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hello scaling up nation
happy friday october 9th careers friday
the very last day in industrial water
week
my name is trace blackmore and i have
been bringing you a brand new episode
each and every day of industrial water
week i want to thank all the people that
have hashtag iw20 for their pictures
their post
all sort of things that they have been
doing this week
so we can all share the celebration
together
folks you got one last day to do that
and of course today
is where the cakes come out i’ve asked
you to make a
water cake the recipe is up on the show
notes page
the main ingredient is water it’s
probably the only cake like this
you will ever make it has a really long
history but the neat thing about it is
it was a cake before
refrigeration before allowing people to
travel
so no milk no butter no eggs
nothing that would spoil and it was a
favorite before there was refrigeration
so think about all the things that we
have in our job because there is
refrigeration
and think about all the things that we
are able to do because there’s water and
we are industrial water treaters so what
an incredible cake for us to celebrate
industrial water week with and i hope
all of you will send your pictures in
hashtag them to
iw20 and we’re gonna have a good
time with this well of course today we
are celebrating careers
and i think one of my favorite questions
to ask water treaters when they come on
this show
is how did you get into this industry
now
some might be similar but nobody’s
experience has
ever been the same and i
really think that that is awesome we all
get into this industry in one way or
another
and the thing is most of us didn’t know
about this industry of course i knew
about it because of my father and if you
had a family member in this industry
you know about it but most everybody
else they
find it some other way and i love
hearing those stories
in fact i would love it if you would do
a hashtag and let us know how
you got into the water treatment
industry
i think that would be a tremendous
amount of fun
looking to see how people got into this
great industry now we have been
celebrating industrial water treatment
this entire week monday was
pre-treatment tuesday was boilers
wednesday was cooling
yesterday was waste water and today of
course it’s all about
careers and i have to say that
i think i have had the most awesome
career
i can’t imagine what else would have
given me the enjoyment that i have
gotten
from water treatment so i am so
fortunate
that one my dad introduced me to this
and two
i had so many great mentors
that took trace blackmore where he was
and encouraged him to grow
stronger to encourage him to get more
information encouraged him to be
more than what he was when they
originally
met me and i actually received an award
last week
because of my commitment to the water
treatment industry and for those of you
that listen to the show
last friday i was very clear
that that was not my award that was an
accumulative
award for all the people that have
helped me
become the water treater that i am
so i really want to encourage all the
listeners out there
to not only be mentored by somebody
but become a mentor to
somebody else folks there’s just so much
knowledge that if we’re not exchanging
it
with each other that information just
doesn’t
translate so please become a mentor
be a mentor and raise that bar
in the water treatment industry
something we’ve been doing that i think
has been pretty fun for the entire week
is we have been playing installments of
industrial water treatment jeopardy so
folks here is our
last installment of industrial water
treatment
jeopardy which element has the atomic
number of
eight
[Music]
what is oxygen
this metal has roughly eight times the
thermal conductivity of carbon steel
[Music]
what is copper
the latin word ferum is where this
element gets its name from
[Music]
what is iron and of course we abbreviate
that as
fe this is defined as the relation of
the heat capacity of a fluid
to the heat capacity of water at the
same temperature
[Music]
what is specific heat these are forms of
an element with the same atomic number
but contain a different number of
neutrons
[Music]
what are isotopes well folks there you
go i’ve asked you roughly
25 questions this week
some were made for fun some were made to
get you to start
thinking all of them were made
so you start thinking about how do i
start to learn more about what i do
as an industrial water treater i’ve said
it before
during this week i’m going to say it
again our job
lends itself so well to learn something
new
each and every day and if you are not
taking advantage of that
you’re truly missing out on what i think
is the most
wonderful thing about our industry so
take a moment and think about how can
you learn
more what do you know that you don’t
