Zeta Rod Blog

US Marine Corps and US ARMY Engineers Deliver Potable Water to Flash Flood Victims in the Philippines.

After the flash floods of December 16th destroyed water pipelines, the cities of Cagayan de Oro and Iligan in the Philippines, have had limited access to potable water. The US Marine Corps loaned the portable Reverse Osmosis Machines and the US ARMY with the Armed Forces of the Philippines installed the machines and begun to deliver potable water immediately.  Download Aspen Water Systems Assist Philippine Typhoon Victims Dec 2011 2

The portable RO machines are manufactured by Aspen Water Inc (www.aspenwater.com). These units are designed to withstand the most rugged environments found in the field and can be easily deployed and adapted to any type of conditions found in disaster areas or the battlefield.

Zeta Rod Systems are one of the components built into these rugged units as part of the pretreatment process to prevent membrane fouling. As described in the Aspen Water website, the Electronic Pre-treatment Module "aids in keeping the impurities from attaching to the membrane surface, greatly reducing biological growth and mineral scale."

Zeta Rod® fouling prevention technology integral to ASPEN mobile reverse osmosis water purification systems

ZAMBOTIMES

Sunday, July 17. 2011

WESCOM fights cholera with newest water purification machine
by 6CRGAFP/RVC-PIA9 BaSulTa

ISABELA CITY, Basilan (Philippines)— The Western Command (WESCOM), has deployed its newest water purification machine to barangay Culandanum in the municipality of Bataraza in Palawan to help its residents recover from the tragic cholera outbreak that struck the village, last March that left at least 27 persons dead.

The 6th Civil Relations Group of the AFP said in a statement the project was implemented in partnership with the National Development Support Command (NADESCOM) of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and Marine Forces in the Pacific (MARFORPAC) of the United States of America to prevent another occurrence of the calamitous incident.

The water purification system brought by the WESCOM and NADESCOM personnel headed by 1Lt Dennis S. Martinez is being used to decontaminate water from the sources found in Bgy Culandanum so that its residents may have safe drinking water.

With the assistance of elements of the 12th Marine Battalion Landing Team (MBLT-12), WESCOM and NADESCOM have been distributing purified drinking water to the residents of the cholera-afflicted village for two weeks already.

They are using the machine to decontaminate water from the water cistern located at the Barangay Hall of Culandanum. Commercial jerry cans are used to distribute the purified water to approximately 1,200 households living in the barangay.

Barangay chairman Joel Pundales said the water purification system was a big help to the crisis they are facing. According to him, tests conducted revealed that almost all of the water from the sources found in their village is contaminated.

On April 1 this year, barangay Culandanum has declared a state of calamity after 27 persons were reported to have died from cholera in under a month. Seven of the victims, according to the barangay chairman, have succumbed to the disease a few minutes after each other.

This month, the barangay health office of Culandanum has received four cholera-related cases. On July 6, another patient from Sitio Linao of Bgy Culandanum was reported to have died from the illness.

Pundales lamented the absence of a safe source, potable water in their barangay. To counter the problem, the barangay has distributed water purification tablet to the households, but this, according to the barangay chairman, is temporary and limited.

In response to the situation, WESCOM, in coordination with the NADESCOM, the Provincial Health Office (PHO) and the local government of Bataraza and its Rural Health Unit (RHU), sent trained operators of the water purification machine, known as ASPEN 2000DM, to Bgy Culandanum to provide safe drinking water to its populace.

The machine, which utilizes reverse osmosis technology, boasts of being the most compact, versatile, full-featured, computer-controlled, energy efficient, mobile reverse osmosis system available today.

It is capable of freshwater and seawater purification and can produce 2000 gallons per day of clean, potable water when using freshwater sources and 1800 gallons of the same when using salt water.

It was donated to the AFP by the United States Marine Corps Forces Pacific (MARFORPAC) at the conclusion of the most recent Balikatan Exercises between the US and the Philippine armed forces.

The machine was initially deployed to Culandanum for 30 days and or until it is needed.

Selected personnel of the MBLT-12 are also undergoing training on operating the machine so that they may be able to operate the equipment by themselves when NADESCOM personnel go back to Manila.

 

US Army Corps of Engineers Publishes Report on Cooling Tower Water Conservation Using Zeta Rod

The US Army Corps of Engineers Engineer Research & Development Center (USACE-ERDC) has been evaluating the Zeta Rod for over four years at four different military bases. 

