Industry uses water every day for heating, cooling, cleaning, a product component, and more. This includes manufacturing, commercial, institutional, healthcare, food & beverage, hospitality, power generation, and other industrial-sized users. The unique properties of water along with its plentiful supply in many areas makes it both an invaluable and irreplaceable resource. While oil lubricates the wheels of industry, water is its lifeblood.

Water is a vital part of today’s industrial and digital economy. Used to provide cooling, heating, power, and even as a product component, water systems come with both challenges and opportunities. When considering industrial water treatment opportunities, one must evaluate not only their merits but also their associated costs. Calculating the Return on Investment (ROI) is a tool that can help justify the positive benefits of proceeding forward.

Water treatment products help control scale deposits, minimize corrosion, and in some applications fight unwanted microbiological activity. Not only is selecting the proper products vital for a successful water treatment program but understanding how they behave and how that relates to controlling them is equally as important.

Cooling tower systems can be ideal environments for unwanted microbiological activity to flourish. They offer warm, wet conditions with food sources coming from the air and sometimes even process contamination. This microbiological activity can lead to corrosion, reduced heat transfer, blockages, and even illness.

In the realm of industrial water treatment, maintaining the purity of condensate is paramount for the efficient operation of steam-boiler systems. Condensate is the hot, high-purity water produced as a byproduct of condensing steam in various industrial processes. It is very valuable but can contain impurities that, if left untreated, can lead to detrimental effects on equipment and operations.

A recently released CDC study (Surveillance of Waterborne Disease Outbreaks Associated with Drinking Water — United States, 2015–2020) found that out of 214 outbreaks associated with drinking water over the study period, 87% were associated with biofilms. Although 214 outbreaks over 5 years may appear to be a small number, it is important to consider the impact. 

Cooling towers use makeup water to replace the water lost through evaporation and blowdown, as shown in Figure 1 below.  Typically, city or well water is used.  The quantity and quality of these waters can be easily measured with water meters and analytical equipment. 

As steam is used in a process and gives up its heat energy, it becomes a liquid called condensate. This condensate is an exceptionally valuable resource that is typically designed to be recovered and used back into the boiler system.

A properly functioning deaerator is critical to the protection of steam boiler systems. Venting is important for the proper operation of a deaerator. Routine monitoring of venting can provide clues for identifying and solving potential problems. When deaerators have issues, they send out distress signals for all to see, but so often they are overlooked. The vent is rarely where it can be conveniently observed and in many cases it isn’t even visible. The vent’s physical layout can tell you a lot, but the venting can tell a story like no other.

Steam boiler systems provide energy to a variety of commercial, institutional, and industrial applications. Properly treated water is necessary for reliable and efficient operation of these systems. Water treatment control ranges for steam boilers can vary based upon the makeup water quality, boiler design, operating pressure, steam requirements, and steam quality/purity needs.