MAX GROW
water treatment technology
various applications
Calcium carbonate deposits cause fraction problems in the following installation and machinery, where the MAX GROW devices offer a reliable solution:
- Boilers – pumps – water circulation equipment
Problem: Scale deposit
Consequences: Reduced performance of the boiler, greater energy consumption
The water circulation pump does not perform at its best, and is prematurely destroyed. The installation of the MAX GROW electronic equipment at the return-point of water before its re-entry to the boiler and preferably after the recirculating pump, prevents scale deposits inside the boiler, in all the piping circuit, in the recirculation pumps, and wherever else water passes through.
At the same time, it also removes all scale deposits from the points where they have been formed. The benefits are multiple, including:- energy saving,
- proper function of the whole system,
- longer lifetime for the boiler and the water pumps,
- eradication of the cost of purchasing and fitting new equipment.
- Reverse osmosis
The reverse osmosis water treatment systems are used for the desalination of high salinity water or sea water, in order to make this water suitable for use. The problems that are caused by the scale deposits appear mainly on the membranes, which results in reduced performance as well as early wear of the membranes. The reverse osmosis system is designed to be able to process sea water and convert the 25% of it to drinkable water. The rest of the water is disposed.
The above process is being implemented by inputing sea water in high pressure through the micropores of special membranes. This results in great salt deposits on the membranes and gradual efficiency reduction of the system and destruction of the membranes, which must be then replaced. However, the cost of the membranes is very high and so the production of drinkable water becomes too expensive.
By means of installing a MAX GROW device on every pipe that supplies water to the membranes, we can reliably prevent the formation of scale deposits on the membranes as well as remove all existing scale. With this method there is no more reduced production of drinkable water. Additionally, the lifetime of the membranes is substantially elongated.
The greatest and most worth to be mentioned advantages of using MAX GROW in reverse osmosis systems is that we can double the lifetime of the membranes and that we can increase the output of water ready for use. Namely, before installing MAX GROW on the water supply of a reverse osmosis system that uses sea water, 75% of the water is being disposed and only the rest 25% manages to pass through the membrane pores and is converted to drinkable water. After the installation of MAX GROW, because the membrane pores are now cleaned and opened and no more scale is any more formed on them, the percentage of τηε water output is increased to 48% and the percentage of the disposed water goes down to 52%.
Similar results are achieved when it comes to the process of high salinity water instead of sea water.
The advantages offered by this results are multiple:- Reduction of the energy consumption (less water needs to be pumped)
- Reduction of the replacement cost of the membranes and other equipment
- Proper function of the whole reverse osmosis unit in total, without malfunctions and breakdowns
- Higher exploitment rate of the initial investment which was made for the installation of the reverse osmosis system
- Doubling of the membranes lifetime
- Significant increase of the percentage of water output, which results in higher capacity of the system: more consuming points can be served with no need for additional investment for the extension of the system
- Water softeners which use ion exchanging resins
The usage of ion exchanger water softeners is based on the removal of the calcium and magnesium salts from the water in order to reduce the value of the so-called temporary water hardness. This method is incompatible to many physical and chemical laws, which results in the following obvious disadvantages:- The water becomes very corrosive due to the absence of the salts, because it is trying to get its lost metal elements back from the environment, in order to achieve its previous balance condition (these is a rule of nature, which is easily explained by chemists)
- The water does not have any taste anymore.
- It is not recommended for drinking water for humans and animals as it does not contain any calcium and other precious elements, essential for the human body, which the water normally contains. Additionally, it is corrosive for the stomach, like it is corrosive for the piping network. It has been observed that people who have been drinking softened water for a long time, have severe stomach problems.
- Coffee, tea, soups and other beverages which are prepared with water which originates from such water softeners do not have any taste at all.
These systems require regular washing up (the so-called regeneration) of the resins with a solvent which contains sodium. They also require replacement of the resins in certain time periods.
In order to avoid all the above mentioned disadvantages, the water softeners have to be adjusted to produce output water with a temporary hardness of 8 to 12 German degrees. This results in deposits of concentrated calcium carbonate (lime scale) wherever the water passes through.
