Global fresh water shortages have forced many geographic locations to utilize seawater for industrial cooling. This is becoming increasingly prevalent especially in the Mediterranean and Persian Gulf areas. Because seawater is particularly corrosive to most metallurgies commonly used in cooling water loops, i.e., carbon steel, copper and admiralty brass, seawater cooling systems are being designed with titanium metallurgy in order to eliminate corrosion concerns. However, cooling water treatments for these applications still require deposit control inhibitors to maintain loop integrity. This paper discusses
laboratory work utilized to identify the most common scalants in these systems the most effective deposit control treatments for these loops and the water savings associated with using these treatments.
Keywords: cooling water, seawater, deposit control, acrylic acid polymers, phosphonates, Stiffand Davis Index, titanium, salinity, chlorinity, calcium carbonate, calcium sulfate.