Keys to a Clean Boiler

Want to keep your steam boiler clean, protected from energy robbing deposits, and protect it from oxygen corrosion? It's really pretty simple:

1) Provide only softened water for make- up, and
2) Keep a good residual (20-60 ppm) of sulfite in the boiler at all times.

Is that all? No, but that's 90% of the solution.

There's obviously more to boiler operation and maintenance than these 2 simple steps. However, if you fail to provide soft water, or fail to protect the boiler from oxygen corrosion - you will have system problems and failures despite everything else you do.

So, for your 2011 Resolution let's make sure we do these things.

Posted on behalf of Fred Lattin

New Solid Water Treatment Dispensing Alternative

For those of you who are familiar with the solid water treatment technologies developed by APTech Group you know that there many benefits to transitioning your boilers, cooling towers and closed loop systems to our advanced solid solutions. (Benefits include: Reduced shipping / handling costs and hassles; reduced environmental spill concerns versus liquids chemicals; safer dispensing than liquids chemicals; neater, cleaner, safer mechanical rooms; increased worker safety and no more triple washing and disposing of 55 gallon drums, among many others.)

With all these great reasons to consider APTech’s solid water treatment solutions, there have still been perceptions that our solution is better suited to smaller implementations. To counter those perceptions we have been working on innovative sizes and shapes for our solid chemistry and with our equipment partner, Hydro Systems, on a new chemical dispenser for use with the new shapes. The result of these efforts are new 6” round solid disks and a new dissolving unit that will allow up to four of the new discs to be placed in the unit at once. This new configuration nearly doubles the amount of cooling tower chemistry that can be “stocked” in the unit at one time with no disruptions in feeding the chemistry, in comparison to our plastic bottles.

We can now give you an update on this highly anticipated dispensing alternative. The new dispenser along with the new 6” discs will be available to order by the beginning of February 2011. Pricing is still being finalized but the new gear will be available as a complete new unit or the tube/tower component only to retrofit an existing bottle dispenser. Give us a shout if you want to learn more about this important advance in solid water treatment.

Risk Management and Your Water Treatment Program

After doing a little research on risk management, I found that many times risk management does not have to be expensive or labor intensive to be effective. This certainly can be the case with your cooling tower or boiler water treatment program.

On a very simplified level, there are a few basic steps to risk management: Identify the risks, measure the frequency and severity of the negative outcomes resulting from the risks, consider alternative solutions to mitigate the risks and monitor the results of any alternatives applied.

Let’s see how these apply to a typical liquid water treatment program:

1. Identify risks – With a liquid water treatment program, there are many risks including:

• Heavy drums – A 55 gallon drum of liquid chemical weighs about 500 pounds. Not only are these drums expensive to ship, moving these can result in back injury, toe injury, or finger injury which can lead to costly Worker's Compensation Claims.
• Spills – Liquids can spill anywhere – on the way to your facility and inside your facility. These chemicals can be hazardous to both the environment and, most importantly, your employees.
• Onsite storage – Are your liquid chemicals being stored properly? Many facilities do not have the space to properly store liquids based on their hazardous classification. The different chemicals are often stored in one containment area which increases the potential for dangerous chemical reactions.

2. Measure frequency and severity – For a liquid water treatment program with the risks mentioned above, an accident could happen anytime the 55 gallon drums are being transported to your facility, moved to the boiler or cooling tower and even when they are just being stored!

3. Alternative solution? - EnduroSolv® solid concentrate water treatment.

• EnduroSolv® solid products are packaged in 1-gallon, recyclable containers (each weighing about 10 pounds). One case of four jugs offers the same amount of treatment as one 500 lb 55-gallon drum of liquid. Imagine the savings in freight costs alone.
• There is no potential for spills as EnduroSolv® is a solid concentrate.
• Five cases of EnduroSolv® products occupy the same footprint as one 55-gallon drum. Also, since there is no leak potential with EnduroSolv® products, special storage containment areas are not necessary.

4. Monitor results – Because EnduroSolv® products contain the same active ingredients as their liquid counterparts, you will see the same scale and corrosion protection for your boilers and cooling towers you expect in a safer, cleaner and economical program.

Take a look at your water treatment program. Do any of the risks mentioned above apply to your facility? If so, contact us to discuss how EnduroSolv® can help reduce your risk and liability while maintaining your facility’s well run chemical program. Isn’t the peace of mind for both you and your employees worth it?

Posted on behalf of Kathleen Collier

Hidden Drum Costs

In a previous post, we discussed the topic of triple rinsing a drum. Triple rinsing is one of several “hidden” costs when it comes to traditional liquid water treatment.

At a previous Association of Water Technologies (AWT) Convention, a speaker from a large university talked about his decision to switch from liquid water treatment to solid water treatment. In his presentation, he touched on the many hidden costs of drums. He calculated that at his facility handling drums cost him $143 per drum. This number was derived from the following tasks that are involved with handling and disposing of a drum along with the labor rate of his employees:

 Unloading the drum from the truck and moving it to storage
 Move the drum to the cooling tower/boiler
 Setting up the new drum and removing the old one
 Drain and triple rinse the old drum
 Move the empty drum to storage
 Loading the empty drums for disposal.

As you can see there are many hidden costs involved in getting drums delivered to your location that you might not even think about. These costs along with the potential for your employee to be injured by moving a drum (back injury, smashed hand, etc.) are just some things to consider when making your water treatment decisions. Switching to the EnduroSolv® brand of solid water treatment chemicals can eliminate these hidden costs in your water treatment program.

Benefits of EnduroSolv® include:

 No heavy drums to move
 Eliminate spill potentials
 No pails of chemicals to move
 No drum disposal issues
 No on-site storage issues

Check out EnduroSolv.com for more information and to find an EnduroSolv® water treater partner/distributor near you.

Posted on behalf of Todd Lee