Smart Storm are delighted to have reached the finals of the Water Industry Awards 2023. Our innovative CO2 inline pH balancer, The Neutralizer, which requires no hazardous chemicals or batch treatment, has been shortlisted in the Pollution Mitigation Category. The NeutraliZer was designed by Smart Storm founder Dr John Duffy for the Construction Industry, and is wholly manufactured by Smart Storm in the UK.
Read more about the NeutraliZer below or contact us today to speak to our friendly engineers about our pH balancing solutions.
In-Line pH Balancing For Concrete Washout Water
Designed and Manufactured by Smart Storm, The NeutraliZer™ is a wholly unique, mobile, in-line treatment plant, that uses CO2 to continuously neutralise high alkaline concrete washout water, this equipment is unlike any other product on the market.
The concrete wash water issue
The pH of concrete wash water from construction and building sites is highly caustic (pH 12-14), which makes it extremely damaging to the environment if discharged to the watercourse. It is also illegal to discharge without an acceptable pH level (usually 6-9). This also applies to concrete wagon washouts to sewer and surface drains, where it is usually illegal to discharge below pH 6 and above pH 10.
It is not practical to simply dilute the concrete washout with clean water, as 10,000 litres of clean water would be required to reduce 1 litre of concrete wash water down from pH 13 to pH 9. Standard practice in industrial effluent control uses acids, e.g., Hydrochloric, Sulphuric or Nitric to neutralise the caustic effluent streams via batch treatment.
Building and construction sites are often confined in working area, with many moving vehicles, and so use of acid for pH neutralisation is extremely hazardous, requiring safe handling and storage, and presenting considerable Health and Safety risks on site. These methods of pH balancing are usually static, require time consuming batch processing, occupy a large footprint, are labour intensive and are not very mobile.
CO2 as Concrete Washout Treatment
CO2 for pH balancing has been in use for other applications, but never used before to neutralise highly caustic concrete runoff on a continuous flow basis. Many months of time and dedication spent on research and development by Smart Storm into In-line mixing technology, resulted in the innovative ‘NeutraliZer’.
The standard method of using CO2 to neutralise concrete wash water uses a batch system where CO2 is blown into a tank, and once the correct pH is reached the CO2 is turned off, and the wash water released. This process is quite elementary, without any process control. This type of plant occupies a large footprint, and due to the batching process, it can only treat wash water in a non-continuous manner.
Smart Storm’s NeutraliZer™ was designed to provide a simple and efficient alternative to the aforementioned treatment methods and their inherent problems.
The NeutraliZer™ Inline Continuous Flow CO2 Treatment
The NeutraliZer™ works by first monitoring the caustic washout with Smart Storm’s USM pH meter, and based on these readings, carbon dioxide (CO2) is automatically dissolved into the wash water flow to reduce the pH to a safe level for discharge; all this happens on a continuous flow basis.
A flow meter monitors the effluent leaving the unit, which can treat up to 25m3 of wastewater per hour. CO2 dissolved in water is slightly acidic so is ideal for neutralising concrete wash water and CO2 self-buffers so cannot overdose no matter how much is injected.
The Neutralizer comes with an IOT remote monitoring system as standard so the user can monitor 24/7 the status of the pH balancing and show compliance with logs and graphs to regulatory bodies, such as the EA, Natural Resources Wales and SEEPA.
Key features
- Continuous processing system – advanced in-line mixer
- Skid-mounted and highly mobile – small footprint
- No hazardous chemicals or batch treatment
- Fully automated with alarm beacons (pH/out of gas)
- Rugged construction
- Simple to install and user-friendly – Plug and Go!
- In-built storage for 8 gas bottles
- Integral flowmeter
- Remote Cloud-based monitoring
- Up to 25m3/h flow rate
Applications
- Construction and building sites
- Concrete wagon wash outs
- Mining
- Quarrying
- Demolition sites
- Concrete paving and brick manufacturing
- Mortar bucket wash outs
Call Smart Storm today on +44 (0)1422 363462 or email enquiries@smartstormgroup.com to enquire about purchase or hire of The Neutralizer pH Balancing Unit
