CuLator Chemistry

[SunnyOptimism]

I'm interested in the chemistry here. When the iron ion is removed, what replaces it?

With ascorbic acid and sequestrants (probably based on EDTA chemistry) these are simply chelating agents, the Fe2+ or Fe3+ ion has a greater affinity for the chelating agent than, say, the wall of your pool. The iron never leaves the water, it's just bound up in it.

With Fe ion removal, either both the ion and counter ion are removed (perhaps by precipitation of an oxide) or else some other ion is substituted into the water. For example, when your water softener removes Ca from your water, those Ca ions are replaced by sodium.

So where does the iron go?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[JasonLion]

Re: Testing out the Culator...

The CuLator contains beads that bind iron. Once the beads have bound up enough iron you remove the CuLator and throw it away, thus removing the iron.

 

[SunnyOptimism]

Re: Testing out the Culator...

Hmmmmm....I'll have to see if there's an MSDS available although I suspect it will say "trade secret" under the chemical listing.....


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[SunnyOptimism]

Sorry, didn't intend to hijack the original post. Will try to stay on topic.

Thanks for breaking this off and moving it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[JasonLion]

The MSDS says poly-octadecylbutanedioate 100%

There is also a patent.

 

[TreeFiter]

If I were to guess, it serves as a nucleation site for iron oxides. This would account for the color change they talk about.

 

[SunnyOptimism]

I read through the patent a bit. It's actually a fairly versatile polymer based chelation agents. It appears it can be modified to have either sodium or potassium ions on its carboxylic acid sites or be in an acidic form and retain hydrogen on those sites. So it can act like an ion exchange resin, taking on the metal ion and releasing K or Na. Or it can just chelate the metal and bind to it

If there were some way to get the material in bulk, you could build a larger volume filter out of it similar to the garden hose filters. That would allow one to do a greater amount of metal filtration.

All in all, I think if I had a metal problem, I'd prefer metal removal to sequestration but that could get cost prohibitive.

TreeFitter,

Best if luck to you in solving those pool water metal issues. Sounds like you'll need a variety of methods to get it under control.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk