Improving Softening System Efficiency in Starch Production with SST® Resins

A large corn starch refiner in Ontario, Canada, was running a 350 U.S. gpm co-current softener with 225 ft³ SAC resin. The feed water, expressed in ppm as CaCO₃ contains hardness @ 128 ppm, and TDS @ 210 ppm. The original resin, Purolite C100E, regeneration specifications called for 10 lb/ft³ of NaCl resulting in an operating capacity of 26.4 Kgr/ft³ and average total hardness leakage of 1 ppm. The customer approached Purolite to enhance the performance of their softening process, and save time, money and resources.

The softener was recharged with Purolite's high-performance Shallow Shell™ SSTC60 with the intention of reducing operating costs and improving regeneration efficiency.

One of the first areas of improvement was the reduction in time and volume of the fast rinse step. After the first 10 regenerations, the Shallow Shell SSTC60 reached specification hardness leakage within 10 minutes as opposed to 75 minutes for the previous SAC resin.

The salt dosage was lowered to 6 lb/ft³ resulting in a capacity for Shallow Shell SSTC60 of 24 Kgr/ft³ and a leakage of 1 ppm.

Overall, the plant was able to achieve an annual savings of $37,777 by switching their system to Shallow Shell Technology™ resins including regenerant water and chemicals—with additional savings in operator time for change-outs and plant downtime.

Why Purolite?

• Perform thorough system evaluations
• Very knowledgeable
• Bring economic value to customer operations