Cooling Tower Water Treatment with polymers 1

[Catec]

I recently heard of a polymer for use in cooling towers that can sequester Ca & Mg to allow much higher cycles of concentration in the tower. This polymer has a very high bonding factor for these elements which allows the cycles of concentration to approach 40 or 50.
Do you have information on the availability of this product?

 

[bimr]

Talk to one of the chemical suppliers such as Betz or Nalco. The selection of the appropriate chemical treatment program depends on the water analysis, type of tower, and wastewater discharge requirements.

 

[abcmex]

Cycle of concentration up to 50? Wow! it is a really good stuff or snake oil .

Each application is unique and require careful analysis. Ca and Mg are two contaminants but are not the only ones.
Follow the advise of Bimr and consult serious suppliers.

rgs

 

[DeltaCascade]

Yeah ... if you shut in a typical industrial cooling tower's blowdown, even on a calm day, you could only get to about 15 cycles of concentration. That is due to drift, liquid water droplets leaving with warmed air out through the induced draft fan blades... about 0.05 % of recirc flow .. which is about the blowdown for 15 cycles or so.
But, yes ... you gotta be using scale inhibiting polymers and corrosion inhibitors .. polymers will be a sound investment unless your make-up water is way too soft (eg: the BC coast?)
Cheers//

 

[EMKWR]

It is indeed possible to go to 10-15 cycles in case feed water is used which already has low concentrations of Mg and Ca. It is however the question what is the point of this. The amount of water which is saved is low and at a certain point the costs of chemicals will increase drastically. In practice 5-10 cycles is a more practical value.

Edwin Muller
KW2 Burau Veritas
edwin.muller@nl.bureauveritas.com

 

[lastone]

The other important thing to keep in mind is what other ions are in the water that might not be sequestered? The one particular thing that comes to mind is the amount of silica. It is true that there are technologies that can do an excellent job of sequestering the Ca and Mg, however, I do not think that there is any proven polymer that "locks up" silica to any appreciable extent. Although it isn't extremely easy to clean tubes fouled with Ca and Mg hardness, at least you can do it. If you precipitate out a nice fine layer of silica on your exchangers you are really in trouble. Listen to DeltaCascade, abcmex, EMKW2, and bimr and follow the advice of one of your "major" water-treatment companies. In my opinion, this isn't something you want to mess with.