Chloramines – Treat it Right An estimated 70 million people in the US are drinking water treated with monochloramines. Chlorine, and to a growing extent chloramines, are used to keep water safe as it travels through the water distribution system to consumers home and business. Water municipalities across the country have switched from Chlorine to Chloramines in recent years for several reasons. As a residential consumer, it is important to know if your municipality is using chloramines and select the right products that cost effectively reduces this contaminant. The EPAs role in the increase use of chloramines The Environment Protection Agency has taken action to limit the amount of Disinfection By Products (DPBs) found in drinking water. DPBs like Trihalomethane (THM) and Haloacetic Acids (HAAs) are created when chlorine reacts with organic matter in the water. These DPBs are thought to be cancer causing contaminants. In order to comply with EPAs mandated 2012 reduction of the concentration level of these DPBs, many municipalities have switched to Chloramines. Chloramine, a combination of Chlorine and Ammonia, is more stable than Chlorine and therefore less reactive with organic compounds in the water allowing the municipalities to meet the new EPA requirements. Unfortunately, this stability comes at a price. Chloramines are very difficult to effectively remove without the right technology. How to treat Chloramine? The choice for residential consumers to efficiently reduce Chloramines are limited. Reverse Osmosis, Distillation, Softening/Ion Exchange and Boiling are not effective. The best available technology for reducing chloramines is Activated Carbon but there is a significant difference between Standard Activated Carbon and Catalytic or surface Enhanced Activated Carbon. The difference between standard and Surface Enhanced carbon is the result of very specific surface modification of the activated carbon itself. Catalytic Carbon for Chloramine reduction Ideal H20s Catalytic Carbon filters, manufactured by Filtrex Technologies, use a catalytic carbon that has been modified in a high temperature gas reaction process. During this process, at temperature as high as 750-800 C, the graphitic planes of the carbon are open to react with ammonia gas doped with nitrogen in the form of carious Nitrogen-containing functional groups. The comparison of properties of catalytic carbon before and after the modification process is demonstrated in Table 1. Comparative Performance of Catalytic Carbon To compare the chloramine reduction capacity of standard granular activated carbon (GAC) and Filtrexs EPC5 catalytic carbon, a column adsorption test methods was used, wherein 10 grams of carbon was packed into a test column and an input of 3 ppm Monochloramines was passed through the column at a constant flow rate of 50 ccpm. The comparative results for regular 20x50 GAC vs. Filtrexs EPC5 are shown in Figure 1. On the other hand, Ideal H2O catalytic carbon filter was used to make 10 blocks for comparing chloramine reduction capacity against standard carbon blocks. Figure 2 shows the comparative adsorption profiles of chloraminated water filter through the blocks at a flow rate of 2 LPM. Solve your chloramine problems and change your filters less - A winning combination With more than 70,000,000 people in the US consuming chloraminated water, the residential consumers can solve their chloramine issues. We know standard GAC and carbon block products are not effective at reducing chloramines. To ensure the same chloramine reduction capacity as compared to that of chlorine, the media bed or carbon block would need to be replaced 5-6 times more often or the filtration system would need to be 5-6 times larger. Neither of these options is feasible due to cost and size considerations. The solution is to use products, like Ideal H2Os Catalytic Carbon Filters, that have been specifically designed for enhanced catalytic functionality and offer higher capacity for chloramine reduction. Numerous markets and application like Kidney Dialysis Centers, Aquaculture, Breweries, Chip Manufacturing, and Foodservice, understand the need for product designed for chloramine reduction and represent ready markets for advanced technologies.Unfortunately, the residential consumer has been greatly underserved. For the most part, residential consumers are using activated carbon products that do not deliver adequate performance. We can change this. It is true that products specifically designed to effectively reduce chloramines are more expensive but the savings on a cost per gallon treated are significant. Imagine having to replace a GAC filter 4-5 times per year in your drinking water system versus an annual replacement of catalytic filters. Technically, this is what would be required on a system using standard GAC and carbon block technology filtering chloraminated water to ensure you arent drinking untreated water or damaging down stream components like reverse osmosis membranes. Education on these regulatory driven changes in municipal water and the use of products specifically designed to address the issues resulting from this change should be embraced by consumers. The Ideal H20 Catalytic Carbon filters can solve these problems. Find out if your market is using Chloramines and start upgrading systems with the RIGHT technology today! Written by Dennis Roberts and Vivekanand Guar Filtrex Technologies at 00:00
Posted on: Fri, 02 Jan 2015 18:14:19 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015