Power plants require a great deal of water, and this water needs to be released back into the environment after it has been used in the plant’s boilers, but it needs to be released in a condition that is safe for the environment.  The waste stream that comes from a power plant’s boilers comes from the ion exchange that’s used in removing minerals or salts from the water.  This waste stream needs to have an acid mixed into the stream so that the water that’s released has a near neutral pH level before it leaves the plant.

An energy company based in Utah used a 98% concentrated sulfuric acid to achieve this pH neutralization from their waste stream that left their power plant.  They used a large neutralization tank and a secondary smoothing tank to mix this acid into the waste water.  These tanks both used propeller mixers and they both took up 400 feet of floor space.  The energy used by these tanks used up about 65,000 kw-hr annually, making them extremely expensive to use.  They also needed about $25,000 annually in maintenance costs due to the constant cleaning that was needed so that they would not clog because of the sludge that would develop in these stirred tanks.

Komax Systems was able to come in and replace these expensive tanks with their 3 inch Teflon lined in-line static mixer that had an optional injector port that was used to add in the sulfuric acid.  The pH probe that would check the water’s pH level was put downstream of the mixer and would make certain the pH level reached the proper level before the water was released.  This static mixer eliminated the amount of space needed for the mixing process, reduced maintenance since static mixers need almost no upkeep, saved on energy costs since there was no longer a need for the stirred tanks that used up so much energy and was able to bring about undeviating regulation over the pH neutralization process that was needed before the waste water could be released.