By installing a MAX GROW device on the water pipe that inputs water into the ion exchanger, we can eliminate all the aforementioned disadvantages of the ion exchanging water softening systems. In addition, the following important advantages take place:- The resins will last longer because no more biofilm is going to grow on them and more resin surface will be available for ions exchanging.
- For the same reason, the frequency of the regenerations will be decreased by up to 50%. In other words, with one regeneration the double amount of softened water will be produced, because the capacity of the resins will have been doubled up.
- There will also be a saving of the soda solution of up to 50%, because the regeneration of the resins will be not need to be so frequent any more.
- The greatest advantage, however, is that, if the system breaks down for any reason and remains out of order for a certain time period (which happens relatively often in this kind of equipment for various reasons), the water installation will be no more exposed to the threat of scale deposits formation.
- Steam boilers & steam generators
In this application there are increased problems of scale deposits because of the high water temperature which boils and becomes steam (100°C). In these high temperatures the scale deposits are “ceramified”. This makes their removal much more difficult when compared to deposits which have been forme in lower temperatures in other kinds of equipment.
In steam boilers (where the steam production is made from the water which surrounds the tubes of the boiler) as well as in steam generators (where the steam production is made from the water which flows through the coil which is surrounded by the burner’s combustion gas) the MAX GROW device is installed on the pipe that inputs water into the steam boiler or steam generator after the water pump at a distance of 80cm at least.
Also in this application, like in the previous ones, the MAX GROW device not only prevents new scale deposits from forming inside the coils of the steam generators or on the tubes of the steam boilers, but it also gradually removes all existing deposits without using any chemicals or any other process whatsoever.Apart from the huge decrease in fuel consumption which is achieved due to the free transfer of heat from the combustion gas to the water thanks to the removal of the thermal insulating scale deposits, there are also further advantages and benefits which are ensured by the installation of a MAX GROWdevice on the water supply of steam boilers and steam generators. Some of them are the following:- The elimination of all malfunction problems of the steam boiler or steam generator
- The use of non-corrosive water, since the water is now allowed to contain some salts with no fear that they will form scale deposits inside the steam boiler or steam generator. As a result, the steam boiler tubes, the steam generator coil, the whole steam ducts network, the steam traps and the steam condensates piping network as well as the tank for the collection of the steam condensates will no more corroded so fast like when the water does not contain any salt.
(Additional protection against corrosion is provided by the STOPCOR cathodic protection technology.)
For more information about steam and steam condensates installations see this Google search results page. - The reduction of the operational cost of the steam boiler or the steam generator thanks to low maintenance cost and low labor cost.
- The MAX GROW device constitutes an alternative safeguard for the case that the water softener does not function properly and the steam boiler or steam generator is in danger to be totally destroyed by the fast deposited scale.
- Heat exchangers
Problem: scale deposits which tend to decrease the heat exchangers performance up to 70 %. The consequences of this problem for an enterprise can become much more severe than one could initially imagine:- Huge consumption of energy
- Malfunction of the system
- Increased maintenance cost, in chemicals, spare parts and labor cost
- Downtime, that is to say idle time without production or without the possibility to offer services, which results in the rejection of product orders in the case of a production company or room reservation in the case of a hotel
- Delay in the production due to low heat transfer, which makes the time demand higher to achieve the same result
- Various quality problems for the final product or the offered service
- Claims for the customers, defamation of the enterprise
- Obligation for merchandise returns or compensations due to bad services quality (e.g. hotels which cannot offer sufficiently warm water)
- Increase of the production cost per unit of final product due to the increased energy cost and the reduced productivity because of the delay which is caused by the isufficient hooling or heating in one of the production stages which forces the whole production to slow down
- And many more: “bad things come in threes” or “it never rains but it pours” or “misfortunes never come singly”; all these sayings apply 100% when it comes to issues οf prevention of scale deposits!
Heat exchangers have two circuits, which are independent from each other. The one is open; the water enters the heat exchanger and leaves it either warmer or cooler, depending on the type of the function of the heat exchanger. The other one is usually a closed circuit. In the case of a warm freshwater system for a building, e.g. a hotel, in the closed circuit the water comes from the boiler in order to heat the water of the open circuit which will be consumed in the bathrooms or in the kitchen or in the heated swimming pool or elsewhere.
