A guide to Water Treatment and Cooling Water Treatment Chemicals

A guide to Water Treatment and Cooling Water
Treatment Chemicals
Cooling towers have been an important part of many industries for quite
some years and recently as well. Many industries rely on this system and go
to great lengths to ensure that the equipment involved work properly and
effectively in order to provide the highest results. In order for the system to
not corrode or have organic growth or scaling, it is important to treat
cooling water. When certain safety measures are not properly followed, it
might lead to the growth of the Legionella bacteria that leads to
Legionnaires’ disease.
Before we head into that, it is important to know what a cooling tower
water treatment system is and how it works in order to better prevent
mishaps and carry out effective maintenance.
A water-cooling tower system is generally defined as a system that includes
equipment and technologies that engage in the process of removing
impurities from cooling towers, circulation water or blowdown. Their

configurations vary depending on the type of cooling tower, the chemistry
of circulatory water, the heat exchanger type, and the cycle of
concentration, the discharge’s regulations and requirements, the feed
water’s quality and so on. These systems control hardness, alkalinity, iron,
silica, sulphates, organic matter, chlorides, TDS (total dissolved solids), and
TSS (total suspended solids).
Their work process generally includes the taking up of makeup water by the
cooling tower, ultrafiltration and filtration, water softening, ion exchange,
chemical addition, filtration of the side-stream and blowdown treatment.
Now that we know the basics of how the plant and system works, it is
important to know about cooling water treatment chemicals, and why
there is a need for them.
When maintenance is being carried out, it is important to pay attention to
areas that might be favourable for the growth of the Legionella bacteria. A
Legionella bacterium is a bacterium that breeds on top of the surface of the
water, and when inhaled, it causes the legionnaire’s disease that can, in
some cases, even cause death. It is important to be updated on policies and
regulation regarding this through sites such as
www.legionellaguidelines.com.au.
Therefore, during ion exchange or water softening process, chemicals are
used and added. These chemicals can be algaecides and biocides that
prevent and reduce the growth of biofilms and microbes such as the
legionella bacteria. Treating the water prior to this step in a thorough
fashion can reduce the number of chemicals and the intensity of which it is
used.