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FeedWater

Feed water

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and some recommended limits for ion exchange systems

Update 18 Mar 2015

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Ion exchange
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resins exchange ions. Not a surprise, but the composition of the feed water affects plant
performance. It is therefore essential to know precisely the water composition of the feed to the ion
exchange system.
The following components and characteristics should be known:
Salinity (see also the separate page on water analysis details)
Suspended solids and turbidity
Temperature
pH value
Organic substances in the water
Other impurities, such as iron, manganese, aluminium, oil, polyelectrolytes...
We will examine the effect of all above parameters and try to set practical limits for each.

Salinity (water analysis)

This is the single most important item to estimate the performance of an ion exchange system. It is also
one of the first things to check when plant performance deteriorates. You cannot rely on an analysis that
was made months or years ago. Some effects of a change in salinity are:
Type of change

Effect

Higher salt content

Shorter runs, lower throughput, sometimes lower quality of the

treated water

Lower salt content

Longer runs, higher throughput

Change in ionic balance (e.g.

less bicarbonate, more
chloride)

Change in treated water quality. The resin volumes become

unbalanced, the degasifier has less or more carbon dioxide to
handle

Higher ratio of silica to total

anions

This may increase silica leakage and require a change in

regeneration conditions.

The picture below is a schematic representation of a water analysis, with cations and anions. A good water
analysis must be balanced.

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Click on picture to see it enlarged with more details.

See also a detailed description of the water analysis, with the concentration units to use and a table of the
most common ions in water.
If the water analysis varies according to season, plant performance should be reassessed, and perhaps
operating conditions readjusted, to reflect the seasonal variations. If you don't analyse the water yourself,
give a sample to a reputable laboratory for testing. If your feed water is city water, you should be able to
obtain an accurate analysis from your municipality.
When reassessing the performance of a plant, or optimising it, it is recommended to use the most
probable analysis for the basic calculation, then to rerun the calculation with seasonal analyses to
estimate plant throughput under various conditions. All the water analyses should be real, not maxima,
averages or minima.
We strongly recommend that you should update the expected performance of the plant based on actual
operating conditions. You should collect the necessary data:
Water analysis (after pretreatment)
Resin types and volumes
Regeneration method (coflow, reverse flow, packed beds)
Regenerant quantities and concentrations
Salinity limits
Ion exchange is the perfect technology for low concentrations. At high salinity, the
cycles become very short, regenerant consumption increases and in extreme cases the
water required for regeneration may exceed the volume of treated water. As a
guideline, a salinity of 20meq/L (1000ppm as CaCO3) seems to be the high limit, with
some exceptions. Higher salinity water is probably best treated with RO.
Sea water cannot be demineralised by ion exchange, as the resins would be exhausted
in less than 3 bed volumes.

Suspended solids and turbidity

Ideally, the feed water to an ion exchange vessel should be perfectly clear and free of suspended solids. It
is essential to ensure that mechanical filters installed ahead of an ion exchange system operate properly.
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Insufficient filtration resulting in excessive suspended solids may cause:

Channeling of the resin bed, resulting in high leakage and short runs.
High pressure drop values, sometimes resulting in flow reduction, and requiring frequent backwash of
the unit.
Suspended solids are traditionally measured by filtration on a 0.45m filter and expressed as dry mass. The
tolerated amount of suspended solids varies according to the ion exchange technology and to the run
length. If the resins can be easily backwashed and cleaned, a higher quantity of suspended solids is
acceptable.
As coflow regenerated vessels can be backwashed before each regeneration, they are not very
sensitive to suspended solids, and several mg/L (ppm) are usually acceptable.
In all cases, if the system has long cycles, the accumulated suspended solids may cause pressure drop
problems even if the amount of suspended solids in the feed is relatively low.
Reverse flow regenerated vessels are not backwashed at the end of every cycle, and the pressure
drop should be monitored closely to determine when a resin backwash is necessary.
Packed bed units are more sensitive to suspended solids, as they cannot be backwashed in situ. In
general, the tolerated suspended solids should be well below 1mg/L (1ppm).
In Upcore plants, the suspended solids land on the surface of the resin bed, and some are
backwashed away during regeneration.
In Amberpack and floating bed, the suspended solids enter in a slightly fluidised part of the
bed and accumulate there. A higher quantity is tolerated because it migrates partially upward,
but this quantity cannot be removed until the resin is taken out to the backwash tower.
Turbidity (cloudiness or haziness) is measured in NTU (Nephelometric Turbidity Units). There is no fixed
relation between turbidity and suspended solids.
Limits for suspended solids
There is no simple number here: the most sensible way is to calculate the load of solids
during one cycle and to express the result per square metre of vessel (crosssection).
Here some suggestions:
System

Max. load per cycle

Coflow

6 kg/m2

Splitflow

6 kg/m2

RFR holddown

2 kg/m2

Condensate

2 kg/m2

UpcoreTM & similar

0.5 kg/m2

AmberpackTM & similar

0.2 kg/m2

ADITM, ADNTM

0.1 kg/m2
Suspended solids

Turbidity limits
Turbidity is not used much in conjunction with ion exchange systems. See suspended
solids above. For floating bed systems without a backwash tower, it was found that
1NTU is more than what the columns can tolerate.

