Garratt-Callahan (G-C) has been proudly serving the needs of its clients, as a US-based company, in California, and across the nation, for more than 100 years. Our water treatment experts work individually with our clients to optimize cooling towers’ efficiency by minimizing scale, pipe corrosion, the risk of waterborne pathogens, and other problems common in industrial cooling units. We carefully evaluate each client’s needs and develop a plan tailored to their cooling water treatment requirements. Ultimately, G-C helps clients with uniquely-crafted water treatment solutions that conserve energy, and protect the safety of their workers and customers, while reducing maintenance and repair costs.
Solving Water Treatment Problems
Cooling tower air conditioning water is susceptible to the formation of fine particulates and microbial growth, depending on feed water quality and system characteristics. These particulates include sulfates, silica, iron, chlorides, calcium, and other Total Suspended Solids (TSS) or Total Dissolved Solids (TDS), and they promote microbial attachment and biofilm formation. These contaminants can lead to the corrosion and fouling of the pipes in the cooling system, via excessive scale and microbial induction. Such significant degradation can lead to faster wear and tear and sub-optimal efficiency, prompting expensive repairs, longer downtimes, cuts in productivity, and ultimately earlier equipment replacement. Microbial growth and biofilms in the cooling system can spread waterborne pathogens like Legionella, thus representing a potential health hazard for customers and workers. That is why a reliable, safe, and tailored cooling water treatment is so important. By removing these corroding and dangerous contaminants from your HVAC system, G-C’s solutions for cooling water treatment help you protect your equipment, keep your workers and customers safe, and conserve water, while increasing your facilities’ efficiency and improving their environmental impact.
Cooling Water Treatment Applications
G-C’s solutions for HVAC cooling water treatment serve a broad range of industries, including:
- Commercial real estate properties like large-scale business operations where people live and work all day.
- Data storage and processing centers are crucial to today’s global economy by making cloud-based technologies available to industry, research, education, businesses, and more.
- Hospitals and medical centers where critical, life-saving care depends on clean, safe water usage.
- Hotels, where guests desire comfortable temperatures, access to safe food, and clean water free of contaminants.
- Businesses in the food and beverage industry, where the end product must meet stringent health standards.
- Public infrastructure, including federal, state, and local government facilities, must comply with rigorous rules and regulations concerning water and energy usage.
- Manufacturing facilities have specific industrial needs for water cooling systems and treatments.
G-C’s long history of working closely with these industries and understanding their water treatment needs and challenges means that we have the expertise to deal with a wide range of cooling system configurations and potential challenges. That is why a broad spectrum of industries rely on us, to leverage the varied technologies designed by our water treatment experts, including:
- Scale inhibitors protect sensitive, multi-metal cooling systems from scale and mineral deposits that can corrode the equipment and reduce efficiency.
- Dispersants to dislodge and remove debris, such as sediment, rust, sand, mud, etc., from pipes and towers.
- EPA-approved biocides to prevent harmful biofilms, algae, and fungi from contaminating the system.
Cooling Water Treatment Benefits
The benefits of using a reliable water treatment for your cooling systems are numerous. By removing corrosive scale deposits and minerals, tailored water treatment solutions help protect the sensitive parts and pipes in your system, which extends its lifespan and significantly reduces repair, maintenance, and replacement costs. These solutions also reduce chemical treatment costs over the equipment’s lifespan, and associated chemical handling by your staff, thus promoting better occupational health and safety. The right solution for your system also protects users and consumers by reducing contamination from opportunistic pathogens. Associated with planned preventative maintenance, our cooling water treatment solutions keep your exchanger surfaces clean, which allows your equipment to run at optimum efficiency for longer runtimes, and helps prevent unnecessary and expensive downtimes.
Cooling Water Treatment Services
Garratt-Callahan cooling water treatment services have been developed over decades to help industries protect their clients, workers, and the environment. These services include:
- Use of environmentally friendly, EPA-approved, and registered products (e.g. biocides and non-acid inhibitors), that require less chemical handling, and feature easy application and control
- Efficient debris and contaminant removal from pipes and towers
- Biofilm & fouling elimination to prevent corrosion
- Solutions for protecting multi-metal systems
- Integrated support for products and services with remote monitoring and water management programs to mitigate waterborne pathogens.
About Garratt-Callahan
Garratt-Callahan’s industrial water treatment experience started with servicing the boilers that powered the steam-locomotives of the industrial revolution. Our tradition of service continues today in facilities that use high-thermal efficient boilers to power the data-centers of the information age. Our water treatment expertise, chemical applications, equipment maintenance, and customer service are more than just 100+ years of deep field experience, it is building trusted partnerships and long-lasting relationships.
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Frequently Asked Questions
How do you treat biological contamination like biofilm and fouling?
A disinfectant is used to mitigate the effects of biological contamination. Garratt-Callahan uses chlorine dioxide to effectively penetrate cell membranes and remove biofilm and fouling, thanks to its low dosing, rapid activity, and ability to inactivate certain bacterial pathogens, as compared with chlorine and other disinfectants. Chlorine dioxide also works well for periodic shock disinfection of systems susceptible to fouling like cooling water systems.
How can you prevent corrosion in cooling tower equipment?
Particulates in pipes lead to biofilm formation and microbially-induced corrosion. Therefore, an appropriate combination of scale inhibitors, dispersants, and strong disinfectant significantly reduce the risk of corrosion.
What is the best way to remove scale?
To sidestep the harmful effects the often used HF and ABF present to operators and managers, Garratt-Callahan has designed user-friendly acid solutions like Formula 9420 (G-C 9420) to safely remove scale build-up, and extend the life of your equipment.
What are the most common causes of reduced cooling tower equipment performance?
Heat exchangers, thanks to warm and humid conditions, are a favorable breeding ground for the formation of insulating biofilms, thus reducing the heat rejection efficiency. What’s worse is that microorganisms can colonize entire cooling systems. Beyond creating insulating barriers, microorganisms contribute to water flow restriction, deposits, corrosion, and interference with air circulation.
What chemicals are used in cooling water treatment?
Corrosion & scale inhibitors that prevent cooling tower scale, algaecides & biocides for controlling microbiological growth, and pH adjusters for preventing corrosion.
Why is cooling water treatment done?
To reduce the risk of corrosion, scaling, and microbial growth in your cooling tower system, proper water treatment is essential. Otherwise, worsening conditions can lead to reduced cooling efficiency, unscheduled downtime, and costly equipment replacements.
How do you maintain pH in a cooling tower?
pH is an important factor in the efficiency of a cooling tower. Low pH, can lead to corrosion while higher pH can promote microbial growth. As a result, it is important to maintain pH in the optimum range for your cooling system, with the help of pH adjusters like muriatic acid or lime, and regular monitoring. The specific pH solution is dictated by the specific configuration of the cooling tower.
Which water is used in a cooling tower?
The water used in a cooling tower is typically fresh water or recycled water. Fresh water is the most common choice since it is readily available and easy to use. However, using fresh water can lead to problems with mineral buildup and biofouling, so some cooling towers use treated wastewater instead. This water is less likely to cause problems, but it may need to be replaced more frequently. Ultimately, the choice of water depends on factors such as availability, cost, and the level of treatment required.
What is meant by COC in a cooling tower?
COC stands for Cycles Of Concentration and refers to cooling water or cooling tower water. The COC determines how often introduced freshwater can be used or pumped around in the loop before it must be blown down or bled out from the cooling tower.