A cooling tower is a gigantic water based air cleaner. You would not
believe the fine particulates it will clean from the air, plus the
slime it creates. All of this is trapped by the tower since it is
evaporating the water leaving the particulates behind. The tower
operators have to balance how much water is needed to constantly flush
the crap out (turnover) with the cost of the chemicals needed to add
to the makeup water that keep corrosion and gook buildup at bay. Take
a close look inside of a chiller's condenser tube bundle the next time
you see one open for cleaning. The fine particulate is worse in dry
dusty conditions with ground level cooling towers. Using this water in
a system that you cannot open up for regular cleaning may not be a
good idea.
Allan Seidel
St. Louis, MO
On Dec 29, 2010, at 12:25 PM, Roland Huggins wrote:
The DOE plant I spent what seemed a life time used the cooling tower
basins (nice to have a million gal of water available) as back up
with potable as the primary source (to fill and maintain water on
the system). The water was treated for corrosion so that aspect is
not an issue. I don't remember the water having a particulate issue
(assumed filtration was done as part of the cooling tower
operation). I'm sure the water is far cleaner that raw water from
a pond whereby just minimal straining is required.
Roland
On Dec 29, 2010, at 9:50 AM, <[email protected]> <[email protected]
> wrote:
Got a project in South America, poor to no municipal infrastructure
for water to serve the fire pump. Owner has issues with spending
money for a tank and wants to use the cooling tower basin as the
fire pump water source. The total capacity required is 675,000
gallons and the big issue is airborne contaminants that will find
their way in the open basin. The cooling water systems will use
filtration units to separate the contaminants but I've got issue
with this water being used for fire protection systems. Strainers
will not work, not fine enough to capture the particulate. The
water coming in to the basin isn't considered potable by our
standards.
My major concerns are MIC and clogging of sprinkler heads when this
stuff settles. We have a mix of Office wet pipe systems as well as
outdoor exposed dry pipe systems up to 100 ft in height.
The problem with filtration may be the 3,750 gpm flow rate and the
pressure drop through the system on the suction side of the pump.
Any thoughts, suggestions?
My initial inclination is to reject the concept. The cost of the
filtration system would probably be close or more than an above
ground storage tank.
Craig L. Prahl, CET
Fire Protection
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