Removing ions from liquids is common in industry and society. Ions are remediated in applications ranging from the production of pharmaceuticals to the treatment of communal waste streams. Likewise, the nuclear energy sector deals with the removal of ionic radioactive substances from water on a daily basis.
The efficient utilization of solids in a rotating bed reactor has been proven to yield substantial savings on material costs compared to a fixed bed reactor, but the processing time is also an important factor. From this perspective, we tested which technology could deionize water to a target conductivity the quickest. The same amount of mixed bed deionization resin was used in a rotating bed reactor and a column (fixed bed reactor) of equal size (4 L). A total of 1,000 L of water was deionized each, using best-in-class standard protocols for both technologies.
The results show that the rotating bed reactor is significantly faster, reaching the refernce conductivity level of 0.15 µS/cm 3.7-times faster than the column. As a consequence, the rotating bed reactor poses a drastically more time-efficient technical solution for the removal of ions from water than fixed bed reactors. Additionally, if regeneration of the solid phase is an option, the RBR enables resource efficient regeneration with minimal waste creation. In other settings, the solid media might be delt with as solid waste as a whole.
What would a 3.7-fold increase in productivity mean for your process?
Industries Pharmaceuticals and Cosmetics , Food and Beverage, Environmental, Nuclear, Flavour and Fragrances
Topics Pesticide Removal, Decolorization, Process Development, Reactor Engineering, Downstream Processing
Products SpinChem® RBR S5, ProRBR IBC add-on
Details
4 L of Lewatit NM 60 mixed bed resin were packed in a Siliex 1C column and RBR S5, respectively. The output of the column was used as the desired endpoint conductivity value, as it is the less flexible output compared to the RBR. 1000 L of tap water (conductivity starting point of approx. 112 µS/cm, temperature 6-10 °C) were pumped through the column at a flow rate of 1.8 L/min. After 556 minutes all 1000 L had passed the column. The treated water had an average conductivity value of about 0.15 µS/cm. The same initial water composition was used for the RBR. When spun at 300 rpm, the targeted conductivity (0.15 µS/cm) was reached after only 150 minutes.
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