Pilot-scale cooling tower to evaluate corrosion, scaling, and biofouling control strategies for cooling system makeup water

Pilot-scale cooling towers can be used to evaluate corrosion, scaling, and biofouling control strategies when using particular cooling system makeup water and particular operating conditions. To study the potential for using a number of different impaired waters as makeup water, a pilot-scale system capable of generating 27 000 kJ/h heat load and maintaining recirculating water flow with a Reynolds number of 1.92 x 10(4) was designed to study these critical processes under conditions that are similar to full-scale systems. The pilot-scale cooling tower was equipped with an automatic makeup water control system, automatic blowdown control system, semi-automatic biocide feeding system, and corrosion, scaling, and biofouling monitoring systems. Observed operational data revealed that the major operating parameters, including temperature change (6.6 degrees C), cycles of concentration (N := 4.6), water flow velocity (0.66 m/s), and air mass velocity (3660 kg/h m(2)), were controlled quite well for an extended period of time (up to 2 months). Overall, the performance of the pilot-scale cooling towers using treated municipal wastewater was shown to be suitable to study critical processes (corrosion, scaling, biofouling) and evaluate cooling water management strategies for makeup waters of complex quality. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3680563]