Softening

By using softened water as make-up water, scaling in the cooling system can be avoided. The prevention of scale deposits also reduces the formation of Legionella bacteria in the system. The need for drainage of the water is minimized with softened water. Thereby, the solution is both economic and environment friendly.

When the water has certain hardness, we use softened water as make-up water. If the make-up water has a hardness above 1 °dH the water should be softened. For softening the make-up water we use a simple cation exchange plant. The softening will remove the hardness in the water which contributes to the formation of scale deposits in the cooling water system.

Scale deposits have several unfortunate effects. Scale encourages bacterial growth and reduces the heat transfer efficiency in the cooling system.

It is important to mention, that there are still considerable amounts of salt in the water after softening. These salts will be concentrated when the water is evaporated in the cooling tower/evaporation condenser. Therefore a blow down will still be necessary.