Cooling tower operators are under increasing pressure to meet ever more stringent standards of management and control; if you get it wrong it may not just be a case of unnecessarily wasting your maintenance budget, it may result in people contracting legionellosis, which can result in lose of life.
The four main problems associated with cooling tower maintenance are:
•corrosion
•scale
•deposition
•and microbiological growth

All of which must be dealt with for a cooling system to remain clean, efficient and problem free.

 

 

Scotmas biocide treatments will tackle all of the four main problem areas, and keep systems free from dangerous water-borne pathogens, such as Legionella Pneumophila the cause of Legionnaires Disease.

 

Scotmas biocidal treatments will remove and keep surfaces free-from biofilm, reduce scale deposition on cooling system surfaces, and will actively remove existing scale deposits. As a result, heat exchange efficiency will be significantly improved, resulting in energy savings and reducing an organisations carbon footprint. Experience has shown that in some cases Scotmas biocide treatments are the only chemical treatment required to provide clean and efficient cooling tower control.

 

The importance of effective water treatment in cooling towers means that many Governments regulate minimum standards and requirements. In the UK, the HSCs L8 ACOP for Prevention and Control of Legionnaires Disease sets out minimum standards for cooling tower treatment regimes.

 

Biofilms harbour pathogens and protect them from traditional, widely used, biocides. Cooling towers draw in contaminants that circulate in the towers immediate environment. A badly controlled tower can become a source of infection for a wide range of pathogens – including legionella.

 

Biofilms not only provide a safe haven and breeding ground for dangerous pathogens, they also drastically reduce heat-exchange efficiency - resulting in higher cooling tower temperatures, greater evaporative losses, and higher return temperatures - all of which increases the cooling systems operating costs.

 

MIC (Microbiological Influenced Corrosion), caused by sulphate reducing bacteria resident within biofilm, can dramatically increase a cooling systems corrosion rates, reducing the systems serviceable life expectancy. It is widely known that normal condenser-water corrosion rates are around 25 to 125-microns/year, what is not widely known is that MIC corrosion rates can be in the range of 500 to 2500microns per year – that’s up to 2.5mm a year – up to 20x more – a massive increase
 See also
   

BIOX - The Cost Effective Answer

BIOX in cooling towers will provide clean systems that work more efficiently - improvements of up to 40% have been reported.

Cleaner systems allow the use of simpler and less expensive corrosion inhibitors and mud movers, if they are required
Cleaner systems lead to less clean-downs – more up-time & less downtime
Improved microbial control leads to a safer, lower risk cooling system – less hassle
Greater operational efficiency leads to reduced operating expenses
Reduced cooling system corrosion leads to an increased serviceable life for the system
BIOX can provide very effective microbial control of the system - and, because bacteria cannot mutate into resistant-strains, BIOX can be used continuously without the need for costly non-oxidising biocides.

 

How to clear slime from tanks or cooling towers

The current preferred method is a physical clean every 12 weeks. This is a well established practice but is inadequate and potentially dangerous.
Inadequate because it is almost impossible to physically remove biofilm from the packing materials and tank surfaces. Also it is not possible to clean all the surfaces – particularly the inside of pipes and heat exchange surfaces which are out of reach.
Dangerous because the process puts the operatives in close contact with contaminated materials and any aerosols generated by pressure washing can carry contamination for up to 1000 metres if the wind conditions are correct.