Water Treatment Solutions Blog

Aluminum has always been used in various cooling systems, such as injection molding. Over the past several years however, the water treatment industry has seen even more use of the metal in heat exchangers and hot water boilers. The reason for this industry shift is the light weight, easy fabrication properties and excellent heat transfer characteristics of aluminum. The problem this presents is that aluminum doesn’t play very well with the traditional treatment chemistry used in closed systems. This week’s blog will review some of the basics with aluminum metallurgy and discuss some of the keys for treatment.

Fall is just around the corner already.  With school starting in the next few weeks, many of these facilities and other commercial facilities will start to get their heating systems ready for colder weather.  This article will focus on boiler startups after the long summer shutdown and some tips to keep these systems operating reliably. 

Energy efficiency of your boiler system centers around keeping your boiler clean and free of scale. Boiler scale can be a hard, tenacious deposit or a softer coating of insoluble salts, which forms on boiler tubes and walls. It’s most often caused by makeup water hardness, which refers to the naturally occurring calcium and magnesium ions found in water. These ions, when heated to the high temperatures inside a boiler, are what creates the scale and scale buildup. This buildup will not only cause a reduction in energy efficiency of the boiler, but can lead to boiler tube overheating potentially to the rupturing of the tubes.

A large majority of boiler water problems have their root cause from impurities and contamination in the feedwater system. This should be a clear indication of how critical feedwater quality is to the health of a boiler water system.

For anyone treating the water within a boiler system, it is important to understand the unique qualities of water and steam generation, as well as how the makeup of the feedwater you use can affect your boiler water system.

Organic and inorganic oxygen scavengers decrease or remove the level of oxygen in the water by reacting with the dissolved oxygen in the water. This reduces the accelerated corrosion caused by the presence of oxygen in a high heat environment.

It’s important to note that not all scavengers are created equal. The differences among them can be significant in terms of effectiveness, temperature ranges, cost, reaction time and type of systems where they can be utilized.

Organic and inorganic oxygen scavengers decrease or remove the level of oxygen in the water by reacting with the dissolved oxygen in the water. This reduces the accelerated corrosion caused by the presence of oxygen in a high heat environment.

The difference between oxygen scavengers lies in their effectiveness, temperature ranges, cost, reaction time and type of systems where they can be utilized.