Res-Kem Blog

Stainless Steel Condensate Polisher with Bray Valves

2010-03-11T08:36:00.009-05:00

Res-Kem just completed another condensate polisher manufactured in stainless steel. This system uses our standard design with optional butterfly valves.

The vessel is manufactured from 304L stainless steel with 100 psi ASME code construction. Pipe assemblies are welded Schedule 10 304L stainless steel piping. This single unit condensate polisher has an added feature of automatic bypass. The customer required our optional Bray butterfly valve design.

The actuators are air open/spring return so the valves can work with the GE Aquamatic 962 series stager controller.

Regeneration is initiated by either:

Gallon throughput

High differential pressure

Timeclock

Blogger Transition from FTP-Step #7

2010-03-03T09:00:00.003-05:00

While everything looked fine at first, it turns out there was one more big problem we had in our transition from our own hosted blog using FTP with Blogger to a Blogger hosted blog. The numerous pictures we had in our old posts were not showing up in our Blogger hosted version. It turned out a step 7 required to make the final transition.

After searching Blogger Help and hunting around we found this paragraph at the bottom of the page:

"This situation may arise if you originally published your blog via FTP and then switched to using custom domain publishing. Images originally posted to your server do not get transferred over to Blogger when you do this, so you may want to move them all to a server such as images.yourdomain.com and use that as your missing files host."

Blogger did not make this easy because I needed to make a new server, so I had to contact LinuxForce to help us one more time.

I think finally I am out of the woods on this transition! Now I can get back to my routine blogs on water treatment systems, news, innovation and technology.

Shut-Down of FTP Support on Blogger - Step 6

2010-02-25T15:00:00.005-05:00

Well, I had to invoke step #6 "Have a good resource to call if this does not work!!". While the transition was smoother than I anticipated, I still needed a couple of redirect statements to solve some broken links and "Page Not Found" errors. The group helping me to get my Blogger account transitioned is LinuxForce. They verified what to do, gave me the simple steps required and made server and minor site adjustments. I am very satisfied!

Shut-Down of FTP Support on Blogger-Steps 3-5

2010-02-25T10:38:00.003-05:00

Well, I think we might be okay. We need to do Step #5 with our web hosting support person later today. I could do it, but I'll let them. The next step will be to check links and history. Hopefully I will not need to employ Step #6 "Have a good resource to call if this does not work!!"

Shut-Down of FTP Support on Blogger

2010-02-25T08:26:00.009-05:00

You may have seen a hiatus with my normally routine blog posts. I was a little preoccupied this past month. I was in a crisis about a imminent shutdown of FTP support on Blogger, the application we have been using to post our blogs.

Situation:

We recently announced that our blog on water treatment is approaching its 4th year. Almost simultaneously, we were sent an email from the Blogger Product Manager announcing "a planned shut-down of FTP support on Blogger Buzz (the official Blogger blog), and wanted to make sure you saw the announcement". Not having the time, nor frankly the interest in following a Blogger blog on blogging support, we did not see it until the email on February 2, 2010. The clock was ticking so I needed to find out what to do and how implement a solution by March 26, 2010.

Main Challenges:

I am pretty savvy technically, but this one required some research. The main challenges were:

Using FTP to post our blog has been relatively painless.

Retaining the numerous links to and from Blogger to www.reskem.com and other sites.

Losing our over 100 posts on our blog and/or having two locations were the blog resides

Losing our daily automatic backup of our blog during our normal, automatic website backup

Having to structurally change our website, http://www.reskem.com/

Needing to change settings at our web hosting company that they may or may not be able/willing to do

Losing our search rankings because of this substantive change in hosting from our server to a Blogger (Google) server

Some of the Research:

I read many articles on the web and in several recent books on possible blog posting software applications and strongly considered changing. A posting on Blogger Buzz seemed to indicate a smooth transition, but there were some server settings, redirects, and files required that I was unwilling/unable/scared to undertake on my own. Luckily my web hosting company has an excellent resource to walk me through the process.

