Do you own a food processing plant the uses a lot of water to cool machines? Check out the retrofit options below that can make the cooling tower in your facility to operate better.
A Filtration System
You should consider having a side-stream filtration mechanism installed on your cooling tower. This system works by removing suspended solids and silt from the water that gets into the cooling tower. This can save you from having to bleed the cooling tower frequently in order to remove accumulated sediment. It can also prevent the water from becoming fouled by the particles floating in it. This filtration system is especially helpful for food processing facilities whose cooling towers are in dusty environments.
A Water Softening System
The minerals present in the water may slow down the rate at which the water in the cooling tower loses heat to the air around it. Those minerals can also solidify and cause the buildup of scale within the cooling tower tank. You should consider installing a water softener so that the hard water leaving the cooling tower is softened before it is re-circulated into the cooling tower. You will notice that the water in the cooling tower will begin losing heat at a higher rate than before the water softener was installed. The water softening system will also lower the likelihood that the cooling tower will corrode. This is because the accumulation of mineral deposits on cooling tower surfaces will have been halted.
Chemical Feed Systems
An automated system to feed chemicals into the cooling tower is a good retrofit option you should have if the tower has a large capacity (thousands of cubic litres, for example). The automated system will monitor the composition of the water and trigger the addition of appropriate chemicals to stem any developing problems. For example, the system can trigger the addition of chemicals to control the growth of algae in the cooling tower. An automated system will free the personnel that would have had to keep replenishing the supply of different chemicals in the cooling tower. Automation also helps to reduce the wastage of chemicals when there is no system to determine the exact amount required at a given time.
The exact retrofit features that you urgently need will depend on the specific type of cooling tower that you have and the location of your facility. It may therefore be wise to consult cooling tower professionals (like Breezewater Pty Ltd) for advice on what systems you can retrofit on your cooling tower so that you can reduce its maintenance costs.
