How Biofilms Form on Surfaces By Swimming Cells

In a very interesting article by Medical Design Technology titled "Findings Suggest How Swimming Cells Form Biofilms on Surfaces", scientists at Purdue University’s School of Mechanical Engineering modeled how biofilms actually draw swimming bacteria to the film and how bacterial colonies to thrive on surfaces.  It is interesting how the same mechanism which causes fouling of implantable medical devices, fouls our UPW distribution systems, industrial pipes and boat propellers. 

This model confirms what we see in the field that once a biofilm takes hold, the problem seems to accelerate in severity. This is why Res-Kem recommends routine sanitizations of water treatment distribution systems to remove biofilms.

For More Information:
To schedule a system sanitization
To purchase the research paper titled "Effect of solid boundaries on swimming dynamics of microorganisms in a viscoelastic fluid" by G. -J. Li, A. Karimi, A. M. Ardekani  in the Rheologica Acta, published on Aug. 31, 2014

Water Treatment Ecommerce Site Open For Business

Our new E-commerce Web Site for water treatment, http://reskem.ecolab.com is ready to accept orders for many of the replacement parts you need for your industrial water treatment system!  As a Guest user, you will have access to all of the parts at list price.  You can become a Registered User by contacting Res-Kem. In future posts, I will explain the Salesforce App we use called CloudCraze to make the storefront work!

Front Page of Ecommerce Site

One of the advanced features on our site are our "Interactive Drawings" for  the Pentair Fleck 2750, 2850, 2850S, 2900, 3150, 3900, 5600, 9000, 9100, and 9500 valves. You select the correct part clicking on the drawing and then putting it into your cart.  Pentair Fleck valves are very complex and the drawings make it easier to select the correct parts.

Interactive Drawing for Pentair Fleck 2750 Valve

 Current Products on Ecommerce Site:

• All Pentair Fleck Valves & Parts
• All Aquamatic Controllers, Valve Nests, Valves & Parts
• Over 200 Cartridge Filters from multiple manufacturers
• Sample Coolers
• Resin Traps  

Coming soon, we will be adding:

• UV Bulbs, Sleeves and other replacement parts
• Filter Housings
• More Filter Manufacturers
• Filter Media
• Ion Exchange Resins
• Softeners, Carbon Filters, Multi-media Filters and Sand Filters up to 48" in diameter
• ...and more

Advantages of Becoming a Registered User:

• Access your negotiated pricing anywhere using any web connected phone, tablet, or computer
• Order using a purchase order, P-card, or credit card
• View your order history and generate purchase records
• Reorder a previous purchase
• Save carts with frequently ordered part bundles, e.g. weekly, monthly, or annual purchases
• Order for and ship to multiple locations
• Have a single spare parts list and source for all of your water treatment equipment  

Take Our Survey:
After you have visited our Ecommerce site and possibly purchased parts, please take this survey. 

 

For More Information:

Call 800-323-1983 if you have any questions about the website. 

Become a Registered User
Other Ecommerce Site FAQ's
 

Condensate Polisher Shipped to Canada

Recently, we shipped a sodium cycle condensate polisher to Ontario, Canada for a combined cycle power plant.  The system was constructed entirely of 304 stainless steel.

Sodium Cycle Condensate Polisher for Ontario Power Plant

The features of this system include:

Company	Combined Cycle Power plant
Water Treatment Application	Condensate Polisher to scavenge trace hardness and iron from returning condensate
Savings and/or ROI	Loss Prevention keeping heat transfer surfaces clean and reliable for years of trouble free operation
Operating Conditions	Return Condensate flow rate is between 30-90 gpm
System Configuration	24” diameter Simplex
Materials Of Construction	304 Stainless Steel, CRN code stamped pressure vessel
Piping Construction	All Welded and Flanged Face 304 Stainless Steel piping
Type Of Valves And Actuators	All Bray valve Lug style-  150 ANSI flanges
Control Philosophy	Customer supplied their own PLC panel. Res-Kem supplied the enclosure with DIN rail mounted solenoids. Enclosure also had room for customer supplied HMI
Options	CRN code stamped pressure vessel Sub-surface wash

 

304 Stainless Steel Sub-Surface Wash and Hub and Laterals Distributors

 

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

3D Printed Model of Rental Condensate Polisher

To speed up installation of our rental condensate polisher, we will provide a 3D CAD file as part of the documentation.  This is will insure the condensate polisher starts delivering energy, chemical and water savings as quickly as possible.  As a result of having the 3 D CAD model, we had some laser sintered models of the units printed.  The size of the models is approximately 3"D X 8"W X 5"H.

Front and Side View of Triple Rental Condensate Polishing System

The cost of a 3D model depends upon the time in the machine, and the amount of polymer used to make the model,  To save polymer, you will notice we made the pressure vessels with a checkerboard pattern allowing unreacted plastic powder out of the model.

