Smile1,
Actually, the point is moot now - since our plant is shutting down due to an acquisition.
But, just to answer the question - it was more cost effective for us to use commercial bleach and simply clean the cooling tower with steam every 3 months. While I would never recommend this...
Not sure about the pH - but I don't think it would take too much bleach, especially industrial grade, to get the required chlorine into the system.
A bit more background - the lab supervisor here and myself decided to experiment with the cooling tower and actually use commercial bleach in it...
Trying to come up with a better system of killing the "bugs" in our cooling tower. A number of vendors all tout their chemicals - some are oxidizers, some not.
I mentioned just pumping industrial bleach, which is significantly cheaper than any of the other options, and have never...
Have you considered using a coalescer to remove the water? You could pump the HC/Water mixture through some type of filter/mesh and allow the water (since it is heavier) to drain to a lower section of the coalescer to be pumped away, while the HC pump straight through and are sent out through...