The following transcript is provided by YouTube. Mistakes are present. To hear the podcast episode, click HERE.
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welcome to Scaling UP! H2O the industrial
water treaters podcast the podcast where
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we’re Scaling UP! on knowledge so we
don’t Scaling UP! our systems
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hello Scaling UP! Nation Trace Blackmore
CWT here that means Certified Water
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technologist the highest designation
that somebody in my field of industrial
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water treatment can achieve and I am
coming to you right here from the
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Lawrenceville Georgia where the heck is
Lawrenceville Georgia well it’s right
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outside of Atlanta coming to you from
our studios and I am answering more
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questions that you all have written in
to me for me to answer and the one I’m
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gonna answer today is actually one I’m
pretty sure I’ve answered before but
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maybe I didn’t do a good enough job with
it or maybe it was too early in the
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series and not everybody heard it but I
received several questions around what
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the heck alkalinity is and I figured
since we’re talking about pH and other
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episodes we may as well talk about
alkalinity because that goes right along
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with it if you have not listened to the
pH episode I urge you to go back and
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listen to the episode where I just talk
about pH I think the explanation of
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alkalinity goes very well once that
explanation has been given so your
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homework if you’re listening to this
show right now and as I’m recording it I
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do not have the actual show number so I
can’t do that to you but it’s really
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easy go to the website and look for the
pinks and blues on pH if you’re on your
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favorite podcast app you can just scroll
through all the episodes and find the
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pinks and blues for pH that being said
I’m going to assume everybody has
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listened to that and everybody knows
that the pH scale goes from zero all the
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way up to 14 and by listening to that
show you know why that
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is now what we’re going to do is we are
going to talk about alkalinity now when
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it comes to alkalinity alkalinity is so
very important to our water treatment
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programs because our programs are
designed on the type of alkalinity that
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we have in our waters and a lot of times
when I’m working with other water
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treaters or other companies that have
some sort of problem normally pitting
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it’s because they’re using the wrong
chemistry for the alkalinity that they
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have in their water so it’s very
important that us water treatment folks
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understand exactly what alkalinity is
and I’m gonna try to do this visually
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because I’m a very visual learner but as
you are probably figuring out a podcast
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is a horrible way to visually teach
somebody so here’s what I need everybody
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out there listing the Scaling UP! Nation
to do I need you in your mind’s eye to
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picture a vertical graph where the very
bottom is zero and the very top of that
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graph is 14 and of course we know that
that is the pH scale so we’re going to
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work from the bottom of that Scaling UP!
and I’m going to explain which
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alkalinity ‘s exist at different PHS all
right working from the bottom to the top
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we’re going to go to a 4-3 now from the
range for 3 to 8.3 pH that is where bi
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carbonate alkalinity exists you might
also hear that called M alkalinity all
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right so hopefully everybody has that
visual now we’re going to go to eight
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point three from eight point three to
around ten point three the number ZAR
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all ish as most water treatment numbers
are that’s where carbonate alkalinity
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exists we might hear that called pee
alkalinity if there’s one thing that we
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have in water treatment its multiple
terms and I know that’s really difficult
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for somebody learning the
because we’ll learn something one way
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and then we’ll be introduced to another
term well folks just get used to it we
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have multiple terms for everything in
water treatment I don’t know why that is
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but that is how it is all right so now
we go to ten point three and above above
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ten point three ish we have hydroxyl
alkalinity so those are the three
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alkalinity species that we have
and then our water treatment products
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are built based on that now from the pH
show you know that a chef needs five
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ingredients in order to make scale and
those were calcium hardness alkalinity
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hey here you go we’re talking about
alkalinity pH total dissolved solids and
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temperature so that’s why alkalinity is
so important because it actually
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combines with our calcium hardness to
create that scale specifically calcium
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carbonate which is the water treaters
nemesis it is the hardest thing for us
