The following transcript is provided by YouTube. Mistakes are present. To hear the podcast episode, click HERE.
scaling up nation
welcome to hump day welcome to cooling
wednesday of this industrial water week
that we are celebrating
in 2020 my name is trace blackmore i get
the privilege of
hosting the water treaters favorite
podcast
scaling up h2o and as i mentioned we are
right smack dab
in the middle of industrial water week
today
is all about cooling and
folks i have to tell you thank you so
much for sharing
your post your pictures on social media
by hashtagging
iw20 i’ve gotten so many comments that
people have enjoyed seeing what other
people are doing
so if you’ve done that continue to do
that
if you haven’t done that you still have
plenty of time to do that
when you’re in front of your favorite
cooling tower this afternoon
take a picture hashtag it iw20
and we can all celebrate cooling
wednesday together
of course i gave you a cake recipe on
monday the water cake i told you a
little bit about the history of the
water cake
the largest ingredient in the water cake
is
water hence where it got its name but
it’s got such a great history as
well and i thought that we would all
enjoy
trying to make this water cake which i’m
sure you have all the ingredients
for at your home and then hashtag a
picture of you
enjoying this water cake and folks i
hope
you are using this week as an
opportunity to learn
something new about every aspect
of water treatment it doesn’t have to be
a huge thing but if it’s
just a small thing if it’s just one
thing that’s a movement in the right
direction folks
if you’re an industrial water treater
use the best job in the world to make
sure that you are
always learning something new
but don’t stop there the way that you
know something better is to teach it to
someone else
so i want you to pick a topic that you
want to learn
more about maybe it’s cooling towers and
then teach that to somebody
maybe you’re teaching it to a customer
maybe you’re teaching that to your
fellow
team members maybe you’re teaching that
to
your spouse whoever it is when you
teach somebody what you just learned
you are solidifying that knowledge so
you know it
even better now to help with that
each and every day this week we have
been playing
industrial water treatment jeopardy so
here
is our wednesday installment of
industrial
water treatment jeopardy this
measurement will raise
one pound of water one degree fahrenheit
in one hour
what is the british thermal unit or btu
the metric equivalent of that is the
calorie
the difference between the entering hot
water and leaving cold water in a
cooling tower
is called this
[Music]
what is the cooling tower range a
chiller ton is how many btus
[Music]
what is twelve thousand btus a chiller
ton is twelve
thousand btus where a tower ton
is fifteen thousand btus they add an
extra
three thousand btus for the parasitic
heat
that the chiller makes water droplets
that are lost to the exhaust
air are called this
[Music]
what is drift and our last question for
wednesday’s water treatment jeopardy
in terms of the heat transfer
coefficient
the term u is defined
by this
[Music]
what is heat change across the heat
exchanger
in btus per hour well nation i hope that
got you
thinking a little bit more about the
science behind
how cooling works and i hope that
inspires you
to do something about learning more
about cooling well something that i
think
inspires me to learn more is another
installment
of james mcdonald’s character detective
h2o
welcome to detective h2o the case
of misdiagnosis
the birds chirp cheerily as the sun
shone brightly through the streaked
office windows of herbert henry oxidane
pi cwt detective h2o squinted out the
window
uncomfortably i don’t like it
everything is so bright it’s hard to see
what’s going on out there
i’ll take a good drizzle any day of the
week
the first clap of thunder in the black
mid 20th century phone
both announced themselves at the same
[Music]
time
on the third ring the water detective
answered the phone
detective h2o here the best water
treater this side of the ohio
solving water problems drop by drop
whatcha got
mr oxidane this is misty from widgets bs
you might not remember me but we met a
year ago when you inspected our water
tube boilers
detective h2o remembered misty all right
he couldn’t forget the sweet smell
of lemon verbena perfume he had worked
shoulder to shoulder with her
as they climbed through three water tube
boilers during the summer plant shutdown
uh yes i remember you
inspection water tube boilers
you passed i mean your boilers pass with
flying colors
yes that was us we need you again
but this time for our cooling towers
we’re having problems with our
