Water Treatment Chemicals Are Right, however The Feed Location Is afoul?

It is springtime in New York and facility management teams are starting to talk about preparing their cooling systems to come back online; you operate a facility with a commercial steam boiler that runs for 6 months out of the year and then sits idle for 6 months. When a boiler is not required to produce heat for those extended periods of time, most facilities will take that boiler ?offline?? and prepare it for a time of ?safe inactivity.?? The process is known as ?laying up the boiler,?? and it is performed to not only extend the overall life of the boiler, but also to reduce downtime and maintenance costs. In some cases, proper seasonal lay-up of your boiler can mean the difference between a boiler lasting for only 10 years or lasting for more than 30. This post will cover the features and benefits of performing a DRY lay-up.



We recently covered this same topic with regard to the reasons and best ways to perform a WET boiler lay-up here in a previous post.

As we did in that post, we will again assume that you have the best water treatment company in the area and, during heating season, your water treatment company maintains your boiler water treatment levels within optimal operating ranges to effectively inhibit corrosion and prevent scale within the boiler. For seasonal boilers even the best boiler water treatment program must be supplemented to prevent corrosion during the boiler?s non-operating months.

Why do I need to lay-up my boiler anyway?

Having the best boiler water treatment program on the planet may keep dissolved oxygen out of your boiler during normal operation, but it will not do you any good when your boiler is sitting idle offline. When a boiler is taken offline and allowed to cool down for extended periods of time, a boiler lay-up program is highly recommended to offset the increased levels of oxygen in the boiler. Oxygen can quickly produce pitting in steel tube sheets and boiler tubes. Once oxygen pitting starts, it can easily corrode through a boiler tube in a very short period of time. When it is time to start your boiler back up in the fall, you could first have to make a call to a mechanical contractor to plug or replace the corroded tubes. This is often a very expensive endeavor.

What do I need to do when my boiler is taken offline?

When a boiler is taken out of service, the boiler should be cooled until the water is below the atmospheric boiling point, but not below 180 ?F, and then the boiler should be emptied and flushed out. An inspection should be made to determine what repair work is necessary and what cleaning should be done. A decision should then be made on whether to employ dry or wet storage techniques.

Should I perform a wet lay-up or a dry lay-up?

There are two primary methods of laying up a boiler ? wet lay-up and dry lay-up. As you can imagine there are advantages and disadvantages to each. Aspects that you will need to consider in the selecting your choice of lay-up procedure are as follows:

the size of the boiler

the type of boiler

the length of time the boiler will be offline

the temperatures that the boiler will be subjected to while offline

the resources that will be required to refill the boiler with treated water

the resources that will be required to monitor the boiler while offline

Choosing the best lay-up method for your boiler is not always so apparent and it sometimes makes sense for you to consult with an experienced water treatment service provider.

A Dry boiler lay-up protocol should be used if boiler will be shut down for an extended period or when there will be no foreseeable urgency to restart the boiler. This method is also preferable where the idle boiler may be exposed to subfreezing temperatures. Unlike a wet lay-up method, the dry lay-up also has a ?set and forget it?? component; it does not require constant monitoring, homepage testing or circulation of the water.

DRY LAY UP PROCEDURES

This procedure is preferable for boilers out of service for extended periods of time or in locations where freezing temperatures may be expected during standby. It is generally preferable for reheaters.

The cleaned boiler should be thoroughly dried, since any moisture left on the metal surface would cause corrosion. Precautions should be taken to preclude entry of moisture in any form from steam lines, feed lines or air.

A moisture absorbing material, such as quicklime (2 lb. per 30 cu. ft.) or silica gel (5 lb. per 30 cu. ft. of boiler volume) may be placed on trays inside the drums to absorb moisture from the air. The manhole should be then closed and all connections on the boiler should be tightly blanked. The effectiveness of the materials for such purposes and the need for their renewal may be determined through regular boiler inspections. This should be done every three months. If there is high humidity, this should be done more frequently. If quick lime or a non-indicating silica gel is used, desiccant plates with indicating dye should be placed on each tray with the absorbing material as a quick indicator. These plates will change from cobalt blue color to pale pink if the absorbing material is exhausted and loses its effectiveness.

