Issues with Industrial cooling towers

Cooling towers are extremely sophisticated devices used in most of the buildings. Industrial cooling towers are used for the air conditioning of the building, for reduction of high temperature of water circulating through the heat exchangers or condensers and returning to the system continuously. When you fail to maintain these cooling towers, several issues arise that have to be handled before it is too late. In this article, we will explain these issues and the ways to overcome from them. Let’s read them and find how to save your cooling tower from sudden breakdown.

The three critical problems occur in any cooling tower are-

• Algae
• Scaling
• Corrosion

Algae are the most general cause of slime problem in open water cooling systems. The top deck of the cooling tower is their favorite place to grow. You can also find them attached to well-ventilated wet walls that obtain some light. Many times algae form a starting point for biofilm to grow. Biofilm along with bacteria is a combination found with algae in a cooling tower.

Related: Industrial Cooling Tower Making Water Conservation Efforts

This natural thing may lead to clogging of tubes, screens, and pipelines. This clogging further leads to loss of heat transfer efficiency and increases operating cost because of higher pumping power requirements. Bacteria that grow along with algae lead to corrosion. Bottom sludge of the tower also contains bacteria and biofilm.

How to treat algae-

Algae are photosynthetic organisms. it can be mainly found in tower deck area because Direct sun light falls across this area and it's growing up. There are main two type of algae found in the cooling tower Green and blue-green algae. 

This algae move foreword and plug distribution nozzles and causing poor water distribution across the tower and hence reduce cooling efficiency.

As per the research, Lagionella bacteria easily found in the domestic and industrial cooling water systems has to be controlled anyway. This bacterial is responsible for Legionnaires’ disease that may cause death of a person. If the cooling tower remains untreated or poorly treated by the team, it may help the bacteria to grow. However, manufacturers of cooling towers have technology that eliminates algae and kills the bacteria faster as compared to chemicals.

Scaling

Most cooling towers and evaporative condensers usually perform evaporation of water in normal way, as a result, absorbing heat from the system. But the issue is pure water evaporates in the process while minerals are left behind. And when fresh water enters it replaces the evaporated water and brings more minerals to the system. When the mineral limit exceeded, the system starts evacuating solids and deposits as scale, on the equipment, inside the condenser.

Scaling is made of salts and minerals, more of calcium and magnesium. When the minerals are high in concentration, scaling is thicker and harder.

Manufacturers use specialized tools to remove the scale in the cooling tower and never bringing it back in the system. Users do not have to use chemicals for treating cooling tower water.

Corrosion

Corrosion happens due to the excessive use of chemicals. However, exporters of industrial cooling tower can help in stopping the corrosion caused by chemical reaction of salts and bacteria with algae in the cooling tower water.

Here are main three type of corrosion occur in the cooling tower

• Pitting

Pitting is a standout amongst the most and damaging kind of Corrosion furthermore is extremely hard to test in research facility. when anodic and cathodic sites get to be fixed because of substantial contrasts in surface conditions.   

• Selective Leaching

Selective Leaching corrosion found on one element of an alloy. One of the example is dezincification in the cooling system. Selective Leaching corrosion  removal of zinc from copper-zinc alloys.

• Galvanic Corrosion

Galvanic Corrosion arise when two different metals are touch each other. galvanic corrosion is the electric potential and it will develop and growth between two metals. This difference increases as the distance between the metals in the galvanic series increases.

You can ask for assistance from Tower tech experts. They will provide you best maintenance services for your cooling tower.

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