Bayer Ion Exchange Technology Helps Customers Achieve 'Modernization' Of Existing Water Treatment Systems
Bayer Corporation's Industrial Chemicals Division today announced several innovations in the company's ion exchange technology that are helping customers modernize their existing water treatment systems. Water treatment plants worldwide have reduced water and regenerant costs significantly by using Bayer ion exchange technology.
In addition to providing customers with high-performance ion exchange technology, Bayer's business model includes partnering with two of the world's most experienced suppliers of water and waste treatment equipment – Ecodyne Ltd., headquartered near Toronto, Canada, and Liquid Process Technologies, Inc., located in Houston, Texas. Through the teamwork of the three companies, water treatment technologies are integrated with modernization concepts to help water treatment companies achieve reduced cost and increased efficiency of their water treatment facilities.
"Together, our three companies represent unmatched expertise in ion exchange technology," said Phil Fatula, Technical Manager, Ion Exchange Resins and Water Treatment Chemicals Group. "We help customers who are having difficulties with existing ion exchange water treatment equipment by evaluating their system and providing recommendations that increase the capacity and quality of their ion exchange water treatment equipment, while reducing chemical usage. By taking advantage of our combined ion exchange expertise, customers have achieved significant increases in deminerialization capacity in their enhanced water treatment systems. In addition, one of our U.S. customers have demonstrated capital paybacks of less than 24 months through chemical and water treatment savings."
The need for the modernization of existing water treatment plants has culminated since the 1930s, when synthetic ion exchange resins were first produced on an industrial scale. Initially, ion exchange units used a co-current technique. While this type of unit is considered outdated today because of the high operating costs, there are still a large number of these units in operation in North America.
Bayer has responded to the North American market need through its upflow/fluidized bed (WS) process – known as the Bayer Schwebebett countercurrent system. Bayer Schwebebett combines packed bed and fluidized bed technology to avoid common problems with packed bed and countercurrent processes that do not use a fluidized bed.
"Unlike standard packed bed and standard countercurrent systems, which are both designed to save regenerant usage, Bayer combines its packed bed system with a fluidized bed," said Fatula. "This is how we avoid the bed compaction that is common with standard countercurrent systems."
In addition to Schwebebett, Bayer has developed four additional ion exchange systems – the VWS, Liftbed, Rinsebed, and Multistep processes, making the Company a leading producer of ion exchange systems that are designed to meet all types of customer requirements.
The coupling of the comprehensive range of Lewatit ion exchange resins with counter-current systems has resulted in Bayer developing Lewatit MonoPlus, a new range of monodisperse ion exchange resins. Lewatit MonoPlus resins offer a number of advantages over the alternative heterodisperse resins, including enhanced pressure drop, increased operating capacity, optimized kinetics, and greater mechanical/osmotic/chemical stability. The enhanced performance of Lewatit MonoPlus resins, coupled with a new production plant in Bitterfeld, Germany, gives Bayer the capacity to meet the growing international demand for monodisperse ion exchange resins.
"Since the launch of MonoPlus ion exchange resins, Bayer has successfully introduced the advantages of this technology to a variety of industries worldwide," Fatula explained. "Our uniform-particle resins are now performing at facilities ranging from pulp and paper mills to integrated chemical production plants. MonoPlus is performing in both conventional co-current and Lewatit WS systems, as well as in applications ranging from traditional softening to condensate polishing. MonoPlus is rapidly proving its value across the broad application spectra of the international market."
With five systems from which to choose and a complete line of Lewatit MonoPlus resins, Bayer systems can be customized to meet customers' plant requirements. Bayer's ion exchange technology can also retrofit to most other systems.
For more information Bayer's ion exchange technology, contact: Bayer Corporation, Industrial Chemicals Communications, 100 Bayer Road, Pittsburgh, PA 15205;
(800) 662-2927 ext. 5688; FAX (412) 777-3899. Or, visit Bayer's ion exchange Web sites at www.H20Treat.com, www.ion-exchanage.com, www.phosphonate.com, and www.hydrazinehydrate.com. For information on Bayer Corporation, visit www.bayerus.com.
Bayer Corporation is a research-based company with major businesses in health care and life sciences and chemicals. The company had 1998 sales of $8.1 billion and employs more than 23,000 people. Bayer Corporation is investing $15 billion in capital expenditures and research and development from 1995 through the year 2004. 1999 capital investment and R&D expenditures are projected to total $1.6 billion. Bayer Corporation, with headquarters in Pittsburgh, is a member of the worldwide Bayer Group, a $31 billion chemicals and health care group based in Leverkusen, Germany.