Alternatively, air dried externally to the boiler may be circulated through it. The distribution should be carefully checked to be sure the air flows over all surfaces.

In the case of a high humidity area or a boiler that has been prone to off season corrosion in the past, there is another method of dry lay-up that utilizes an oil-based boiler treatment product to coat the inside surfaces of the boiler. This dry lay-up method is a little more substantial and it does add some extra steps, however the results are usually worth it. If this method is used the oil-based corrosion inhibitor must be removed before the boiler is brought back online. This is accomplished by filling the boiler, adding caustic and performing a high alkalinity boil out to remove the oil-based lay-up product.

Once the boiler is flushed out and refilled with properly treated make-up water it can be slowly brought back up to working temperature and operated as normal.

When is appropriate to use a WET lay-up procedure?

So glad you asked! You can read all about that in the first part of this two-part series: Boiler 101: Why a Wet Seasonal Boiler Lay-Up May Be Right for You

I want to learn more about other important boiler water treatment services. What can I do?

Kudos to you! Learning more about what potential issues your steam boilers could face is always a good idea. There is a abundance of informational resources regarding steam boiler operation and boiler water treatment available all over the internet. A great place to start is our free boiler operation eBook that is available for instant download: ?10 HUGE Mistakes Facilities Make in Boiler Operation and How to Avoid Them!?? which you can download for free at the link below.

Lastly, if you have any specific questions or concerns regarding your facilities water treatment program, or if you have an emergency situation that needs attention right away, please feel free to contact one of our expert water treatment consultants at 888-616-3545.

Thanks for reading!

Greg Frazier is an expert in Industrial Water Treatment and is currently the Managing Partner of Clarity Water Technologies, one of the best Water Treatment and HVAC Cleaning Companies in New York. He has over 18 years of Industrial Water Treatment experience and holds a degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Tennessee... but we won't hold that against him.

Drought Effects On Aging Power Plants May Be Larger Than Expected

Modeling exoplanet atmospheres An image of the tenuous atmosphere of Pluto, backlit by the sun, as taken by the New Horizons spacecraft. Astronomers beginning to study the atmospheres of planets around other stars rely on the HITRAN database of molecular properties to model their results. CfA scientists have recently updated HITRAN with the diagnostic properties of molecules expected to be important in exoplanets, including those thought to be biomarkers. Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI



All atoms and molecules emit distinctive spectral lines across the spectrum, webpage the details of which depend on the internal structures of the species (for example, the vibration and rotation properties of molecules) and how they are excited by their environments. Measurements of the features' brightnesses, relative intensities, and shapes enable astronomers, at least in principle, to reconstruct most of the essential properties of these environments, including species abundances, temperatures, densities, and motions. But in order to be successful, scientists need to know quantitatively exactly how the temperature, density, and so forth, affect the excitation of each atom or molecule, and then how each species emits light in response. A collision between oxygen and nitrogen molecules, for example, will affect an oxygen molecule differently than its collision with hydrogen.

CfA astronomers develop and maintain the HITRAN (High Resolution Transmission) database, a compilation of diagnostic spectroscopic parameters that is the worldwide standard for calculating atmospheric molecular radiation from the microwave through the ultraviolet region of the spectrum. HITRAN has acquired particular new importance in recent years with the discovery of thousands of exoplanets and the steadily improving technology to detect their atmospheres and measure their compositions. HITRAN is commonly used to model these exotic atmospheres. Molecular oxygen absorption stimulated by collisions between oxygen molecules is thought, for example, to be an important biomarker on potentially habitable exoplanets, but the detection of this absorption feature is not enough: it needs an interpretation.

