Does Chloramine Affect You and Your Application?
As chloramine usage becomes dominant in UK water supplies, multiple industries find themselves adversely affected. How do you know if your application requires protection against chloramine and, more importantly, how to remove it from your supply? We’re here to give you all the answers you need.
Firstly, what is chloramine and why is it suddenly an issue? Chloramine is a chemical formed when ammonia is added to chlorine. A growing amount of water supply companies use this chemical to treat their water. Chlorine is the alternative to chloramine; however, chlorine evaporates when travelling through the pipes. Utility companies do not have to clarify which disinfectant method they use in their water supply, making it difficult to target the removal of specific chemicals.
Even though the World Health Organization deems small amounts of chloramine safe for human consumption, there are adverse effects on various industries and applications.
Applications Affected By Chlorine
Aquatics:
Fish kept in aquariums or ponds are extremely sensitive to chlorine, killing living cells and most often damaging sensitive gills and the skin that covers their entire bodies, making chlorine fatal to aquatic life. Aquatic shops must treat their water before it reaches the fish.
Brewing:
Chlorine and chloramine kill microbes such as yeast. By allowing these chemicals into the production process, the yeast becomes their target, leaving brewers with a medicinal or plastic taste in their final product, creating unwanted waste product and raising production costs.
Renal Dialysis:
Chlorine will destroy erythropoietin (EPO), a hormone that signals your bone marrow to make red blood cells. In every dialysis application, it is critical to remove chlorine before reaching a patient to avoid the need for EPO doping.
Reverse Osmosis (RO):
This technology does not target chlorine directly, leaving users vulnerable to the adverse effects. Utilising a carbon filter before the RO stage of a system provides protection against chlorine and allows the RO stage to function correctly.
Soft Drink Dispensing:
Like the brewing industry, chlorine negatively impacts the taste of a soft-drink beverage, creating unwanted waste product and raising production costs.
How To Remove Chlorine From Your Supply
Carbon filters are proven to be the most efficient way of removing chlorine, working by adsorbing impurities as water moves through the filter. The chlorine molecules are attracted to the surface of the carbon particles and become trapped, which ensures your water is chlorine free, as well as removing any disinfection by-products and bad taste and odour.
We recommend the SPECTRUM SCB as the go-to product if you wish to remove chlorine in a household environment or brewing and soft drinks or opt for the SPECTRUM FibreOnyx EFBC for use in the other industries listed above.
