DayalBagh Educational Institute

Demineralization or Ion Exchange Process

Submitted By:-Yashank Srivastava
Submitted to:-Dr. Sudhir kumar verma

The Purpose of Ion

Exchange.
It is the main process used to control the

purity and pH of the reactor coolant.

Many plants also use this process for
feedwater chemistry control and water
pretreatment.

DEFINATION Ion
Exchange
Any process which results in the reversible

exchange of ions contained in a fluid with

those contained on a solid without a
permanent change in the solid structure.
Water is treated with an ion exchange
resin.
These resins will replace undesirable ions
with those which are more acceptable
within an aqueous process stream under a
specific set of operating conditions.
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The two general types of

demineralizer resins
Ion exchange demineralizers use microscopic resin beads

composed of an insoluble inert structural matrix and a

chemically active functional group.

The functional groups are molecules with exchangeable ions

such as H+ or OH-, that can be safely released into the

system.

Cation resins exchange positively charged functional

groups, for undesirable positive ions.

With their functional groups in the hydrogen form, R H, R

represents the exchange resin and H represents the attached

hydrogen ion.

Anion resins exchange negatively charged functional

groups for any undesirable negative ion.

The hydroxyl ion, OH- (ROH) is commonly used as the

functional group in an anion resin.

Typical Ion Exchange Reaction

NaCl

H 2O Na Cl

When NaCl is dissolved in water it dissociates to

form sodium ions and chloride ions.
The ions released by the demineralizing resin combine
to form water :
H OH H 2O
This is a reversible reaction as indicated by the arrow.
The net reaction is as follows :
R - H R OH Na Cl R - Na R Cl H OH
The net result is that the ions in the resin are exchanged
by the ions in solution. As a result we form fresh water.

Discription of a typical ion

exchange reaction
The cation resin has a higher affinity for Na + than

for H+ and releases the H+ in the exchange

reaction.
The anion resin has a higher affinity for the Clthan for the OH-, and releases the OH- in the
exchange reaction.
The reactions in the previous slide shows a typical
demineralizer reaction.
In reality, some of the water will leak through the
resin allowing some untreated water to reach the
reactor system.
The greater the ionic charge the greater the
affinity of the ion for the resin.
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pH control utilizing the ion

exchange process.
pH is the measure of the relative acidity (or alkalinity) of a solution.
If a lithium form cation resin is used with a hydroxyl form

ion, the effluent will have a high pH and will be strongly

basic, due to the exchange of lithium ions (Li +) for cation
impurities and hydroxyl ions (OH -) for anion impurities.

Cation exchange resins are classified as:

Strong acid
Intermediate acid
Weak Acid
Anion exchange resins are classified as:
Strong Base
Intermediate base
If you have sodium chloride, after the cation is exchanged we have

HCl acid remaining in solution. (strong acid)

If the cation in solution is magnesium and chloride ions are
removed the result is magnesium hydroxide which is a weak base.

The purpose of a demineralizer

Demineralization is the removal of

essentially all inorganic salts. In ion

exchange demineralization hydrogen
cation exchange converts dissolved salts to
their corresponding acids, and basic anion
exchange removes these acids.
Purpose
Removal of ionic substances
Reduction of conductivity
Control of pH
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Basic Definitions
Regeneration is the treatment of the

resin bed (chemical) to replace impure

cations and anions.
The spent regenerant containing the
undesirable ions is then discarded to the
plant wastewater system.
Leakage is the very small, almost
undetectable amounts of undesirable ions
that continuously pass through the
demineralizer without being exchanged.
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