Environmentally friendly chemistry may offer better corrosion and fouling protection
Cooling water plays an essential role in process operations at many plants. For a majority of these facilities, the cooling system contains one or more cooling towers. The metals used in the tower, cooling water piping and heat exchangers may include carbon steel, galvanized steel, copper alloys and stainless steel. Protecting all these metals from corrosion and minimizing scaling and microbiological fouling in cooling systems pose ongoing challenges. Adding to the difficulty, operators face emerging restrictions on the discharge of a number of impurities in cooling tower blowdown, including phosphorus, zinc and other metals, biocide residuals, and dissolved and suspended solids. This article examines evolving chemistry that provides improved corrosion and fouling protection while also being more environmentally friendly than previous treatment methods.
Read the rest of this article by Brad Buecker and Ray Post online.
