Iron Removal and Manganese Removal

We supply / manufacture units which will remove iron and/or manganese, from Household to small municipal systems. Please call for details.

Iron and manganese are minerals found in drinking water supplies. These minerals will not harm you, but they may be objectionable due to taste, odour and turbidity problems in water. They can also cause reddish-brown or black stains on clothes or household fixtures. Health Canada sets the aesthetic objective for manganese in drinking water at =0.02 mg/L and iron at =0.3 mg/L.

Iron and Manganese can be removed from water by using a media that encourages reaction between the contaminant and oxygen present in water. This reaction forms an insoluble precipitate which can then be physically filtered out by the media bed. The media acts "catalytically", which means that although it triggers the reaction it is not used up as part of the process, thus giving long life from a single filter.

Choosing the best treatment for iron or manganese removal depends not only on the form of the iron or manganese present, but also on how much of the contaminant is present, the hardness of the water, temperature variations, and the water's pH (acidity or alkalinity) level. A choice of media are available, depending upon the chemical makeup of the water, a thorough water analysis is required before a suitable solution can be offered.

The media most commonly used are:

BIRM, which gives good removal at a relatively low cost. Generally suited to waters that would be considered hard in nature, its performance is adversely affected by the presence of chlorine, organic contaminants and some chemical treatments. Period backwashing is required.

MANGANESE GREENSAND, generally only used in industry for iron and manganese removal, as it requires chemical regeneration (with Potassium Permanganate) to restore its activity.

MTM generally only used in industry for iron and manganese removal, as it requires chemical regeneration (with Potassium Permanganate) to restore its activity.