Energy & Environment

The use of strong mineral acids to control pH in water treatment not only risks potential overdosage that would bring the pH to very low values but also introduces into the water undesired chemical compounds (for example chloride compounds). The technology offered by SOL, which uses for this purpose CO₂, supplied with purity and food usage certification comparable to that used in carbonising soft drinks. Is a valid and increasingly adopted alternative.

For example, coagulating compounds used to treat drinking water by removing suspended solids that make the water turbid, can increase the pH of the water up to values of about 9-10: for these chemical products to work properly these values need to be reduced close to neutral. SOL supplies solutions adapted to the specific configurations of the customer’s plant, controlling the pH in safety and with automatic systems.

The advantage of using CO₂ is even more evident when aluminium needs to be removed from the water. This metal is highly soluble at pH values close to neutral so it is necessary to control carefully the pH to favourites removal: SOL technology for using CO₂ makes this easy to achieve with minimal intervention on the plant.

The neutralisation of alkaline discharges, for example washing water containing soda or line, is required when this water needs to be sent to a water tank or a biological plant. The traditional use of mineral acids (H₂SO₄ and HCl) leads to a series of problems of increasing importance, such as the severe limitations on the content of sulphides and chlorides in water (resulting from neutralisation with sulphuric or hydrochloric acid), the high costs of maintaining and making safe plant handling mineral acids, the risk of hyper acidification due to incorrect dosage: SOL technology for using CO₂ solves these problems. In fact the carbonates and bicarbonates resulting from the use of carbon dioxide do not pollute and not subject to limits in discharges. CO₂ is inert, non-corrosive and handling it presents no risks for the operator, pH regulation is simple because, even with incorrect dosage, there is no risk of hyper acidification.