Posted by William Vander Plaats on Fri, Aug 27, 2010 @ 11:50 AM
Heat exchanger fouling is a costly situation in terms of both (a) loss of water system efficiency and (b) maintenance costs, as well as (c) countless other problems it can cause in an HVAC or process water environment. When properly applied, filtration of the water and process fluids before they enter the heat exchanger can prevent fouling from occurring. For systems containing dirt, sediment and other solids, the savings can be huge, and can include water savings, energy savings, as well as others.
A multinational equipment manufacturer in the Midwestern U.S. faced this situation on their production line, where heat exchangers were repeatedly clogging and fouling due to scale in the process water. Among other problems, this made it very difficult for the heat exchanger to maintain the proper temperature for the water, wreaking havoc with the production process. The company tried using bag filters to solve the problem, but bags need to be emptied when they are filled. In this situation, the scale and other solids in the water was so great that the bags had to be replaced once every 5 weeks. The cost in materials and labor to change the bags was over $80,000 per year, and that did not include other costs being driven higher due to the lowered efficiency of the entire system or the lost production time.
A Better Filtration Solution
Frustrated by the costly and not very effective bag filter solution, the maintenance team at this large company continued to look for other solutions to their problem. They found it -- a nearly maintenance-free filtration solution that also lowered water usage and kept the heat exchanger operating at maximum efficiency 24/7. It was a complete filtration solution that included a LAKOS Centrifugal Separator and purging system. The time it took for the reduced expenses of the new system (just heat exchanger cleaning costs alone) to pay back the costs to buy it and install it? Less than 6 months.
Download The Heat Exchanger Fouling Solution Case Study
Get more details about this situation, as well as the BEFORE and AFTER costs to clean the system. Heat exchangers are valuable pieces of equipment, and keeping them running efficiently will yield tremendous savings. Effective filtration is a great way to accomplish this goal.
Posted by William Vander Plaats on Thu, Apr 22, 2010 @ 02:16 PM
It is April 22 and Earth Day in the U.S. This is the 40th anniversary of this special day created to focus our attention on the environment and the precious resources of our planet, and how we as stewards are responsible for using them wisely. This includes clean air, clean water, and sustainable living practices that leave the earth in better condition than when we found it.
Special events are being planned to commemorate this event, including:
- Special activities and awareness programs will be celebrated on college campuses across the country, such as battery recycling, computer and electronics recycling, and solar energy demonstrations.
- Opportunities to adopt a coral reef or donate time and money to other conservation causes.
- A Climate Rally at the National Mall in Washington D.C. on Sunday, April 25th. Organizers hope to build support for additional legislation to preserve the environment in the U.S., including changes to limits of carbon emissions.
Ongoing Commitment Is Key
While annual events like Earth Day help us focus our attention on the environment for a short time period, it is how we implement these ideas the rest of the year that really matter. Sustainability, energy savings, and wise water use should be part of our personal living practices, as well as in the buildings and businesses in which we work. Some of these practices are obvious and easy to identify, such as: reducing water usage in hvac systems, keeping all systems (computers, hvac, and others) operating at highest energy efficiency, and recycling water and minimizing other waste as much as possible. Filtration of water is an important component of each of these efforts, utilizing techniques such as cooling tower basin cleaning, submersible pump sand protection, preventing heat exhanger fouling, and many others. But some sustainable practices are not so easily recognized, such as "closed loop" filtration.
Closed Loop Filtration
"Open loop" water systems are those which are exposed to the outside air and environment, and because of this, they require continuous cleaning and filtration to operate at highest efficiency. Dirt and grime can cause reduced efficiency and water waste. "Closed loop" water systems are NOT exposed to the outside air, and theoretically SHOULD NOT need ongoing filtration. Once the system is free of dirt, grime, or other particulates, the system should remain relatively clean, but theory and reality are not always the same.
Closed loop systems often DO need a filtration system to remain clean, due to pipe rust and other suspended solids in the system. This keeps chillers, compressors, heat exchangers and other closed loop equipment operating in good working order and operating at maximum efficiency.
New White Paper
The Manager of Building Operations at a large 700-bed hospital recently authored a White Paper outlining the benefits of closed loop filtration. Stollery Children's Hospital at the University of Alberta uses a chilled water system and experienced problems until filtration was installed. Download the Hospital Closed Loop White Paper today and read how LAKOS Filtration keeps the system operating at maximum efficiency.
Posted by William Vander Plaats on Thu, Jan 28, 2010 @ 01:17 PM
Few process industries require clean water more than the steel industry. Whether it be an integrated steel mill, mini-mill, cold rolling, plate mill, or other, the need to keep the water free of dirt, scale, and other solids has a large effect on the efficiency of the mill. This leads to less scrap and a reduction in water use. Not to mention other benefits as well.