Process:

Here was the process to make the transition:

Set up http://blog.reskem.com/ in DNS

Wait a day (This is the set I am at now)

Follow instructions to "Update Your Blogger Settings" using blog.reskem.com as the "Custom Domain"

Check to see if it works by navigating to http://blog.reskem.com/

Set up an .htaccess file to redirect traffic from http://www.reskem.com/blog/ to http://blog.reskem.com/

Have a good resource to call if this does not work!!

Since I am at step #2 going to start step #3, we'll see if this blows up and I lose 4 years of work!

Why did Blogger decide to do this?

Here is some additonal text from the announcment email. It sounds valid, but still a pain for us at Res-Kem:

"Last May, we discussed a number of challenges facing[1] Blogger users who relied on FTP to publish their blogs. FTP remains a significant drain on our ability to improve Blogger: only .5% of active blogs are published via FTP — yet the percentage of our engineering resources devoted to supporting FTP vastly exceeds that. On top of this, critical infrastructure that our FTP support relies on at Google will soon become unavailable, which would require that we completely rewrite the code that handles our FTP processing.

Three years ago we launched Custom Domains[2] to give users the simplicity of Blogger, the scalability of Google hosting, and the flexibility of hosting your blog at your own URL. Last year's post discussed the advantages of custom domains over FTP[3] and addressed a number of reasons users have continued to use FTP publishing. (If you're interested in reading more about Custom Domains, our Help Center has a good overview[4] of how to use them on your blog.) In evaluating the investment needed to continue supporting FTP, we have decided that we could not justify diverting further engineering resources away from building new features for all users."

Automatic DI Bank Switching and Data Acquisition Controller

2010-01-26T14:09:00.004-05:00

Res-Kem has developed an integrated DI Bank Switching and Data Acquisition Automation Controller. The system monitors the inlet and outlet resistivity and the flow rate. At one of several alarm points, the system will send a text message to any number of email addresses and mobile devices. As part of a service agreement with Res-Kem/General Water, the system will warn Res-Kem/General Water personnel to prepare for a replacement of the soon to be exhausted bank of DI bottles.

Depending upon the system programming the bank will attempt to rinse to quality in several stages. If it does not succeed, the bank will switch to a standby bank and notify Res-Kem that the bank is exhausted fully and needs to be changed out.

The reason why Res-Kem developed this product is many people were having problems getting replacement parts and proprietary circuit boards for the excellent product called the Aquaswitch II a registered trademark of Myron L. Also, with reduced staffing at most of our customers, people do not have the time to monitor a stack light or resistivity monitor. As a result, the quality can be poorer than required potentially damaging down stream processes and products.

Tiny Particles Fight Giant Water Problem

2010-01-15T15:31:00.006-05:00

Many of you may have heard of the chemicals that are in our drinking water including drugs, antibiotics, and other very small and difficult to remove chemicals. These can cause health effects at very low levels. Some disrupt the hormone systems of humans and wildlife, posing threats to fetal development and young children. Sources include birth control pills, prescription drugs, antibiotics, cosmetics and fragrances. People take the drugs and excrete them in urine.

In the online article "Pollutant-Fighting Particles Purify Water" in Lab News Daily by Laboratory Equipment, it briefly describes the continuing R&D project by two Charlton University professors to bring this technology to municipal and industrial waste water treatment plants. It will be interesting to see how they plan on removing the particles from the treated waste water in a cost-effective manner.

Deionizer/Demineralizer System with Packaged Design Introduced

2010-01-12T09:35:00.006-05:00

Res-Kem recently introduced packaged DI Water Systems for Commercial and Light Industrial applications. The OHM-TECH Series two-bed deionizers for commercial and light industrial applications are designed for semi-automatic production of water with a conductivity of less than 10 micro-ohms and feature:

Flow rates from 1 - 40 gpm
Ion exchange Capacities from 9,000 - 90,000 grains.
Strong acid cation and type 1 strong base anion resins.
Microprocessor based control system with conductivity monitor and flow sensor for regeneration initiation.
Corrosion resistant fiberglass electrical enclosures which reduces maintenance costs.
Resin vessels are polyethylene-lined fiberglass.
ASME code vessels.
Factory assembly and skid mounting for quick installation and minimum startup cost.
Schedule 80 PVC piping package using a multi-function hydraulically operated composite valve.
Metering valves for accurate and safe control of regeneration water and chemical introduction.
Internal distributors are corrosion resistant, designed for optimum efficiency.

