Industrial water treatment is a process that is utilised before certain industrial processes or after certain industrial processes. For example, companies may have water that needs to be treated before going to a boiler or a cooling tower. Other uses include the food and beverage industry for ingredient water or treating process water at an automotive plant to reuse or dispose of.
Managing water treatment on an industrial scale involves a series of processes. While not all water chemistries will require each process, you must be aware of your options. The goal is to minimise risk at each stage of any water-based industrial process. Common industrial water treatment methods are:
Filtration works to remove sediment, organic material, and turbidity. Softening removes hardness found in water. From here, dealkalization reduces alkalinity to minimise scale buildup downstream. While it may be sufficient for some applications, this process is often considered an old-fashioned solution due to the high operational costs and lack of universal effectiveness.
Two optional treatments that may provide you with the right degree of industrial water treatment include nanofiltration and reverse osmosis. Nanofiltration allows for the removal of bacteria and hardness, whereas reverse osmosis will go one step further and reject a significant percentage of the total dissolved solids.
Ion exchange is a chemical process where certain (unwanted) ions are exchanged for others, resulting in a new, more suitable water chemistry.