Back Side of the 3D Printed Model of the Modular Res-Kem Condensate Polisher

Pentair Fleck Valve Training - Day 1

Res-Kem was able to bring two of the top experts directly from the Pentair factory, Matt Walloch-CWS-V and Doug Haring-CWS-VI, to present two days of intensive training on commercial and residential valves.  25 people attended Day 1.

Doug Haring-CWS-VI of Pentair presenting information on the problems with high or low pH in water

The first half of Day 1 covered an introduction to water softeners and filters using Fleck's multiport valves. Presented were insider tips on water treatment as it relates to the operation of water softeners and filters. The remaining time was a valve clinic covering the 5600, 5800, 2510, and 7000. Covered were electronic programming and the idiosyncrasies related to the various electronic packages.

 

Each WQA member who attended will receive WQA seat time credit.

 

Demineralizer Regeneration Frequency Determination

Routinely, I am asked how long will one of our cation-anion two bed demineralizers operate before it has to regenerate. To determine this, we need to know the flow rate and the inlet water quality.  The flow is generally known, but the water quality generally is not early in a water treatment project.  The easiest way is to use conductivity as a rough approximation of water quality for budget purposes only.  Before a system is purchased, a complete water analysis is required to verify with one of the ion exchange resin sizing programs to purchase the correctly sized demineralizer.

Here are a series of graphs I sent to the prospect to help get a budget determined.  The graphs include run times for a DT36072, DT54072 and a DT60072 dual bed demineralizers from Res-Kem. 

For Additional Information:
Ten Questions to Properly Size a Water Treatment System Including a Deionizer/Demineralizer
Equipment Bulletin for a Res-Kem DT36072 Cation-Anion Demineralizer
Equipment Bulletin for a Res-Kem DT54072 Cation-Anion Demineralizer
Equipment Bulletin for a Res-Kem DT60072 Cation-Anion Demineralizer
Need Technical Help sizing a unit?

Hands-on Pentair Valve Seminar-Feb 26 & 27

Jeremy Josetti and Doug Haring of Pentair will be presenting a two day, hands-on valve training seminar on most of the commercial/industrial and residential valves. Included will be the 2750, 2850, 2900, 3900 and Aquamatic industrial/commercial valves and 5600, 5800, 2510 and 7000 residential valves. You are welcome to attend one or both of the clinics.

Pentair 3900 Multi-port Valve on Poly-lined FRP tank

Day One - Residential Valve Clinic:

On February 26 from 8:30 AM- 4:30 PM, the residential valve clinic will cover the Pentair 5600, 5800, 2510 and 7000 valves. You will learn all the insider tips on water treatment as it relates to the operation of water softeners and filters.

Valves will be torn down and completely rebuilt by your team. You will learn electronic programming and the idiosyncrasies related to the various electronic packages.

Learn about the new Pentair 5800 Touchscreen valve!

Day One - Industrial/Commercial Valve Clinic:
On February 27 from 8:30 AM- 4:30 PM, the commercial/industrial valve clinic will cover the Pentair 2750,2850,2900 and 3900 multi-port valves. In addition, we will have a BONUS Aqua-Matic valve clinic.

Commercial valve clinic will discuss the critical aspects of proper equipment sizing. After that, we will move into valve programming and rebuilding, tank internals.

To Sign-Up:
Contact Michael Urbans at Res-Kem at 800-323-1983
Email Tom Dupnik at Res-Kem

For Directions:
Our address is 2 New Road, Aston, PA 19014

For Additional Information On:
Please note, the Service Manual files are very large
Pentair 2750 valve service manual, spec sheet and 2750 spare parts
Pentair 2850 valve service manual, spec sheet and 2850 spare parts
Pentair 2900 valve service manual, spec sheet and 2900 spare parts
Pentair 3900 valve manual, spec sheet and 3900 spare parts

For technical help, call 800-323-1983.

New Field Sales Engineering Position for New England

Res-Kem is currently seeking a Field Sales Engineer, based in New England, to support our High Purity and General Industry services originating from our New Britain, CT and Raynham, MA facilities. Individual will be responsible for the sales of Commercial High-Purity water treatment systems, their associated services, and after-market expendables, to the Commercial, Industrial, and Health Sciences markets throughout New England.

Responsibilities:

• Existing account management
• Incremental sales growth
• Targeted sales prospecting, lead follow-up and proposal generation
• Implementing tactical and strategic plans in order to meet the territory’s sales objectives
• Maintaining strong business partnerships with local branch service & operations teams

Want to Apply or Need More Information?
Please use your LinkedIn account and search for "Field Sales Engineer - Greater Boston Area" for qualifications, details, and/or to apply.