Pozzani Water Softeners
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Water Softener Overview
Water softeners are used in a wide variety of industrial applications where mineral deposition in the form of scale is problematic, also hard water reduces the efficiency of cleaning chemicals and detergents in washing processes.
What is hard water?
Water hardness can be categorized into temporary hardness and permanent hardness, it is the temporary hardness (usually in the form of Calcium Bicarbonate (Ca(HCO3)2 that causes most of the problems relating to scale – as water in heated or agitated. CO2 is released from the Calcium causing nucleation which leads to the formation of Calcium crystals which go on to form scale (Magnesium precipitates in a similar manner).
Many areas of the country have hard water, the harder the water (greater amounts of Calcium & Magnesium salts dissolved in the water), the more troublesome scale will be many industrial processes using water.
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Click on the links below to find out more about water hardness:-
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Why use water softeners and where are they commonly used?
Water softeners are without doubt, the most cost effective solution to greatly reducing scale and removing hard water minerals from the water. There are other processes such as distillation, deionization by ion exchange or reverse osmosis (RO) which do a more thorough job it terms of mineral elimination but these processes are far more expensive and in the cases of distillation and RO, takes far longer. Scale inhibitors can be effective at preventing scale but efficiency can be variable and nearly all systems do not remove the hard water minerals.
Water softeners are commonly used many industrial applications, below as some examples:-
- Boilers and water heaters
- Humidifiers
- Dishwashers and Washing machines
- Pre-treatment for Reverse Osmosis
- Washing and cleaning applications including car wash
- Industrial process requiring soft water
- Condensers and pasteurizers
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Above: Example of limescale buildup in commercial heating pipework. Research shows that 1.6mm of limescale across pipework and heat-exchangers can reduce the efficiency of heating equipment by up to 12%.
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General Information