CfA astrophysicists Tijs Karman, Iouli Gordon, Bob Kurucz, Larry Rothman, and Kang Sun led a team of colleagues in updating HITRAN with many of the essential collision-induced absorption properties of the molecules needed for modeling exoplanet atmospheres. Key molecular species include nitrogen, oxygen, methane, carbon dioxide, and hydrogen. The numerical parameters were gleaned from a wide collection of recent laboratory and theoretical papers and incorporated into the HITRAN database after being validated. The updated compilation goes a long way towards addressing the current needs, but the authors note that additional laboratory and theoretical work is needed to include other effects, water for example, as well as the isotopic variations of the currently included species.

Is Smart Release Technology Right for Those Cooling Towers?

Company plans to serve more sewer plants in New Jersey and other states

Penns Grove, NJ /PRNewswire/ - Today, Keystone Power Holdings, LLC (Keystone) and Penns Grove Sewerage Authority (PGSA) announced the completion of a solar energy project that will significantly reduce the sewer authority's energy costs. Keystone developed, financed, and owns the system; PGSA buys the power that is generated by Keystone at a discount to current utility rates. The system is installed on land that is on and adjacent to PGSA's wastewater treatment plant. Annual production is anticipated to be approximately 250,000 kilowatt hours (Kwh) of energy.



"It was a pleasure to work with Penns Grove Sewerage Authority on this challenging project. We were able to find good space to go solar in a built-up area with little available land in a flood plain," said Anthony Fotopoulos, co-founder of Keystone Power Holdings. "We continue to deepen our experience in developing solar projects on complex sites and look forward to building partnerships for similar projects across the mid-Atlantic and in Illinois, our newest market."

"Keystone Power Holdings was a great partner in this project," said Paul Morris, Chairman of Penns Grove Sewerage Authority. "Keystone worked with many complex dynamics, delivering a project that enables us to save money while lessening our impact on the environment. We now enjoy energy savings of over 30% ? a solid contribution to the Sewerage Authority and our constituents."

Keystone is able to monetize tax credits for webpage owning the system and selling power to PGSA. The system is also subsidized by the New Jersey Solar Renewable Energy Credit Program (SREC). SRECs exist in other states, including Illinois, where Keystone is partnering with several other municipalities and sewerage authorities that are planning solar energy projects in 2019.

About Keystone Power Holdings

Keystone Power Holdings, LLC is a renewable energy developer and owner of solar energy facilities. We specialize in developing medium to large-scale photovoltaic solar systems across North America. We develop facilities for our clients on their properties, either on the ground or rooftop, while passing on savings. For more information email info@keystoneph.com or visit our website at www.keystoneph.com.

About Penns Grove Sewerage Authority

The Penns Grove Sewerage Authority is a wastewater treatment system located in Penns Grove, New Jersey, very close to the Delaware river. Founded in 1958, PGSA protects public health and the environment by the effective treatment and disposal of wastewater, while operating in a fiscally responsible manner.

In Search Of A Greener Cleaner

This past summer New York City experienced the worst Legionnaires? disease outbreak in its recorded history. In what is now being referred to as the NYC Legionella Outbreak of 2015, more than 130 people were sickened and 16 people tragically died. In an effort to keep the public safe, both the City and State of New York passed emergency legislation designed to regulate the operation and maintenance of cooling towers. Today, the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) seeks to make those emergency provisions stronger and lasting; and will hold a public hearing to discuss and pass their newly proposed rules. The hearing will take place from 10AM to 12PM on January 4, 2016 at DOHMH headquarters in Long Island City. Once the hearing is over, the DOHMH will modify the rules based on the public?s feedback, if necessary, and then draft a final version. A copy is then published in the City Record and submitted to the City Council where it will be voted on to become law. This legislation will have an effect on the operation procedures of any building that operates a cooling, as well as the water treatment companies and environmental consulting firms that service them.

