Power Plant Descaling: More Important Than You Think
Sometimes when we in the industry think of descaling power plants, we mainly think of the large condenser boxes that create steam and run turbines. And while that is a huge part of the operation, there are dozens of other applications where water is used within a power plant.
The most common scale ingredient is CaCO3, or calcium carbonate, the main ingredient in hard water. Herein lies the problem: if thousands of gallons of water are flowing through boilers, heat exchangers, condensers, cooling towers and other parts of a power plant, scale is likely to build up.
How Stuff Works shows us how a nuclear power plant works. The Centre for Energy shows us how a thermal power plant works. And the U.S. Geological Survey shows us the inner workings of a hydroelectric power plant. Although the plants vary in operation, function and components, what the illustrations show is that a power plant contains numerous large applications with water circulating through them, requiring descaling.
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Legionnaires’ Disease Linked to Limescale Buildup
Legionnaires’ disease is making the headlines again, with at least 15 confirmed cases in April in Auckland, New Zealand. The cases are spread throughout the Auckland area, making it difficult to find the source and supporting the idea it’s likely present in more than one source. One person in Auckland has died after contracting the disease.
Officials in the Auckland region have encouraged over 300 building owners to chemically treat or “shock-dose” their cooling towers with a biocide to kill the outbreak.
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Ship Maintenance: Descaling is Critical for Effective Heat Transfer
Water scale on any heat transfer surface reduces the effectiveness of that heat transfer. In turn, this results in reduced equipment efficiency while increasing energy consumption, increasing costs and even increasing plant operational downtime. Often this “buildup” problem is either ignored or relegated to “fixing it at the last minute or upon mechanical failure” status because of downtime costs. This is historically based on the premise that descaling takes a great deal of time.
As a marine engineer, this brings focus to one very important concern – every cruise and merchant ship must be self-sustaining as far as the production of fresh water is concerned.
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Commercial Chiller Cleaning and More: The Experts Speak (Part 1)
Well, the calendar has once again rolled ’round to what’s commonly referred to in song — most famously by Andy Williams — as “The Most Wonderful Time of the Year.” And that means it’s the blessed season when our hearts and minds turn not only to the joys of parties for hosting, marshmallows for toasting, and all of that, but to the job of cleaning those HVAC chillers and other components. Naturally, we at Just Venting are here to help.
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The 20 Things You Should Know About Descaling:#16 – #20
Welcome to the fourth and final installment of Goodway’s “Twenty Questions and Answers about Descaling“. We ended the last post by telling you how Goodway ScaleBreak is safe for the environment. That’s important, so we wanted to add a few details before moving to Goodway descaling systems.
16.) ScaleBreak is completely biodegradable. When you use it to clean water scale, it will have a slightly acid pH and will contain non-toxic salts. ScaleBreak does not contain Cresols or tar oils and is not subject to SARA Title III, Section 313 reporting requirements. Use a little sodium bicarbonate to easily neutralize before you dispose of any residue. Just check with your local sewer authority if you have any questions.
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The 20 Things You Should Know About Descaling: #11- #15
Welcome to part three of “Twenty Questions and Answers about Descaling“. So far, we’ve looked at scale (questions 1-5) and the best ways to remove it (questions 6-10). In this third installment we’ll talk a little about Goodway’s ScaleBreak solution.
Scalebreak is different from the harsh chemicals you are used to using in the past. It is safe to use on steel, iron, copper, plastic and rubber, and there is even a special version for stainless steel. ScaleBreak is guaranteed to dissolve calcium carbonate and iron oxide deposits.
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The 20 Things You Should Know About Descaling – #6 – #10
Welcome to the second installment of 20 straightforward answers to 20 questions about descaling.
If you are reading this then you have already taken the first step to getting rid of the scale currently accumulating in your HVAC system – you have recognized that it is there. Just look at the picture illustrating this post to see what we mean. Our last post covered questions 1-5: what is scale and why you should be concerned about it? Now let’s take a closer look at the best way to actually clean that scale out of your system.
6.) There are two ways to get rid of scale – mechanically and chemically. In a mechanical cleaning, you use moving brushes to actually scrape the scale off the walls of your pipes . Using a chemical process,you circulate a chemical though your tubes that dissolves and flushes any scale. the material.
7.) Which way is better? They both work well of and by themselves, but we recommend that you do both. Start with an initial chemical treatment that will loosen scale, rust and other deposits and then follow up with an actual mechanical scrubbing with brushes.
8.) Consider adding a regular chemical cleaning to your maintenance schedules. Chemical cleaning in conjunction with mechanical cleaning will do a better job than either alone– it will help you stay ahead of the formation of new scale.
9.) But chemical cleaning is more than just pouring chemicals into your pipes. Look for a system – like Goodway’s systems – that keep the solution of cleaning chemicals moving, constantly circulating them so they clean in the most efficient –and safest — manner possible.
10.) Goodway descaling systems can be used in almost every part of the circulating water side of your system, including heat exchangers, pumps and compressors.
To find out more about descaling, for your free copy of our new publication “20 Things You Need to Know About Descaling Now‘, and a free sample descaling kit, please contact us.
Rich Silverman
Goodway Blogging Team
Public Domain image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
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The 20 Things You Should Know About Descaling: #1-#5
Let’s talk about scale. If you are responsible for one or more of these:
- condensers
- chillers
- boilers
- heat exchangers
- cooling towers
- compressors
you have scale. You may not see it right away. You may not notice its effects right away, but sooner or later, you will have scale buildup. We hereby offer the first five of 20 things you should know about scale, what it is, what it does and how you can stop it.
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