HARD WATER

Hard water is water that contains high concentrations of dissolved minerals like magnesium
and calcium.
Hard water can cause a number of problems in your Systems like:
1. Sludge generation in Bioler tubes, hence reduced efficiency.
2. Scale formation inside pipes, vessels and tubes, hence increased breakdown.
3. Priming and Foaming, hence more blowdowns.

SOFTENER
A water softener “softens” your water by replacing these minerals with less destructive
minerals (sodium.)

Advantages of Softener:
1. Minimum OPEX.
2. Simple to operate.
3. Low CAPEX due to single type of resin and Low cost regenerant (NaCl).

Limitations of Softener:
1. No change in TDS.
2. Inlet Feed quality can limit the number of cycles.
3. No reduction in Silica.
4. Not suitable for HP Boilers.
DM PLANT
DM Plant uses special ion-exchange resins to remove anions and cations present in water
with hydronium and hydroxide ions (H3O+, OH-). This results in demineralized water.
Most dissolved water impurities are salts such as Magnesium sulphate, Sodium Chloride etc.
Cation exchangers retain cations (Magnesium++, Calcium++, Na+, etc.) and release
hydronium ion (H3O+) and anion exchangers retain anions (Sulphate, Chloride, etc.) and
release hydroxide ion (OH-).

Advantages of DM Plant (as compared to softener):

1. Excellent reduction in TDS.
2. Suitable for HP Boilers.
3. Excellent reduction in Silica.
4. Can be fully automated.

Limitations of DM Plant (as compared to softener):

1. Higher CAPEX due to multiple types of resin.
2. Higher OPEX due to costly regenerant (Acid/Caustic).
3. Difficult to operate manually.
4. Risk of handling chemicals like Acid & Alkali.

Note: The above has been shared in good faith and for information purposes only. The author or the company does not assume any
responsibility for any actions taken based on the above.
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