Back to Basics
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 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.
The term “cycles of concentration” is the basis for one of the most important concepts in industrial water treatment. The cycles of concentration measure the degree to which the solid impurities in the makeup water are concentrated in the recirculating water of an evaporative system. The higher this ratio, the more the impurities in the makeup water are being concentrated in the system water. This directly impacts the system’s water usage and treatment requirements along with the potential for waterside problems to occur, such as scale deposits and corrosion.
Solid Water Treatment Programs
Cooling towers, steam boilers, and recirculating closed loop systems require effective water treatment chemistry for reliable and efficient operation. Liquid treatment chemicals are traditionally used because they are easier to manufacture and add to systems, but liquids aren’t always the best fit and present safety and environmental concerns that are often overlooked.
The Importance of Managing Biofilm
Where there is water, there is life. This includes cooling, chilled, process, and drinking water systems that facilities use every day. This life not only exists within the bulk water but sets up home on the surfaces of the water-related equipment, such as heat exchangers, piping, and basin walls. We call this deposit biofilm.
Using Pretreatment Equipment to Remove Problem Causing Impurities
The quality of water entering a boiler, cooling, or process system can have a significant impact on water, energy, and system efficiency. Raw makeup water can come with many different types of impurities, including dissolved and suspended solids, which can lead to energy-robbing scale deposits and equipment-damaging corrosion. Pretreatment equipment removes unwanted impurities from raw makeup water before they can cause problems in industrial water systems.
For decades, Chem-Aqua has provided custom treatment programs that solve waterside problems and make water systems more efficient. With representation in over 50 countries across the globe, we provide programs for water systems in manufacturing, food and beverage, healthcare, data centers, educational, office, government, and hospitality facilities.
Automating Chemical Feed and Control
Return on investment for a sustainable operation is linked to energy and water savings and ultimately the water treatment program. With increasing energy costs and water scarcity concerns, more than ever, pressure is being placed on facility managers to find ways to reduce usage.
An effective water treatment program is a critical part of the preventative maintenance of boiler and cooling systems. In many cases, the water treatment program can be engineered to improve energy and water efficiency, reduce chemical usage, and optimize results. Automating blowdown, chemical feed and control, and other treatment processes can effectively help make a water treatment program more sustainable.