The Challenge
A large Canadian Food and Beverage facility was experiencing consistent flow concerns as their softened water feed was unable to keep up with demand for production. The limiting flow was experienced daily during peak demands and was occurring on a more frequent basis over the preceding few months. The reduced flow rates were caused by cracked resin beads clogging the laterals, along with the main hub sizing limiting flow to production. Ultimately these two issues created a bottleneck to the facility and limited production capabilities.
Our Solution
HPWS was engaged to review the facility’s current equipment and to provide a suitable solution using the existing equipment to increase flow rates to downstream requirements. Following an intensive site visit HPWS was able to conclude that exhausted resin was limiting flow through the laterals as broken resin was noted in downstream sediment filters. The hub and laterals were also constricting max flow capabilities with the manufacturer’s original design.
The solution included HPWS providing evacuation and disposal of 100cuft of resin. Once the resin had been evacuated, HPWS was able to install a 316SS hub and lateral configuration increasing the hub from 6” to 8”. With the new hub and laterals installed, HPWS was able to rebed 100cuft of new softening resin before putting the softening tanks back online. With both solutions in place the facility was able to significantly increase flow rates through their existing equipment, ultimately allowing for increased production at their facility.
