Puffing as a totally green method for monitoring of hot/cold lime softening process

Hot/cold lime softening process (LSP) is an established process for water conditioning. LSP is currently monitored with various chemical analyses such as measuring simple and total alkalinities, pH, and hardness of softened water. The current monitoring is a labor-intensive task, which consumes various chemicals and generates a considerable amount of chemical wastewater during daily routine tests. Experiences in many industrial softeners show that the results of the traditional chemical method are not often conclusive. In this work, the weakness of the current chemical method for LSP monitoring has been experimentally verified and the effectiveness of an eco-friendly clean technology, based on puffing, has been introduced. The new method functions via comparing the measured electrical conductivities of softened water before and after puffing. As a totally green method, it has several advantages such as lack of need for any chemical reagent, easy and reliable testing, significant reduction in test costs, and chemical wastes compared to the conventional chemical method.