Aqualink -- Computer Prediction of Ion Exchange

An gram engineers domain easy-to-use is to available in aid the water computer prediction in the treatment public proof gram is available in the public domain to aid water treatment engin ers in he predict on of ion exchange column performance. This QuickBasic Macintosh program is well suited to predicting the breakthrough curves (effluent histories) of contaminant ions during multicomponent ion exchange. It is a user-friendly version of a FORTRAN program, dubbed EMCT/ CSF,1 that is based on equilibrium multicomponent chromatography theory (EMCT) with constant separation factors (CSF) as discussed by Helfferich and Klein in Multicomponent Chromatography? The model, which assumes instantaneous equilibrium, homogeneous resin presaturation, and constant feed composition, reasonably approximates actual ion exchange column performance in drinking water treatment. (This model does not work well for predicting granular activated carbon column performance because the instantaneous equilibrium assumption is seriously violated.) Because this issue of the Journal focuses on nitrate removal, the EMCT/ CSF program is applied to a practical nitrate removal example involving chloride anion exchange. This is the typical process used to remove nitrate from drinking water. The exchange reaction, which occurs in a fixed resin bed, is