Evaporative Condensers

(Scale) deposits in evaporative condensers

Evaporative condensers have tubes that over time become fouled on the outer side with scale and biological deposits. This has a negative effect on the heat transfer between the two media, which ultimately leads to a lower efficiency and thus a reduced output. In principle, the water treatment ensures that no deposits are formed on the tubes and other components, but there are always various variables that can cause fouling to occur. In most cases this cannot be prevented and cleaning will have to take place at some point.

Cleaning-in-place

A cleaning-in-place of the evaporative condenser is a simple and very effective method of removing deposits. In an ideal scenario, this cleaning would be carried out preventively, to keep the level of fouling to a minimum, however, this cleaning is often only carried out when it is too late. In that case it becomes a reactive cleaning.

With a cleaning-in-place, a special cleaning agent is added to the water basin, this is often a descaler. The liquid is then circulated through the existing pump over the entire installation. This will clean all components of the evaporative condenser, including the tubes and nozzles. Some other advantages of this technique are:

• Savings in manpower, because the installation is able to do most of the cleaning by itself. The pump of the evaporative condenser ensures that the cleaning agent gets everywhere. It is therefore only necessary to introduce the cleaning agent into the waterbasin, monitor the cleaning process and finally neutralize, discharge and rinse the system.
• Reduced risk of damage, some companies have the tubes cleaned from the outside with high pressure, which can cause damage in the form of leaks. In addition, only the upper tubes are cleaned, the tubes below remain fouled.
• Cost savings because parts do not have to be replaced prematurely. Furthermore, after cleaning, the installation will be in an optimal condition again, which ensures that it runs more efficiently and therefore consumes less energy.
• A preventive CIP program keeps the evaporative condenser in optimum condition. Due to the high cleanliness of the installation, a stable, high efficiency close to the original values can be ensured. Naturally, high cleanliness also contributes to a longer service life of the evaporative condenser.

ScaleBreak-MP

Goodway Benelux supplies a multi-purpose descaler, also known as Scalebreak-MP, for the chemical-technical cleaning of an evaporative condenser. This is a biodegradable, industrial descaler that has been specially developed to remove limescale, rust, biological and other types of deposits. The descaler has various corrosion inhibitors, wetting, and penetrating agents, making it a very safe product that can be used on almost any type of material. Some features of Scalebreak-MP are listed below:

• High-performance descaler designed for technical systems
• Fortified to deliver high powered descaling while protecting base materials from excessive corrosion 
• Safe on a wide range of materials including stainless steel and rubber
• Very effective against limescale, rust, bio fouling and more
• Biodegradable and exempted for the transport of hazardous substances, does not contain HCL (Hydrochloric Acid)
• Dissolves 3,5 KG of scale per 10 liters of product

More information about Scalebreak-MP can be found here.