Regeneration

in general, includes the backwash, brine, and fresh water rinse steps, necessary to prepare a water softener exchange bed for service after exhaustion. Specifically, the term may be applied to the ‘brine’ step in which the sodium chloride solution is passed through the exchanger bed. The term may also be used for similar operations relating to the demineralizers and certain filters.

Definitioner

Sodium Chloride: the chemical name for common salt, used in regeneration.
Sodium: an ion found in natural water supplies, and introduced to water in the ion exchange water softening process.
Exhaustion: the state of an ion exchange material in which it is no longer capable of effective function due to the depletion of the initial supply of exchangeable ions; the exhaustion point may be defined in terms of a limiting concentration of matter in the effluent, or in the case of demineralization, in terms of electrical conductivity.
Brine: a strong solution of salts, such as the sodium chloride brine used in the regeneration of ion exchange water softeners, but also applied to the mixed sodium, calcium and magnesium chloride waste solution from regeneration.
Bed: the ion exchange or filter media in a column or other tank or operational vessel.
Backwash: The process in which beds of filter or ion exchange media are subjected to flow opposite to the service flow direction to loosen the bed and to flush suspended matter, collected during the service run, to waste.