These following facilities are examples of ideal applications for Res-Kem's demineralizer and deionizer (DI) equipment:

Food and Beverage Processing Plants
Power plants
Chemical plants
Pharmaceutical Plants
High pressure boiler feedwater
Manufacturing Plants
Laboratories
Autoclaves
Steam Generators
Electronic Products
Medical Device Production
Alloy Metal Fabrication
Aerospace
Humidification Systems
Metal Treating
Plating
Printed Circuit Boards

"Toxic Waters" Article From The New York Times

2009-12-22T09:49:00.008-05:00

An excellent article on water quality in the United States entitled "Toxic Waters" , was published by the NY Times on December 16, 2009. The premise of the article is that just because a water is "legal" it may not be "healthy". Our policy is not to be a fear monger, but the article was very concerning.

A very interesting part of this article was the water quality data for each State. The amount of data is mind boggling! The data was collected and analysed by the Environmental Working Group who shared it with The New York Times.

Dealkalizer Performance Calculations

2009-12-02T14:24:00.015-05:00

We recently had questions about a perceived problem with a dealkalizer. This customer believed the capacity of the dealkalizer was lower than originally specified and was unhappy with its performance. The customer was regenerating this new system more often than they regenerated the older system. We reviewed the system design and operation and found the problems.

Determining the Dealkalizer Capacity:
In order for us to know how long a dealkalizer system will produce dealkalized water between regenerations, we need a complete water analysis. There are a number of factors in determining the capacity of Dealkalizer Systems. The two most important things used to determine resin capacity are: Influent TDS and Alkalinity (as a percentage of the TDS). Once these are known, the resin capacity can be determined by using established resin manufacturers' charts, or by doing calculations based on total exchangeable anions and percentages of alkalinity and chlorides.

Based on using the charts and info from Purolite and Rohm & Haas

the capacity they should be getting is approximately 2,900 grains/cu ft x 15 cu ft = 43,500 grains removal. With 50 ppm (2.93 grains/gallon) alkalinity, this equates to 14,846 gallons between regenerations.

Minimum Flow Rate:
This capacity is further based on the flow rate of the system. Ideally, the unit should run @ 2 gpm/cu ft of resin or 30 gpm. Further, the minimum flow rate to insure proper kinetics and to prevent channeling is 2 gpm/sq ft of tank surface area. In their case, with a 30" diameter fiberglass tank, which has a surface area of 4.6 sq ft, the minimum flow rate should be 9.2 gpm.

We advised the customer that their average real time flow rate is 271 gph, which is 4.5 gpm. This is well below the recommended flow rate of 9.2 gpm. At this rate, the water is definitely channeling resulting in premature alkalinity breakthrough.

Premature alkalinity breakthrough would necessitate regenerating the system more often. If the dealkalizer was being run at the design rate of 9.2 gpm it would regenerate less often.

Resin Regeneration Frequency and Resin Life:
Before this customer understood the cause of the dealkalizer problem he was concerned the dealkalizer resin had lost its original capacity. Furthermore he was concerned that regenerating the dealkalizer more often would affect the life of the resin. The answer in both cases was no. The resin was in good shape and regenerating the system more often would not be detrimental to it.

Their very old dealkalizer did not appear to regenerate as often as the new system. There could have been any number of reasons it didn't.

Was it actually producing dealkalized water in the 5 ppm range?
Was the resin broken down to the point where it could operate at low flows and still work?
Is the water analysis from 2008 the same as now?

We don't know the answers to the first two questions but it's very doubtful that the analysis is the same, as water in most areas can change dramatically from summer to winter and from drought to rainy times. We asked them to check the water in the winter when there is a lot of snow and/or ice. The salt on the roads increases the TDS of the water, not to mention the alkalinity and chlorides; all of which will have a significant affect on the performance of a dealkalizer.