microbiological control feed program
something is not up to snuff about it
but we don’t know what
can you fit us into your busy schedule
mr oxidane
let me check my calendar said detective
h2o as he ran his finger down the empty
page
uh oh yes i happen to have an opening
this morning
i’ll be there within the hour will that
work of course mr oxidane
i look forward to seeing you in an hour
detective h2o cracked a crooked smile as
the rain started during his drive to
widget’s bs in his old ford
he was looking forward to this visit
making his way beyond the guard shack he
headed straight to the powerhouse
misty downs was just inside the door
silhouetted by a burst of steam
from a recent boiler blowdown to the
drain arms on her hips as she walked
towards him
she exclaimed mr oxidane i’m so happy
you’re here
follow me putting up no resistance the
water detective gladly obeyed
when they reached the water testing
station misty said
look at this mr oxidane the free
chlorine levels have taken a dive
right out of the blue all of a sudden
for the last three shifts
we don’t know what’s going on we’ve
turned up the bleach pumps but no
luck now i’m smart enough to know there
are two sides to the oxidation coin
one side is demand the other side is
residual
you can’t have a free chlorine residual
until you met demand
we’ve been racking our brains see is
there process contamination
perhaps oil leaking into the system
causing an increased demand
i guess on the flip side are those
little microbiological critters
multiplying at such a rate that we just
can’t keep up with demand
we just don’t know mr oxidane we just
don’t know
the water detective scratched his chin
as he thought
let’s take this one step at a time misty
what you say is correct
but let’s start from the beginning can
you give me a sample of the cooling
tower water
we need to run some tests sure
replied misty a moment later she was
back with sample in hand
detective h2o started his barrage of
testing beginning with the free chlorine
test
it was completely colorless but a sharp
well-trained eye did catch something
immediately
he moved on to the rest of the testing
including total hardness
total alkalinity connectivity ph and
tracer
this is interesting can you take me to
the sodium hypochlorite feed station in
cooling tower basin please
of course have you found something mr
oxidane
maybe
when they arrived at the sodium
hypochlorite feed station the water
detective noted the pulsing of the
dosage pump in his tubing
with a flooded section priming did not
appear to be an issue at this point
the pump was pumping to beat the band
moving on to the cooling tower
he noted a fine white foam covering
parts of the sump’s water surface
some of it got caught up and flew out
the top fan as he took a peek inside the
cooling tower plenum area
detective h2o then led misty back to the
sodium hypochlorite feed pump
which he swiftly turned off with her
mouth open
misty asked why did you do that
we don’t even have a free chlorine
residual and you’re turning it off
don’t we need more bleach instead of
less
the water detector took a moment to
enjoy the perplexed look on misty’s face
before revealing his hand
a full house a little crease formed
between her eyes when she was perplexed
you do have a good understanding of the
basics of oxidizing biocides misty
but i believe you were blinded by the
light on this one let me show you
the water detective led her back to the
water testing station
pour the cooling tire water sample into
a sample vial and said
now watch what happens when i place the
free chlorine test region powder
into the sample it’s just clear mr
oxidane
that means no free chlorine no
watch again said detective h2o as he
rinsed and reported the sample
come closer watch the very beginning
right when the reagent first touches the
water sample
as misty and detective h2o stood cheek
to cheek watching the free chlorine test
reagent powder pillow drop into the
water sample
it happened did you see that misty
yes i did what does it mean that flash
of pink you saw as the free chlorine
test regen powder hits the water proves
there actually
is a free chlorine residual in your
cooling tower
what why how did you notice the other
test i ran before
did you notice the colors some of them
changed the total alkalinity test for
instance
yes i did notice that one test in
particular turned different colors than
normal
instead of a green and reddish
transition the colors were blue and
yellow
i just figured you were using a test i
hadn’t seen before
no misty it’s the same total alkalinity
reagents almost every other water
treater uses
did you notice the white foam on top of
the cooling tower when we took our luck
