It is pretty common for industrial companies to use cooling towers in its facility mainly to ensure an efficient process and longer equipment service life. If the water in the cooling tower is left untreated then it is most likely that organic growth, scaling, fouling and corrosion can impact the overall productivity of the plant and result in increased downtime, expensive equipment replacement and reduction in its efficiency.

This is why choosing the best cooling systems water treatment solution is important. In this article, we enumerate everything important to know about cooling tower water treatment systems. Keep reading till the end to learn all about it.

What is a Cooling Tower Water Treatment System?

A cooling tower water treatment system is an arrangement of varied technologies that performs to eliminate damaging impurities from a cooling tower water feed, circulation water, or/and blowdown.

The configuration of a system is specific and depends on many things that includes -

·         Type of cooling tower (open circulating, closed loop or one-through)

·         Quality of water feed

·         Chemistry/makeup of circulatory water

·         Manufacturer suggested quality requirements

·         Discharge regulatory requirements

·         Types of heat exchanger

·         The choice of blowdown treatment for reuse in the cooling tower

·         Cycle of concentration

How Does a Cooling Tower Water Treatment System Operate?

When it comes to cooling tower water treatment systems, understanding the overall work mechanism of it requires you to go through a few important aspects. The water treatment systems that operate on cooling towers are highly effective mainly because they are versatile.

No matter what material it is made of or what style of design it has, there are quite a range of options available that work for the system. Operators have a number of choices that need to be determined by considering a few important factors. Let’s take a look at some of the options available.

Filtration & Ultrafiltration

Filtration systems are some of the most popular and common water treatment options available for cooling towers. Filters may appear like a series of mesh screens or bags. The number of filters and what size it would be must be determined based upon the specific system situation.

The filtration process works by the passage of water through progressively smaller spaces. Each filter unit comprises holes, with the first filter typically being the biggest gaps. As water passes through them, larger particles such as rust, sediment and organic materials get trapped and collected into the mesh filter.

The particles that are smaller continue to pass on. This is why the use of ultrafiltration systems is important as they work to remove all the impurities from the water. As water passes through each stage of filtration and ultrafiltration systems, the filtering mechanism gets more restrictive that works to trap and collect the pollutants.

The use of RO seawater membranes are also used in these filtration systems to treat saline water and make them water free from impurities.

Water Softening & Ion Exchange

The presence of minerals or water hardness have been known to dramatically make an impact on the cooling tower system. This can reduce the lifespan and efficacy of cooling towers. This is why water softening and ion exchange options are introduced.

Experts are often observed to use resin that is charged with sodium ions on hard water. As the water comes in contact with the resin, it releases sodium and quickly grabs the minerals present in water.

This is due to the fact that resin is built to have robust affinity for elements such as magnesium or calcium. Their introduction will enhance the quality of water without mixing any harmful or toxic byproducts.

Makeup Water Intake

Cooling tower loses some of its water to evaporation, leaks and bleeds, this water is what we know as Makeup Water. This water can be drawn from different sources that include city water, surface water and even well water.

The origin of this water and how clean it is already shall determine whether there is need for any water treatment or not at this stage. If the water treatment is required for makeup water then adjusting the water hardness or softness is the most common treatment option.

Balancing the pH of the water is also required in order to prevent any corrosion to the system.

Side-stream Filtration

If the cooling tower utilizes recirculated water, there is a high chance of water being contaminated due to leaks or drifts. This type of water contamination is usually treated with the side-stream filtration option.

It is usually made from a multimedia filtration unit that has the potential of cleaning up to 10% of contaminated water at any given time.

Chemical Addition

Adding suitable treatment chemicals is yet another option that works for cooling systems water treatment. However, choosing this option allows operators to choose the attributes of the water.

Chemicals such as bicarbonate, which is a corrosion inhibitor helps in removing acidity, whereas biocides or algaecides helps in the reduction of biofilms and other natural growth. Operators also have the option of choosing scale inhibitors such as phosphoric acid to remove scaling from the systems.

Blowdown Treatment

Some cooling tower systems choose to utilize recycled or reused water through reverse osmosis. This introduces reused water to new contaminants even when it was cleaned before.

In order to treat such water feed demineralization treatment can be useful that removes the newly introduced contaminants and re-enter the water once again into the process.

If you are looking for the best quality cooling systems water treatment option then make sure to get in touch with a reputable supplier now.