Temperature
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The temperature of the feed water (and of the regenerants) can affect plant performance.
Some effects of a change in temperature are:
At low temperature, the operating capacity of all resins decreases.
There is an exception to the above rule: at high temperature, the silica removal capacity of a SBA
resin decreases, to become virtually zero if the temperature exceeds about 60C.
Styrenic SBA resins of type 2 (e.g. Amberjet 4600) and acrylic SBA resins (e.g. Amberlite IRA458)
should not be operated or regenerated at a temperature higher than 35C. High temperatures may
result in problems of rinse and a loss of strong base capacity, which will cause a higher silica leakage
and shorter runs.
Cation resins can operate at high temperature, sometimes in excess of 100C. However, the presence
of oxygen and trace metals can cause slow oxidation of the resin.
Temperature limits
See the table with limits of temperature for all anion exchange resins.
Cation resins can withstand 100C or even more. Product data sheets give details for all
resins.

pH value
Ion exchange resins can tolerate any pH value (0 to 14) without suffering damage, provided strong osmotic
shocks due to rapid change of pH or concentration are avoided.
In service however, resins operate only within pH limits: cation resins cannot operate at very low pH, or
anion resins at very high pH, because they would be permanently regenerated and unable to exchange
other ions. Similarly, the resins are normally not used in very concentrated solutions. This is why in practice
the table below should only go up to pH 12 and down to pH 2, which would be 10 meq/L of NaOH or acid
respectively.
pH limits
Type of resin
WAC
SAC
WBA
SBA

pH range
6 to 14
4 to 14
0 to 7
0 to 9

Operating pH range

Organics
Organic matter in water can interfere with ion exchange. The main effect of organics is irreversible fouling
of anion exchange resins.
Some problems caused by organics are:
Low pH (< 6) of the treated water when organic acids slip through the plant.
High conductivity of the treated water.
Increased silica leakage.
Increased time for rinsing and high volume of waste water.
Shorter runs.
The traditional measurement of organics (COD) in natural water uses the potassium permanganate oxidation
method, and its result is expressed in mg/L as KMnO4.
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Unfortunately, there is no direct correlation between this method and the more modern analysis of TOC
(Total Organic Carbon). However, experience has shown that as a rule of thumb, 1mg/L TOC (1ppm as C)
can be roughly translated into 5.5mg/L (5.5 ppm) as KMnO4.
Limits of organic load
See the table for all anion exchange resins (same as temperature table).

Other impurities
Other impurities can also interfere with ion exchange. Some of them are listed below with their effect and
possible remedies.
Effects

Prevention/Treatment

Limits

Iron and manganese

Pressure drop
Short cycles (capacity loss)
Bad quality (high leakage)

Oxidation and filtration

Resin cleaning with HCl

Limits for Fe
Softening and nitrate removal:
1mg/L
Demineralisation HCl: 15mg/L
Demineralisation H2SO4: 0.5mg/L
Condensate polishing: 0.1mg/L
(up to 2mg/L at startup)

Aluminium
Precipitation of Al(OH)3
(at neutral pH)

Al dissolves in acid or alkali

Limits for aluminium

Aluminium usually does not foul
resins unless it is a large
proportion of the cationic load.

Barium
Precipitation of BaSO4

Regenerate cation resins with

HCl only!

Short cycles (capacity loss)

Bad quality (high leakage)

Check pumps for oil leakage

Resin cleaning with nonionic
surfactant

Limits for barium

When Ba is more than 0.1% of
total cations, H2SO4 should be
avoided.

Oil
Limits for oil
Virtually zero
0.05mg/L maximum

Oxidants, chlorine or ozone

Short cycles (capacity loss)
Sodium leakage from anion
resins
Pressure drop when resin gets
"soft"

Adjust (reduce) dosage

Use activated carbon as pre
treatment
Scavenge excess oxidant with
bisulphite

Top

Limits for oxidants

See table with acceptable limits.

Polyelectrolytes
Limits for polyelectrolytes
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Short cycles (capacity loss)

Bad quality (high leakage)

Adjust dosage
Clean resin with 4% NaOH

No known limits. Caution

recommended. In doubt,
polyelectrolyte supplier should be
asked for harmlessness.

Amberpack, Upcore, ADI & ADN are trademarks of the Dow Chemical Company

Franois de Dardel

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