“Installing reverse osmosis (RO) equipment upstream is usually the most cost efficient method of deionising water for smaller amounts of water.”

Only stainless steel (316), ABS or polyethylene are acceptable materials when installing DI equipment or downstream lines.

Bion Water Synergetics are proven to reduce bacteria and airborne pathogens

Bion Water Synergetics systems can reduce the incidence of bacteria and biofilm in water pipes resulting in cleaner water in our environment

Ultra Pure De-Ionisation Plants

What is Deionised water?

Deionised water is water that lacks ions, such as cations from sodium, calcium, iron, copper and anions such as chloride and bromide. This means it has been purified from all other ions except H3O+ and OH-, but it may still contain other non-ionic types of impurities such as organic compounds. This type of water is produced using an ion exchange process. The properties of deionised water are very similar to distilled water and it is useful for industrial, scientific, technical and medical applications where the presence of any impurities is undesirable.

The Deionisation Process

The deionisation process involves running water through specially-manufactured ion exchange resins which remove ionised salts from the water. The exchange resins, commonly referred to as "resin beds", can theoretically remove 100% of salts, or ions. The process involves replacing the cations with hydrogen ions (H+) and the anions are replaced with hydroxyls (OH-). The hydrogen ions and hydroxyls recombine producing water molecules. Thus, no ions remain in the produced water. Deionisation typically does not remove organics, viruses or bacteria, except through "accidental" trapping in the resin and specially made strong base anion resins which will remove gram-negative bacteria.

Ion Exchange

Deionisation must not be confused with the term "ion exchange" which refers to a process of purification, separation, and decontamination of water using solid ion exchange. Ion exchange is a method widely used in household and industrial water purifications that is referred to as "water softening".

In the ion exchange process, ions are exchanged between a solution and an ion exchanger, a non-aqueous solid or gel. Typical ion exchangers are; ion exchange resins, zeolite, clay, and humus. The exchange is accomplished by swapping calcium Ca2+ and magnesium Mg2+ cations with sodium Na+ or hydrogen H+ cations. As can be seen by the preceding statement the water produced by this process still contains solid ions and is not suitable for applications where impurities are undesirable.

Important facts:

Electrical Conductivity

In the experience of BioN Water Synergetics Pty Ltd, the accepted maximum reading for the electrical conductivity of "technical grade" deionised water is ‹10µs/cm. If this value is grossly exceeded, it might indicate that the resin beds are exhausted and are in need of replacement.

Piping for handling DI water

For handling DI water in technical and industrial applications the use of copper piping is not acceptable and certainly not industry standard. DI water is corrosive by nature and if of high quality, will scavenge ions from anything it comes in contact with, which would lead to copper in the water feeding the downstream component of the unit. Only stainless steel (316), ABS or polyethylene are acceptable materials when installing DI equipment or downstream lines. Stainless steel is the preferred option as leaching of polymers and synthetic oestrogens is also possible from plastic materials.

Optimum Deionisation methods

The water flow rates in any system should determine the preferred solution for the optimum method of deionisation. Options are:

Install Reverse Osmosis upstream of the DI beds.

Installing reverse osmosis (RO) equipment upstream is usually the most cost efficient method of deionising water for smaller amounts of water. The RO removes a significant amount of ions, as well as other contaminants from the water. This typically extends the life of the resin beds by 4 to 6 times to what would be found by running filtered mains water through them. An additional benefit when utilising this system, is that the water is of much higher quality when compared to resin beds alone, as extremely small particles are also removed from the water by the RO.

Replace the Resin Beds with self replenishing ones.

Self replenishing resin beds are often used in high volume or critical applications. In this system the resin beds are regularly flushed with acid and alkali to remove the trapped ions from the bed. The process is microprocessor controlled and activated by an in-line conductivity meter. This system requires no user intervention and is very reliable albeit, expensive.