know
that you need to know you know
nation i have thoroughly enjoyed working
with james mcdonald the founder of
industrial
water week this week he has helped me
out
so much with content and i know that
we have all become fans of the detective
h2o series well today james has
something a little bit different for all
of us
it’s detective h2o’s daughter dr
h2o so get ready to solve problems in
waterville
here’s dr h2o
[Music]
welcome to dr h2o the case
of hard diagnosis
hilda helen oxidane phd cwt
sat in her immaculately white laboratory
studying the results of her latest scale
inhibition analysis
of a new polymer she had been developing
it looked promising
she jumped a little when her smartphone
came to life in her lab coat pocket
ringing once twice know only once
she was too efficient to waste time
hello dr h cho here the best water
treater this side of the ohio
diagnosing water problems for a
healthier system how may i help you
wait a minute doesn’t your father
detective h2o
say the exact same thing how can you
both be the best water treater this side
of the ohio
we live on opposite sides of the ohio
river now that we’ve gotten that cleared
up how may i help you
well doc this is danny down at waterton
food and beverage
our softener is sick what are the
symptoms she’s not getting a full run
she produces hard water long before she
should we need your services doc
we heard you make house calls oh yes i
make house calls
powerhouse calls i will be over shortly
dr h too arrived at waterton food and
beverage in her white late model
mercedes
she removed her black test bag from the
trunk checked in with the front gate
guards
and made her way to the powerhouse on
her way to see danny the powerhouse
superintendent she stopped briefly to
peruse the powerhouse logbook
she saw several notes of the water
softeners producing hard water
prematurely with the units manually
placed into regeneration
there was definitely a problem here doc
you made it
glad to see you you too danny let’s take
a look at this water softener of yours
making their way down the stairs to the
powerhouse basement the water softener
loomed before them
she’s actually two twin alternating
softeners but we see her as one large
piece of equipment
if you don’t mind me asking do you refer
to all of your water treatment unit
operations using feminine pronouns
oh no that aura over there is a he we’re
an equal opportunity offender here
he chuckled i see smiled the water
doctor
dr h tool reviewed the water treatment
logs observing
so both water softener tanks are
exhibiting premature hardness
breakthrough at approximately the same
time
that means the likely cause is common to
both of them and not a mechanical issue
on an individual unit itself let’s start
at the beginning though
by doing an analysis of the incoming
city water
i want to know if anything has changed
opening her black bag she extracted her
water testing supplies and started
running her analysis on the city water
comparing it to her notes from previous
waterton city water analysis
she observed nothing has changed
significantly with the city water total
hardness ph iron etc
all are basically the same the free
chlorine is higher than many areas
around the city
at greater than 1 ppm but still within
the city’s control parameters
by my calculations your water softener
is producing only 85 percent of the
design
softening capacity and dropping wow doc
i told you she was sick yes our next
step is to manually place the online
softener vessel into regeneration
observe the steps and perform an
illusion study to ensure proper brain
concentrations are being reached
dr h2o stood beside the softer drain
line that opened to the floor drain as
danny opened the control box and
initiated a manual regeneration
valves opened and closed the standby
software unit came online
and the online unit went into
regeneration
the first step was a back wash to expand
the resin bed
and remove any debris or broken beads on
a smaller unit i could use a bucket to
measure the flow rates out of the
softener during each regeneration step
to ensure
they meet manufacture specifications or
industry standards
with flow as large as this where that is
impossible
one must fall back upon observations
instead of absolute accuracy
while the backwash continued dr h2o
inspected the brine tank and tested its
level of saturation with her sodium
chloride salometer
it was 100 saturated as it should have
been
she also measured the brine tank
diameter and brine depth
the back wash went through its entire
cycle as expected for as long as
expected
no cause formalities so far with a
salometer and graduated cylinder in hand
when the brine cycle started dr h cho
started recording the salinity of the
water every three minutes
some people like to measure every five
minutes but i find i get a much more
detailed illusion curve every three
