Specialty chemicals company LANXESS launches a new planning tool for the industrial water treatment. The LewaPlus design software is a comprehensive tool for ion exchange resins (IX) and reverse osmosis (RO) membrane systems. LewaPlus allows for dimensioning of IX and RO systems under a variety of system configurations, including some unique process configurations only available with Lewatit and Lewabrane product technology.

The LewaPlus design software provides a number of unique benefits to the designer:

• A new user interface to assist in organization of design project files, and linkage to data sheets and MSDS documentation (for IX)
• A single water analysis data entry screen, with RO scaling calculations, suitable for both IX and RO applications
• Advanced RO system configuration options with automatic calculation of a recommended array for optimization of system sizing
• Immediate calculation of system performance, including feed pressure calculations and permeate quality on a single screen in the RO module
• Output of IX and RO system design parameters and effluent (permeate) quality in an easy to manipulate printed output

The LewaPlus software also allows the designer to conduct both IX and RO designs inside the same program utilizing the same feed water, allowing seamless design of RO permeate to IX feed, or a direct comparison of dimensioning requirements of either technology.

Hardware requirements

LewaPlus is a 32-bit Windows application. It runs on Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows 7. There are no specific hardware requirements, but it is recommended to use a screen size of at least 1024 x 768 pixels.

Detailed information can be found on the website www.lewabrane.com.

Notice to Lewatit software users

The former Lewatit 4.17 design software has no expiration date, and can be used indefinitely. However, LANXESS will no longer support this software after December 31, 2012. The master data for the current Lewatit 5.0 software will expire on August 31, 2012. After that date, the Lewatit 5.0 software will no longer function. Alan Sharpe, Project Manager in the LANXESS Ion Exchange business unit, says: “We highly recommend that users apply for a new LewaPlus license to allow usage of the combined and improved Lewatit ion exchange and Lewabrane RO design software.”