CAT tackles water scale at paper mill
6 Sep 2010
London – Spanish paper mill Alier Paper was adding three tonnes a day of carbon dioxide (CO2) to its water system to prevent scaling of vacuum pumps but with limited success. In January, therefore, the company installed a 150mm diameter MagCAT - a hard water scale prevention systems from Fluid Dynamics Int. (FDI) - in the feed line to the vacuum pumps.
Engineers reduced the CO2 injection slowly over a three-month period, and the vacuum pumps now operate with no treatment other than the MagCAT. The savings in carbon dioxide paid back the capital cost of the MagCAT in just five months, according to FDI.
MagCAT uses powerful magnets encased in poleheads manufactured out of the same metal that is used for the catalytic core of Fluid Dynamics’ Colloid-A-Tron. The device uses no power, has no consumable parts and requires no maintenance.
Calcium carbonate particles formed when hard water is heated remain in suspension after this magnetic treatment instead of precipitating as scale on pipework and heat transfer surfaces. It also gradually removes existing scale.
