Iron, Manganese, Sulfur-The Troublesome Trio

Commonly referred to as the Troublesome Trio, Iron, Manganese and Sulfur, although not a real health concern, these dastardly elements will reap havoc on a plumbing system.  As little as 0.05ppm of Manganese will cause staining of plumbing fixtures.  Only 0.5 ppm of iron will cause staining.  And Sulfur?  P.U.!  Need I say more?

To battle the Trio, professionals have traditionally used Ion Exchange water softeners and Oxidation/Reduction media.  Ion Exchange only works on dissolved iron and manganese and is prone to fouling and won't treat sulfur.  So my experience is to apply oxidation media that has been treated with a coating of Manganese Dioxide.  These media are popular in the industry and are sold under the trade names of Birm, MTM,  Pyrolox, Filox, and Greensand Plus.  All these media have different percentages of manganese dioxide coatings.  The amount of coating determines their capacity.  The key to success lies with this capacity.

Manganese Dioxide acts as a catalyst that utilize oxidizers fed into the water stream ahead of the media bed to perpetuate the oxidation and reduction process.  Pre-feeding oxidizers is commonly called "regeneration". Please note, in all my years of experience, your success with these media depends heavily on choosing the correct oxidizer.  It is a VERY rare application where you don't need to pre-feed an oxidizer.   The most popular oxidizers are potassium permanganate (very messy because it stains everything purple) , Sodium hypochlorite (bleach), Air, or 7% Hydrogen Peroxide.  The most popular is bleach.  Be careful to follow the manufacturers guidelines for feeding oxidants.  To much will strip off the manganese dioxide coating.

Now The Exciting News:
Prince Minerals has developed a new Media called Pyrolox Advantage (PA).  PA is manufactured with a proprietary process that gives it a high capacity, yet maintains a lighter-than-most density so backwash rates are greatly reduced over traditional Manganese Dioxide products.  Thus the "Advantage" part.  Additionally, its lighter density will make it a direct replacement for another popular media called Greensand Plus.  An even bigger advantage, is that Pyrolox Advantage has nearly 3X the oxidation capacity.  Its increased capacity will lengthen run time between back washing saving significant amounts of water.  To conclude, if you are currently filtering with greensand plus or are battling any of the Troublesome Trio, please try Pyrolox Advantage.  It's priced right to win the fight!

Condensate Polisher Shipped to Michigan

A condensate polisher for a district heating plant in Michigan was shipped last week. 


Dual Skid-Mounted Condensate Polisher for District Heating Plant in Michigan

Customer:	Utility District Heating
Water treatment application:	Condensate Polisher to scavenge trace hardness and iron
Expected savings:	Loss prevention keeping heat transfer surfaces clean and reliable for years of trouble free operation
System configuration:	Dual Parallel. On-Board Controller has a relay to indicate start and stop of regeneration process on each polisher vessel. The plants in house DCS system then ramps down the flow rate to each condensate polisher based upon regeneration schedule and times
Materials of construction:	Pressure vessels are 304 stainless steel with 125 psig ASME code stamped All face piping is welded and flanged Schedule 40 SS 304ss welded to B31.1 standards
Valve and actuators type	All automated valves are Bray valve Lug style for 150 ANSI flanges. Actuators are Bray pneumatic.
Control philosophy:	The utility didn’t want to reinvent a control scheme within their DCS, so the off the shelf controllers are being used locally to control both units. System parameters like individual tank flow and regeneration status are outputted to the plants DCS system.

For Additional Information:
Condensate polisher bulletin
Rental condensate polisher bulletin
Condensate polisher portfolio page
Boiler feed water checklist