INSIGHT
What do you do when your facility has an
abundance of water from heavy rains for
half the year and is faced with drought the
other six months? You look for a way to
make the most of the water you have and
ensure that it is clean, so you can achieve
optimum system performance and bring
down the costs associated with periods
of water scarcity.
Energias do Brasil (EDP) faced this
situation at a power plant in northeast
Brazil. The solution: Purate™ onsite
chlorine dioxide generation.
INNOVATION
The EDP plant relies on lake water for its
cooling system. During droughts, when
there is less water in the lake and the price
of water goes up, the plant reuses water so
it can draw less from the lake. The power
plant was looking to increase recirculating
cycles from an average of six to seven
cycles up to 10. To do this, it had to control
high levels of minerals and microbiological
growth in the water, both of which affected
the cooling system’s performance.
The plant also faced corrosion and foaming
issues and it was using different treatment
options to address these concerns. But
the treatments failed to keep the cooling
system clean.
To gain control of water quality in the
plant’s cooling system, Ecolab introduced
Purate Technology. Because Purate is
more effective at treating corrosion and
foam issues than the previous solution
and is also a more effective disinfectant,
it improved microbiological control and
reduced chemistry consumption. Using
Purate and its remote data monitoring
capabilities, the power plant was able to
increase cooling tower recirculating cycles
up to 10, meet outgoing water quality
standards and operate efficiently during the
dry months of the year. Purate also led to
significant reductions in energy usage and
greenhouse gas emissions.
As a result of this partnership, Ecolab won
EDP’s supplier of the year award in both
2017 and 2018.
