Abstract
Water scarcity has increased the necessity for water re-use, utilization of poor quality water, and operating systems at higher cycles of concentration (COC). High silica content make-up water is a major obstacle to cost-effective treatment programs for system operating at higher COC. The approach most often used for silica limited cooling systems involves using a base treatment program with an overlay or supplemental treatment such as high concentrations of polymer(s) in combination with phosphonate(s) to control silica at concentrations approaching 300 mg/L. However, this approach leads to very expensive treatments. This study presents a novel treatment program that incorporates a very efficient silica polymerization inhibitor in combination with current corrosion control technology. This study compares the performance of a novel treatment program with two alternatives and discusses their relative cost effectiveness.
