Cooling tower water systems utilize filtration to protect critical downstream equipment

Cooling tower water systems utilize filtration to protect critical downstream equipment

Multi-element self-cleaning strainers provide continuous full stream protection with minimal backwashing or maintenance

Cooling towers are virtual vacuum cleaners for air and water-borne particulate that can foul valuable downstream equipment such as spray nozzles, welding operations, chillers, heat exchangers, and small bore piping. Unlike side-stream filters sometimes used with cooling towers, the full stream use of a multi-element strainer enables cooling systems to remain online continuously.

Cooling towers, an effective and common means for industrial process heat extraction, are not a closed-loop system. As a result, they are virtual vacuum cleaners for air and water-borne particulate that can foul downstream equipment like spray nozzles, welding operations, chillers, heat exchangers and small bore piping in cooling circuits.

In fact, many plants must shut down cooling water systems several times each year to clean the cooling tower and downstream equipment, which is time consuming and expensive.

Although some basic solutions to this problem are available, including rudimentary water strainers, side stream filtration (which involves filtering a small percentage of the total water volume) and point-of-use filters for specific critical equipment, the relative insurance of full stream filtration to protect all downstream equipment has emerged as the new standard for cooling tower water systems.

It’s a dirty job

«A cooling tower will suck in a lot of air from the environment,» said John Flaherty, president of Delta Cooling Towers Inc. in Rockaway, N.J. «Any foreign material or elements in the air can easily get sucked into the tower, and a portion of that will either get dissolved into the water or remain suspended in the water.»

Water flowing through cooling towers can be contaminated from a number of sources, including ambient air, makeup water sources, corrosion and rusting of metal cooling tower «skin,» and residue picked up from processes. Airborne contaminants include leaves, paper, debris and other pollution.

«A cooling tower works through evaporation, so you’re continuously making up whatever cooling system water has been evaporated,» Flaherty said. «Many plants use city water, which is comparatively clean. But if you are using lake, river or runoff water, you will have to address problems of suspended and dissolved matter that can damage downstream equipment or make it less efficient.»

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