Sedimented CaCO3 scale produced from high-purity
supersaturated solution in a once through system

Sedimented scale formed from the same solution after
placing the flow path into a high gauss magnetic field

Water (H2O) is the third most common molecule in the Universe (after Hydrogen and Carbon dioxide), the most abundant substance on earth and the only naturally occurring inorganic liquid. Water molecules ionize endo-thermically due to electric field fluctuations caused by nearby dipole resulting from thermal effects; a process that is facilitated by exciting the Hydroxyl Ions which may separate but normally recombine within a few femto seconds. Rarely (about once every eleven hours per molecule at 25°C, or less than once a week at 0°C) the localized hydrogen bonding arrangement breaks before allowing the separated ions to return and the pair of ions (H+, OH-) hydrate independently and continue their separate existence for about 70 ms. As this brief period is much longer than the timescales encountered during investigations into water’s hydration properties, water is usually treated as a permanent structure.

Hydrogen bonding occurs when an atom of hydrogen is attracted by rather strong forces to two atoms instead of only one, so that it may be considered to be acting as a bond between them. In water the hydrogen atom is covalently attached to the oxygen of a water molecule (about 492 kJ mol-1 but has an additional attraction (about 23.3 kJ mol-1 to a neighboring oxygen atom of another water molecule (about 1.3 kJ mol-1). Whilst the molecular movements within water require the constant breaking and reorganization of individual hydrogen bonds on a pico second timescale, it is theorized that the instantaneous degree of bonding is very high (>95%, at about 0°C to about 85% at 100°C and gives rise to extensive networks, aided by bonding cooperatively. There is likely to be a temperature-dependent competition between the ordering effects of hydrogen bonding and the disordering kinetic effects.

The hydrogen bonding patterns are random in water; for any water molecule chosen at random, there is equal probability (50%) that the four hydrogen bonds (i.e. the two hydrogen donors and the two hydrogen acceptors) are located at any of the four sites around the oxygen. Water molecules surrounded by four hydrogen bonds tend to clump together, forming clusters, for both statistical and energetic reasons. Hydrogen bonded chains (i.e. O-H····O-H····O) are cooperative; the breakage of the first bond is the hardest, and then the next one is weakened, and so on. Thus unzipping may occur with complex macromolecules held together by hydrogen bonding, e.g. nucleic acids. A strong base at the end of a chain may strengthen the bonding further. The cooperative nature of the hydrogen bond means that acting as an acceptor strengthens the water molecule acting as a donor. However, there is an anti-cooperative aspect in so far as acting as a donor weakens the capability to act as another donor, e.g. O····H-O-H····O. It is clear therefore that a water molecule with two hydrogen bonds where it acts as both donor and acceptor is somewhat stabilized relative to one where it is either the donor or acceptor of two. Breaking one bond weakens those around whereas making one bond strengthens those around and this, therefore, encourages larger clusters, for the same average bond density. However, this bonding sequence is interrupted by the strong electro magnetic field generated by EcoBeam XL wherein not only the larger molecular structures of up to 300 molecules containing dissolved solids break into smaller ones but also create ions that result in pure water molecular clusters that reject dissolved solids. Weak hydrogen-bonding surfaces restrict the hydrogen-bonding potential of adjacent water so that these make fewer and weaker hydrogen bonds. As hydrogen bonds strengthen each other in a cooperative manner, such weak bonding also persists over several layers and causes locally changed solvency. Hydrogen bonding carries information about solutes and surfaces over significant distances in liquid water. In case of EcoBeam XL it is likely to last beyond 72 hours unless no major changes are brought in the equilibrium through turbulence. In high temperature, the precipitation of dissolved solids is accelerated. It is this complex process that plays a role in altering the crystalline behavior of dissolved solids, prevention of scale and corrosion in water systems, better hydration and solvency of drinking water, enhanced infra red permeability, better heat exchange, less surface tension, lower working pressures for membranes and long life of reverse osmosis systems.

Cations may induce strong cooperative hydrogen bonding around them due to the polarization of water O-H by cation-lone pair interactions (Cation+····O-H····O-H). Total hydrogen bonding around ions may be disrupted however as if the electron pair acceptance increases (e.g. in water around cations) so the electron pair donating power of these water molecules is reduced; with opposite effects in the hydration water around anions. These changes, in the relative hydration ability of salt solutions are responsible for the swelling and de-swelling behavior of hydrophilic polymer gels. Additional ions created through EcoBeam XL makes ion exchange systems more efficient with lesser contact times.