10-20: A Novel Deposit Monitoring Technique for Industrial Cooling Water And

In hard waters, high cycle operation risks mineral scale formation. Operating a cooling system at lower cycles reduces the risk of scale formation, but increases operating costs. Basing the concentration ratio set-point on average or bulk water conditions risks missing localized high stress conditions. The result: scaling and loss of heat exchange capacity in critical processes. Recent advances in quartz crystal microbalance technology provide valuable insight into the effects of temperature, water chemistry and operational changes. By measuring the formation of scale, in situ, at various, pre-selected temperatures, the actual scale forming tendencies of a water can be quantified in terms of deposit weight. This paper discusses quartz crystal microbalance technology and its use. Data from field evaluations will be presented.