Managing Biofouling in Industrial Process Systems

ECMI helps clients manage biofouling in facilities utilizing large water intake systems to provide process or cooling water.

Managing Biofouling

The following discussion is focused on power facilities, however facilities using any amount of feed water from an intake system will apply.  AquaKLEAR units are able to treat and manage biofouling in piping systems up to 78" in diameter.

Power Stations

Modern power stations employ various heat exchangers in the process of power generation.  The larger of which are the steam condensers in power stations that use steam turbines for the power generation.

The cooling media used in most condenser application is water.  If large rivers with constant water flow are available, then fresh water is used.  The water has to be treated to remove suspended solids and chemically treated to prevent corrosion and to reduce hardness, to prevent the formation of deposits in the condensers and oil heat exchangers.  When river water is not available power stations are designed to use seawater as cooling media. In such cases condensers and heat exchangers are affected by bio fouling.

Water Treatment in Power Stations

Water is softened on a large scale by the addition of just enough lime to precipitate the calcium as carbonate and the magnesium as hydroxide, whereupon sodium carbonate is added to remove the remaining calcium salts.  This operation is costly and produces large volume of calcium carbonate that has to be trucked away.  A power station situated near hard water river can produce as much volume of calcium carbonate to fill 12 trucks a day.
 
Cooling water produced in this way has to be treated again before returning to the river to comply with regulations.  Water treatment can be minimized with the use of AquaKLEAR.

Seawater Cooling

If the cooling media is seawater the operators are faced with different problems.  Bio fouling is the main problems facing power stations situated near the coast.  Like ships and boats; power station condensers and other heat exchanger efficiency is reduce by the effect of bio fouling.

Organisms that cause bio fouling can be subdivided into minute microfoulers and larger macrofoulers.

Microfoulers (e.g. sticky bio films of bacteria) initiate the process by colonizing new surfaces. These then allow the larger macrofoulers (e.g. barnacles, limpets and seaweeds) to gain a foothold.

The effect begins with the formation of a bacteria film; a transparent gel that can grow to several centimeters thick. This reduces the heat transfer efficiency and facilitates the attachment of macrofoulers.  The larva of mussels, barnacles, limpet, and seaweed; uses the bacteria film to attach themselves to the pipe and condensers surfaces. They then metamorphosize to the adherent species.  Without the presents of the bacteria film the larva fragile tentacles will not be able to get a foothold and will be swept away by the flow of water.
 
In an attempt to prevent this; seawater is treated with chlorine, this can damage sea fauna in the power station vicinity and the quantities of such treatment is strictly regulated.

Power stations have been plagued with Tiger mussels.  This mussel is large enough to block the condenser tube when it becomes detached and is carried to the condenser; this requires costly manual cleaning reducing the power station output.

The introduction of AquaKLEAR will prevent the formation of the bio film and kill the larva by osmosis thus braking the larva cycle.

• AquaKLEAR is an electronic water treatment device that generates an electric field that is applied to all suspended particles flowing through the ferrite ring.

• The electric field is applied longitudinally and its effect on dissolved ions is over the entire the plumbing system.

• AquaKLEAR  has been working successfully in biofouling applications and commercial swimming pools internationally for over 4 years.
   

AquaKLEAR with Hydropath Technology:

• Kills biofouling causing organisms as they pass the AquaKLEAR unit.

• Will continue to control biofouling within the system by controlling microfouling.

• Will help maintain a healthy ecosystem by reducing or eliminating the need for harmful chemicals in discharge water.

• Will remove limescale from the piping system.

• Continues to keep limescale from forming within the system.

• Keeps equipment operating at peek efficiency.

• Reduces or eliminates costs for chemicals to control biofouling organisms

• Reduces scheduled cleaning cycles of facility equipment.

We can provide more in-depth material covering this subject upon request.