RO water treatment RO water treatme

RO water treatment RO water treatment has become the standard at many pharma- ceutical water treatment plants. RO technology can be a cost- effective replacement for dual cation and anion IX units. Fig- ure 2 illustrates the RO treatment process. Cation IX units must be regenerated with a strong acid— either sulfuric, which is generally used, or hydrochloric.Anion IX units must be regenerated with a strong base,usually sodium hydroxide, which is also referred to as caustic or as caustic soda. Daily regeneration may be necessary. RO systems are desirable because they reduce the need to use costly chemicals, especially those that are caustic, and they curtail the ever-increasing cost of regeneration waste disposal. The payback that results from using an RO system can be achieved in less than two years in some situations. An RO membrane system can remove as much as 98–99% or more of all dissolved contaminants and can remove essen- tially all suspended (particulate) contaminants. However, RO units require pretreatment to prevent scaling, fouling with liv- ing and nonliving particulate materials, and chemical attack, commonly by oxidizing agents. Figure 2 shows the pretreat- ment steps in a typical RO system. Softening. A softener is a type of IX technology that controls scaling in downstream equipment. A softener controls scaling