Canadian Fluid Filtration is a new industrial division within the Swim-Eq company. It was established three years ago to provide packaged filter systems for selected industrial markets. One significant market segment that has been very successful for Canadian Fluid Filtration has been the market for packaged filter systems for cooling towers and recirculating water cooling systems.
Canadian Fluid Filtration manufactures and sells the unique CFF line of cooling tower filter systems. They consist of automated filter systems for recirculating water cooling systems and the optional Ultra-Jet Basin Cleaning System, a continuous cleaning mechanism in cooling tower basins and holding tanks.
To better understand how filters and basin cleaning systems operate, we will look at what the CFF-Filter System and what it does. The CFF-Filter System provides filtration and continuous basin cleaning for recirculating water in cooling towers and other liquid cooling systems. The CFF-Filter System removes suspended and settled solids, chemical sludge, algae, slime and other particulates, allowing the cooling system to operate more efficiently and more economically.
The CFF-Filter System is designed for installation on new or existing cooling towers as well as part of a retrofit package for repair, rebuilding or thermal upgrading applications. The CFF-Filter System is designed to prevent degradation of the cooling system performance due to dirt and debris on the heat transfer surface. Because the CFF-Filter System continuously cleans the recirculating water system, it allows the use of bypass cooling modifications. The CFF-Filter System prevents the build-up of silt and sludge on basin floors which results in either high maintenance costs or expensive shut down. It improves the performance of chemicals and allows the use of other nonchemical type of treatments, including ozone and many others.
The basic CFF-Filter System consists of two main components – filters and optional Ultra-Jet basin Cleaning Systems. The Filters are primarily backwashable permanent media filters utilizing crystal silica sand. They are designed to operate manually or fully automatic. A range of sizes is available, from small package units to large modular components, to handle all cooling system applications. Ultra Jet Basin Cleaning System is a unique basic cleaning unit for cooling towers. It consists of a series of nozzles which continually sweep the basin floor.
CFF-Filters concentrate and segregate contaminants into the filter housing for removal by the backwash cycle. These filters provide benefits to the cooling tower user. Theses benefits include:
• More efficient heat transfer. The CFF-Filter System removes solids and sludges as fast as they enter or as fast as they are formed. Without the filter, these solids would combine with the hardness scale components, adding to the insulating layer in the heat transfer unit. These solids would also combine with the biofilm, further increasing the insulating layer on the heat transfer surface. This can mean up to a 35 % reduction in heat transfer effectiveness.
• Reduces frictional piping losses. The CFF-Filter System removes solids and chemical sludges that otherwise would combine with scale and biofilm, adding to the frictional flow resistance in the recirculating water piping, thus requiring more horsepower that an interaction between biofilm and silt built up an almost imperceptible 150 micron thickness in the pipes, but it doubled the piping frictional losses.
• Provides improved chemical performance and reduced water loss through reduced blowdown. The CFF-Filter System removes solids and chemical sludges that otherwise would require removal through the blowdown. These sludges would also react with new chemicals, making them less efficient for treatment of dissolved, colloidal and biological contaminants within the circulating water cooling system. The CFF-Filter System also removes solids which otherwise might dissolve and become part of the TDS within the total system. Working together, the CFF-Filter System improves performance of chemicals and provides some retardation to TDS buildup.
• Reduces cooling system maintenance. The CFF-Filter System removes solids and sludges that otherwise would require cooling system shutdown for clean out of nozzles, cooling tubes, pipes and basins. These shutdowns would also require clean out of flow controls, orifices and other control components.
• It makes bypass cooling reliable. The trend toward bypass cooling in recirculating water cooling system is increasing rapidly. The CFF-Filter System removes solids and sludges that otherwise would plug small cooling passages when raw cooling water is by-passed directly into the closed water loop.
• Significant reduction in overall power consumption for the plant or process. During appropriate atmospheric conditions, cold water from the cooling tower that normally might recirculate through a chiller or other heat transfer system is directly bypassed into the closed water loop. Of course, because the closed water cooling system is designed for raw cooling system maintains a clean, steady state water condition within the cooling tower.
Prepackaged, skid-mounted CFF-Filter Systems for recirculating water cooling applications are available in a complete range of sizes from small roof mounted air conditioning systems up to 1,000 tons or more and for longer recirculating water systems up to 3,000 gallons per minutes or more.
The general theory of filter installation is to install the CFF-Filter System on a separate sidestream loop using part of the cooling tower recirculating water. As a general rule of thumb, the CFF-Filter Systems are sized at 5 % to 10 % of the recirculating water flow rate. Factors, such as water turnover rate, total water system volume, local airborne contamination and makeup water conditions, are also considered.
Dirty water is picked up from one end of the cooling system and pumped through the filter system. The clean filtered water is returned to the opposite side of the cold water basin.
The second optional part of the CFF-Filter System consists of the Ultra-Jet Basin Cleaning System.
Ultra-Jet fittings bring clean filtered water back to the basin through large spray nozzles and/or control valves, sweeping settled and deposited debris to the filter inlet. This action provides benefits to the cooling tower user. These benefits include:
• No basin clean out. Ultra-Jet fittings continuously sweep the basin floor. This prevents shutdowns of the cooling system basin to shovel and hose out sludge, silt, slime and dead algae.
• Provides more effective chemical distribution. The Ultra-Jet fittings continuously agitate and sweep the basin floor. This action ensures constant mixing of new chemicals and makeup water, eliminating dead spots and cold areas within the basin. This action prevents formation of breeding areas in the sludge bed where dangerous anaerobic bacteria and other harmful organisms can breed and multiply.
• A more effective distribution system, it allows the chemicals to react with contaminants on all sides as opposed to simple surface treatment, thus providing faster, more controlled treatment and quicker chemical action It allows the chemicals to be more aggressive and more specifically directed toward those contamination problems within the recirculating water system that can only be treated effectively using water treatment chemicals.
The Ultra-Jet Basin Cleaning System is the only way to continuously clean the cooling tower basin. The Ultra-Jet Basin Cleaning System is installed to work in conjunction with the filter on the clean return line. It brings clean filtered water back into the basin in a controlled manner. The most common installation is the head down position. No special contractions are needed, making Ultra-Jet a simple retrofit for existing recirculating water cooling systems.
The heads are installed in a pattern to cover all areas on the basin floor.
Water is drawn into the tower filter and returned to the cooling system basin through the actuator valve which then directs the water to the Ultra-Jet heads. Even in those basins where there is not sufficient clearance between the fill and the basin floor, Tower Filter Systems can still be utilized. The filter and water valve provide the controlled clean water return which can even fit into the tightest space available.
The CFF-Filter System and its Ultra-Jet Basin Cleaning package is a unique product designed specifically for cooling towers and other recirculating water cooling systems. By historical standards, the market for these products is relatively new. Through education of the user and contractor as to the features and benefits of the CFF-Filter System, there is an opportunity to develop rapid sales penetration in this market.
