Magnetic Treatment of Water Systems

the process of changing the properties of industrial water, aqueous solutions, and suspensions by passing them through a magnetic field.

Magnetic treatment of water systems was first used in Belgium in 1945 to reduce the formation of scum in steam boilers. Later, Soviet scientists found that magnetic treatment changes many processes of colloid chemistry. For example, it accelerates the coagulation of suspensions, the wetting of solid surfaces by water, the adsorption of surface-active agents, and the processes of crystallization and solution. The formation of various deposits on solid surfaces (such as the sediments of various salts) may be reduced by means of magnetic treatment. Thousands of magnetic devices are now used in this way in industry. Magnetic treatment improves the removal of suspended matter from water and the processes of concentration of minerals, increases the plasticity of concrete mixes, and increases the strength of concrete, brick, and other products made of binders. The biological properties of treated water also change.

Magnetic treatment is performed by means of apparatus consisting of several pairs of permanent magnets or electromagnets between whose poles the water flows. The efficiency of magnetic treatment depends primarily on the intensity and gradient of the magnetic field, on the flow velocity, and on the composition of the liquid phase of the water system. The change in properties resulting from magnetic treatment is due to the action of the magnetic fields on the impurities contained in the water system.