03-04: Automating the Cooling Water Triangle

There are three commonly known problems encountered in open recirculating cooling water systems: deposition of scale and other particulates, corrosion, and microbiological growth. When allowed to go unchecked, these problems can cause loss of heat transfer and equipment failure, resulting in lost production and profits, higher water and energy costs, increased maintenance costs, and safety and environmental risks. Today, considerable effort is spent generating and collecting data that can be used to indicate, but not directly measure, whether or not these performance problems are occurring. Wet chemistry testing, corrosion coupons and microbio dipslides are some of the monitoring techniques commonly employed. The unit operator or water treatment representative then must process all of this information and make a decision on the operation of the system (adjust chemical dosage, change blowdown rate, increase acid addition, etc.).