Solutions and Recomendations:

Adding Caustic to Salt During Regeneration Increases Resin Capacity
They may be able to increase the capacity of the dealkalizer somewhat by increasing the amount of the salt and caustic. However, it may not be worth it given the low flow rate of operation.

We don't feel making changes to the dealkalizer will enable it to produce more treated water between regenerations. If the real time flow will continue at 4.5 gpm (or less), we suggested they installation of a recirculation pump on the softener/dealkalizer system. This will insure there is enough water going through the units and prevent channeling.

Aquamatic Valve Repair Service

2009-11-19T08:11:00.003-05:00

After viewing our extensive video library on identifying, ordering, and repairing AquaMatic diaphragm valves, people have been concerned about the complexity of getting the correct Aquamatic valve and/or parts. Also, some are concerned with needing special tools and the difficulty of repairing these valves. So they asked us if we can repair their valves for them. The answer is YES!

Within our Service Area:
If you are located within our service area, one of our service people can repair the diaphragm valves at your site. If you need an uninterrupted treated water delivery, we will have to work around your production shutdown schedule and will need to bring a spare valve of each size at your facility so we can rapidly replace the valves and get you up and running as quickly as possible.

Outside of Service Area:
If you are outside our service area, we can repair your Aquamatic valves in our shop. To get your facility up and running as quickly as possible, you will definitely need to purchase spare valves for each valve you will send to us to for repair.

Aquamatic Valve Videos-K520, Panel Discussions & K530

2009-11-01T20:47:00.007-05:00

Four more Aquamatic videos were added. The topics are:

Which Metal Aquamatic Valve Do I Have?-Part 1 This is a panel discussion with Mike & Bob on how to identify which metal Aquamatic valve you have.

Which Metal Aquamatic Valve Do I Have?-Part 2 This is the continuation of a panel discussion with Mike & Bob on how to identify which metal Aquamatic valve you have.

Aquamatic K530 Plastic Diaphragm Valves Identifying, Valve Cutaway & End Adapter Choices of an Aquamatic K530 by Bob, Res-Kem Corp's Service Manager.

Aquamatic K520 Plastic Diaphragm Valves Identifying, Valve Cutaway & End Adapter Choices of an Aquamatic K520 by Res-Kem Corp's Service Manager

Aquamatic Valve Videos - K530 and V42 Series Valves

2009-10-19T09:06:00.007-04:00

At Res-Kem, we developed a series of videos on the Aquamatic K530 Series of plastic diaphragm valves and the Aquamatic V42 Series of cast iron diaphragm valves.

Please stay tuned. We have more videos in the "vault", but need to be edited before we can post them. Please note, these are videos of only two valves, these are nearly a limitless number of possible valve permutations.

Contact us for help!

The subjects of the videos are as follows:

Selecting Aquamatic V42 Series Valves-Using the Ordering Guides:

Repairing the V42 Series Cast Iron AquaMatic Valves Part 1 (Disassembly):

Repairing the V42 Series Cast Iron AquaMatic Valves Part 2 (Reassembly):

Features of the Aquamatic K530 Series Plastic Diaphragm Valves:

Repairing the V530 Series Plastic Diaphragm Valves Part 1 (Disassembly)

Repairing the V530 Series Plastic Diaphragm Valves Part 2A (Reassembly):

Repairing the V530 Series Plastic Diaphragm Valves Part 2B (Final Reassembly):
As you can see, these videos are posted on YouTube.

Activated Carbon, Res-Kem and The Marketplace

2009-09-21T16:24:00.006-04:00

Particle Size:
Carbon typically comes in 12 x 40 mesh (size of granule). 12 mesh is a particle size of 1.7 mm or 0.066 inches. 40 mesh is a particle size of 0.425 mm or .0016 inches. 98% of Res-Kem sales are 12 x 40.
Carbon must be acid washed to remove contaminants on the carbon. The contaminants removed are primarily metals like Iron which are soluble in acidic streams,

Types of carbon:
Coconut shell (80% of market place)
Bituminous coal (20% of market place)
The trend has changed to coconut because the manufacturing process is more efficient than coal because it does not contain as many contaminants. Depending upon the quality of the coal and where it is from, coal can naturally contains metals and heavy metals. If these contaminants are not removed at the factory, they can leach out into your water.

