Water Treatment

Tessenderlo Group is active in the water treatment business with products like ferric chloride, aluminium chloride, sodium hypochlorite and hydrochloric acid.

Water treatment is an important market with strong growth potential due to increased focus on purification of wastewater and the treatment of drinking water.

Applications

Ferric chloride is increasingly being used in water treatment.

In drinking water, ferric chloride allows coagulation and flocculation (hydrolysis of Fe3+ ions leading to the formation of Fe(OH)3).
For wastewater treatment, ferric chloride acts by lowering the phosphate content due to precipitation, by dehydration and by reducing the sulphur content.

Sodium hypochlorite is used in swimming pools to lower the acidity of the water and as a disinfectant, involved in an oxidation reaction with impurities caused by the presence of the swimmers.

Hydrogen chloride or hydrochloric acid is used in swimming pools to adjust the acidity of the water.