Water Treatment Equipment

Start with water quality and end use
A proper selection project always begins with two questions:

• What is the source water? Municipal tap water, groundwater, surface water, seawater, industrial wastewater or a mixture?
• What is the required quality at the point of use? Drinking water, process water, boiler feed, cooling water, ultrapure water, or discharge?

Key parameters include TDS, hardness, alkalinity, iron and manganese, turbidity, organic content, microbiology and temperature. For industrial projects, a laboratory analysis of representative samples is highly recommended.

Define capacity and operating mode
When sizing water treatment equipment, designers need at least:

• Average and peak flow rates, plus future expansion plans.
• Continuous vs. batch operation, daily operating hours and expected turndown ratio.
• Available footprint and building constraints.
• Required level of automation and local operation/maintenance capabilities.
• Work with experienced engineers and suppliers

For simple residential products, standard models are often sufficient. For commercial and industrial systems, however, site-specific design is crucial. A typical engineering workflow includes:

Collecting water quality data and process requirements.

• Developing one or more treatment schemes with mass balance and key operating conditions.
• Evaluating lifecycle cost: capital investment, chemicals, energy, membrane or resin replacement.
• Detail design of equipment layout, piping, instrumentation and control logic.
• Commissioning, performance testing and operator training.