Carbon Quality:
The Iodine Number a test used to quantify the adsorption qualities of activated carbon. Generally, the higher the iodine number, the better the removal quality of activated carbon to remove contaminants in water.

Coconut = 1,000 and more Iodine number.
Coal = Anywhere between 800-1100 Iodine number.

Brands:
The three major brands of activated carbon are:
Calgon with their Centaur brand activated carbon
Jacobi
Norit

Res-Kem offers through Calgon a carbon return program. After filling out a carbon acceptance form and approval, Calgon will take back carbon for reactivation or incineration.

Markets:
Activated carbon is used in the industrial, municipal, commercial and residential markets. Carbon is used to remove chlorine, chloramine, taste, odor, and color from water.

Residential Water Treatment Training Program at Res-Kem

2009-09-16T15:26:00.003-04:00

It was a very eventful time here at Res-Kem the past few days in training. I learned about various resins and how certain chemicals react together depending upon their positive or negative charge. I also learned how complex carbon is and how different it can vary in quality. I have a better understanding on how water treatment units are sold through independent dealers and through franchises. I learned about the physical attributes of water treatment units. Learning about mechanical and electronical interfaces on valves gave me sufficient insight on the technological advancement in the Residential sector. Understanding how the quality of water in Residential can effect people's lives is very interesting.

One of the most interesting things I observed this week was the processes Res-Kem employees must maintain in order to help move this company forward in the water treatment industry, while serving the general public.

Water Treatment Expert in the Making at Res-Kem

2009-09-16T10:00:00.002-04:00

Last week, Bao Huynh started as a new employee at Res-Kem. Besides being new to Res-Kem, he is new to the water treatment industry. We have asked him to document his progress on the road to be another of the numerous water experts at Res-Kem. We were thinking this would be a great way to help others get an education if they are interested in becoming a water treatment expert themselves.

Bao's responsibilities are to maintain contact with existing customers, reestablish contact with past customers, and develop new customers through direct contact via email, phone, and/or newsletter as he sees fit. You will likely hear from him soon if you are a past, present, or future customer!

Short Ion Exchange Resin Life-What's Happening?

2009-08-17T11:52:00.009-04:00

Lately I've been hearing our sales people commenting that customers don't think their cation softening resin is lasting as long as it used to. This is a general comment, not something we're surveying. Here is some food for thought:

Has the manufacturing process changed?
Yes. One of the relatively recent changes to the process came with the non-solvent resins. The greatest motivating factor behind the non-solvent resin came from the EPA. Simply put, the resin manufacturers had to stop manufacturing the resin using solvents because they couldn't put the by-products down the drain. So the resin we used to clean up the water had a manufacturing process that potentially contaminated the water. Makes sense!

Are the non-solvent cation resins lasting as long as the solvent based resins?
According to a major manufacturer non-solvent ion exchange resins are manufactured to meet the same standards of the solvent type. That is, both the solvent and non-solvent resins are 8% crosslink and will react similarly under the same set of circumstances. For instance, both resins, in the presence of 2 ppm chlorine, will react and break down.

Should the solvent free ion exchange resins be used in industrial applications?
According to the data sheets for Sybron C-249 NS and Purolite C-100, the answer to this is yes.

So what are some of the reasons we are seeing shortened life/capacity?
Is there chlorine in the feed water?
In the presence of chlorine or any oxidant, cation ion exchange resins will breakdown prematurely. You say - yes, but the chlorine has always been there. I agree. However, as our water infrastructure has aged have the municipalities been forced in some instances to add more chlorine to compensate?

Are there higher levels of iron in the water?
As we know cation resin will remove ferrous iron but regenerating the iron off of the resin is challenging. Over time there is a loss of capacity as a result of the iron being embedded into the cation bead.

