Optimising the water quality of a building cooling system
Clean water reduces the energy costs while enabling more sustainable operations
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| Quick set-up | Reliable water quality | Reduced environmental impact |
Results
- Flexible and quick installation
- Intuitive user interface
- Reliable water quality
The challenge
The efficiency of cooling water systems can have significant effects on the cost of running a building. When water is used for industrial purposes in closed-loop cooling systems, corrosion, deposits, contamination and biological impurities can significantly reduce their efficiency. The aim is therefore to optimise the water quality while at the same time cutting back on water consumption and waste.
Water treatment systems are used to reduce the environmental impact and avoid high disposal costs. In the present case, the customer wanted to equip a central building cooling system with a water dosing unit to reduce scale, corrosion and microbial growth. The blowdown water used is treated with the water dosing unit at the outlet. Previously, vortex flow monitors from various manufacturers were used to control and collect data from the water dosing unit. However, these sensors came with strict installation specifications prescribing straight inlet and outlet pipe lengths to prevent swirling vortices. This was not always possible. Besides, commissioning was often complicated.
The solution – why ifm?
ifm’s SM7020 magnetic-inductive flow meter requires significantly smaller inlet and outlet pipe lengths. It has been used at the blowdown outlet of the water dosing unit to reliably measure flow values since 2022. The quality threshold values, such as pH value, oxidationreduction potential (ORP) and conductivity are detected by other sensors. In larger systems, SA/SI flow sensors/flow monitors and PA pressure transmitters are tasked with monitoring the dosing media. Integration and operation are also much easier and require less explanation. This is thanks to the intuitive display and push-button user interface. The result is a significant reduction in set-up time.
In the future, cloud-based systems will be able to support end customers in controlling and analysing their systems remotely.