minutes
sometimes the enhanced data resolution
helps at the end of the brain cycle
the slow rinse cycle started dr h tool
measured the brain depth again
while keeping an eye on the slow rinse
cycle flow and duration
lastly the fast rinse cycle started and
she observed and timed as well
plotting the selometer data points on
her tablet computer danny watched over
her shoulder and asked
well did you find anything no this is a
textbook example of what an aleutian
curve should be
it shows just over 30 kilometer degrees
for 30 minutes
per industry standards i calculated the
brine usage from the change in the brine
tank level and that is perfectly within
industry standards as well so far we
have a healthy specimen
let me take a closer look at the floor
drain area using the flashlight setting
on her smartphone
dr h2o made a close inspection of the
floor drain
do you see this danny see what doc these
little broken resin beads
there aren’t many but there are a few
you don’t have a resin trap installed i
see which could have been helpful
i think it is time for a surgical
approach let’s open the standby softener
up
with the other unit online we have
several hours before that one is due for
regeneration
sure whatever you say doc relieving the
water pressure on the standby softener
danny opened the top maintenance hole on
the softener vessel
after inspecting the ladder dr h doyle
climbed up and took a look
the surface of the resin bed was
relatively even no obvious signs of
uneven flow or channeling
the surface also looked clean and free
of debris
next she measured how far the resin bed
started from the top of the vessel and
marked this level on the side of the
unit
there were no previous markings so it
was not possible to see if there had
been any change
what do you see up there dr h2o so far
so good now to take a core resin sample
improvising a resin thief with pvc
piping she drove it into the resin bed
and obtained the best representative
sample that she could
pulling out her magnifying glass she
took a look at the resin
the color looks typical although without
a sample of the original
resin it’s hard to tell what color it
truly was originally
i do see some broken beads in here the
doctor observed
then she placed some resin beads between
her fingers and began to rub them around
danny come here stat what’s up doc asked
danny as he came running
watch this replied dr h2o and she rubbed
more resin beads between her fingers
they disintegrated that’s weird what’s
happening here
we made our diagnosis danny that’s
what’s happening
your resin is breaking down due to the
over 1 ppm
free chlorine in your incoming city
water the chlorine attacks the
polystyrene cross linking in the resin
beads causing its moisture content to
rise in the beads to swell
the beads start to break and get washed
out with the backwash reducing overall
capacity
i prescribe replacing the resin as soon
as possible
i see is there anything we can do to
prevent the new resin from degrading the
same way
that’s a great question while there’s
really no such thing as a chlorine
resistant softener resin
you can get resins with higher cross
linkings that will withstand the
chlorine oxidation
for longer periods of time you could
also install dechlorination technology
upstream of the water softener such as a
carbon filter
i’ll work up a report on a few options
our software should be on the mend
running a full capacity soon because of
you
thanks dr h2o dusting off her white lab
coat and picking up her black testing
bag
dr h2o replied it’s all in a day’s work
danny
healing water treatment problems is in
my blood
in industrial plants across sprawling
waterton where boilers get upset and
cooling towers operate at fever pitch
one woman has made it her calling to
diagnose their ills to soothe corrosion
mitigate scale disinfect microbes and
save water
drop by drop that woman is dr h2o
best water treater the side of the ohio
one doctor that still makes house calls
powerhouse calls
[Applause]
james it is awesome how you make
learning something new
so much fun i know all of us
in the scaling up nation have enjoyed
the installments of detective h2o and
now
dr h2o this week by the way
dr h2o is played
by james’s daughter so what do you think
she’s going to do when she grows up
unlike many others at least she
knows about the water treatment
industry and she has that as an
option so just like james just like my
father
you never know what’s going to happen
with
the people you invest in with the people
that you tell
about how awesome your job
is folks this isn’t a job this is a
career
and as i’ve said several times i can’t
think
of a better career it was tailor made
for me i have fun every day i get to
learn
something new every day so you never
know what the person you invest in
is going to do in the water treatment
industry