Is the cation resin seeing higher temperatures?
Gel cation resin can tolerate high temperatures but the combination of higher temperatures and an oxidant such as chlorine will dramatically lessen the life of the resin.

We've been supplying ion exchange resins for over 25 years now. We have customers who call every three years, most commonly replacement of anion resin in a demineralizer application and other customers we hear from every 5 or even 7 years - softener applications. I can't say as I've seen a trend that points to bad manufacturing practices by manufacturers.

In my opinion, the overwhelmingly majority of the problems result from oxidants such as chlorine and chloramine and my favorite - Operator Error - Oops ... we just backwashed all the resin out!

Pentair Fleck Electronic Timers

2009-07-31T11:06:00.015-04:00

Fleck has been moving quickly with upgrades to their electronic timers, which has created confusion over which is the latest one and which valves accept which timers. Is it ET, SE, XT, NT, NXT? By the time you read this there may be a more recent upgrade to the family of Fleck electronic timers.

So, as of today, Friday, July 31st, 2009, here it is.

Electronic timers

SXT replaced the SE timer
XTR replaced the ET timer on the 6700 valve only
XT replaced the ET timer
3200NXT replaced the 3200NT timer
3214NXT replaced the 3214NT timer

Electronic timers and applicable valves

SXT	XTR	XT	3200NXT	3214NXT
56SXT	6700	2510	2750	2750
2510		2750	2850	2850
2750		2850	2900	2900
2850		2900	3150	3150
9000		3150	3900	3900
9100		3900
9500		9000
Twinflo100e		9100
ProflowSe		9500

Industrial Water Softener Maintenance

2009-05-28T09:48:00.018-04:00

Res-Kem Corp. and our sister company General Water Services offer preventative maintenance contracts for customers here in the Mid-Atlantic region. I thought it might be helpful to go over our Preventative Maintenance procedures for a commercial or industrial water softener for those of you who maintain your own water softening equipment.

For an industrial water softener we suggest our customers have bi-annual visits by our technicians. It's a very simple inspection that can prevent unscheduled downtime and the associated problems. How often our customer tests the water hardness is largely determined by how critical the application is and the availability of staff. We strongly suggest testing the water hardness on a daily basis if possible.

Res-Kem service technicians do a mechanical inspection that includes the following:
Inlet and Outlet Water Hardness - When we specify a commercial or industrial water softener we are given a water analysis, the average, high and low flow rates, hours of operation, and desired end-point. It's important to note changes against the design specification. If all things are equal, seeing hard water at the outlet points to a mechanical problem with the water softener (or no salt in the brine tank). If something else has changed - flow rate is lower or higher than specified or the inlet water hardness has increased - our technician will review the data with our engineering department and discuss the problem in greater depth with the customer.

Inlet and Outlet Pressures - Pressure testing is done when the water softener is running at the design specification. If there is a high differential the water softener might be running at too high a rate. If the water softener is running at a typical flow rate, (10 – 15 gpm/ft2) and there is a high differential pressure, the resin bed could be plugging up and preventing the water from flowing through the softener correctly. The differential pressure across a softener resin bed should generally run less than 15 psig. Of course there are many factors, which can result in higher differential pressures, i.e. depth of the resin bed, design of the internal distribution, age of resin, etc.

Inlet Chlorine (in absence of carbon filter or bi-sulfite feed) - Chlorine will break down cation ion exchange resin. Exposure to significant amounts of free chlorine, "hypochlorite" ions, or other strong oxidizing agents over long periods of time will eventually break down the crosslinking. Over time the cation resin turns to mush and will plug up the bed or eventually be flushed out so there remains much less resin than required.

Check salt level in brine tank, add if necessary

Make Note of Leaks - Our technicians are trained to look carefully for that small drip. We'll fix it if possible while we're there, otherwise we will make an appointment to come back to service the problem. You should have gaskets in on hand for both the manway and handhole openings.

Make Adjustments to the Control Valve - You should have received an operating manual with the water softener which includes information about the system settings.

If outlet water is out of hardness specification adjustments may be necessary.

Verify water softener timer is set to correct time and day.