CURRENT NYC COOLING TOWER LAW TO COMBAT LEGIONELLA

To deal with the serious issue of legionella in cooling towers, on August 18th, 2015 in New York City, the City Council and Mayor de Blasio enacted Local Law 77 of 2015. Legionnaires? disease is said to have a case fatality rate of 5-30%. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that there were between 8,000 and 18,000 cases of LD in the United States annually, and that more than 10% of cases are fatal. (Learn more here: What is legionella?)

Local Law 77 added a new Article 317 to Title 28 of the Administrative Code that required owners of cooling towers to register them with the Department of Buildings (DOB) by September 17, 2015. Towers must be inspected, tested, cleaned and disinfected in accordance with new Administrative Code ?17-194.1 and rules adopted by the DOB. Owners and operators of cooling towers must annually certify to the Department that their cooling towers have been inspected, tested, cleaned and disinfected and that a management and maintenance program has been developed and implemented in accordance with Administrative Code ?17-194.1 which includes maintaining a proper cooling tower water treatment program. Statewide, including in New York City, owners of all cooling towers must also comply with New York State Sanitary Code (SSC) Part 4, which includes registration with and reporting requirements to the New York State Department of Health.

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH PROPOSED UPDATES TO TITLE 24

Today, the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) is proposing to add a new Chapter 8 (Cooling Towers) to Title 24 of the Rules of the City of New York to establish rules for maintenance of cooling towers to minimize potential contamination by Legionella bacteria to prevent outbreaks of Legionnaires? disease. This new Chapter 8 will further the work of Local Law 77, and require building owners to provide cooling tower maintenance and testing records to the NYC Department of Health.

Chapter 8?s provisions that are equivalent to the State Sanitary Code Part 4. This proposed Chapter is organized differently than the State Sanitary Code requirements; more terms are defined in this Chapter and more detailed instructions for management and maintenance are provided than those contained in SSC Part 4 to facilitate compliance with both the City and State rules and requirements.

To ratify these changes, the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene has issued their Notice of Public Hearing and Opportunity to Comment on Proposed Amendments to Title 24 of the Rules of the City of New York. (You can find a link to the DOHMH Notice at the end of this post.)

According to the NYC Rules website, here are the proposed changes to Title 24 of the Rules of the City of New York. It adds a new Chapter 8, which includes the following sections:

8-01 Scope and applicability: applicable to all owners and operators of buildings and other premises that are equipped with cooling towers.

8-02 Definitions: to facilitate compliance with and enforcement of these rules, more terms are defined in this Chapter than in the corresponding sections of either Administrative Code or SSC Part 4.

8-03 Maintenance program and plan: the requirements of this section exceed those of SSC Part 4, including specific routine maintenance tasks; identification of persons responsible for various functions; identifying system components; and establishing a system risk management assessment to identify areas that may create problems and lead to proliferation of Legionella bacteria.

8-04 Process control measures: this section establishes requirements for routine monitoring, to be conducted at least weekly by a ?responsible person?? under the supervision ? remote or on-site -- of the ?qualified person?? identified in SSC Part 4, and for compliance inspections, to be conducted at least every 90 days, by the qualified person. It specifies standards for maintenance, cleaning, and parts replacement; and requires installation of high efficiency drift eliminators in all new and retrofitted cooling tower systems and in existing ones, where practicable.

8-05 Water treatment: this section specifies requirements for automatic treatments, use of chemicals and biocides, and monitoring water quality characteristics/parameters, and establishes a schedule for sampling for Legionella and other bacteria including requiring additional sampling when certain events occur. This section also mandates the use of certain qualified laboratories for analysis and requires reporting levels of Legionella at a certain magnitude to the Department within 24 hours of obtaining test results; and specifies corrective actions for various levels of bacteria. Although the 2014 New York City Plumbing Code Appendix C authorizes use of rainwater or recycled water as makeup water for cooling towers, it does not require disinfection for Legionella bacteria before use. These rules prohibit such use unless owners use additional control measures approved by the Department that protect against cooling tower system contamination since the Department believes that this water may not meet public health standards and may tend to support microbial growth.

