Do you know that more than 99% of the water present on Earth is unusable by humans and many other species? That’s the reason water, which used to be abundant a few decades ago, has become a scarce resource. Thus, it is vital to ensure that the little freshwater there is free from contaminants.
Specialty Chemicals are one such method that can help in wastewater treatment. In this article, we are going to explore all the major aspects of Specialty chemicals and understand why they hold immense importance in wastewater treatment.
Specialty Chemicals are chemicals that are specifically designed to meet the wastewater treatment challenges. Unlike bulk wastewater treatment chemicals, these chemicals address specific problems like improving water quality, removing contaminants, and optimizing industrial processes.
The purpose of the specialty chemicals can be anything, such as coagulation, flocculation, sludge dewatering, de-foaming, prevention of scale, controlling odor, removal of heavy metals, and others.
Here are the common chemicals that are used in specialty chemical water treatment:
In wastewater treatment, the water systems should be well-maintained and operate at optimum efficiency. For this, the correct water conditions are essential at every instant. Anti-foam agents help in achieving this. These agents are formulated to control unwanted foam generation and are ideal for multiple purposes, such as wastewater treatment, steam generation, cooling water systems, and others.
The cleaners are used to remove water scales and rust from heat exchangers, compressors, cooling coils, and other equipment in the wastewater treatment process.
These chemicals play a highly important role in wastewater treatment. Coagulants help in the removal of solids, water clarification, softening of lime, and sludge thickening. They are highly useful for those who are highly reliant on clean water for operations. When combined with mechanical filtration and other specialized chemicals, coagulants provide companies with an efficient, on-site water treatment solution that avoids costly outsourcing.
These are special chemicals that help delay and prevent scale formation and are added to small concentrations in water that would otherwise create scale deposits. The chemicals used to prevent scale in washing machines are similar to those used in corrosion and scale inhibitors. In the end, inhibition can be accomplished by either adding compounds that prevent the growth of crystals or by adding substances that react with prospective scale-forming substances to reach a stable area thermodynamically.
Because a very small dosage (a few ppm) can be enough to prevent scale over extended periods of time for either surface or equipment treatments, the use of these compounds is therefore appealing.
These chemicals are added to protect water from contact with pathogenic organisms that can cause diseases like cholera, polio, typhoid, hepatitis, and other bacterial, viral, and parasitic diseases. The disinfectant chemicals kill or control a certain percentage of pathogenic organisms.
Every mineral slurry comes with unique particle sizes and charge requirements. The flocculants are added to improve performance by precisely matching the molecular weight and charge of the flocculant to the slurry’s characteristics. This optimization helps in ensuring the most efficient dosage and cost-effective results.
The heat transfer fluids and glycol fills are used to protect the HVAC system from freezing and corrosion. Glycol, popularly known as antifreeze, plays an important function in closed-loop heating and cooling systems by reducing the freezing point of water and preventing system damage in cold areas.
The odor control chemicals are designed to be tailored to the unique challenges of wastewater treatment. These chemicals can tackle odor issues without disrupting operations, ensuring a high level of customer satisfaction and compliance with environmental standards.
These chemicals control the acidity or alkalinity of water. The pH scale determines how basic or acidic a solution is by measuring the concentration of hydrogen ions. The pH can be lowered by adding acidic substances like sulfuric acid, and it can be raised by adding alkaline substances like sodium hydroxide. In order to avoid corrosion and scale, the majority of water treatment applications strive to maintain a balanced pH range between 6.5 and 8.5. Nevertheless, depending on the application, pH levels can occasionally surpass these theoretical bounds.
The most commonly used pH adjusters are sulfuric acid and sodium hydroxide.
As the name indicates, these chemicals remove excess phosphorus from the wastewater. Its removal is essential to prevent the degradation of water bodies and protect aquatic ecosystems from the negative effects of nutrient overloading.
There are varied uses and benefits of specialty chemicals as per their purpose. Let’s know about them:
Specialty chemicals play an important role in purifying water for industrial uses, medical and pharmacological applications, and others.
The need for cooling water is high in businesses such as steel mills, power plants, hospitals, schools, and other large enterprises. Cooling towers facilitate evaporative cooling, which handles the large amounts of hot water generated by air conditioning equipment and many other industrial processes.
Specialty chemicals, including phosphates, copper sulfate, and carboxylates, are used to treat the cooling water and repair or stop the damage that hard water can cause. Among these are corrosion, the accumulation of scale brought on by dissolved ions, and the quick development of mold and bacteria that warm, humid cooling tower conditions are likely to promote.
Specialty chemicals can help increase the efficiency and extend the lifecycle of commercial and industrial steam and hot water heating systems. These chemicals can address the problem of bulk suspended solids, foaming between the water surface and the steam, scale buildup by hard water, and corrosion by too much oxygen.
Last and most important, specialty chemicals have high utility in wastewater treatment. Chemicals like pH neutralizers, coagulants, flocculants, defoamers, and many others are used in the wastewater treatment process to prevent scaling and buildup, maintain the pH, and enhance the overall activity of the wastewater treatment process.
In this article, we have understood the essential role and benefits of specialty chemicals. At Wipro Water, we provide you with specialty chemicals for varied purposes. We hold an immense reputation for supporting the water treatment industry with industry-leading specialty chemicals expertise, from research and scale-up to manufacturing, shipping, and more.