CarboNet chemistry: Low-emission water clarification that’s fast, efficient, and safe

Clarification without ramifications.

Water treatment operators, faced with capped emissions and fixed CAPEX/OPEX, live with a Catch-22:

To comply with emission caps, crews often under-dose PAM, leading to weak flocs and, in reaction, last-minute overdosing in an attempt to recalibrate.
Inconsistent dosing gums up the filters and need to be swapped out or backwashed, leading to an increase in OPEX or CAPEX.

Why this matters: costs and caps only go up while budgets stay put or go down, leaving operators in no-win scenario.

CarboNet chemistry recalibrates the issues and provides operators with more affordances. SimpleFloc, our no-make-down solution for water treatment:

Cuts PAM by 80%, creating an expansive buffer that all-but-guarantees crews won’t overdose and breach limits.
Requires no make-down and plugs directly into the system, eliminating the need for make-down equipment and maintenance.
Offers a forgiving dosage window so workers don’t have to babysit the pumps or experiment with complex dosing regimes.
Reduces NPT due to backwashes and swap-outs, and cuts HS&E incidents due to inhalation (dry polymers) or falls/breaks (emulsion slop).
Fundamentally lowers your cost-to-treat by nearly eliminating PAM and permit breaches; and reducing OPEX, CAPEX, and NPT.

The bottom line: Operators can re-write the plot by modernizing their chemistry to eliminate make-down, reduce OPEX and CAPEX, and live comfortably within emission caps.

Reference project

An operator looked for modern alternatives as a commodity chemical became less reliably available and economical.

Background: Companies that rely on freshwater clarification for reverse osmosis, ion exchange, process water, feedwater, or cooling towers are concerned about the shortages and increasing cost of polyDADMAC. It’s becoming less reliably available and economical, driving interest in other options that allow operators to reach their KPIs.

The problem: On top of increasing supply challenges with polyDADMAC, a refinery on the Sabine River has been unable to maintain its turbidity KPI to <5 NTU making it necessary to constantly supervise the daily fluctuations.

Though they use a sludge blanket clarifier system, it’s been difficult maintaining the sludge blanket itself to mitigate carry over.

The solution: We tested the performance of SimpleFloc to help the refinery fully transition from relying on polyDADMAC.

The results: Tests consistently resulted in better clarity with lower NTUs over a wider range of dosing. We saw faster flocculation with lower dosing than commodity dry or emulsion polymers due to SimpleFloc’s pre-made-down state.

The bottom line: The switch from polyDADMAC to SimpleFloc + ACH created better KPIs while reducing manpower, the chance of spills and HS&E incidents, and emissions.