A New Procedure for Water Decarbonation Process Control

Water decarbonation has become a standard procedure for the treatment of the water used in industries requiring a bicarbonate, organic matter, and colloid-free, low-hardness supply, for example soft drink beverage industries. One of the keys to efficient decarbonation is using the right concentration of calcium hydroxide. While any amount below the stoichiometric dose would fail to ensure good removal, any excess hydroxide would increase the alkalinity and hardness of the water. Although different controlling methods have been proposed, this operation has so far, in general, not been automatically controlled. In this paper the authors present a new procedure to control the process based on the execution of a indefinite number of cycles. Rather than maintaining a continuous set point, the aim of the proposed system is to provide a mean base dose equal to the continuous dose, that should be added to the incoming water in order to neutralize its acidity, in a cycle period. The results obtained in the experimental validation of the procedure show that it may be a good alternative to solve the problem of decarbonation process control. © 1994, American Chemical Society. All rights reserved.