Controlling corrosion in desalination plants

The drive to produce water free from the chemical components found naturally

in drinking supplies has been so successful that it has left us with a water

quality almost totally devoid of anything but H2O – little to no alkalinity,

little to no hardness, little to no solids, little to no anything.

This year, two desalination plants in the Virgin Islands have been the testing

ground for Aqua Smart Inc, of Atlanta, Georgia, which has successfully applied

its SeaQuest certified corrosion control drinking water additive to the distribution

pipelines to protect them from aggressive desalinated and RO water. As there

are few to no minerals, the typical SeaQuest treatment rate is 0.5ppm.

Although there are other polyphosphates and blended ortho/polyphosphates available,

all must have calcium or calcium/magnesium present in the water supply to form

calcium or calcium/magnesium phosphate coating. This is their only mechanism

for providing corrosion control. Indeed, some products have been shown to de-optimise

corrosion control.

However, SeaQuest blended ortho/polyphosphate does not require the presence

of calcium and/or calcium/magnesium, even without added pH control. SeaQuest

forms a uniform continuous metal phosphate coating with the base metal of distribution

piping that does not involve the presence of calcium or calcium/magnesium.

Aqua Smart created its proprietary SQ547 to make SeaQuest stable to reversion

under varying pH, varying time, varying temperature, and also to enable it to

form a uniform non-building metal phosphate. This is the corrosion protective

mechanism on the inner surfaces of distribution pipes. Where corrosion pre-exists,

SQ547 technology slowly removes the corrosion and replaces this with its own

coating, solving low distribution disinfection-biofilm, and pipe corrosion problems.

All this has been accomplished in real time, without shut downs or by-passes,

and without affecting tap water quality.

Virgin Islands success

The two Caribbean islands service their customers almost exclusively with desalinated

water. The maximum calcium and/or calcium magnesium content of these waters

is 1ppm and the alkalinities are less than 5ppm. Both systems were failing mandated

lead levels, compounded by corrosion and discoloured water.

The original thought was to run all the finished water through calcite in order

to build up some level of alkalinity in the water along with any protection

provided by the increased levels of calcium. However, SeaQuest was found to

be easier to operate and less expensive to maintain. The Tables illustrate the

results after only six months of SeaQuest use.

As desalination and RO systems become the norm for drinking water supplies,

there will be an increasing need to complement their use by addressing the optimum

corrosion control of the distribution piping.

To date in the US, only SeaQuest has proven to maintain optimum corrosion control

in treated water of such high quality. Because SeaQuest does not rely on any

minerals (soft or hard) for optimum corrosion control, there is no need for

additional treatments, such as added pH control.