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to control because we are water treaters
that deal with transferring heat from
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one place to another and calcium
carbonate wants to come out of solution
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in warmer temperatures well hey that’s
no fun well water treatment has things
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that are stacked against us everywhere
we look why should that be any different
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all right so one more time
so we have bicarbonate alkalinity that
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exists between four point three and
eight point three between eight point
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three and ten point three we have
carbonate alkalinity and above ten point
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three we have hydroxyl alkalinity and if
you can think back as some of your
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service reports like boilers you
probably had an OHA I’ll collect them
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and the reason that we have Oh H
alkalinity and the boiler and I’m not
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going to get too deep into this but we
need to make hydroxyapatite and not
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calcium phosphate calcium phosphate I
remember when
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I was younger my father took a sample of
calcium phosphate and he threw it
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against a concrete wall and it dented
the concrete wall folks this stuff is
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really hard to get rid of it could be
created very quickly but it takes
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forever to get rid of it one of the
insurance policies that we have in a
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boiler so we don’t create that in a
phosphate program is we have extra free
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hydroxyls in the boiler water to make
sure that we create that hydroxyapatite
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I know that’s a really strange word but
just remember this calcium phosphate
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hard and will crack concrete walls
hydroxyapatite nice fluffy snow and we
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have that nice fluffy snow that goes
down to the bottom of the boiler it
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doesn’t really stick to each other and
then we have some sludge conditioners in
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there to prevent it from doing that and
we can get that out through normal
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blowdown calcium phosphate we have to
get out through some very difficult
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means so that’s why you want the O H
alkalinity and the boiler now a lot of
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you might have a test there’s a barium
test that you test directly for hydroxyl
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alkalinity but a lot of us do – P – M
now remember at the top of the show I
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said we have multiple terms for
everything in water treatment well let
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me share some other ones with you now I
use the terms carbonate and bicarbonate
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alkalinity by in this case means
hydrogen so we have hydrogen and one we
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don’t in the other so with carbonate
alkalinity the reagent that you use to
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test for that is phenol failing phenol
failing is a reagent that will only turn
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pink at a pH of 8.3 or above well let’s
look at that I said that carbonate
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alkalinity only exists at a pH of 8.3 or
above so how cool is we have a pH
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sensitive dye that we can measure the pH
and
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tells us how much carbonate alkalinity
we have and the reason it’s also called
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P alkalinity it’s named after the
reagent and if you’re wondering what’s
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going on with that we have specific
amounts of sulfuric acid that we use as
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the titrant and we know that however
many drops they’ve been q seed that
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however many drops that we use will
correlate to how much carbonate
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alkalinity that we have all right so
let’s move down the scale and now we’re
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at eight point three to four point three
well that’s our bicarbonate alkalinity
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and by is our big fancy chemistry term
that just means hydrogen well
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that is between eight point three and
four point three and we might also call
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that M alkalinity that M comes from an
older reagent one that our fathers might
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have been using or my father did use and
it was methyl orange and it wasn’t a
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great color change I think it went from
like an O red orange to a yellow orange
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it wasn’t a very definite one so like
everything things evolve things get
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better and now we use bromo Kressel
green which will be green at a eight
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point three or anything above four point
three actually and we titrate that down
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to four point three and at four point
three that green solution turns to red
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and folks it’s really easy to see green
and red so that’s why we use bromo
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Kressel green but we don’t call it B
alkalinity we still call bicarbonate
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alkalinity M alkalinity I guess because
we’re honoring the methyl Orange now you
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might be wondering what happens below
four point three well folks that’s where
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we have the absence of alkalinity and
that’s where carbonic acid is so now
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looking at boilers especially condensate
lines if you get a pH below four point
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three you’ve got carbonic acid and if
you’ve ever seen a condensate line that
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has been attacked with carbonic acid