Recalculate how often the water softener should be regenerating based on hardness and gallons and adjust control as necessary.

Optional Annual Maintenance

Valve Maintenance - There are many different types of controls and valves used on a commercial industrial water softener. In general you will need the following parts on hand to perform this service:

Aquamatic Valve Nest Systems - Diaphragm & Seal Kits, Internal Parts Kits, Seat Tools and Shaft Tools.

Fleck Top Mounted Control Systems - Upper and Lower Seal & Spacer Kits, Top Piston Kit, Lower Piston Kit.

Autotrol Top Mounted Control Systems - Internal parts kits. Specific kits depend on valve type.

Ion Exchange Resin Test - Although softener resin will last significantly longer than deionizer resin, in the presence of chlorine or other oxidants it will break down. If your water is highly chlorinated or has other contaminants such as iron, you should test the resin within 18 to 24 months of start up and every year thereafter. Otherwise, test the resin after the third year and then every year thereafter. By doing so you will know when to budget softener resin replacement as it is often a major expense.

Resin Traps-Insurance for Industrial Water Systems

2009-05-04T10:30:00.006-04:00

Recently, Res-Kem published a white paper entitled "Inexpensive Insurance for Water Treatment Systems-Resin Traps" by Ron Madden. In this white paper, three examples demonstrate how resin traps act as inexpensive insurance for costly problems that can develop when ion exchange resin reaches downstream process areas, process equipment, or the product. Depending upon the plant or process, the payback can be nearly instantaneous!

Summary:
A simple resin trap, long favored by experienced operators of water treatment
equipment, is an inexpensive form of insurance being used more frequently in water treatment systems. Should an internal lateral break or otherwise fail, resin traps eliminate the possibility of ion exchange resin or other filtration media leaving water treatment equipment where it belongs, and prevent it from traveling downstream where it does not belong. Install a resin trap. Like insurance, do not wait until catastrophe strikes to see the value.

Examples:
The three examples are from:

An automotive plant where the resin trap was installed AFTER a plant shutdown

A poultry plant where the resin trap was installed AFTER a plant shutdown and quarantine of millions of pounds of processed chicken

A refinery installed BEFORE a problem occur ed

Patented UV Technology Reduces Size and Energy Costs of UV Disinfection

2009-04-16T10:16:00.006-04:00

Res-Kem is now handling the newly patented UV light by UV Sciences. This revolutionary new UV unit has highly efficient UV reaction chambers for water disinfection. The flow chamber maximizes the delivery of the ultraviolet energy into the water stream effectively increasing efficiency 3 to 7 times when compared to an equivalent flow rate system.

Conventional UV chambers absorb the UV light energy and create heat. Instead of the UV energy, photons, being absorbed by the housing chamber generating heat, the photons are kept in the water medium. This keeps the photon active until it finally absorbed by a microbe or chemical molecule such as TOC, or chloramine. To maintain an effective UV disinfection dose, it is necessary to have a uniform flow rate. UV Sciences engineers used fluid dynamics modeling tools to optimize the flow tube, and designed a UV chamber that has a uniform flow rate.

The result is a compact and energy efficient UV disinfection unit. The 500 gpm unit chamber is 4 inches in diameter and only 40 inches long. These UV units offer the smallest size and lowest cost of ownership in the industry.

Arsenic & Lead Removal From Water Using Enviroscrub Media

2009-04-08T10:18:00.006-04:00

While at the recent WQA Aquatech trade show, I met with a gentleman from a company called Enviroscrub Technologies Corporation. They have a new lead and arsenic removal media that might prove to be an interesting addition to the current mix of products available to water treatment companies. The testing is looking good although they are still looking for pilot sites. It is NSF 53 and 61 certified for drinking water standards. From what I understand it will be competitively priced.

Enviroscrub has a process patent on the media, which is a mixture of iron, manganese and diatoms. The media has gone through rigorous testing under varying water conditions at multiple sites. It has high arsenic loading characteristics and fast kinetics. This media can remove both Arsenic V and Arsenic III. This product weighs between 22-26 lbs per cubic foot with a particle size of 0.6 mm - 1.4 mm.

