Common Water Problem

2. Common Water Problems

All water use in the industrial application will have below common problems due to the impurities from the water.

• Corrosion

In its very simple form, corrosion is the undesirable deterioration of metal or alloys as result of their interaction with the environment like air and water. In all water application this condition exists and thus corrosion will happen. The impact of the corrosion is the destruction of the equipment and thus lost of the production capacity.

• Scaling

Formation of scale is a chemical process due to the concentrations of dissolved salts in the water exceeding their solubility limits and precipitate on to surfaces in contact with the water. The most common scale formers, calcium salts, exhibit reverse solubility in that they become less soluble as the temperature of the water increases. This property causes scale formation in the most sensitive area, the heat transfer surfaces of production equipment. The impact of formation of scale is the lost of heat transfer capacity in the heat exchanger and thus cause production loses.

• Microbiological Problem

Generally this refers to the growth of micro-organism in the cooling water and lead to the micro-fouling problem by established of thick bio- film. This will caused corrosion and also reduce heat transfer efficiency.

• Deposition

Deposition is a general term for all the things that can cause problems in a cooling water system that are not due to scale, corrosion, or biological activity. Deposition affects process operations much like scale, the deposits act as a thermal insulator to decrease heat transfer efficiency in production equipment. Deposition can also cause physical blockage of cooling