hüdrodemineraliseerimine

Hydrodemineralisation, often shortened to HDM, is a water treatment process used to remove dissolved mineral salts and ions from water. This is typically achieved by passing water through a series of ion-exchange resins. These resins are designed to attract and capture specific ions, such as calcium, magnesium, sodium, chloride, and sulfate, replacing them with hydrogen and hydroxide ions, which combine to form water. The process effectively lowers the conductivity of the water, making it highly pure.

There are two main stages involved in hydrodemineralisation. The first stage uses a cation exchange resin to remove positively charged ions (cations), and the second stage uses an anion exchange resin to remove negatively charged ions (anions). In some advanced systems, a mixed-bed resin is used as a final polishing step, combining both cation and anion exchange capabilities for even greater purity.

Hydrodemineralised water is crucial in various industrial applications where high-purity water is essential. This includes boiler feed water to prevent scale formation and corrosion, pharmaceutical manufacturing, electronics production, and laboratories for analytical purposes. The resins used in HDM eventually become saturated with ions and require regeneration, typically using acids and alkalis, to restore their effectiveness.