HIX Resins

Overview

 

Drinkwell is proud to offer "HIX" (Hybrid Ion Exchange), a patented nanotechnology-based resin platform capable of consistently removing arsenic and fluoride from the world's most challenges waters thanks to a unique zirconium-based product composition which has a 10x higher affinity for selectively removing impurities such as arsenic and fluoride relative to existing solutions. Zirconium, the 21st most abundant element in the world, is stable, chemically innocuous and non-hazardous. Nanoparticles of zirconium oxide (ZrO2) have unique sorption properties to bind a variety of trace contaminants including arsenic, fluoride, phosphate and lead. We have developed a process to disperse ZrO2 nanoparticles within the gel phase of an anion exchanger with quaternary ammonium functional group. The resulting hybrid ion exchanger, referred to as HIX-NanoZr, is a robust sorbent material that is also amenable to regeneration and reuse:

  • 100% of HIX's raw materials are sourced locally in India, and a batch of resin can last 5 - 10 years before needing to be replaced. This is a dramatic increase in lifetime relative to existing options which run for 6-12 months.

  • Both HIX-NanoZr and HIX-NanoFe are now commercial materials and over one million people around the world drink arsenic- and fluoride-safe water through use of these sorbents.

Brackish water desalination plants are mostly located inland and must resort to expensive concentrate disposal methods like deep well injection or evaporation ponds. Increasing the recovery of RO process would obviously reduce the volume of concentrate to be disposed of but cannot be implemented due to scaling of sulfate (CaSO4, BaSO4, etc.) and silica (SiO2) resulting in fouling of RO membranes. We have developed a Hybrid Ion Exchange-Reverse Osmosis (HIX-RO) process where tunable anion exchange resins can eliminate sulfate precipitation and silica fouling without addition of external regenerants or anti-scaling chemicals.

Features

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