Ceramic powder for fuel cells
Australian consultants Sinclair Knight Merz have placed an order with ELGA Process Water for a system to provide high purity water for manufacturing ceramic powders for solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs).
The project is a new ceramic powder factory in Bromborough being built for Ceramic Fuel Cells Ltd, which is developing and manufacturing SOFC products for small-scale, on-site micro combined heat and power and distributed generation units that co-generate electricity and heat for domestic use.
Ceramic Fuel Cells Ltd, formed in 1992 by Australia's Commonwealth Science and Industry Research Organisation and a consortium of energy and industrial companies, is a leader in developing solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) technology to provide reliable, energy efficient and low-emission electricity from natural gas and renewable fuels.
ELGA Process Water’s system consists of duplex Selectron 30 softeners to remove hardness salts from the water and this is followed by a cartridge type activated carbon filter to remove particulate matter and free chlorine. The pre-treated water is purified in two stages: a MaxiRO 14-1000 ES reverse osmosis unit which removes about 95 per cent of dissolved salts before polishing by duty and standby C1040 nuclear grade deionisation cylinders and delivery into a 3000 litre tank with a distribution pump.
The skid mounted system combines the economy of reverse osmosis with the convenience of ELGA Process Water’s cylinder exchange service to produce the required quality. Service exchange is a simple concept: partially treated permeate from the reverse osmosis unit is passed through a cylinder of mixed bed ion exchange resin.
When the resin is exhausted, the whole cylinder is returned to the supplier in exchange for a recharged cylinder, so there is no on-site regeneration. The combined reverse osmosis and ion exchange process produces 2,400 litres per day of purified water with conductivity better than 1 µS/cm without the use of hazardous chemicals like acid and caustic soda, so it is safe as well as simple to use.
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