GlobalSpec Condensate Polisher Presentation Archive

GlobalSpec now has easier access to presentation archives from their Virtual tradeshows. Here is the presentation Kevin Preising gave at the "Industrial Processing" event in August of 2010 entitled "Reuse the energy - don't lose it!"

Why should I view the presentation?
With fuel comprising 60-70% of the operating costs of a typical steam plant, dumping high BTU steam condensate down the drain costs you money. Treating and reusing condensate with a condensate polishing system pays for itself in 12-18 months. This presentation will detail the economics of sodium cycle condensate polishers.

FYI, you may have to register with Globalspec, but it is easy and free to do so.

Condensate Polisher Shipped to a Virginia University

This past month, we have built and sent another condensate polisher to a major university in Virginia. This stainless steel system with carbon steel piping is designed to treat 175 gpm and designed to operate at 100 psig and 200 F. The system has dual ASME-code 36 inch diameter tanks. The piping is Schedule 80 carbon steel with flanged connections.
The system has stainless steel ion exchange resin traps on each vessel to protect equipment downstream from catastrophic underdrain damage.

The valves used where Bray butterfly valves with air actuators and handwheel overrides. The system used AquaMatic Controllers.

Corroding Condensate Polishers

I have written several posts about Res-Kem's reasons for manufacturing our condensate polishers in stainless steel. Here are two lessons why this is important.

What happened?
Within the past two weeks, we have been contacted by two different facilities managers who purchased sodium cycle condensate polishers from companies other than Res-Kem. The tanks on their systems are corroding through in 16-18 months!

What is the cause?
In an effort to save money on the capital cost of the condensate polishers, the ion exchange resin tanks were purchased with epoxy coated carbon steel. Slight and relatively common imperfections in the lining, coupled with the treatment of hot condensate caused rapid failure of the tanks.

While we understand and live with the same pressures everyone is under to reduce capital expenditures, the decision to use coated steel tanks will cost them much more money in a very short period of time. A stainless steel polisher will operate for many years with minimal routine maintenance.

What is the solution?
Unfortunately, these two systems cannot be salvaged. We have proposals at each of these companies for us to replace these corroding condensate polishers with two new systems fabricated completely stainless steel including the tanks, tank internals, face piping and valves.

What is the lesson?
If you want to maximize the huge energy and water treatment chemical savings a condensate polisher provides, please only buy a polishing system in stainless steel.

Tenergy Christ Acquisition Reaches Four Month Milestone

Just under four months ago, Tenergy Christ was purchased by our parent, Nalco Company, and renamed Res-Kem General Water LLC. For the most part everything has remained the same. They work out of the the same expansive building in New Britain, CT and have the same people serving you.


After we consolidated our websites, www.reskem.com, www.tenergychrist.com and www.christwater-americas.com, some confusion occurred. We might have made it unclear which location to call on our contact us page. So here is how it works:

For Tenergy Christ Equipment:
If you are looking for technical help, spare parts, equipment service, etc. for Tenergy Christ or Christ Americas equipment, call our New Britain, CT office at 877-912-5500 or 860 223 0623. E-mail or ask for Aaron Astorino, aastorino@reskemgw.com.

For Tenergy DI Service:
If you are looking for a DI tank exchange or service of DI tanks for an existing Tenergy exchange DI system, please contact Melissa Maffei at 800-323-1983. She will take care of everything. This is the one recent change after the acquisition. We want to simplify process of getting DI exchange tanks to your facility.

Remember the new number to call for DI exchange service is 800-323-1983.

I hope this is clear, if not, please contact Res-Kem at 800-323-1983 or at sales@reskem.com.

Water Quality Association Elects Denise Urbans President

We are proud to announce that Denise Urbans, General Manager of Res-Kem LLC, was elected to be the Water Quality Association's preisdent.

At this year's WQA Aquatech USA 2011 in San Antonio, Texas, the association elected Denise Urbans of Res-Kem LLC Aston, Pennsylvania, as association president.
The election took place at WQA Aquatech USA 2011 in San Antonio, Texas.

“Through our new independent studies and outreach, WQA has been raising the standards in our industry,” Denise said. “I look forward to working with our members and leadership to continue providing vital information to consumers and public policy advocates.”

Denise is a longtime leader in the industry, most recently earning the WQA Regents Award in 2010, honoring her industry contributions on the local and state level. She founded Res-Kem in 1983.

200gpm Condensate Polisher for Major Chemical Company

Res-Kem will be shipping a 200 gpm condensate polisher for a large chemical company later this week.

Using our standard all stainless steel condensate polisher design, the system was customized to meet the customer's specific requirements. The tanks are ASME code tanks with a design pressure of 125 psig. All piping is welded stainless steel face piping and headers. Bray butterfly valves with Emerson Field Q Pneumatic actuators was customer specified. The controls will be provided by the customer.

Water Treatment Service Center Opened in Virginia

Res-Kem now has a service center in Colonial Heights, Virginia! Located just south of Richmond, we can now send out service DI bottles within a 150 minute driving radius. We service an area east to the Virginia Beach, north to Washington, DC, west to Lynchburg, and south to Greenville, North Carolina.

Also, we can perform break/fix, installation and repair services with the parts stored in the service center's warehouse. We can remove/repair/refill all sizes of media filter, ion exchange systems, and softeners.

Res-Kem General Water regenerates and delivers large and small deionized (DI) water tank systems. The flow rate through individual banks of deionized water tanks ranges from 1 gpm to 150 gpm. The DI tanks range in size from 0.25 cubic feet to 30 cubic feet.

Pentair Residential Filtration Raising Prices

Pentair announced last month they will be raising prices on all of their products on January 1, 2011. The percentage increase varies depending upon the product group or groups you purchase. Unfortunately, we will have to pass on these increases. Since we will be taking an end-of-year inventory, we need to ship by December 22, 2010 to hold the current price. Please look at your inventories of:

• Fleck valves and parts
• Autotrol valves and parts
• Aquamatic valves and parts
• Structural Tanks

and plan accordingly.

Aquamatic Valve Page Added

A separate web page, http://www.reskem.com/pages/aquamatic-valve-controls.php, was added to the Res-Kem website dedicated to AquaMatic diaphragm valves, AquaMatic Stagers and Controllers. So the page is easier to find, Res-Kem also improved the navigation of our website.

On the web page we have AquaMatic ordering guides, technical drawings of these Diaphragm valves and the Stager/Controls. The stager/controls are used to operate indutrial water softeners, multi-media filters, sand filters, carbon filters, etc. We also videos explaining how to determine what valve you have and how to repair them are posted.

Condensate Polisher ROI Presentation

Reuse It – Don’t Lose It! The Economics of Condensate Polishing was presented at the GlobalSpec Industrial Processing virtual tradeshow on August 25, 2010. It is a rather long presentation so we posted in two pieces on YouTube.

Abstract of Presentation:
In today's environment of economic pressure and high energy costs, engineers are constantly asked to do more with less. A condensate polisher helps meet this challenge. Condensate polishers:

• Save energy by reclaiming heat normally sent to drain
• Save water by reducing boiler blow down
• Reduce water treatment chemical usage

This presentation will use real world examples to show how condensate polishing reduces fuel consumption and minimizes water side fouling in medium- and low-pressure steam plants typical of the food, beverage, and chemical process industries.

Economics of Condensate Polishers - Part 1


Economics of Condensate Polishers - Part 2