6 replies to this topic

...............im working on a project related to cooling towers ......my project advisor has given me an assignment of getting the
NAMES OF THE CHEMICALS WHICH ARE ADDED IN WATER AFTER IT COMES OUT FROM THE COOLING TOWER BASIN .........................

if anyone can provide me with the names ... and why we add ....

[Art Montemayor]

Are you stating that your instructor is asking you to answer questions that you have not studied, have not been taught, or have no clue as to where to research and find the answers?

Have you asked your instructor for the reason you are being asked questions that you are unable to answer?

What is the whole story here?

i have no clue as to where to research and find the answers.. during cmy course nobody ever told about these chemicals nor i was ever supposed to study about these and when i asked my instructor why i need the names of these chemicals ... he said , amouts of these chemicals added will b consider in mass balance of cooling tower .... i said we can say that chemicals X,Y,Z are being added ........ he gave me a very angry look and said ... you may leave the room and start looking for their names..........
..... ihave search on internet but companies dont give the chemical names they just give the codes for those chemicals .. and i have 4 books on cooling towers there is nothing mentioned ............ i have even asked from a person who is woring there in industry .. he says he can aslo provide the codes of the chemicals ............. i dont need exact chemical formulas or composotions of these chemicals only names ......

[Doggert]

I've worked in industry for a while now (nearly 10 years), and I have dealt intimately with cooling tower chemical addition for about 3 of those years. I have on my reference shelf the Betz (now, I believe, part of GE) Handbook of Industrial Water Conditioning.

So, while this isn't my specialty, I do have a bit of knowledge in this.

I did a Google search for "industrial cooling tower chemical addition" or some variant and a number of helpful sites appeared. One of them, an encyclopedia style site, went into impressive detail about each of the TYPES of chemicals involved.

I believe, since you are a student, that your professor is simply wanting you to acknowledge the types of chemicals you may need - and then find out what their names are.

As I said, a Google search will give you good information on why you need certain types and what function they serve. Some further digging (and a bit of chemistry knowledge from your schooling) should help you whittle down to exact names, etc.

There are basic water conditioning needs that towers need. You may need a corrosion inhibitor and more than likely you need a biocide. That should be enough information there to, along with some due diligent searching on your own, determine EXACTLY what chemical names you want to use and in what proportions they should be added.

Good luck.

[steven12]

the name of the chemicals you add are potassium hydroxide I think(i think thats what i saw on my plant cooling tower, i'll go confirm on this latter) , the chemicals you add are to prevent corrosion, and ther fouling effect because the water is exposed to the air when being cooled. And sometimes other chemicals are added to kill bacteria and algae

If you can actually get to the cooling tower, you should be able to see the make-up chemicals attached to the tower itself. I am actually doing this as well, because my supervisor has asked me to do like economic analysis thing.... I dont even know where to start.

[kumaqal.engr]

Respected Sir
My 2 Cent Worth saying.
First of all i presonally feel it's not fare to ask students about the name of chemicals. It's the thing which never covered during the chemical engineering course so how one can know about it?
Now let comes to the answer.
You asked which chemical should be added in cooling tower basin?
first of all one have to know the importance of cooling tower chemicals and cooling tower operation.
cooling tower works on evaporation principle principle. and leave behind the salt which is in water. These salts accumulated in water and cause either scaling or corrosion. which affects the performance and affectiveness of Heat exchanger, Cooling tower, and machinery life. For this purpose chemical introduce on the cooling tower.
There are three types of chemical in this list.
1 Anti Scalent
2) Biocide
3) corrosion Inhibitor.
There are different types of antiscalent available in market. based on different chemicals.
Like Phosphate base, phosphonate base e.g (sodium phosphate, TSP, etc) They works by keeping the sludge in disperse form. other wise it deposited the piping and can cause scale.
Biocide is used to remove algae, and other bacteria, different type of bacteria, sulphate reducing bacteria and all such germs from the system, which create fouling, and corrosion.
Different types of Biocide used in industry , some time they use Chlorine as a biocide, some time even bromine tablets, otherwise few other biocides are also available. Like IsoThiazolene Based (the work by making all the living cell dead) and few others are also avilable in markets e.g Quartz based
For Corrosion inhibitor and scale dispersant some industry use Zinc Chromate and few azole group are also available like Tolytriazole. They are so many to tell for more knowledge how Cooling tower chemicals work please visit on
www.power-chemicals.com
and don't forget to share your work with us.
Best of luck
with kind regards.
Thankyou

[Alzack]

Mr kumaqal has mentioned the types of chemicals dosed into the cooling tower which are as follows:

There are three types of chemical in this list.
1) Anti Scalent
2) Biocide
3) corrosion Inhibitor.

It actually depends on the cooling tower condition. Some of them with more stressful condition (where oil accidently interupted the water) might require additional chemicals such as flocculant to make the oil/sludge float on the water surface to ease its removal.

Please check with chemical suppliers. They'll easily assist you on this. They can provide the chemical names, codes (i know you don't want to know this!!!), MSDS, TDS and other information that you need.
You'll get a lot of info from MSDS (material safety data sheet).
Example of company: Nalco
Check it out.