When it comes to making contaminated water usable, the chemical industry can provide valuable assistance. As is widely known, water requires adequate treatment before it can be used for industrial applications such as a processing or a cooling medium. Water is often a key component for process chemicals and additives. But how does one treat water and turn it into a perfect medium for usage and processes?

The treatment of water is the best-known and biggest field of application for ion exchange resins. Ion exchange resins have proved themselves in a wide variety of applications connected with treatment and cleaning of water. For example, in the metalworking industry, they are used for the following purposes such as treatment of raw water for production, care and recycling of water-based process solutions, recycling of rinse water and, if required, the recovery of metals, and also treatment of wastewater prior to discharge into the environment with possibility of metal recovery.

Constantly mounting specifications regarding the quality of the treated water are making ever higher demands on the suppliers. To address this, more than one separation technology is often applied to achieve the demanded quality. For desalination and the production of high-purity water, LANXESS offers two premium separation technologies.

For purification of high tedious water, Lewabrane is used. LANXESS’ membrane separation elements are characterised by a high degree of polymerisation and a low surface charge, which in itself reduces the accumulation of dissolved solids at the membrane surface. All Lewabrane products from LANXESS comprise a polyamide composite membrane, wound in several layers to form a spiral wound element. In membrane separation, fouling describes the process by which dissolved solids (colloids) form deposits on the membrane surface, leading to a reduction in separation capacity.

These separation elements are engineered specifically for industrial water treatment. The fields of application include the desalination of brackish and lowsalinity water with a high potential for organic or biological fouling. The recently launched, Lewabrane reverse osmosis (RO) types have a surface area of 37.2, 34.4, and 8.4 square meters (equivalent to 400, 370, and 90 sq.ft.). Each of these new FR membrane types are recommended for waters with strong fouling potential. Also launched were Lewabrane of the LE type – low energy type membrane.

Additionally, LANXESS’ Lewatit, one of the leading brands in the field of water treatment has the right ion exchange resins and the right processes to meet just about any set of requirements. For the generation of power and for chemical production processes, such as refineries, huge amounts of treated and cleaned water are needed to protect the technical components (e.g. turbines, steam boilers, piping) against corrosion.
The ion exchange resins offered by LANXESS, under the brand name Lewatit tackle the cleaning process in a very different and much smarter way. Lewatit is in the form of small beads less than a millimetre in diameter, made of a porous plastic, and the pores are functionalised with specially designed molecules. The chemists at LANXESS have given these molecules very special properties, which make them ideal partners for salt particles, for example. When ions flow past these molecules, they stick to them like flies to flypaper. In return, the ion exchangers release other ions so that the charge balance of the solution is preserved – hence the name ‘ion exchanger’. These ions may be simple sodium, or they might be hydrogen ions, which in combination with hydroxide ions yield nothing other than water. Based on the relevant customer applications, the range of ion exchange resins, adsorbers and functional polymers is divided into the segments – water and process specialties (PSP) which include foodstuffs, catalysis, biotechnology and chemicals processing. LANXESS offers new and established products from the Lewatit range for all these sectors. In combination with Lewabrane reverse osmosis (RO) membrane elements, they meet the highest demands in the industry.