Excellent cooling tower water filtration is the key to protecting industrial processes. Automatic self-cleaning filter optimizes efficiency and reduces downtime

In industrial facilities such as processing plants, mills/forging plants, and refineries, cooling towers are commonly used to extract heat from machinery, heated process materials/fluids, buildings, and other sources by using water or chemical solutions as coolants for heat exchange Remove heat.

However, when the cooling tower is not a closed circuit, air and water particles will accumulate, fouling/clogging important downstream machinery and processing equipment, such as coolers, heat exchangers, nozzles and small-diameter pipes in the cooling circuit. If not fully addressed, this will greatly reduce the process efficiency and uptime of industrial facilities.

Since the cooling tower relies on the evaporative cooling process exposed to ambient air, any foreign matter or element in the air is easily sucked into the tower, and a part of it will be dissolved or suspended in water. The water flowing through the cooling tower may be contaminated from many sources, including ambient air, supplemental water sources, and residues collected from the process.

Since the hard water used in cooling towers contains scale-forming minerals (calcium and magnesium salts), the evaporation process will leave these solids in the water in high concentrations. If not diluted, these minerals will cause scale on the surface of the equipment. Even a small amount of scale in the system will reduce the heat transfer efficiency, resulting in a decrease in the productivity of the industrial process. In severe cases, scale can completely block heat exchangers and pipes.

Abrasive particles and suspended solids can also corrode heat exchangers, pumps, pipes, fittings and valves, further increasing maintenance and replacement costs. Therefore, many industrial facilities must shut down their cooling water systems multiple times a year to clean the cooling towers and downstream equipment, which is costly and time-consuming.

Although there are traditional methods for water filtration in cooling towers, such as bag filters, cartridge filters, sand media filters, and basket filters, these methods are effective in reliability, labor-intensive cleaning/replacement, and excessive downtime. There are considerable shortcomings in terms of time.

In response, the industry has developed a cooling tower application option that provides greater reliability and efficiency. Today, multi-element self-cleaning filters help optimize cooling and process efficiency while minimizing maintenance and downtime.

Bag filters are usually effective in removing particles between 5-200 microns in size. However, as the bag filter accumulates debris, these devices can cause the water pressure to drop until the bag is manually cleaned or replaced. In addition, the operator must be careful not to rupture the bag during the filtration process.

The filter element filter can effectively perform fine filtration, usually between 0.5 and 50 microns, until it needs to be replaced. The filter container must then be taken offline during the replacement, which also requires labor.

Sand filters usually do not need to be replaced regularly, because the filter media can be backwashed with clean water and reused, and particulate matter can be disposed of in the drain. However, during the backwashing process, the sand filter must be offline. In addition, backwashing causes the sharp edges of the sand particles to rub against each other, thereby dulling the sand particles, thereby reducing their efficiency in capturing and retaining particles.

The purchase price of basket filters is usually not high, but usually only 3,000+ micron larger particles can be removed through porous screen elements. The cleaning unit is also usually labor-intensive.

To overcome these problems in cooling tower applications, many factories and operations managers in industrial facilities now rely on multi-element, self-cleaning filters, such as those from RP Adams. The company introduced the technology in the 1960s and has now installed more than 10,000 units. This design provides an alternative to bag/cylinder/sand filters and basket filters. Unlike those designs, the multi-element self-cleaning filter can continuously remove suspended solids/particles. When used in industrial cooling tower water filtration, the filter can reliably filter out sand, sludge and other suspended solids as small as 30-100 microns.

A key feature of the multi-element design is the engineering design of the backwash mechanism, which improves reliability. For many traditional filters, the backwash mechanism is in direct contact with the filter media. This can be problematic because the large and oversized solids that raw water often encounters can be trapped between the filter media and the backwash components. The result is damage and/or rupture of the strain medium, which may affect filtration and even other equipment, thereby hindering production. In contrast, a multi-element design uses a tube sheet to separate the filter media from the backwash mechanism. This prevents the backwashing mechanism from contacting the media and damaging the components.

Industrial operators often also need to consider how to best reduce filter fouling and required maintenance. Due to the limitation of the filtering area, the traditional filter will quickly become clogged. When this happens, cleaning, media replacement or backwashing must be carried out, which will adversely affect productivity and maintenance costs. In this regard, the multi-element design provides three to four times the surface area of ​​traditional filters and pre-filters. This directly translates to less backwash frequency, so less water is wasted, less power is consumed, and less maintenance is required.

Although the traditional media found in the large basket design can cause collapse and failure at pressure differences as low as 35 PSID, the smaller diameter media used in the multi-tube filter allows the filter to safely handle pressures in excess of 150 PSIG. Difference. This can protect industrial processes and production even during high-pressure events, which might otherwise cause a lot of downtime.

As an additional protection measure, the filter drive system includes a shear key, which sacrifices itself in the presence of excessive debris. Therefore, if large debris causes mechanical problems in the filter, the shear key will break, and the rotating components of the device, the motor and the gearbox will be protected by stopping the rotation of the drive shaft. Filtration continues, but the operator notices that the pressure differential increases as the backwash cycle is interrupted, and measures can be taken to remove obstacles and replace the shear key.

For industrial environments exposed to highly corrosive elements, upgrade options include materials such as super duplex and duplex stainless steel, titanium, Monel, Inconel, and Hastelloy to provide resistance to corrosion and corrosion-related damage ability.

When considering technology for industrial cooling tower filtration systems, automatic multi-element, self-cleaning filters are an increasingly popular choice and a reliable, cost-effective and efficient solution.

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