Meet the expert: Industrial Water Conditioning

Smarter industrial water conditioning can reduce the risk of legionella

As Legionnaire’s disease has become a worldwide concern, manufacturers need to focus on reducing the risk of biological contamination in your water treatment systems. Grundfos supports you with intelligent solutions that mitigate legionella bacteria growth and save clean-water costs. 

In 2018, more than 11,000 cases of Legionnaire’s disease were reported in the European Union – up 16% from 2017. Over the past decade, the occurrence of the disease has risen exponentially. There are several reasons for this, including climate change, as legionella bacteria grow most rapidly in warm environments. However, one of the main reasons for the increase in legionella is the lack of prevention and self-monitoring in hot water and cooling tower water systems.

Intelligent water conditioning and blowdown control

Cooling tower water treatment is an important part of many industrial processes. If the water does not fulfil the requirements in terms of chemical and biological parameters, the operation can be costly and ineffective. Avoiding biological contamination and maintaining proper water quality optimises cooling water’s operational efficiency. 

Water conditioning for this purpose requires extremely accurate dosing of chemicals. Manual dosing and correct compliance reporting to authorities can be challenging and time consuming, and incorrect handling can have fatal consequences. Grundfos iSOLUTIONS help industries optimise cooling tower water treatment solutions, ensuring reliable chemical management to prevent fouling, corrosion and scaling. This results in reduced chemical, water and energy consumption and easy compliance reporting when authorities require.

Bacterial growth in cooling towers 

Cooling towers dissipate unwanted heat into the atmosphere through water evaporation. Water is sprayed into the cooling tower through spray nozzles and tiny airborne droplets are formed. While falling through the tower, some of the water evaporates but some droplets, known as drift, are carried out of the tower by the air stream produced by the fans. Legionella bacteria can grow in the water and are easily dispersed together with the drift. 

Challenges with water conditioning and blowdown 

Because of the risk of legionella and other bacteria growing and remaining in the cooling tower system, water conditioning plays an important role. However, chemical consumption and costs then become an issue as water treatment requires extremely accurate dosing of chemical additives. This maintains proper water quality and avoids interference with the overall efficiency. But manual chemical preparation and dosing are fraught with human error, safety risks and high costs from chemical overdosing.

Salt concentration in the cooling tower system also presents a challenge as it can lead to fouling and the build-up of concentrated solids in the form of scaling, which causes corrosion, blockages and a reduction of the overall cooling tower efficiency. When the concentration reaches a certain level, the solids must be released, known as blowdown, and new water must be added to keep the water balance. Insufficient blowdown of solids can be costly as too much blowdown leads to excessive water usage and too little blowdown might damage the cooling tower equipment. 

Finally, there is a risk of non-compliance. Companies who use chemicals in their operations are subject to a wide range of environmental regulations. These are often difficult to comply with as tracking and reporting of chemical use can be complicated and loaded with a risk of human error.

We support safe water treatment

We can help your company safely and efficiently prevent bacteria growth with an intelligent disinfection solution. The solution combines several components including intelligent digital dosing pumps, SMART Digital DDA, a measuring and control device, DID, and a cloud-based remote monitoring system that connects the components. Using this intelligent water treatment solution, industries can reduce the risk of biological contamination, reduce health risks caused by legionella and wrong chemical handling, and reduce clean-water costs through optimised processes. 

By measuring the conductivity, our measuring and control device can react when the cooling water reaches a critical dissolved solids content. This allows an automatic reaction to blowdown, maintaining the water quality within optimal parameters and keeping water balance at optimal levels, without the need for manual operation. The device will also inform the chemical dosing pump on the right amount of biocide needed, avoiding over- or under-dosing, to keep the bacteria growth under control. At the same time, the Grundfos SMART digital DDA dosing pump, with its integrated intelligent algorithm, will prevent discrepancies in your system and will trigger an alarm if any issues occur. 

The chemical management app will consolidate all the operational parameters in one place. The solution improves user safety by ensuring that only the right chemicals are used. It measures all relevant data online, stores it in the cloud and produces compliance reports on request. It also shows warnings, stops and chemical status, improving uptime. As a fully connected solution, the measuring and control device, the digital dosing pump, the remote management system and the chemical management app work together to deliver safer, more cost-efficient water conditioning and blowdown control.  

An example of safe, effective water conditioning

A European metal-mechanic company was experiencing operation troubles that traced back to its cooling towers. The company used manual dosing procedures that carried a risk of imprecise chemical use that could lead to contamination. Grundfos suggested an intelligent solution that is expected to deliver smoother operations, better bacteria control, easier compliance reporting and water savings.

Download the case to learn more.

Reduce the risk of contamination in cooling towers

The water used in industrial cooling towers has special needs and requirements.
If the water does not meet certain chemical and biological parameters, the cooling operation can be costly and inefficient. It can also lead to biological contamination that can result in legionella and other health risks.

Download the whitepaper and discover a reliable method of treating cooling tower water, which, in conjunction with blowdown optimisation, represents the greatest opportunity for improvements in water safety and efficiency.