Removing species: If the first character in the name for a chemical species
is an asterisk (*), the species will not be included in the calculations.
This is a quick method to deactivate a species without having to remove it from the
input data file.
It is convenient to
deactivate species using SPANA.
Note that if you deactivate a component in this way, then only the
free component is removed from the mass balance.
For example, if the components are H+ and
AlOOH(cr) and you deactivate the Al oxyhydroxide by
changing its name to *AlOOH(cr), then you suppress the
precipitation of that solid in the calculations, but aluminium is not
removed: the Al-complexes AlOH2+,
Al(OH)3(cr), etc, still remain.
Example.
Note that some species (H2O, e−
and gases) always have
zero concentration and therefore,
for them it is not necessary to add a * as the
first character.