inside the plenum area
yes i thought it was from whatever the
contamination is what’s going on here mr
oxidane
regretfully bringing his consulting
services to a near close
detective h2o finally revealed his
complete hand
it’s quite simple actually you’re over
feeding your sodium hypochlorite
when this happens it can bleach out the
water analysis tests
giving suspect or erroneous results the
free chlorine levels are so high that
they are bleaching out the free chlorine
test almost immediately
but when you watch closely as the test
reagent powder hits the water
you can see a flash of pink that’s the
reagent doing its job
just before it fades from the high
sodium hypochlorite levels
also the total alkalinity tests turn
blue and yellow because the sodium
hypochlorite over feed
the tracer test was affected as well so
suspect you may be overfeeding your
inhibitor product too
lastly that white foam we saw on the
cooling tower water was once again
from the sodium hypochlorite overfeed
that’s why i turned off the oxidizing
biocide pump
seeing her disbelieving look the water
detector took the cooling tower water
sample
prepared a dilution and ran the free
chlorine test again
a beautiful pink color bloomed in the
sample see
once we properly dilute the sample the
free chlorine residual is clear as day
smiling broadly misty gave the water
detective a big hug
thank you mr oxidane or should i say
detective h2o
you saved the day for once the water
detective was speechless as his face
turned the rosy pink of her free
chlorine test
[Music]
in the underbelly and penthouses of the
metropolis of waterville
where the boilers percolate and cooling
towers fog
there is one man who works tirelessly to
end corrosion stop scale
fight low-life microbes and conserve
water batman is detective h2o
best water treater this side of the ohio
solving water problems
drop by drop
[Music]
james thanks again for putting that
together those are very
clever and i think it’s just
shows you that if you want to
contribute to the water treatment
community there is just no boundaries in
what
someone’s able to do you know there’s a
funny story that i
want to share with all of you out there
in the scaling up nation
i honestly can’t remember if i have
shared this story
with you before on an episode
but it is one of my favorite cooling
tower stories and
i am going to share or possibly re-share
it with you
this was back when i just started
working with
my father you know yesterday i told a
story about my first
week working with my father and this was
pretty close on so i guess that goes to
show how impressionable
we are as young water treaters
but i remember we had picked up a school
system
the school system and where i’m from is
in virginia
and the school system was up towards the
mountainous areas of virginia and we had
picked up
47 schools it was my job to go
with the engineer that was responsible
for the water treatment in the schools
to each one of the schools and do a
survey to see
what equipment we would keep what
equipment we would
upgrade and what equipment we would just
redo all
together and then just get a general
knowledge of how we were going to
service each one of those 47 locations
well we had probably done a dozen or so
schools
everything was fine and by the way this
did not happen overnight or on one day
it took me two weeks to get all this
data so i can’t remember
how many days i was up there working
with this gentleman
but we had a great relationship and uh
with that he got a phone call actually
it was a
page i believe at the time where he had
to use his radio
and they had an emergency that he had to
go to
one of the schools for an hvac issue we
said hey the school we need to go to
next
is right down the street i’m going to
take you to that i want to drop you off
the school that i have to go to
we’ve already been to by the time you’re
done
i’ll be done and i’ll pick you up we’ll
go to the next school
so he introduces me to the janitor of
that school and tells him what’s going
on and that he would have to show me
around
that facility the janitor was not happy
to meet me in fact he wouldn’t look me
in the eye
i’m trying to remember if he would shake
my hand or not but you could just tell
that the body language
that he was putting out was i have no
use for you
a water treater well i tried my best to
befriend this gentleman
and when i first met him
after the the other guy left i tried to
strike up some small talk with him and
he looked me straight in the eye and he
goes
don’t you dare hurt my babies and it was
weird
and it struck me so oddly i didn’t know
what to say about that
anyway we were really close to the
mechanical room so i
kind of just said i’m here let me do
