The quality of water entering a boiler, cooling, or process system can have a significant impact on water, energy, and system efficiency. Raw makeup water can come with many different types of impurities, including dissolved and suspended solids, which can lead to energy-robbing scale deposits and equipment-damaging corrosion. Pretreatment equipment removes unwanted impurities from raw makeup water before they can cause problems in industrial water systems.

Reverse Osmosis (RO) is a water treatment technology that separates dissolved contaminants from water by using specially-designed membranes. RO membranes are semi-permeable which only allow “pure” water to permeate through them while removing the vast majority of dissolved solids from the feedwater stream. RO applications can include drinking water production, power generation, steam boiler pretreatment, wastewater treatment, and the manufacturing of beverage, semiconductor, and pharmaceutical products.

On a recent episode of the Public Broadcasting Systems’ Frontline “Flint’s Deadly Water,” investigative reporters looked deeply at the city of Flint from 2014 to now in hopes of identifying the true causes of the water crisis and the cause of the many deaths. As an outsider, we immediately associate Flint with a lead crisis, which undoubtedly remains an issue. However, Frontline finally dives deeper and states that Legionnaires Disease is the true public health crisis that happened in Flint. Below is a summary of the research they did and their findings.

Waters from all over the world may contain suspended solids, microorganisms, and other unwanted contaminants that can cause damage to water systems. Heat exchangers, boiler tubes, cooling tower fill, system piping, etc. can become fouled without proper filtration. This results in a reduction in energy efficiency and increased maintenance repair costs.

Hospitals and healthcare facilities are becoming more aware of the dangers of waterborne pathogens that can exist in their manmade plumbing systems. With growing concern of preventing infections, point-of-use (POU) filtration has been more frequently used in the healthcare market to aid in reducing bacteria counts found in water. However, not all filters are created equally, and it is important to understand the basics of microbiological filtration.