8-06 System shutdown and start-up; commissioning new cooling towers: this section sets forth requirements for pre-seasonal cleaning and disinfection and for new cooling towers being placed into use.

8-07 Records: this requires the maintenance of records of all activities and that such records be made available for immediate inspection by the Department at the premises where the cooling tower is installed.

8-08 Modification: authorizes the Commissioner to modify the application of a provision of these rules where compliance imposes an undue hardship and would not otherwise be required by law, provided that the modification does not compromise public health concerns.

8-09 Penalties: establishes a schedule of penalties for initial and subsequent violations within the limits set forth in Administrative Code ?17-194.1.

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH PUBLIC HEARING ON COOLING TOWER LEGISLATION



The NYC DOHMH will hold a public hearing on these proposed rules. The hearing will take place from 10AM to 12PM on January 4, 2016 at:

The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene

Gotham Center

42-09 28th Street, 14th Floor, Room 14-43

Long Island City, NY 11101-4132

Anyone is permitted to attend the hearing and/or comment on the proposal. The DOHMH has given the following ways to communicate public commentary:

Website: You can submit comments to the Department through the NYC rules Web site at http://rules.cityofnewyork.us

Email: You can email written comments to resolutioncomments@health.nyc.gov

Mail: You can mail written comments to:

New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene

Office of General Counsel

Attn: Svetlana Burdeynik

42-09 28th Street, 14th Floor

Long Island City, NY 11101-4132

Fax: You can fax written comments to the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene at 347-396-6087.

Speaking at the hearing: Anyone who wants to comment on the proposal at the public hearing must sign up to speak. You can sign up before the hearing by calling at 347-396-6078. You can also sign up in the hearing room before or during the hearing on January 4, 2016. You can speak for up to five minutes.

GET YOUR FREE COPY OF THE FULL NOTICE

If you would like to read the full copy of the DOH?s notice, please fill out the form below for an instant link. This document fully outlines all of the sections of the newly proposed Chapter 8 including the full requirements for maintenance, operation, and ongoing water treatment of cooling towers in New York City. There is no charge for this information and it is freely available online.

FREE DOWNLOAD: Get the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene?s Notice of Public Hearing and Opportunity to Comment on Proposed Amendments to Title 24 of the Rules of the City of New York here:

About Clarity Water Technologies

Clarity Water Technologies is known throughout the east coast as an innovative industrial/commercial water treatment company and the innovators of 360 Degree Legionella Management Service. To put it simply: As New York City's Top Environmental Consultants, we make commercial HVAC and industrial process machinery last longer and run more efficiently, with less fuel and less downtime, by chemically treating the water that runs through it. Typical systems that we treat include steam boilers, chillers and cooling towers; however, we also offer advanced wastewater, glycol services, odor control and fuel treatment services. We are one of Northeast?s most trusted Legionella remediation companies and are widely accepted as one of the best consulting firms to establish best practices for the implementation of ASHRAE Standard 188 - Legionellosis: Risk Management for Building Water Systems.

As environmental consultants specializing in water treatment, we know that chemistry is only one part of what makes a cooling tower system operate at peak performance. The other part of the equation is proper physical cleaning, disinfection and maintenance. Today, Clarity offers one of the most reliable and effective cooling tower disinfection services available throughout NY, NJ, CT, DE, MD and PA. Clarity is a NADCA Certified HVAC Cleaning Service Company. Our team also offers on-line cleanings, chlorine dioxide disinfection, Legionella remediation and installation of the EcoSAFE Solid Feed System?one of the most advanced water treatment systems for Cooling Towers in the world! Please contact us today for a free estimate on your next project.

New York City Water Treatment Expert and Environmental Consultant, Greg Frazier has a vast knowledge of Industrial Boiler Water Treatment and is currently the Managing Partner of Clarity Water Technologies, one of the top Environmental Consulting firms in New York. Mr. Frazier has over 19 years of Industrial Water Treatment experience and holds a degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Tennessee. Clarity Water Technologies specializes in comprehensive water treatment services. Clarity's service goes far beyond administering Cooling Tower Water Treatment chemicals - it also includes Cooling Tower Maintenance and HVAC Cleaning Services.

