Hi Top 8 Recommendations For Keeping Your Cooling Tower Clean.!

Hi Top 8 Recommendations For Keeping Your Cooling Tower Clean.!

It’s time to start thinking about cooling tower maintenance again. The top two reasons we bring up this topic at least yearly is because a dirty cooling tower; 

1) affects system performance and 2) can affect occupant health.

We often discuss the seriousness of Legionnaires’ disease, and a cooling tower’s role in the transmission of Legionella pneumophila, the bacteria that causes the disease.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recommends visual inspection and regular maintenance as the best ways to control the growth of organisms in a cooling tower. 

The organization discourages the use of water quality measurements (total bacterial counts, total dissolved solids and pH) to monitor Legionnaires’ disease bacteria (LDB) levels.

Here are more of OSHA’s top recommendations for keeping your facility’s cooling tower clean and free of LDB:

1. Use chemical biocides to control microorganisms.
2. Keep sump water around 68°F or lower.
3. Inspect the cooling tower equipment monthly.
4. Clean and disinfect your facility’s cooling tower quarterly or twice a year if the unit is not in operation year-round. It’s important to clean it at the beginning of each cooling season and after it’s shut down in the fall.
5. Systems with high levels of LDB may require more cleaning.
6. Clean and disinfect systems any time they are out of service for an extended time.
7. Clean and disinfect new systems to remove any construction material residue.
8. Keep detailed records showing all dates and details of operations and maintenance, a description of the operating system, and procedures for operation and maintenance including the use of any corrosion inhibitors, biocides, or other chemicals.

You can read the complete list of cooling tower maintenance recommendations from OSHA here.

- "The process of cleaning your facility’s cooling tower used to require a total shut down, but that’s no longer the case. All cleaning may be completed while the tower is still online."

Click Here To View Mesan Group Cooling Towers Homepage.

Hi Noise Reduction Innovation For Power Stations

Hi Aerodynamic noise control innovation technology;

New technology deployed at the largest US biomass power plant prevents creation of noise from fans while reducing power consumption.

The solution developed by the Industrial Noise and Vibration Center (INVC) from Berkshire, UK, relies on active noise reduction instead of suppressing the noise by silencers and acoustic enclosures.

“We have developed a way to prevent the noise being generated in the first place instead by designing aerodynamic inserts that fit inside the fan casing. You can think of these as akin to the aerodynamic features used on Formula 1 cars to control airflow,” said Peter Wilson, the INVC technical director.

The technology was installed at the 50 MW Schiller biomass power plant in New Hampshire - the largest biomass power plant in the US. The site had had problems due to the noise produced by the station’s ID fan. The installation itself only required 12 hours. According to a technical review evaluating the solution, not only noise reduction has been achieved but the plant  has also been consuming considerably less energy.

"We recorded a 10dB drop in noise, which is huge. We also recorded a reduction in the power used by the ID fan after Quiet Fan technology had been installed." said Jim Granger, the Senior Engineer at Schiller.

Conventional silencing technology to suppress the drone of large ID fans is rather costly and increases down-time of the installation. According to the evaluation data, the Quit Fan technology managed to achieve similar level of noise reduction costing about 80 per cent less.

How does the fan noise attenuating technology work?

A similar approach to that of the way that Formula 1 teams invest in the design of aerodynamic aids to control the airflow round their cars. As fan noise is the sum of the turbulence generated pressure fluctuations in the air shed by the blades, we have developed a range of aerodynamic inserts that are fitted inside the fan casing to smooth the flow. This reduces the pressure fluctuations – and hence the noise – at source without introducing the back-pressure often associated with silencers. This not only reduces the noise travelling down the intake and exhaust duct-work  but also that passing through the fan casing which may not only eliminate the need for silencers, but also the need for acoustic enclosures.

HVAC – Chiller – Condenser – Cooling Tower Noise Reduction:

Innovative new techniques developed to control the noise from HVAC and chiller / condenser systems without compromising efficiency. These typically provide around 10dB of additional attenuation compared with conventional noise reduction packages and silencers – and at a fraction of the cost.

Visit INVC Website for further information and to view case studies on noise reduction innovations.