it looks like an inchworm is just plowed
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its way through the bottom and it’s
always going to be at the bottom of the
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pipe because that’s where the water is
that’s where the condensate is you would
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never see this on the top or anywhere
else on the pipe it’s always going to be
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at the bottom now what do we do to make
sure we don’t have carbonic acid in the
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water or in the condensate well we put
something that goes over with the steam
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to increase the pH why do we increase
the pH because we can’t have carbonic
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acid over particular PHS and most of our
systems are at 8.3 so we even get the
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bicarbonate alkalinity out so we don’t
have enough free alkalinity in there to
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actually convert to carbonic acid in the
presence of carbon dioxide so I hope
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alkalinity makes a little bit more sense
to you I’m going to have a slide on my
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show notes page I’m hoping that you
visualize this pH scale and now you know
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at where bicarbonate alkalinity exist
where carbonate alkalinity exists and
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where hydroxyl alkalinity exists and
folks I said at the beginning of the
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show that a lot of water treaters don’t
understand alkalinity and it’s so
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important because if you use a chemistry
that was built for bicarbonate
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alkalinity and you use it in the carbon
and alkalinity realm you are not going
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to get the right type of protection
vice-versa you might get some disastrous
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scaling you have to know what you’re
dealing with and it’s so important that
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you understand your product datasheets
because they normally have a range of
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what you need to keep your chemistry’s
within when it comes to water that is
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the reason for that somebody’s already
done all the legwork for you and said if
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you stay between this and this pH and
this and this hardness and this and this
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alkalinity this product’s going to work
fine but if you get out of that range
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that product was not designed to work
in those ranges that your water now is
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in and you are gonna have some issues
well folks I think I’ve told you I am
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humbled to know that we are 10,000
subscribers and in over 60 different
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countries that is amazing to me and the
reason that we have such a large Scaling UP!
13:40.5
13:45.7
Nation is because of the people
in the Scaling UP! Nation thank you
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13:50.9
so much nation for spreading the word
but the word is not done
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I talked to water treaters on a regular
basis that have never heard of Scaling UP!
13:55.9
14:02.7
h2o we all know that we do need that
little extra nudge out there especially
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when we’re by ourselves driving from
account to account it’s so great to be
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able to turn on your favorite podcast
provider and hear some motivation or
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hear something that we can learn about
our craft in between accounts well folks
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we need to raise the entire water
treatment community and in order for me
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to do that I need your help if you run
into another fellow water treater make
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14:38.2
sure you discuss Scaling UP! h2o I want
to make sure that we have as many
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14:43.1
listeners as we can that does a couple
of things one it ensures that my show
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14:48.4
has an audience thank you so much for
listening it also ensures that the
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14:53.4
information that we’re getting is coming
from a large sampling of the water
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treatment community
I love getting questions from the
14:56.3
15:00.9
Scaling UP! nation because that ensures
that I always have something to talk
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15:05.1
about and folks if we didn’t have that
eventually I’m gonna run out of things
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to say so please don’t allow that to
happen let your fellow water treaters
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15:14.7
know about Scaling UP! h2o and some of
them you might even have to show them
15:14.7
15:20.1
how to subscribe to it on their
smartphones not everybody has the
15:20.1
15:25.4
familiarity with podcast and they might
need a little help the last thing I’m
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going to ask for you to do is to keep
those questions coming
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again this show came completely from
questions from the Scaling UP! nation
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15:40.6
I’ve got to replenish that Bank so go to
Scaling UP! h2o calm and let me know what
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15:44.8
questions you have or if you have a
guest that you want me to interview let
15:44.8
15:50.3
me know that too anything that you want
to hear on the show I need to hear from
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15:55.2
you please don’t keep that information
to yourself it doesn’t do anybody any
15:55.2
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good so go to Scaling UP! dot com and
let me know what you’re thinking nation
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thank you so much for being the audience
of this show I can’t tell you how much I
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enjoy bringing the show to you each and
every week thank you for all the people
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that let me know that they really
enjoyed listening to this show that
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means so much to me and I look forward
to speaking with you next week on
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Scaling UP! H2O