Origami Inspires Highly Efficient Solar Steam Generator

NREL scientists have a long history of successfully analyzing geothermal and solar energy data. But they are now actively researching desalination capabilities by partnering with technology leaders on several groundbreaking projects. The purpose is to explore geothermal and solar-thermal technologies for creating fresh water from otherwise unusable water.

The ability to desalinate otherwise nonpotable water is a vitally important process, but its cost can be high. Fortunately, there is potential to tap otherwise unused renewable heat to drastically reduce the cost of thermal desalination. Applied in the right locations, thermal desalination could mean economic viability for water treatment.

"Water scarcity is a growing problem throughout the world. The ability to apply renewable energy solutions is key to a sustainable water future," said Craig Turchi, principal engineer within the Thermal Sciences Group at NREL.

Using Heat from the Earth

The "Desalination of Impaired Water Using Geothermal Energy" project is paramount in the geothermal approach to desalination. And taking the lead in this project is Turchi, assisted by researchers at the Colorado School of Mines, University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), and webpage Ormat Technologies. The goal is to apply underused, low-temperature geothermal resources to the desalination process.



Thermal desalination technologies use more energy and are generally costlier than reverse-osmosis desalination. However, the thermal desalination methods, such as membrane distillation (MD), use mostly thermal, not electrical energy. So, to overcome this energy and cost challenge, the project is using untapped or residual heat in geothermal resources for the MD heat source. Along with this approach, the project is also researching coatings designed to protect and improve membrane distillation.

Although NREL has effectively wrapped up its role in the project, work continues at UCLA with David Jassby and his team. More research must still be successfully accomplished by the scientific community before geothermal desalination is cost-effective. However, advances have been made in producing high-quality water from geothermal brines at lower cost than traditional thermal distillation, and membrane coatings have been shown to provide the ability to minimize and remove undesired scale formation.

And Heat from the Sun

NREL is also working with industry partners using solar desalination in solar-thermal technologies. Specifically, three projects?each with a different partner?are making major leaps toward reducing the levelized cost of water production by first lowering the levelized cost of heat.

Sunvapor

Started in October 2018, the "Solar Steam on Demand" project is led by Sunvapor, Inc., with the goal of determining the feasibility of delivering heat to an industrial steam-consuming process at a levelized cost of heat of 1.5?/kWh. NREL will be designing a latent-heat thermal storage system that integrates with Sunvapor's low-cost solar collector.

Project steps include lab-scale testing for a latent-heat energy storage (LHES) system, testing the capacity of the solar-steam prototype to deliver steam to a process, and building and factory-testing the LHES module.

UCLA

The "Energy Where It Matters: Delivering Heat to the Membrane/Water Interface for Enhanced Thermal Desalination" project is led by UCLA's Jassby. The project will focus on a techno-economic analysis of UCLA's innovative membrane-distillation concept and essentially continues where the NREL-led geothermal desalination project left off.

The goal is to develop a transformative, thermally driven MD desalination technology that allows heat to be delivered directly to the membrane/water interface. By this approach, heat management in the MD system can be significantly simplified while water recovery is decoupled from hydraulic conditions.

SkyFuel

"SkyTrough Vacuum Membrane: An Extreme Low-Cost Solar-Thermal Collector for Desalination" is a new project being led by SkyFuel, Inc., with assistance from NREL. The goal is to reduce the levelized cost of heat from solar-thermal energy by developing a membrane-based, lightweight parabolic trough solar collector. The idea is that the new solar collector will reduce capital and integration costs.

In addition to designing the solar collector, SkyFuel will design an associated delivery system for heat-transfer fluid as well as a low-temperature thermal energy storage system to be integrated with the innovative solar collector.