The main purpose of the evaluation was to be able to determine whether the Zeta Rod could help reduce the amount of water used by evaporative cooling systems in order to meet the water conservation requirements set by Executive Order 13423 while maintaing proper levels of protection against scaling, corrosion and biofouling. 

The first phase to the project was done at Davis Monthan AFB and Fort Huachuca in AZ. The full report has been published by the USACE. 

The results encouraged the USACE to expand the project and include two more bases: Warner Robins AFB in Georgia, and Ft Irwin in California. These two bases were selected given the quality of their water. W-Robins water is extremely soft and corrosive by nature whereas Ft. Irwin's water is extremely hard and with a very high potential for scaling. Davis Monthan and Ft Huachuca's water fall in between these two and remained as part of the project.

The 2-year second phase is scheduled to end in August of 2011 and a final report will be available by December 2011 or January 2012. 

In the meantime, the USACE-ERDC has already been publishing the results from this project. In their website they have published a paper titled: "Electronic treatment reduces water, chemical use in evaporative cooling systems." 

The USACE-ERDC also gave a presentation in the 2011 USACE Infrastructure Systems Conference in Atlanta, GA. Download Non-Chemical Treatment of Cooling Water - Beitelman .

For more information on how can the Zeta Rod help meet water conservation targets in Federal Buildings or help with LEED credits, contact Zeta Corporation at (888) 785-9660.

 

 

US Army Corps of Engineers' Engineer Research & Development Center Reports 20% Water Savings in Cooling Towers with Zeta Rod

From July 2007 to September 2008 the US Army Corps of Engineers' Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC)conducted an independent and thorough comparative study between the Zeta Rod and a conventional chemical water treatment program for cooling towers. Two sites were chosen for the study, Davis Monthan AFB in Tucson, and Fort Huachuca in Sierra Vista, AZ.

The study looked at corrosion, scale and biofouling control as the parameters to be used as the metric to evaluate both programs, however, the ERDC had a special interest in water saving capabilities in order to meet requirements set by Executive Order 13423 regarding water conservation. 

This study was also the launching platform for the Zeta Water Management System, which allows remote control, data logging and monitoring of a cooling tower.

The Abstract of the report reads:

 The United States Department of Defense (DoD) has a specific legislative mandate to increase its conservation of water and energy. It also is interested in improving the effectiveness of open-loop, cooling water treatment processes at its installations worldwide, for purposes of extending the useful life of evaporative cooling equipment and reducing energy use/costs. A Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) was approved to demonstrate that, without using chemical additives, a capacitor-based water treatment system is capable of (1)providing equivalent protection to a chemical treatment program in preventing scale, corrosion, and bio-fouling; (2) allowing cooling systems to be operated in an enhanced water conservation mode; (3) delivering measurable reductions in water usage over conventional methods; and (4)providing control, monitoring, and wireless data transfer via the Internet.

Results documented in the subsequent demonstration and evaluation project showed the technology was able to meet every objective and also was able to deliver a 20% reduction in cooling water use over standard chemical treatment methods.

Application of this technology would allow the DoD to (1) reduce chemical usage, exposure, and disposal expenses; (2) conserve water and energy; (3) facilitate water re-use; and (4) meet new goals for conservation of resources.

The complete report can be read and downloaded by going to the following link.

 

Ferguson Enterprises Inc. Kleindale Branch, Tucson AZ, not only a vendor but a satisfied customer as well.

Ferguson is a leading wholesale distributor of plumbing supplies; pipes, valves and fittings; heating and cooling equipment; waterworks; mechanical and industrial; bathrooms and appliances; tools and safety equipment; and fire protection products with over 1300 service centers in all 50 states, Puerto Rico, Mexico and the Caribbean. They became one of the earliest suppliers of Residential Zeta Rod systems when Zeta Corporation introduced the new product line.

Today we'd like to recognize their Kleindale Branch in Tucson, AZ. They are not only a distributor but have become a satisfied customer as well.

Here is their comment on the Zeta Rod installation for the swamp cooler system in the warehouse:

May 19, 2009

Dear Zeta Rod;

I am writing this to let you know what a wonderful solution the Zeta Rod was to our evaporative cooler problem. It has made all of our cooler problems disappear.

