Water Analysis Could Have Saved $57,000

In the white paper, "A $150 Water Analysis Could Have Saved $57,000 in Capital and RO Cleaning Costs" by Joseph Urbans-Sales Engineer at Res-Kem Corp., he details how a water analysis is extremely important in the design phase of a water treatment plant design.

Summary:
The paper shows after spending $52,000 in capital and installation for water treatment equipment, technical and service personnel from Res-Kem Corp were called in to diagnose a major problem with a three week old reverse osmosis (RO) system specified, built, and installed by others. Upon investigation, an inlet water analysis may never have been done, or at least no one could produce the analysis used to originally size the plant. It appears the engineering firm sized and designed this project without one.

The Costs:
If the system had been designed correctly from the start, Res-Kem conservatively estimates the savings to be $57,000:

Total capital and installation costs of original system $52,000

Membrane cleaning costs of $5,000

In addition, if the RO membranes cannot be cleaned, the cost will be $15,000 for new membranes plus installation service.