NOTTINGHAM, UK, May 6, 2009 -- The Royal Military College of Science in Shrivenham, also known as
CranfieldUniversity, has long been considered a centre of academic excellence, offering the expertise of both academia and officers of the British Armed Forces in the teaching of Defence Management, Science and Technology. The
RoyalMilitaryCollege’s Centre for Defence Chemistry has an extensive range of well-equipped laboratories offering facilities for all aspects of teaching and research into the chemical sciences. A regular supply of distilled water is essential in all chemistry laboratories, and the
RoyalMilitaryCollege is no exception, with the chemistry lab producing its own distilled water from domestic water using electrically heated 10-litre stills. Being in a hard water area, the scientists at the
RoyalMilitaryCollege found that lime scale deposits were building up rapidly on the stills, resulting in them becoming less effective. To combat the lime scale problem, the stills were regularly dismantled, and acid was used to remove the scale from the glass vessels and heating elements. Repeated acid cleaning, however, was causing damage to the outer metal surface of each element, making it less effective and reducing its life.