Project Overview
A chemical manufacturer in Illinois needed to replace its aging softening and demineralization equipment used for generating boiler makeup and process water from a highly contaminated source. SAMCO designed and manufactured a raw water treatment system that helped the client achieve the required water quality while avoiding process downtime.
Objective
Assist the client in meeting stringent process and industrial boiler makeup water quality requirements:
- Silica < 0.2 mg/L as SiO2
- Demineralized water < 2 μS/cm
Scope of Service
SAMCO provided services comprising basic and detailed process, mechanical, and electrical design and engineering, system fabrication, controls integration, commissioning, startup, and training support.
Challenges
- Very hard raw water (394 mg/L hardness as CaCO3)
- High TDS
- Continuous operation required
Solution
When a chemical manufacturing plant in Illinois required high-quality water appropriate for feeding its boiler circuit and process streams despite having to draw from local well water—a contaminated source high in TDS—SAMCO designed and manufactured a nanofiltration (NF)system to replace the customer’s aging lime softening process and a demineralization system with single-pass reverse osmosis (RO) system using seawater membranes for high purity to replace their separate-bed and mixed-bed demineralization system.
The design split the water stream to feed equally into two systems so production is uninterrupted during cleaning and maintenance.
Technology
SAMCO’s project deliverables and equipment included:
- Nanofiltration system
- Single-pass RO system with seawater membranes
- Chemical feed skids
- Central clean-in-place skid
- Integrated PLC controls with central control system