The Arcelor-Mittal steel plant in Burns Harbor, Indiana, is a 
perfect example of the many ways in which industrial water filtration can keep descaling pumps, heat exchangers, and other components of the process cooling system operating efficiently. Formerly owned by Bethlehem Steel, this is one of the largest steel mills in the world. A few of the many ways in which centrifugal separators are used for filtration at this facility include:
- Keeping the coolant water rollers clean on the plate leveler
- Protecting the rollers on the heating bed
- Preventing scale build-up and damage to the descaling pumps
- Preventing the need for manual heat exchanger cleaning
- Nozzle cleaning
- Many others, including 25 different centrifugal separators operating in the mill at one time
As their 40-year millwright veteran Joe Saiken puts it, “The great thing about a LAKOS Separator is that you put one in and then you forget about it. They keep our systems running without a hitch and with no downtime.” Arcelor-Mittal utilizes LAKOS filtration in several other locations as well, including steel mills in Lazaro Cardenas (Mexico) and the Saldanha plant in South Africa. Our Case Study AB-210 provides details how the effective use of
industrial water filters helped these mills solve problems and save money.
The Burns Harbor example is unique only because of its size. Other steel mills have experienced similar results.
California Steel in Fontana,
POSCO steel in Korea, and the
Lukens Steel Company in Pennsylvania are just three other steel mills which have turned to LAKOS filtration to minimize waste,
prevent heat exchanger fouling, and prevent other process problems.
Would you like more details about the TYPE and SIZE of particles removed by centrifugal separators in steel production, and see a more complete list of installations around the world?
Download the
Steel and Primary Metals Filtration Guide today !
Posted by William Vander Plaats on Thu, Nov 12, 2009 @ 01:17 PM
Energy savings resulting from using one product or another are easy claims to make. Often much harder to prove. The same is true when claiming reduced water usage in commercial heating and air conditioning systems.
But when it comes to cooling tower filtration, the benefits of installing an effective filtration system can be measured in actual dollars. And those cost savings can be HUGE. If you systematically consider the local kilowatt hour costs, labor costs, water costs, decreased labor time saved by automating the filtration process (instead of manual basin cleaning), number and size of chillers, etc, and other factors, the actual costs and savings can be determined. 
And by factoring in the cost of an automated filtration solution, a Return On Investment can be accurately calculated.
And that is not even taking into account the other benefits of effective cooling tower filtration, which include:
- Reduced risk of Legionella growth
- A GREENER facility with higher sustainability
A spreadsheet capturing all of this information has been developed and is available for download. It includes industry standard fouling factors for chillers, typical replacement time and costs to manually clean heat exchangers, and other cost and energy use assumptions based upon U.S. Department of Energy published standards.
What about YOUR cooling towers and chillers?
How much $MONEY would YOU save by installing such a system?
Download our energy savings and ROI calculator and find out today !
Posted by William Vander Plaats on Wed, Oct 21, 2009 @ 04:00 PM
Cooling towers for large buildings and plants are often magnets for dirt and other airborne particles. This is especially true if they are located near open fields, airports, or other things that raise the level of airborne debris. Contamination in tower basins can also be caused by large amounts of precipitated minerals from water treatment (calcium carbonate) or non-chemical water treatment.
The accumulation of this dirt and other solids will result in:
- Reduced efficiencies for all the system components
- Increased maintenance costs, since manual cleaning of the basin will be required from time to time
- Increased water usage, since occasional backwashings will be required
- Increased chemical water treatment costs, since the chemicals will not react as efficiently with non-filtered water as they will with FILTERED water. More chemicals will be needed if the water is not filtered.
A very effective method to prevent this accumulation of dirt is twofold: first to
- use strategically placed nozzles under pressure to keep the dirt from settling in one place and direct the dirt toward the inlet of a
- separator or other filtration device such as a sand media filter to remove the dirt and unwanted solids.
A short video showing how this is accomplished using LAKOS products is available on YouTube. Cooling towers can be custom built or purchased from a major manufacturer, and common basin layouts are available for those common sizes.
Deaconess Hospital in Oklahoma City (Case Study AB-209) saved 60 man hours per year AND reduced employee liability and water usage by installing such a system. They kept their heat exchangers and chillers clean and running at maximum efficiency using this system. This also helps in Legionella prevention as well, a special concern for hospitals.
Saint John's Hospital in Indiana (Case Study AB-208) experienced the same results with their system, consisting of a closed loop system and two chillers. Similar results have been found by many other cooling tower owners.
Have you ever tried to clean a cooling tower basin by hand?