There are several things that you are going to need to think about when it comes to Brine used for Industrial Applications.
Hard water region
The first thing is that you are going to want to make sure that the facility is located in the hard water region. The hardness of the water is going to be based on the amount of dissolved minerals that are inside of the water. If there is a high mineral content, then it is going to indicate that the water is going to have a high hardness level. This might not always a health hazard, but the hard water is going to have a negative effect on industrial appliances. This is going to be especially true when it comes to a scale build up. This will reduce the efficiency and life of the equipment like the boilers, chillers, and the plumbing systems.
Salt usage
The second thing is the amount of salt that the facility is going to be expected to use. Therefore, if you know that your facility is going to use about 50 tons or more of the bagged salt a year in order to soften the water, then it is going to be a good idea to use a bulk brine system. This means that you will be able to get a return on your investment in three years. This is because you are going to be converting from the bagged salt to the bulk salt. Therefore, it is going to lower some of your operational costs. It is also going to help to eliminate the employee risk along with being able to reduce the carbon footprint of the facility.
Logistics
The third thing is the salt storage and logistics of the facility. It does not matter how much of the salt that the facility uses, the facility is going to need to consider the storage of the large and heavy pallets of salt. A typical pallet is going to have 49 bags that will weight about 50 lbs a piece. Therefore, it is going to cause some issues with the face storage of the facility. But some of the other things that you are going to need to think about is the logistical problems of the facility. It is going to take a lot of manual labor to move a lot of salt around from one site to all of the different locations that it is going to need to go to. The bulk brine systems will be able to supply a variety of different locations that will automatically eliminate the need for humans to be involved in the situation.
Design Challenges
The fourth thing is the design challenges of the mechanical room. Most of the time, the mechanical room is not going to be designed with a water conditioning system. Therefore, the system is going to be placed in a hard to reach area that is going to be very inconvenient to the facility. This means that the salt cannot be stored near the system. Some of the other factors that you will need to consider are the distance and elevation differences.
This can be very challenging for all of the employees who are constantly having to replenish the salt supply. This is going to be especially true if they are having to move the smaller quantities of salt from the storage and having to distribute them throughout the facility. The brine system will not need to be located near the water conditioner so it can be outside if it is going to work better for the facility.