Pilot scale cooling tower fouled fill treatment: AFCATT (Anti-Fouling Chemical Additive Test Tower)
- Southern Company Services, Birmingham, AL (United States)
Polyvinylchloride (PVC) film-type cellular fill is the fill of choice in replacing cement asbestor board fill in existing cooling towers and in new cooling towers because of its high thermal performance, ease of installation, and low initial cost. However, PVC fill has been found to foul quickly with biological and sediment material, significant reducing tower performance and the fill`s useful life. The Anti-Fouling Chemical Additives Test Tower (AFCATT) has been built to study accumulation rates of fouling deposits in corrugated PVC film fill and to study methods of cleaning and preventing the fouling deposits. This small mechanical draft cooling tower is located next to the Unit 4 natural draft cooling tower at Georgia Power Company`s Plant Bowen. The once-through mechanical draft tower receives hot water from the condenser and returns the cold water to the basin of the host tower. The pilot tower is divided into four chambers allowing for three different treatment programs and one control to be run simultaneously. PVC fill packs are suspended from load cells to allow the weight of the fill packs to be measured continuously. Six vendors participated in the summer 1993 test program. Each proposed different methods of cleaning the fouled fill and were given the opportunity to try their proposed method of fill cleaning. The success of each treatment program was determined by its ability to reduce fill pack weight (i.e., reduce fouling).
- Research Organization:
- Electric Power Research Inst., Palo Alto, CA (United States); Yankee Scientific, Inc., Medfield, MA (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 48142
- Report Number(s):
- EPRI-TR--104867; CONF-9408224--
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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