Fouling of cooling tower film fill: Causes, cleanup techniques and operating guidelines to minimize reoccurrence
- Puckorius and Associates, Inc., Evergreen, CO (United States)
The old adage an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure could not be more appropriate than in the case of film fill fouling. It is relatively easy to keep new film fill from fouling if a good chemical treatment program is established from day one. On the other hand, if fill becomes fouled, it often goes undetected until the problem has progressed to such an extent that--at best, the tower performance is severely impaired, or--at worst, a portion of the tower collapses from the weight of the deposit. It is usually an extremely difficult, costly, and time-consuming task to restore the fill`s cleanliness under the latter circumstances. It requires proper foulant diagnosis and development of an effective cleanup procedure, but restoration to near 100% cleanliness can be achieved. This paper discusses the phenomenon of film fill fouling from a perspective developed through numerous actual case histories in which the authors were called in to diagnose and correct the problem.
- OSTI ID:
- 376185
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-960426--
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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