Cooling Towers and Cleaner Water

Cooling towers are common, but safely maintaining the water in cooling towers requires diligence and care. The risk of bacteria developing within cooling tower waters that can cause Legionnaires’ disease is always a risk. Fortunately, there are many options for maintaining the sanitary condition of water in cooling towers.

Legionnaire’s disease was first identified in 1977 following an outbreak the previous year that left more than 30 members of the American Legion attending a convention at a hotel in Philadelphia dead and sickened more than 200 others. The Legionnaires’ bacteria had been growing undetected in the air conditioning cooling tower at the hotel. After identifying the bacteria that was later named Legionella, scientists learned that the perfect temperature range for the bacteria to grow is quite broad – between 68 degrees F and 122 degrees F, according to materials published by the Association of Water Technologies. In other words, water cooling towers are the perfect environment for breeding Legionella.

Protecting against Legionella spread is critical for any business with a cooling tower. Operators must test water quality and clean cooling systems at regular intervals. It is also important to maintain temperatures that are low enough to inhibit Legionella spread and to use some type of treatment system to control the growth of harmful microbes.

The water in many cooling towers is treated extensively with chemicals. This approach is expensive in the long term and also poses environmental problems. Continually draining chemically contaminated water and refilling with fresh water is both expensive and harmful to the environment. It also requires continually adding more chemicals to re-treat the water – an ongoing expense.

Ozone treatment systems for cooling towers, on the other hand, offer a number of advantages when compared chemical treatment for cleaner cooling tower water. Ozone systems prevent pathogen growth, reduce buildup of organic material, limit the need for bleed-off, and also reduce scale buildup. Modern ozone treatment systems can be carefully calibrated to avoid corrosion problems.

An ozone treatment system is a cost-effective, environmentally responsible solution to the problem of maintaining water cleanliness in cooling towers. Ozone Pure Water is a leader in the ozone water treatment industry. To learn how an ozone treatment system can improve your water treatment operations, give us a call today at 800-633-8469.