Pretreatment of well water with high level of iron before RO plant Original Research Article

Two methods of pretreatment of well water for reverse osmosis plant operating at the one of the Ukrainian breweries are considered. A new technology of pretreatment of well water with high level of iron has been suggested instead of traditional one based on oxidation of iron followed by filtration through quartz sand and active carbon. The new technology is based on keeping iron in the bivalent state followed by adsorption on carboxylic cationite. The well water pretreatment plant based on suggested technology with capacity of 160 m3/h has been operated since November 2006. It is shown that application of the new technology causes both simplifying of technology and lowering of operational expenses by 35% and capital expenses by 40% in comparison with traditional one. Such results were achieved due to higher flow rates of filtration and improvement of pretreated water quality which causes cutback of consumption of chemicals for RO elements cleaning.