Routine cleaning is a must to maintain efficiency in industrial cooling towers. Scale build-up and biological growth can quickly inhibit the performance of a cooling tower. So, it’s essential to handle these issues accordingly.
While making durable use of cooling tower fills, deformation, aging, sediment deposition, and algae propagation will occur. These will cause the plugging of the fills and the depletion of the heat transfer effect. Every FRP cooling tower manufacturer and other models of cooling tower manufacturers recommend cleaning all the cooling towers at least twice a year. Many components inside the tower should be cleaned and maintained correctly.
Why Should You Clean Your Pultruded FRP Cooling Towers?
Cleaning your FRP cooling tower and treating the water inside will prevent damage due to erosion. Even if you timely have the water treated, you will still need to clean and maintain the tower to help keep the cooling tower system free of bacteria or microorganisms.
If you drain your cooling towers in the winter due to a decreased need for them, schedule one of your two annual cleanings to get the most systematic use from your tower system when you refill the tower system when the warmer state returns. You will also need to treat the water for your tower if you have a new system.
Shipping and installing the tower components could leave materials on the surfaces that lead to erosion. Cleaning detaches these from the surfaces and prepares the tower system for the treated water.
Now, let us discuss certain ways you can manage to clean your cooling towers in the right way.
Acid Cleaning
The application of acid is to dissolve standard scale deposits like iron oxide and calcium carbonate.
Who needs it?
- Facilities that have neglected maintenance of their cooling towers for more than a few seasons need acid treatment.
- Facilities that are experiencing reduced cooling tower performance and reduced heat transfer and heat rejection.
What to expect?
The expert will assess the water to control what kind of deposits you’re getting and notify your water treater which type of acid will be required to reduce the scale.
Due to the aggressive nature of the acid, acid cleaning always involves a deal between dissolving the scale and protecting the system’s metallurgy. Your water treater must be diligent about the disposal and discharge of the spent solution. They must follow all federal and local laws about discharging low-pH water.
Sterilize Tower basin and fan housing
The sterilization process will prevent the bacteria from distributing over the water, especially sterilizing tower basins and fan housing. It will also keep it from becoming aerated. Preventing bacteria from aerating is one critical method that prevents legionella from growing and spreading around the cooling tower. Legionella majorly affects its surroundings when the bacteria is spread through the air, and people start inhaling the aerosolized particles. Sterilizing the cooling towers keeps those around them healthy while also improving your cooling tower’s efficiency.
Visual inspection
Pultruded FRP Cooling tower, like any other machine, also requires a visual inspection, even the largest. It is vital to visually inspect the equipment before starting the cleaning process. While inspecting, if you notice any damage or missing components like nozzles, replace them after cleaning the tower and before you refill the tower with water. The missing nozzles can reduce the tower’s heat exchange efficiency by slowing down the water flow to the hot deck and through the system.
Dispose of debris
Properly ditch any debris collected from the cleaning process. You should drain the cooling tower water into the sanitary sewer after checking with local wastewater disposal laws for exceptions. Also, check with your local municipality rules for disposing of any debris you may have collected while cleaning your FRP cooling tower, such as damaged parts or sludge.
Clean the Hot Deck
Clean off the hot deck, including any orifices and nozzles, to remove scale deposits, sediments, and bacteria. Cleaning these areas will intercept debris from contaminating the water after treatment. When removing surface deposits on the hot deck, nozzles, and orifices, use low-pressure water spray from a brush.
Open and Clean the Distribution Pans
Open all distribution pans. As with other parts, clean off any sludge, scale, sediments, or biofilm. Check for any damaged or missing parts and make repairs or replacements as necessary before moving on.
Bottomline
Fortunately, with our cooling tower services, you can avoid all the hassle of cleaning your FRP cooling tower.
There is plenty of FRP cooling tower manufacturer in India, but we at Towertech have the experience to provide cooling tower chemical treatment services you can depend on. We’ll work with you to design a perfect chemical treatment plan for your cooling towers that provides adequate defense against common contamination issues, including full mineral content, biological growth, and white rust formation.
