Cooling-water treatment with minimal chemical usage
Water treatment for cooling towers and evaporative condensers with only small amounts of chemicals — the Balticare Dolphin System
The Balticare Dolphin System is a water-treatment programme that uses only a small amount of a single chemical to control scaling, corrosion, fouling and bacteriological growth in cooling towers and evaporative condensers. In a typical hard-water area, chemical costs are reduced by 90%. Water usage is 15 to 20% less, and running costs for a water softener are eliminated. Less servicing and maintenance is required compared with other systems. This fully automatic system can be fitted to treat new or existing cooling-water systems and is said to fully satisfy the HSE Approved Code of Practice and Guidance L8 for the control of legionella. Scale formation is controlled by a physical method of treating water using high-frequency electro-magnetic energy to transform the crystal structure of minerals so that they precipitate as colloids around small particles in the water and flow through the system as a ‘powder’, which is collected by the sidestream filtration unit. Bacterial growth is controlled by two methods. Microbes are drawn into the nucleation of the minerals around the small particles in the water and encapsulated so they cannot reproduce. In addition, the high-frequency energy damages and ruptures cell membranes. Both methods are physical. Bacterial counts are kept low, and there is virtually no biofilm. Corrosion is controlled by maintaining the water chemistry close to the saturation point of calcium carbonate. In this condition, water is naturally non-corrosive. There is also no aggressive oxidising biocide in the water, which is often the cause of corrosion in cooling towers and evaporative condensers. The Dolphin is a full-flow unit that fits directly into the cooling-system recirculating pipework. It requires no additional pumping power and has no moving parts. Particulate matter and ‘powder’ are removed by a sidestream cyclone filtration unit. Water usage is reduced by a conductivity control unit to optimise the bleed rate. There is also time-controlled dosing of a small amount of secondary dispersive biocide as recommended in the L8 Guidance.
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