Treitel

Treitel Completed Successfully Building and Starting-Up the World's 1^st

Ion Exchange System for the Removal of Boron from Drinking Water

Treitel Chemical Engineering Ltd. competed successfully designing, building, commissioning and starting-up the world's first ion exchange system for the selective removal of Boron from potable water.

The deborating system is owned by Mekorot, Israel National Water Company, and installed at Mekorot's brackish water desalination plant in Kziot, at the south-west border of the Israeli Negev desert.

This ion exchange system treats 6500 cubic meter per day of Reverse Osmosis product water by reducing its Boron content selectively from 1.0-2.5 mg/l to less than 0.1 mg/l. The system has been in continuous operation for almost two month now and its performance is equal or better than designed.

Treitel 's system is based on Rohm and Haas Amberlite IRA743 Boron selective ion exchange resin and on Rohm and Haas Amberpack ion exchange process.

The four decade long representation of Rohm and Haas by Treitel in Israel includes another world's first for Boron removal. Exactly 30 years ago Rohm and Haas and Treitel jointly pioneered the actual commercial use of Boron selective ion exchange resins. Treitel 's system was built then in the Dead Sea area for the purpose of reducing Boron level of magnesium brine from 30 mg/l to less than 1 mg/l. This industrial system is still in operation today and the Amberlite XE243 experimental resin developed for this application has been used since globally under the commercial name of Amberlite IRA743.

Both Rohm and Haas and Treitel believe that since Boron has been found to be potentially harmful in drinking water at levels above 0.3-0.5 mg/l, and problematic for irrigation water at similar or lower contents, the Treitel system in Kziot will pave the way for global acceptance of Amberlite IRA743 based systems as the most robust, reliable and cost-effective solution for deborating drinking water, particularly as post-treatment for sea water desalination plants.