs.
Some of the problems caused by dissolved minerals in process water include: streaking, fouling, spotting and adherence interference. Higher energy costs may also result from poor quality process water. For example, demineralized process water will result in a notable reduction in boiler fuel consumption over untreated process water, allowing the boiler to operate at much higher concentration cycles, and greatly reducing the blowdown of extremely hot water into the drain.
This is why the treatment of process water is needed.
Untreated water can contain high levels of minerals, sediment, etc. that make this water poor for manufacturing use. Those dissolved solids and minerals play havoc with equipment and often negatively affect quality of the finished products.
The specific process water requirements of various industries and plants vary enormously. Water is therefore produced using a variety of process water technologies depending on the feed water and final water quality and volume requirements. We provide water technologies designed to meet these needs, producing high-quality process water from a range of feed water sources and significantly reducing water consumption.
Here are just a few examples of industrial process water use:
Pharmaceutical and cosmetics industries: process water is required that continuously meets stringent regulatory requirements
Food and beverage industries: flexible water purification and contaminant removal systems support the need for ingredient water
Chemical and petrochemical industries: process water is used for cooling tower systems, makeup water and blowdown treatment systems
Automotive industry: vehicle production plants have a significant demand for process water of known quality
Water For Industrial Processes
One of the most important resources for industrial processes is water, either for the manufacture of their products, and/or for the maintenance of their materials and equipment. All industrial sectors make use of water, from those that manufacture food products to those that manufacture electronic devices.
Process water is usually sourced from surface water, groundwater, municipal treatment plants, or some combination of these water sources. In many cases, the water from these sources needs to be treated to remove contaminants and minerals to protect equipment and ensure consistent conditions for end-products.
There are different methods for water treatment, the selection of the most appropriate will depend on the quality of water to be treated and the degree of purity required to reach, this always depends on the process in which it will be used.
How Much Treatment Does My Process Water Need?
This depends on the market and what the process water is used for. The process water needed for the composition of cosmetics contrasts vastly from what would be needed in a cooling tower. This is where expert guidance is needed to ensure the correct systems and technologies are installed to provide desired results.
How Does Water Become “Process Water”?
There are multiple different avenues to achieve process water depending on the desired result.
Reverse osmosis is a water treatment process that removes impurities using a semi-permeable membrane.
Filtration is where solid particles are entirely removed from the water. This can be from groundwater, surface water or even pre-treated wastewater.
Ultrafiltration goes a step further and removes smaller substances such as bacteria and viruses from feed water.
Water softening is where hard water filters down through a bed of ion-exchange resin. The ion exchange resin attracts the calcium and magnesium ions (hardness) and replaces them with sodium ions. This is a benefit for water systems and plants because it prevents scale build-up.
Deionization removes total dissolved solids from water using ion exchange. Technologies control an electric charge of ions in water by attracting non-water ions and replacing them with water ions, removing the solids and leaving pure water.