Maintaining Water
Quality
Air quality at any
particular site can be the cause of serious adverse effects on
both cooling tower longevity and its ability to function
thermally, complicated by an undesirable and unpredictable change
in water quality. Cooling towers are extremely effective air
washers and the technological advances which are intended to
improve their thermal performance also serve to increase their air
washing efficiency. Consequently the quality of the water being
circulated over a tower quickly reflects the quality of the air
with which it is in intimate contact. The air exits a cooling
tower much cleaner than it enters. This constant washing of the
incoming air plus the base characteristics of the make-up water
supply are the parameters which establish the ultimate quality of
the continuously re-circulated water stream complicated by the
fact that the process of evaporation has the ability to cause
incoming contaminant levels to concentrate tremendously. ln order
to establish a basis for the utilization of standard construction
materials the following "normal" water conditions have become
arbitrarily defined:
-
A
circulating water with a pH between 6 and 8; a chloride content
(as NaCl) below 750 ppm; a sulphate content (SO4) below 1200 ppm;
a sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3) content below 200 ppm; a maximum
temperature of 120 F; no significant contamination with unusual
chemicals or foreign substances: and adequate water treatment to
minimize corrosion and scaling.
-
-
Chlorine,
if used, added intermittently with a free residual not to exceed
1 ppm maintained for short periods.
An
atmosphere surrounding the tower no worse than moderate
Industrial where rainfall and fog are only slightly acid
and
do not contain
significant chlorides or hydrogen sulfide (H2S).
-
Water conditions
falling outside these limits would warrant an investigation of the
combined effect of all the constituents on each component
material. In many cases it will be found that very few components
require a change in materials. Wood and plastic components for
example are very tolerant of chemical excursions far beyond these
limits. Conversely carbon steel items are relatively unforgiving
of all but the most limited variations.
Some of the most glaring effects of EcoBeam XL
are: -
·
Removal of already existing scales in the outlet and return pipes
·
Removal of scale from the cooling tower honeycomb
·
Removal of scale and algae from the cooling tower sump
·
Elimination of scale build-up
·
Quicker and more economical heat exchange
·
Soft behavior of water
·
Prevention of corrosion in pipe lines and equipment
·
Magnetically structured non invasive water
·
Stabilization of pH
·
Micro organism control
·
Preventing incoming dust from the air to combine with scales to
form hard cakes and flakes
View of
a Cooling
Tower in Japan, Compressor & Heat Exchanger of a co-generation
plant in Japan and an offshore oil rig with EcoBeam XL
Applications in Indonesia
Read More Related Topics:
Cooling Towers I
Heat Exchangers
Evaporators & Distillers I
Blow Down
I
Scale Preventions
I
Corrosion Control I
Control of Biological Growth
I
Fuel I
Water Treatment |