In order to protect the closed circuit against scale deposits formation, a MAX GROW device has to be installed on the pipe through which the water recirculates from the heat exchanger to the boiler and vice versa. The MAX GROW device is very important when it comes to close water circuits, for the prevention of scale formation and rust growth, because in every closed circuit there is a small percentage of daily water addition due to leakages or due to some unavoidable chemical processes which take place in high temperatures and consume a small quantity of water inside the circuit. This water loss results in the fact that the added water gradually leaves its salts on the internal walls of the circuit. These salts inhibit the heat transfer or heat exchange from the boiler to the water and consequently from the water of the closed circuit to the water of the open circuit of the heat exchanger.
Regarding the open circuit of the heat exchanger, where most scale deposits occur because the freshwater constantly brings along new amounts of salts and leaves them on the heat exchanging hot surfaces (either tubes or plates) of the heat exchanger, we have to install MAX GROW on the main pipe which supplies the heat exchanging system with water to be heated and from there to the consumption ends.
In order to conceive how important it is to make this application, we only mention the example of a hotel which is obliged to offer warm water to its customers steadily and with no interruptions for repair of the heat exchangers and without that the lukewarm water can be acceptable by the customers. Hence, everything must function perfectly and this can be ensured only with the installation of an electronic softening device MAX GROW.
Heat exchangers that are equipped with MAX GROW have the following advantages:- They are not destroyed by the scale deposits and the corrosion which they cause on the metals of the tubes or plates of the heat exchanger.
- They do not demand money for maintenance and cleaning (working hours and chemicals for scale removal)
- They need less energy in order to have a satisfactory performance, because the thermal insulating layer of salts has now been removed from the heat exchanging surfaces.
- They can produce warm water non-stop, with no intervals, and with a stabilized high temperature, which is extremely important for many enterprises due to the obligations they have undertaken towards their customers.
- Cooling towers, chillers, fan coils, cooling and heating systems, pipelines, pumps, etc.
Problems : In all of the above systems scale deposits create enormous problems by blocking pipelines and pumps, as well as decreasing the performance of cooling or heating equipment.
In buildings which have one single circuit for both cooling and heating functions, the installation of one MAX GROW device is essential for both functions, since it prevents scale deposits, especially in the fan coils, the chillers, the condensers and the cooling towers.
Hence, there is no more any need for chemical cleaning once per year, and there is also no probability any more to need a second chemical cleaning amidst the summer, with all the attendant problems (claims from the employees and the customers for the lack of air-conditioning during the cleaning procedure, as well as complaints for its low performance and the high room temperature which led to the need to implement the extra cleaning). - Swimming Pools – Fountains
In this application scale deposits are formed inside the filters, pipelines, pumps, valves, filter cleaning circuits with reverse flow and on many other surfaces such as the walls and the bottom of the swimming pool basin.
Ιn the swimming pools the scale deposits contribute to the growth of bacteria, fungi and algae, which are transferred from the surfaces into the water, thus polluting it. In order to eliminate this problem, chemicals like chlorine (bleach) are conventionally used, which is extremely harmful for eyes and skin and should not be breathed in for long time because it will harm the lungs.
Η συσκευή MAX GROW αποικοδομεί και απομακρύνει όλες τις επικαθίσεις αλάτων, και μαζί τους μύκητες, τα βακτήρια και την άλγη από τα τοιχώματα και το μηχανολογικό εξοπλισμό στις πισίνες και στα σιντριβάνια.
The MAX GROW device dissolves and removes all scale deposits, fungi, bacterias and algae from the walls and the equipment of swimming pools and fountains.
Moreover, the use of the MAX GROW device decreases substantially the use of chlorine as a disinfecting medium for the water of pools and fountains, thus making them ecological and reducing a significant functional cost, that is to say the purchase cost of chlorine. (For other complementary methods for the convertion of a swimming pool to an ecological one, click here. - Other applications
Bathroom equipment (showers, water taps etc.), coffee machines, washing machines, car washing equipment, dishwashers, saunas, filters, panel humidifiers etc.