PROBLEM
Mid America Agri-Products Wheatland LLC was having trouble with bio fouling, scale deposition and drift damage from their three year-old cooling tower system. Due to the influx of debris from the local environment, they were encumbered with the challenge of managing five different water treatment chemicals.
Mid America called on Blue Earth Labs to help them remove cooling tower bacteria and scale. They needed to reduce the amount of cooling tower treatments required as well as to reduce the damage to employee vehicles that were parked near the towers. The drift from the cooling tower was carrying minerals that would bind to the surface of the vehicle when evaporated.
SOLUTION
Blue Earth Labs terminated all previous chemical treatments and added Clearitas 201 in addition to bleach to Mid America’s water system. For the first month, a maintenance dose of Clearitas was used to treat the cooling tower online. Large amounts of dirty foam were noticed in the drain off basin from the removal of dirt and bacteria. Slimy deposits were also noticeable.
The dosing of Clearitas and bleach were both increased to a cleaning amount after the first month inspection. After the dosage increase, the system continued to fluctuate but stabilized after approximately two weeks.
RESULTS
A second on-site inspection revealed that all of the slime and algae noted at the one-month visit of the trial were completely gone as well as the dirty foam located in the basin. Additionally, employees reported a dramatic improvement in the ease of which the drift minerals were washed off their vehicles.
Blue Earth Labs effectively solved Mid America’s cooling tower problems by changing their treatment program to a two-step Clearitas-HOCl combination. All visible biological slime was eliminated and CFU counts dropped to zero. Additionally, no scale formation or any significant corrosion was found.