High Efficiency
Cooling Tower
Monitoring

BENEFITS

High efficiency cooling tower fill is susceptible to fouling that can cause both process and mechanical integrity issues. Fouling reduces the cooling tower efficiency resulting in the plant process becoming bottlenecked. Another risk is severely fouled fill becoming so heavy with the deposits and the increased water being held up that the cell can collapse. Quantum Technical Services has developed a proprietary gamma scan application to monitor fouling in high efficiency cooling tower fill. Our patented method enables us to scan the cooling tower cells and calculate the bulk density across the fill section. Subsequent scans can then be performed to monitor the progression of the fouling and the effectiveness of your chemical treatment program. Our approach has several advantages over other methods utilized to monitor fouling in cooling tower fill:

• Can be performed while the tower is on-line or off-line and does not require the fill to be removed
• Results are available immediately
• Provides an actual bulk density of the cell in lb/ft3
• Profile includes the effect of water being held up by fouling
• Does not rely on inferred results based on water chemistry and other ancillary data
• Subsequent scans provide repeatable results that can be directly compared to previous scans
• Identifies critical conditions allowing for immediate proactive management that can be monitored for effectiveness

Using a sealed radioactive source and a sensitive detector we are able to generate a density profile of the fill. We will typically take two sets of readings through each cell by lowering the source and detector on opposite sides of the tower.

CASE STUDY

A Texas refinery was concerned the fouling in their cooling tower was reaching a critical point that could affect the structural integrity of the fill. They had us perform a series of scans over a three month period to determine the density of the fill and monitor the effectiveness of the chemical treatment. Figure 1 below shows the scan results for one section (Scan Line 1). As seen in Figure 1, the first scan showed the fill had a maximum density in excess of 15 lb/ft3 . The second and third scans show the maximum density decreased to 13.5 lb/ft3 and 8.5 lb/ft3 respectively. The other three scan lines showed similar results indicating the chemical treatment had been effective. The ability to monitor the fill density while being chemically treated allowed the customer to avoid shutting down the cooling tower. A proactive cooling tower scan program is one of the most cost effective methods available to identify and quantify fouling before it becomes a problem. Baseline cooling tower scans can also be performed immediately after startup. Baseline data provides benchmark operational information that serves as a reference for future scans.