what i need to do
i was working on the equipment trying to
figure out what was there
and then i asked to see the cooling
tower well the cooling tower was
up one of the ladders that were bolted
to the wall where you have to go up
through the roof through a hatch i know
we all love those
so we’re going up the hatch we get up to
the roof
and we’re walking over to the cooling
tower and of course it has like a little
half wall
all around it to hide the cooling tower
from
the front view and i started asking him
some questions about
the cooling tower and he just replies
back to me
with don’t hurt my babies
and i said sir that’s the second time
you’ve mentioned that
what do you think i’m going to do do you
think i’m going to spray by aside on the
kids playing in the playground
what’s your concern and he said no not
the kids my babies and he swings open
the cooling tower door
and folks there were about 18 inch
koi fish swimming around the bottom of
that cooling tower basin
those were his babies and i very
politely looked at him and i said well
sir you need to find a new home
for your babies they’re not going to
survive with a real water treatment
program
and imagine the water treatment program
that was going on
that that was being allowed to
take place there was not any mention in
any service reports
about koi fish up in the cooling tower
and folks i’m here to tell you that the
biocides that were
on each one of those pumps were ones
that would not allow those
fish to keep on living if they were used
properly the previous water treater
he hadn’t prime pumps he hadn’t been
there forever i guess that’s how
we got that account well the next time i
went to that account the babies were
gone there were no koi fish there
i never saw the janitor again i think he
avoided me every time i came to service
this was one of the accounts where i had
my own key so
i don’t know why but whenever i think of
a cooling tower i think
of that story and i thought that you
would enjoy that story now
do you have a story of your own i’d love
for you to share that
on social media with hashtagging iw20
i think we would all enjoy that and i
again i hope you enjoy
that story there’s no doubt about it
we as water treaters have our very own
special language that language
is demonstrated in our new line of water
treatment specific
t-shirts and accessories go to scaling
up h2o.com forward slash shop
to get yours today
you know a couple of months back i had
my friend brett alexander of avapco
come on a two-part series episode 137
and 138 and he spoke about
cooling towers and folks cooling towers
there are a lot of moving parts but
he really simplified what we needed to
know so we can have good conversation
with people in our companies
good conversations with people that
manufacture the units and good
conversations
with the people that own the units so
here’s
a clip from that episode
i think as water traders we all know how
critical it is to fully understand the
makeup water quality but
it’s just as important to understand the
the equipment
that that water is going to come in
contact with in the cooling
system you know we talked about
different materials of construction
galvanized stainless steel
different types of units so they all
have
different things you got to keep in mind
when treating them don’t take a cookie
cutter approach
from your one central plant with this
large field erected cooling tower
to a small data center with a closed
circuit cooler
with a galvanized coil um you’ve got to
have different approaches to each
and you you got to know the temperatures
they’re running at too
to make sure you know uh what type of
treatment system
to put in place there brett thanks again
for coming on scaling up h2o folks if
you have not listened to those episodes
or you haven’t heard them in a while
you can listen to those they were
episode 137
and 138. it’s my hope
that you can take something from that
episode
learn about cooling something more than
what you woke up with
this morning and then teach that to
somebody
so it sticks well folks we have
celebrated pre-treatment monday
boiler tuesday and we are smack dab in
the middle
of cooling wednesday so i hope you are
enjoying
industrial water week and just like
every day this week i am ending each
episode
with a quote and today’s quote is by
lucretius
who says the fall of dropping water
wears away the stone so how profound
is that a hard stone given enough time
water’s going to wear it away i think
he’s talking about persistence
and how persistent are you going to be
in improving this industry that you
chose
a profession in have a great rest of the
week folks and i will see you tomorrow
on
wastewater thursday
you