COOLING & WATER SYSTEMS

Although water technology in industrial water treatment has made large advances over the past 60 years, the objectives of successful cooling water systems treatment programme have remained the same: extend equipment life and maintain efficient heat transfer. This has been accomplished by minimising corrosion of system metallurgy as well as keeping metal surfaces free from deposition.

Emerging trends in cooling water systems programme are mainly in following areas..

• Use of environmentally safe chemicals.
• Alkaline treatment.
• Health related concerns.
• Automatic dosing and monitoring.

Cooling towers are used by office buildings and manufacturing plants throughout the world to dissipate waste heat from air conditioning, industrial and power generation processes. Re-circulating water transfer thermal energy from the building or industrial process to the atmosphere. Atmosphere air blown through the cooling tower carries away the heat.

Health related concerns
In 1976, there was an outbreak of 221 pneumonia cases associated with an American Legion Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was determined that the bacterium legionella was the causative agent of the outbreak. Since that time Legionellosis or Legionnaires Disease as it is commonly referred to, has been a controversial subject. Outbreaks of legionellosis continue to occur. Since cooling tower systems have been implicated as sources of outbreaks, it is important that water treatment professionals have an understanding of what is known and what is not known about Legionnaires Disease.

So how does Watermation Ltd handle the problem regarding Legionnaires Disease?

Keep the cooling water system operating within the established parameters. The accumulation of suspended matter and organic matter can contribute to the proliferation of legionella. Undertake an effective biocide program that includes two, alternating biocides that function in differing manners.  The control of other microflora within a system can and does have a direct impact upon the growth of legionella.

Monitor levels of other bacteria within the system. Since legionella grows at a rate slower than most other bacteria, it is probable that the system would experience other problems prior to legionella becoming a problem.

Monitoring and Control
The importance of monitoring and control of bacteria levels in cooling water systems, which utilise oxidising biocides such as chlorine, chlorine/bromine, or sodium hypochlorite, is very important. If a true oxydising residual is not maintained, biological deposition and/or under deposit corrosion will occur. If oxydising residuals are too high, corrosion will occur.

Watermation Ltd can assess the condition of your cooling water and make recommendations accordingly.

Our experience over the years has led us to select components that are well made and will give years of trouble-free reliability.

All our fabrications and ancillary working parts are made from either stainless steel or mild steel, whilst pipework, valves and flanges are often from durable plastic materials.