Prior to putting the Zeta Rod on the water line that supplies water to our coolers, we had the following problems:

*The air being blown into our warehouse had a damp fishy smell.

*We found that by leaving the coolers on 24/7 the smell was not as bad, but; we used a lot of expensive electricity.

*Running the coolers constantly also wore out the pads, the motors, and the pulleys more often; and they were expensive to replace.

We understand that the Zeta Rod does not allow biofilm to form and that makes our air smell better and helps the coolers run cleaner.

We are also able to turn the coolers off each night.  We start them each morning and they run clean and have no smell.  Since they only run for 8-10 hours we know we have less wear and tear on the pumps, pulleys and pads!  We could not be happier!

Mike Van Stelle,

  

Ferguson

Enterprises Incorporated

Kleindale Branch,

Tucson

 

Arizona

3445 East Kleindale Rd

(520) 795.0296.

 

Reverse Osmosis: "Will the Zeta Rod Replace my RO?"

This is a question that we get quite often, especially from home owners who are considering the use of a Zeta Rod to treat the water in their home.

The short answer is: "depends".

Before we go into more detail to the answer, we should look at how an RO system is and how it works.

First the definition of osmosis: movement of a solvent through a semi-permeable membrane into a solution of higher solute concentration that tends to equalize the concentration of solute on both sides of the membrane.

Basically what this means is that nature will find a way to move systems that are out of equilibrium, into equilibrium. Osmosis is one of such ways. In nature the wall of a cell can act as a semi-permeable membrane (a semi permeable membrane is one that will allow the passage of water only). When the concentration of salts (the solute) is higher inside the cell than in the environment surrounding the cell, the difference in concentration (osmotic pressure) will cause solvent (water) to pass through the cell's wall and in this way balance the amount of salts within the cell to its environment.

Osmosis is a little counterintuitive. Another example would be this: consider that you have two columns of water separated by a semipermeable membrane (fig 1). Column A has water with a low salt concentration and column B has water in it with a high salt concentration. At the initial time both columns have the same amount of water. 

 

After a period of time, water from column A will permeate through the membrane to column B in order to try to balance the concentration of solute in the water. Once the solutions have reached equilibrium, the difference in height will determine the osmotic pressure.

If at this time you're thinking: "hold on a minute, this seems to be backwards fro what my RO unit does!". You are correct, this is osmosis, what your RO unit does is reverse osmosis.

If we go back to the initial drawing, but this time we apply pressure, through a piston for example, to column B. We would have to apply a pressure equal or larger to the osmotic pressure of the solution to force water from Column B to Column A. And what we would have in Column A is known as the permeate, which is very high purity water. The left over in Column B is referred to as  concentrate.

So a reverse osmosis system forces the water that has a high concentration of salts across a semi-permeable membrane by applying enough force to overcome the osmotic pressure of the water. Every RO unit will have a permeate, in your home application this will be the drinking water, and a concentrate, in your home this will be the water that goes to the drain.

RO units produce very high quality water, it removes practically all salts and any pollutant that may be in the water.

The primary problem with RO units is membrane fouling. The membranes are prone to mineral scaling and biofouling (bacteria). As the membrane fouls the efficiency of the RO diminishes until it gets to the point where replacing the membrane, or cleaning it is necessary.

The Zeta Rod is an excellent pretreatment option for RO units, for it will prevent the membranes from fouling, thus extending the life of your RO membranes, and reducing the cost of maintaining and operating the RO unit.

SO, going back to the original question of the post, It depends on what function is the RO unit performing.

If you have an RO unit because you have a private well and there may be some contaminants in the water, then the RO should stay and the Zeta Rod will be of great help to the unit by keeping the membranes from fouling.

However, if you have an RO unit just to prevent scaling in your dishes, sink, faucets, etc. Then the Zeta Rod can be a suitable replacement for the system.

Zeta Corporation has treated RO units ranging in size from small under the sink units to large municipal plants. This Case Study shows the benefits that the Zeta Rod provided to a Pepsi Cola bottling plant's RO unit. 

So if you have an RO unit at home, installing a Zeta Rod system will greatly benefit your RO operation and help you with scaling issues in the rest of your home.

For any questions or comments, please contact Zeta Corporation at 888-785-9660, or by email to info@zetacorp.com.