and how they’re going to raise that bar
a job as cool as water treatment needs
something equally as cool
that’s why we’ve designed several water
treatment themed
t-shirts just for you go to
scalinguph2o.com forward slash shop
to see these designs and grab a few
we plan on releasing new designs every
few months
so if you like it get it now it might
not be there later
go to scalinguph2o.com forward slash
shop
to get yours today
nation there’s so many ways to define an
industrial
water treater i know it’s hard enough
when we talk to ourselves to define
what we do across different industrial
water treatment industries
well folks it is even harder for our
spouses and our kids to
understand what it is that we do but
they try
and here they are trying to explain what
we do
as industrial water
does traders and plays with water
and she also
does work on computers and work on her
phone and um
i really like my mom because she’s nice
and a great mom mommy and daddy do at
work all day
i didn’t know my
dad sells pumps noah what i do for a
living
you clean water and have fun
that’s about right yeah but that’s all
my name is dj my head is mark lewis he
is a water treater
he taught mr trace everything he knows
how funny was that so some a little
closer than others
and some maybe we need to take their
definitions of what they think it is
that we do
nation it’s been my hope that you have
enjoyed industrial water week
that you have reached out to someone and
let them know that we have a holiday
that we celebrate the first
full week in october and we are going to
do the same thing
next year don’t know how we’re going to
top this one but
we will i promise that’s next year’s
problem but we will figure it out
we’re going to need your help to do it
so even more
interaction next year for those of you
that are continuing to hashtag
iw20 thank you so
much for that thank you for all the
comments that people have been sending
thank you for the cake pictures i love
that people are trying to make the water
cake i love that you’re getting behind
the history of the water cake why the
water cake
is symbolic of us as industrial water
treaters
so thank you for all of that and folks i
am sorry to say but we are now
going to close the ceremonies
of industrial water week so just
like we opened up the industrial water
week with james mcdonald
james mcdonald has the honor of closing
our ceremonies so here’s james
hello scaling up nation this is james
mcdonald
as this third annual industrial water
week comes to a close
i want to thank each and every one of
you for celebrating
in some way whether you’re shared in on
the celebration on social media
with co-workers friends or family or if
you joined in your hearts
celebrating industrial water week is
ultimately about celebrating
you i am proud to count you all in my
list of colleagues
and even though we should really
celebrate our noble profession
every day of the year i look forward to
celebrating the next industrial water
week with you on october 4th
through 8th 2021 happy industrial water
week
james thank you for that thank you for
coming up with the idea that we
industrial water treaters need a holiday
and doing all the things
that you had to do to get this to be an
official
holiday how cool is that we’re going to
figure out what we’re going to do
next year to celebrate this now it’s not
over yet we still have plenty of friday
left
so if you haven’t made the cake download
the water cake recipe from the show
notes page
make sure that you’re hashtagging some
pictures folks if you didn’t hashtag
some pictures of boilers or cooling
towers
go ahead and make up for that today go
ahead and send those to
iw20 and folks i am just
so excited to be a water treater i am
excited that we have this
podcast that we call scaling up
h2o and within this podcast
we created not only an audience but
a community and of course that community
is the scaling up nation
and when i think of the scaling up
nation i think of all of the
tens of thousands of water treaters that
are a member of the scaling up nation
that we know on our hardest day out
there as an industrial water treater
that we are experiencing something that
somebody else is probably going through
as well we are not alone we are part of
a community
and folks we are industrial
water treaters now i’m going to end this
episode
just like i did all the other episodes
so here’s today’s quote by mahatma
gandhi you must not lose faith
in humanity humanity is an ocean
if a few drops of the ocean are dirty
the ocean does not become dirty
with all the things that are going on
today
how much sense does that make folks
i will talk with you next friday
with a brand new episode continue to
post on social media by hashtagging iw20
i want to see those cakes i want to see
that equipment that you’re so proud of
folks have a great week be safe see you
next friday