Water Treatment for Industrial Manufacturing

Every manufacturer needs water. More importantly, they need suitably clean and filtered water to rely on. High-quality water treatment facilities offer manufacturers a level of precision and reassurance that’s difficult to achieve internally. At Reynolds Culligan, we simplify the process by providing treatment equipment, resins, and other materials. We can also handle the distribution and delivery of new and replacement parts to minimize the operational and maintenance costs to your organization, all while improving the overall efficiency of your facility and helping you to conserve water and energy. Our single-source facility is a unique asset that can help your organization save money, improve the quality of your water, and ensure you know how to keep the system operating at peak performance.

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What Is Industrial Water Treatment?

Industrial water treatment, broadly speaking, is the process of turning potentially contaminated water into clean, high-quality water that’s fit for manufacturing processes. Unclean water can have microbes, bacterial films, or inorganic contaminants that make the water unfit for consumption or create inconsistent or substandard products during manufacturing. Industrial water treatments work by filtering out contaminants, purifying water, and employing different chemical or mechanical treatments to improve the water’s mineral properties. Different industries need varying types of treatment; food processing and pharmaceutical manufacturing, for example, typically need more complex systems compared to plastic manufacturers.

What Is Industrial Water Treatment Used For?

Industrial water treatment filters or purifies water before it’s introduced to manufacturing systems or processing equipment so the contaminants don’t get into the products or build up on the equipment. Some of the most common applications for industrial water treatment systems include:

• Boiler Feed Water: Boiler systems are potentially vulnerable to the buildup of hard water sediment, chemical films, and more if untreated water flows through the system. Boiler feed water treatment systems remove contaminants from the feed water to protect the internal parts.
• Cooling Towers: Just like boilers, cooling tower components can be damaged if buildup accumulates. Water treatment systems remove impurities that can cause buildup.
• Previously Untreated Water: These systems can pretreat water by ensuring that it meets minimum standards for feed water. This allows facilities to further treat water based on specific needs throughout the manufacturing process. Pretreating water increases the quality of production and makes the process more efficient.
• Wastewater: Many manufacturing and industrial processes contaminate the water they use. Depending on the level and type of contamination, the water can’t be introduced to the municipal wastewater system. Wastewater treatment processes remove or dilute contaminants to create purified water that’s fit to be released.

6 Processes We Incorporate Into Industrial Water Treatment

At Reynolds Culligan, we build industrial water treatment systems that use a wide variety of different filtering and purification methods to treat water in different circumstances and environments. Six of our high-quality water treating methods are:

1. Water Softening: In this process, the feed water interacts with a softening resin, which is an acidic cation material. It can capture hardness ions such as bicarbonates, chlorides, nitrates, and sulfates.
2. Dealkalization: Dealkalizing processes treat water to bring the pH level closer to a neutral norm. Strong alkaline water can cause foam, carryover, or even corrode internal parts, which worsens production quality and shortens the lifespan of process equipment.
3. Reverse Osmosis: Reverse osmosis systems use pressure to reverse the flow of water, so the water passes through a membrane and carbon filters to filter out chemicals, bacteria, and minerals.
4. Carbon and Sediment Filtration: This process uses physical filtration to remove both organic and inorganic compounds from the feed water. The filter’s fineness can be changed to meet industrial standards.
5. Deionization: Ions in water can also interact with production equipment and materials. Deionization processes remove cations and anions—which are usually caused by mineral salts—from the feed water. Our deionization processes target sodium ions, bromide and chloride anions, and calcium, copper, and iron cations.
6. Ultraviolet Sterilization: Ultraviolet light can decrease levels of bacteria, viruses, and other organic composites in the water.

Each of these methods can be modified to meet the individual needs of an industrial facility.

The Advantages of Industrial Water Treatment

Some of the key advantages of treating industrial water include:

• Standardizing Production Quality: Untreated water can introduce contaminants and metal salt impurities into goods and materials. Treating the water provides a consistently pure medium for production.
• Protecting Process Equipment: Treated water is less likely to form mineral deposits, films, and other types of buildup in boilers, cooling towers, or other industrial equipment. It also decreases the risk of corrosion.
• Reducing Operational Costs: By extending the lifespan of industrial equipment and reducing the need for repairs or replacements, your facility can save on maintenance and operations expenses.
• Efficiency:Our industrial water treatment systems save power and energy, use chemical treatments efficiently, and help facilities use water as efficiently as possible.\

Water Treatment Services From Reynolds Culligan

Optimizing your water treatment system could translate into tens of thousands of dollars in savings—for an example of our history partnering with manufacturers, read our case study with Georgia Pacific building materials supplier. If you need water treatment services to support your industrial facility, Reynolds Culligan can help. We have over 71 years of experience serving businesses throughout the Mid-Atlantic region, and we offer a free water analysis and consultation to first-time customers. To speak with a professional about water treatment options for manufacturing, contact Reynolds Culligan today or request an estimate online. We’re proud to offer exceptional customer support and 24-hour emergency service throughout Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Delaware, and beyond.

Check out our Case Study in the manufacturing industry of a customer who improved their business with a Reynolds Culligan commercial water treatment!