Industrial Water Softening

Hard water forms scale when heated, precipitates with an increase in pH and reacts with soap to form an insoluble scum. Most industries that use water have a need to properly condition that water by softening it (removing calcium and magnesium ions).

The primary difference between an industrial softener and a residential softener is that industrial systems often operate 24/7 and must be sized to handle much larger volumes of water for longer periods of time between regeneration cycles. The systems are larger and flow more slowly per cubic foot of exchange media than do residential systems. They do, however, often use the same resins and grades of salt for regeneration.

To put this in perspective, a residential unit designed to run at flows of 10 gpm still only sees a household usage of around 300 gpd. A 10 gpm industrial system, running just one eight hour shift processes almost 5000 gallons and must be designed for continuous operation using a twin system (so there is no down time). In addition, many industrial uses require that the level of hardness be reduced to less than 1 ppm of residual hardness whereas residential users are often happy with 15 to 25 ppm.

Industrial systems generally require additional monitoring and testing to insure that required hardness levels are not exceeded.