Wastewater Ion Exchange Helps University Reduce Cooling Loop Contaminants

Challenge

The nanotechnology research center of a prominent Midwest university was experiencing issues with their equipment. The build-up of contaminants in the cooling loop was interfering with the proper operation of the cooling equipment. As a result, the high-tech research equipment was not able to operate at full efficiency. A solution needed to be implemented to ensure the operation and performance of the department.

The university hired an environmental consultant who reached out to Evoqua to help improve the quality of water in the cooling loop. As a key research hub for both academic and industrial research, maintaining the internal equipment at peak operating performance and reducing equipment failure was critical. 

Solution

After understanding the water chemistry concerns present in the chilled water loop, Evoqua worked with the consultant to specify the correct mix of media and ion exchange resin that would be successful at removing the contaminants to acceptable concentrations. Evoqua’s engineering and design team ensured that the properly sized vessels and volume of media were provided to maintain the proper flow and provide the necessary capacity to meet the application needs.

1.2 ft³ wastewater ion exchange (WWIX) fiberglass tanks were recommended to allow for a side-stream treatment of 1-3 gallons per minute through oxidative media, granular activated carbon, and sodium-form cation resin vessels. In addition, Evoqua’s local service branch provided pre- and post-filtration on the WWIX system to ensure that any total suspended solids were removed from the cooling loop water as it recirculated through the WWIX vessels.

Results

With the implementation of Evoqua’s WWIX system over a two-month period, the university was able to remove the organics, hardness and iron (dissolved and particulate) that were causing the equipment in the loop to operate inefficiently at higher operating temperatures. Evoqua’s WWIX system successfully achieved the customer’s goals of improving the water quality in the loop, protecting high-cost/advanced technology equipment and doing so with a leased-based process water treatment --- reducing costs in both the short and long-term.

Off-site regeneration of the WWIX resins at Evoqua’s RCRA facility provided the customer with an advantage of simple operation and no need to install permanent capital process water treatment equipment.