pwr_october-2024 - 34

WATER TREATMENT
Powering Performance
with an Integrated
Approach to Cooling Water
Power plant managers know that optimizing cooling water operations will improve
efficiency. Using an integrated approach that combines advanced chemistry, digital
technologies, such as deposit sensing, and data analytics to detect issues early can
enhance system performance and potentially increase power output while reducing
maintenance costs and environmental impact.
Chad Williams
he power industry faces growing
demand for reliable and affordable
energy. Fueled by electrification
trends and surging data center growth,
increasing demand requires power plants
to adopt innovative strategies so they can
continue to provide uninterrupted service.
Power plants rely on consistent coolT
ing
water processes to operate. Scale,
corrosion, fouling, and microbiological
growth can significantly impact cooling
water efficiency and reliability, affecting
the lifespan of critical equipment and infrastructure.
Without an optimized treatment
program, plant operators must
plan for long maintenance windows and
downtime to address scale deposits and
other issues.
To respond, power plants must take
an integrated approach to manage cooling
water operations. By combining advanced
chemistry with digitally enabled
solutions like deposit sensing technology
and intelligence, operators can maintain
optimized cooling water systems for
consistent performance.
Applying Deposit Sensing Technology
Nalco Water, an Ecolab company, applied
an integrated cooling water program
to help an aging Louisiana power plant
maintain efficient operations. The 585MW
plant had recently changed its water
source from surface water to groundwater,
which threatened to impact production.
Unlike surface water, groundwater
contains higher concentrations of iron,
manganese, silica, and microbial constituents.
These scale-forming elements
and microbial concentrations can significantly
impair the efficiency of condensers
and heat exchangers, posing a critical
challenge for the plant.
The plant's engineering group worked
34
alongside Nalco Water (Figure 1) to address
the challenge. Together, the team
implemented a program that combined
water management solutions with advanced
deposit-sensing technology. By
implementing the program, engineers
aimed to establish early detection of fouling
events that could impact production.
As a key component of the program,
Nalco Water leveraged 3D TRASAR Technology
for Cooling Water. The solution uses
automation to detect variability, determine
the appropriate corrective action, and deliver
optimized chemical treatment. Further,
the solution contains deposit-sensing technology
that uses an innovative measurement
process to help operators identify
scale deposits in real time, measuring key
stress parameters to detect changes and
provide early warning of scaling, corrosion,
and biofilm deposits.
The deposit-sensing technology uses
an array of resistance temperature devices
that mimic the different temperature
levels on the skin of a heat exchanger.
This allows the sensor to provide early
indication of fouling risk, while also identifying
the type of deposit likely to form.
The sensor also allowed the plant to collect
vital performance data. By coupling
the information with other 3D TRASAR
controller data and contextualizing it
through digital services powered by the
ECOLAB3D platform, Nalco Water provided
the power plant with insights to respond
to potential deposits in real time.
With the new program in place, the
power plant reported its first early indication
of a potential performance issue.
The event resulted from suspended solids
that had been released into the bulk
water during a recent plant startup. Later,
the deposit-sensing technology reported
a second rapid deposition event. Upon
investigating the situation, the power
plant and Nalco Water service engineers
(Figure 2) determined that higher iron and
silica concentrations in the new makeup
water source, combined with poor control
of cooling tower cycles of concentration
and loss of dispersant feed, contributed
to the deposition event.
1. A service engineer and customer walk through a plant. Courtesy: Nalco Water
www.powermag.com
POWER | October 2024
http://www.powermag.com
pwr_october-2024

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