Effective management of cooling water systems is essential for protecting public health.
Poorly managed cooling water systems provide ideal conditions for the growth and transmission of Legionella bacteria. People become infected by inhaling fine airborne aerosols generated by cooling towers. Infection may cause Legionnaires’ disease, which is a serious and potentially life-threatening condition.
Bacteria is also a major cause of microbiologically induced corrosion (MIC) in cooling water systems. Ferrobacillus ferrooxidans actually consumes iron directly. Anaerobic sulfate-reducing Desulfovibrio desulfuricans also known as the SRB, generates corrosive chemical conditions in the water resulting in system and asset corrosion, which causes unwanted downtime in production and expensive repair cost.
The common solution is chemical treatment via oxidizing biocides and non-ox biocides. However, it does not kill all the bacteria. There are also concerns about the bleed off and disposal routes according to local regulations.
To create a complete solution, our UV treatment solution will supplement and support the chemistry program you have in your plant facilities. Ultraviolet radiation in the UV-C band is close to the absorbance wavelength of the amino acid bases that form the rungs of the DNA double-helix. This means that bacteria exposed to UV radiation are not actually killed, but they cannot reproduce and cannot evolve to produce a resistant strain. UV is a broad-spectrum disinfectant that inactivates a range of microorganisms. This includes many that, like cryptosporidium and mycobacterium, are resistant to chlorine. It even inactivates mussel larvae, which can cause blockage in cooling water intakes.