Chemical water softening systems with a contact media blanket
(a review)

Summary

Chemical softening of drinking water is used quite rarely due to the difficulty of preparing chemicals, maintaining the required and constant water temperature, complicated design and maintenance of the installations under the conditions of a water intake. A particular problem is waste utilization. In the middle of the last century, so-called vortex reactors with contact media began to be used that had a significantly higher capacity and did not require water heating. In the reactors solid granules of carbonate are generated, which is equivalent to the modern concept of zero liquid discharge, i. e., closed cycle technology. In Russia, they were designed at VNII VODGEO; however, did not gain widespread use. The next step was the development of reactors with fluidized bed of contact media. These apparatuses are widely used in Europe and the USA. At present, Mediana-Filter SPC, JSC is busy with designing and studying such reactors. They have a high specific capacity – 50–100 m³/(m²·h) – and are much easier to operate and maintain than clarifiers. The capacity of the plants reaches thousands of cubic meters per hour. The review considers the stages of development, ways of improving the reactors, their advantages and disadvantages.
и существенно проще в обслуживании, чем осветлители. Производительность установок достигает тысяч кубометров в час. В обзоре рассмотрены стадии развития, пути усовершенствования реакторов, их преимущества и недостатки.

Key words

suspended layer , microsand , water , commercial plant , chemical water softening , contact media , vortex reactor , calcic pellets , fluidized bed