Nalco Company
Chicago, Illinois
Intern: Sai Archana Kuchimanchi
Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago
The Nalco Company provides integrated water treatment as well as process improvement
services, chemicals and equipment programs for industrial and institutional
applications. Nalco’s Clearing Plant produces colloidal silica,
which is used in manufacturing silicon wafers, memory disks and juice purifications.
The intern project focused on opportunities to improve the operation and efficiency
of its cooling tower operation.
Results:
The intern made the following recommendations:
- Consider the use of ozone as a maintenance treatment chemical.
- Investigate fiberglass-reinforced polyester as a replacement material for
galvanized steel to help better withstand corrosive conditions in the tower
structure.
- Reuse heated cooling tower overflow in the boiler to reduce or eliminate
wastewater generation. The overflow water is much hotter than
the make up city water used in the boiler system.
- Use treated effluent as cooling tower make up.
- Check valves in all blowdown pipes, so that when the conductivity falls
below the ceiling limit, the valve closes and the blowdown flow stops. This
will save water.
- Install drift eliminator at the top of the tower to minimize drift losses.
- Periodically check the strainer at the bottom of the collection basin and
clean if necessary.
- Annually check for faults exist in the cooling tower structure.
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