Understanding How ORP Is Used in Cooling Water Treatment

Understanding How ORP Is Used in Cooling Water Treatment

Properly measuring ORP (Oxidation-Reduction Potential) and understanding its limitations when used to monitor and control oxidizing biocide feed is important to minimize the potential for increased corrosion rates, excessive chemical feeds, and biofouling.

How Boiler Water Treatment Affects Hospital Steam Purity

  • 12 April 2022
  • Author: Kevin Blake
  • Number of views: 4589
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How Boiler Water Treatment Affects Hospital Steam Purity

Steam Purity is a measure of all contaminants in steam, with high-purity steam containing only trace amounts of contamination. Maintaining high steam purity is important in many industries, but there are few applications where it is more critical than in healthcare facilities that use plant steam for surgical instrument sterilization and/or operating room humidification. In a hospital, any contaminants in the steam could potentially interfere with proper sterilization as well as be inhaled by hospital patients, staff, and visitors. Understanding how and where to add the water treatment chemicals and the factors that can cause boiler water carryover will help hospitals ensure that high-purity plant steam is consistently produced.

Reducing Water Costs in Building HVAC Systems

  • 5 April 2022
  • Author: Chem-Aqua, Inc
  • Number of views: 3068
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Reducing Water Costs in Building HVAC Systems

The HVAC system is the largest user of energy and water in typical commercial buildings. In the past, energy costs overshadowed water costs. Recent droughts and the need to expand municipal water supplies to support growth have led to increased water costs nationwide. Combined with the focus on water conservation in green buildings, the payback associated with reducing building water usage is greater than ever. Most commercial buildings use water cooled chillers to provide air conditioning because they are much more energy efficient than air-cooled chillers. Achieving these efficiencies, however, requires large quantities of water to operate a cooling tower. Most buildings also use re-circulating hot and chilled water loops to distribute heating and cooling throughout the building. Although not designed to routinely use water, these systems can use large amounts of water if undetected leaks occur. As the major consumer of water, the building HVAC system is an obvious target for water conservation efforts and often provides significant saving.

Biofilm Challenges in Breweries

  • 2 February 2022
  • Author: Chem-Aqua, Inc
  • Number of views: 4420
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Biofilm Challenges in Breweries

Breweries are obsessive about hygiene. The management of bacterial growth throughout the whole process is thoroughly monitored on a daily basis in a brewery since the consequences of bacterial action can include: off-taste, appearance change, and unpleasant odors. That’s just the product. Bacterial growth involves the formation of biofilms, which is the primary mode of survival and proliferation for microorganisms leading also to fouling and corrosion of equipment. The impact can be huge on the operations in many ways: cost of production, increased water and energy usage, production yield, commercial reputation, etc. A responsive “Get Clean, Keep Clean” approach can help breweries avoid these problems.

The Relationship Between Biocide Contact Time and Holding Time

  • 23 November 2021
  • Author: Chem-Aqua, Inc
  • Number of views: 8952
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The Relationship Between Biocide Contact Time and Holding Time

Microbiological problems in cooling water systems cost businesses billions of dollars each year due to high energy costs, production losses, unscheduled maintenance, and replacement of corroded parts. Poor microbiological control can also lead to unsafe operating conditions, such as contamination by the bacterium that causes Legionnaires’ disease. While this article focuses on biocide contact time, there are many factors to consider when choosing the correct biocide, including:

How Do Adiabatic Cooling Systems Work?

  • 9 November 2021
  • Author: Chem-Aqua, Inc.
  • Number of views: 15265
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How Do Adiabatic Cooling Systems Work?

In terms of raw energy efficiency and the ability to provide precise cooling under fluctuating load conditions, recirculating evaporative cooling water systems with chillers or heat pumps are the most efficient way to remove heat from a process or building air. However, adiabatic cooling systems can be a good fit with an overall lower cost for heat removal in some climates and applications.

Managing Oxygen Corrosion in Craft Brewery Steam Boilers

Managing Oxygen Corrosion in Craft Brewery Steam Boilers

The pandemic has been challenging for many small brewers. Although draft beer sales in the US were down more than 40% in 2020, the number of craft breweries increased to an all-time high of 8,764. The popularity of these smaller breweries shows their resilience to weathering the worst of economic conditions. Although each brewery has a unique brewing style and operation, they all require the use of steam to brew. Proper boiler operation and maintenance is important to ensure an uninterrupted steam supply during brews. However, due to how small breweries operate, effectively managing oxygen corrosion can be very challenging.

Why Water Needs To Be Treated

  • 5 October 2021
  • Author: Chem-Aqua, Inc
  • Number of views: 4119
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Why Water Needs To Be Treated

Water treatment makes good economic sense. An effective water treatment program helps maximize the life, efficiency, reliability, and safety of boiler and cooling systems and minimizes total operating costs. Water treatment only represents a small percentage of the costs associated with operating a boiler or cooling system. However, this small percentage dramatically influences the total operating costs (fuel, water, maintenance, and labor).

Normalization: Understanding Your RO Membrane Conditions

  • 10 August 2021
  • Author: Robert Lynch
  • Number of views: 8406
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Normalization: Understanding Your RO Membrane Conditions

Reverse Osmosis (RO) is a water treatment technology that separates dissolved contaminants from water by using specially-designed membranes. RO membranes are semi-permeable which only allow “pure” water to permeate through them while removing the vast majority of dissolved solids from the feedwater stream. RO applications can include drinking water production, power generation, steam boiler pretreatment, wastewater treatment, and the manufacturing of beverage, semiconductor, and pharmaceutical products.

Water Treatment for Evaporative Condensers

Important Differences You Need To Know

  • 11 May 2021
  • Author: Tim Daniels
  • Number of views: 9096
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Water Treatment for Evaporative Condensers

Evaporative condensers are commonly used for heat rejection in low temperature ammonia refrigeration applications in cold storage and food processing plants. Although often confused with standard cooling towers, there are some key differences between evaporative condensers and the cooling tower systems used in HVAC applications. Understanding these differences and the challenges they present is important for water treatment program success.

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