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Enhanced Water Conservation & Water Re-use Opportunities for Open Loop Evaporative Cooling Systems

Zeta Rod® Water Management Systems com­bine patent­ed elec­tron­ic water treat­ment tech­nol­o­gy with water man­age­ment pro­to­cols devel­oped to offer con­tin­u­ous remote mon­i­tor­ing of open loop evap­o­ra­tive cool­ing sys­tems for opti­miz­ing water con­ser­va­tion and reduc­tion of chem­istry, while pro­tect­ing equip­ment from cor­ro­sion, scale, bio-foul­ing, and bio-cor­ro­sion. Zeta Corporation devel­oped and demon­strat­ed the water man­age­ment pro­gram under a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Research Lab. The two-year study, pub­lished in 2009, titled “Demonstration of Electronic Capacitor-Based Water Treatment System for Application at Military Installations”, mon­i­tored side-by-side instal­la­tions of the tech­nol­o­gy, oper­at­ing with­out any chem­i­cals, against the results of a stan­dard chem­i­cal water treat­ment pro­gram on sites cho­sen at Federal facil­i­ties in the desert Southwest. Results showed an aver­age of 20% reduc­tion in make-up water usage and 50% reduc­tion in blow-down, while meet­ing and exceed­ing cri­te­ria for pro­tec­tion of equip­ment from scale, cor­ro­sion and bio-foul­ing.

An addi­tion­al two-year study added cool­ing sys­tems at Military bases to broad­en the range of incom­ing water qual­i­ties; from extreme­ly hard water to extreme­ly soft, poten­tial­ly cor­ro­sive water.  The find­ings of both stud­ies were pre­sent­ed at the 2012 Cooling Technology Institute Annual Conference in a paper enti­tled: “Green Technologies:  Electronic Water Treatment System Successfully Evaluated for Water Conservation”.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Directive and Guidance Bulletin on the sub­ject of Non-Chemical Treatment of Cooling Tower Water was issued in April 2012 as a result of the suc­cess­ful Zeta Water Management Program.

Water conservation and chemistry reduction

When oper­at­ed with­out chem­i­cal addi­tives (nor­mal con­di­tion) the Zeta Water Management System is designed to meet the pri­ma­ry objec­tive of equip­ment pro­tec­tion, while offer­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties for increased water con­ser­va­tion beyond what is capa­ble of being deliv­ered by chem­i­cal treat­ment alone. This is accom­plished because the tech­nol­o­gy allows sys­tems to safe­ly run at increased cycles of con­cen­tra­tion under con­di­tions that would nor­mal­ly be indica­tive of scal­ing poten­tial. Additionally, oper­a­tion at ele­vat­ed pH sets con­di­tions for low cor­ro­sion poten­tial and the unique abil­i­ty of the tech­nol­o­gy to pre­vent for­ma­tion of biofilms inhibits bio-foul­ing and asso­ci­at­ed micro­bial induced cor­ro­sion.

Continuous Remote Monitoring

The pri­ma­ry objec­tive of any water treat­ment pro­gram is to pro­tect expen­sive con­densers and cool­ing tow­ers while oper­at­ing in an effi­cient man­ner. Variances in make-up water qual­i­ty and lack of access or exper­tise can con­tribute to inef­fi­cien­cies and risk to equip­ment and oper­a­tors. Zeta Corporation offers mon­i­tor­ing ser­vices and remote oper­a­tional pro­to­cols that allow for con­tin­u­ous ²⁴⁄₇ mon­i­tor­ing and con­trol of sys­tems for key met­rics. This assures own­ers that adverse con­di­tion alarms are iden­ti­fied and addressed before they become crit­i­cal issues. Documentation of actu­al water usage, based on remote meter­ing of make-up and blow-down ratios, com­bined with analy­sis and report­ing of data log read­ings and water sam­ple test­ing com­prise the basis for mon­i­tor­ing pro­grams avail­able.  Zeta Water Management pro­grams con­tribute to LEED strate­gies for earn­ing points under Water Efficiency and Innovation in Design.