If you are interested in participating in a pilot study feel free to contact us. As more information on this product becomes available I will post to this blog.

Industrial Water Treatment at WQA-Aquatech Conference and Exhibition

2009-04-07T16:39:00.016-04:00

March 17th through 21st the annual WQA Aquatech Trade show was held in Chicago. The WQA is now including industrial and commercial vendors and products in the mix. This year there were a couple of new products introduced that were of interest to us here at Res-Kem. While at the show I had the opportunity to attend some of the educational sessions as well as give one. Many of the topics were "industrial" in nature.

An area I am particularly interested in is employee training and I was part of a panel that discussed this topic. Regardless of the type of company you run - residential dealership, industrial service company or manufacturer, an important part of the job is employee training. Large companies have entire departments dedicated to training. Smaller companies can and need to compete to keep good employees and maintain good morale.

Here are a couple ideas you might be able to use.

Tap your vendors
Invite your vendors in for a lunch and learn. The vendor brings the pizza and the topic you supply the audience.

Contact your local community college
Your community college will know if there are grants available for worker education. At Res-Kem, I was able to offer an electrical course in my office that ran 20 weeks for engineers and service technicians. I completed a one page application, the community college did the rest.

Use the WQA Certified Water Specialist program
Smaller independent companies don't necessarily have the framework to educate the work force. Using the WQA Certified Water Specialist (CWS) format gives you just that. Rather just giving my people the book and telling them to study, I hold a weekly class to go over each topic. I cover the book work so they can pass the test, but I tailor it to our business. We are not a residential dealership so many of the examples do not apply. Nevertheless, that doesn't stop me from taking real world problems and addressing them within the context of the Certified Water Specialist program. At the end of the course I have the test administered and proctored at the local community college.

FYI, the WQA-Aquatech 2010 Conference and Exhibition will be held March 9 - 12, 2010 at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida

General Water Services Website Finished

2009-03-18T16:23:00.012-04:00

The General Water Services website, www.generalwaterservices.com, is completely new and vastly improved. Information on deionized water system deliveries can be found there.

About General Water Services:
Located in suburban Philadelphia, General Water Services offers portable service DI water systems. General Water Services regenerates and delivers large and small deionized (DI) water systems. The flow rate through an individual bank of tanks ranges from 1 to 150 gpm and depending upon your flow requirement, single or multiple banks are used.

General Water supplies portable service DI water systems for high purity and ultra high purity water applications for virtually any process industry including, but not limited to, chemical, power, beverage, food, electronics, pharmaceutical, medical, medical device, hospitals, laboratory, glass manufacturing, and assembly industries where deionized water is critical to production available for long-term contractual service and also for short term or emergency needs.

Standard Deionized Water Service Area

For Further Information:
Visit the General Water Services website
General Water Services brochure.
General Water Services product bulletin.

Condensate Polishers Shipped for Local University

2009-03-09T17:14:00.002-04:00

Last month, Res-Kem shipped a quadruple condensate polisher system to a local university. The condensate polishers are used to treat the water in the condensate loop, reducing water treatment chemical usage and reducing heat waste from excessive blowdown.
The system is comprised of four individual ASME-code stainless steel tanks with stainless steel internals, face piping, and Aquamatic valves. All external piping was a combination of welded and flanged stainless steel. Each system has an Aquamatic 962 controller to operate the valves during the backwash and regeneration cycle. The regeneration and backwash cycles are initiated by a differential pressure switch.

The local Res-Kem representative sold and installed the system at the university. The new system replaced a twin condensate polisher that had reached the end of its life.

The design flow rate is: 450 gpm
The peak flow rate is: 600 gpm
As stated above, the regeneration is initiated by a DP Switch.

The qualification process by the university was very rigorous. First university personnel visited out manufacturing facility in Aston, PA to see a similar system being built in our assembly facility. Afterwards, university personnel visited a local customer with a water softener and water dealkalizer. After we were qualified, our engineers worked with the site personnel to modify our standard design to fit the site's requirements.