The following transcript is provided by YouTube, mistakes are present. To hear the podcast episode click HERE.
[Music]
foreign
[Music]
happy industrial water week everybody
Trace Blackmore here the host of the
scaling up H2O podcast and we are smack
dab in the middle of industrial water
week it is cooling Wednesday and today
we are celebrating everything cooling
now yesterday we celebrated boilers and
then on Monday we celebrated
pre-treatment and as you know this is a
very special week because not only is it
industrial water week we are at the
association of water Technologies
conference in Grand Rapids Michigan
yesterday we had the business owners
meeting today is the golf tournament and
then later today we are welcoming new
certified water technologists new cwts
that recently achieved that amazing
designation that’s taking place a little
later tonight and so many things to
celebrate and that’s why we have a
holiday that we have to have a week long
to celebrate it because there’s so many
wonderful things to celebrate in
industrial water week and if you’re here
at the association of water Technologies
conference it is my hope that I get to
meet you this week it’s my hope that you
and I get to talk I want to hear what
you think about this podcast and what
this podcast can do for you now you know
this week this podcast is asking several
things of you and one of those things is
each and every day as we are going
through all the great and wonderful
themes to celebrate we are celebrating
cooling today so that means go to your
favorite cooling tower and take a
picture in front of that and hashtag it
to
iww.23 once again that’s hashtag iww U23
we get to see the entire scaling up
Nations celebrate industrial water week
in front of the equipment that they are
charged in treating and boy do we do a
good job treating it because we treat it
and because we treat it well our
customers are able to use that equipment
to keep their vital industry going and
we all know water touches every aspect
of our lives and we as industrial water
treators are making sure that water is
Flowing properly
responsibly cleanly and we are using it
for every drop that it’s worth making
sure that we are treating it as such a
vital resource because we are using
water at such an amazing rate now more
than we ever have have throughout
history and the only reason we’re able
to do that and do that well is because
of the people in the industrial water
treatment industry so hats off to all of
you and it’s a big job it’s why we need
an entire week to celebrate this holiday
and I hope that you are celebrating this
is a great industry my call to action
this week is for you to tell others
about this industry because we need to
find great people to work in this
industry and we know that there’s great
people out there that have never heard
of industrial water treatment so we’re
hoping that all of you will help spread
that message not only this week but each
and every time you have an opportunity
well when we talk about cooling normally
we think about cooling towers and
cooling towers are something that the
industrial Water Treatment Community
really can agree on what to call them so
we had our friend Chris Nagel from
evapco come on this podcast actually
several times but most recently back in
2021 and we asked him what are some
things we need to know when we call a
cooling tower a cooling tower
[Music]
when you think about cooling equipment
obviously there’s dry coolers which
wouldn’t need water treatment other than
the closed loop but when we think about
other types that we would be thinking
about from water treatment standpoint
there’s really four types and if we
think about them alphabetically it would
be
adiabatic which are gaining popularity
what I would call closed circuit core or
you just referred to as a fluid core you
could use either term there there’s also
evaporative condensers and then there’s
the open cooling towers and I like to
say open coin Towers because it helps
people understand that the water that’s
going through the tower is also going
into the building and serving a function
at a plate and frame heat exchanger or a
chiller so it’s one big open loop that’s
rejecting the heat when we talk about
the closed circuit cores or the
evaporative condensers they tend to have
a coil where they have a coil and inside
the coil is either water or glycol water
mixture that’s going back to serve the
process in the building so the spray
water
for a cooler or uh fluid cooler is a
much smaller higher turnover so that has
implications for which biocides we might
pick
um how we might set up our feeding
control and then the other category is
the evaporative condenser and
evaporative condensers look just like a
cooler or a fluid core
the difference being on what’s inside
the coil so instead of that water or
water glycol mix now we have a
refrigerant usually ammonia but there
are other refrigerants so that can also
be useful information for water
treatment professional because compared
to a fluid cooler or a closed circuit
core the skin temperature at the top of
the coil the condenser tends to be much
higher so we want to think about that
when we’re selecting our Inhibitors and
our cycles of concentration and those
kind of things
if we’re telling you exactly what it is
that we’re treating equipment wise then
you’re able to give us better
information so we’re just communicating
better correct and when we stop thinking
of everything as a cooling tower we can
fine-tune our programs and
um think in terms of how the water is
actually being used in that process and
it’s really no different than if you
have a an open cooling tower at a
hospital is maybe treated differently
than an open cooling tower at a power
plant or a refinery right so they’re all
variations but it’s important for the
water treatment professional to think
about what is this equipment I’m
actually treating let’s get the right
name so that we can communicate
effectively and get the right program
so there we are scaling up Nation trying
to make sure that we can communicate
with the manufacturers of the equipment
that we are treating we want to make
sure we’re using the proper language and
we are all learning together so thanks
again to Chris Nagle and his team out of
vapco I want to give another shout out
to evapco they have really doubled down
into water treatment research they have
got the most amazing laboratory there
and they’ve got these little miniature
cooling towers they’re they’re really
cute and what they do is they put
different products in there they try
different things to see what happens and
it’s okay if they ruin a coil there it’s
they can get another one they can make
another one but they’re doing that for
us so they can get us that information
so we don’t have to experience that in
the field a lot of you might not know
about all of the research work that EVAP
code does for the industrial water
treater so now you do and Chris I want
to thank you and your team for making
our job better with all the research
that you are doing and more importantly
sharing with all of us and the
industrial Water Treatment Community
Nation Monday we celebrated
pre-treatment Tuesday we celebrated
boilers today we are celebrating Cooling
and of course that means a brand new
detective H2O story but before we get to
that I again want to remind everybody to
talk to whomever you can maybe even
figure out how to go to your local
college and teach a very brief class on
Industrial water treatment we’ve been
doing that for a while and trust me if
you get to the right department head you
will be amazed at how entertaining they
will be of that idea I remember back
when I was in seventh grade a
hydrologist came and spoke with us and
it was the first time that I kind of
connected what my dad actually did
because I thought this hydrologist was
really cool and of course my dad was
just my dad but I saw him doing some of
the same things my dad was doing and I
really think that was one of the pivotal
moments of my life where I really wanted
to learn more about what it was that my
dad did that was because somebody
invested in this industry and let
children let students know that there
was another option that they might not
ever have heard of so who knows maybe I
would not have this podcast if it were
not for that hydrologist I don’t
remember his name I just remember I
thought it was really cool all the
slides he had and the test kit that he
brought out that I immediately
identified as something similar as my
father’s so who knows maybe you can have
an impact on that so Nation here is the
case of the die job
welcome to detective H2O the case of the
die job
[Music]
the Misty Rain slowly collided with the
office Windows of Herbert Henry oxendine
pi cwt as a coalesced and streamed down
the water detective’s phone rang once
twice
three times
he answered detective H2O here the best
water treater the site of the Ohio
solving water problems drop by drop
whatcha got Mr oxidane this is Frank
from food is good Incorporated you were
down in our neighborhood about two years
ago working with the crew on a boiler
foaming situation remember
oh yes Frank I remember good coffee we
finally fingered the cause of the
foaming to process contamination
hitching a ride bike with a condensate
from the processing Department you run a
tight ship yes that’s us and the coffee
is just as good grinding myself you know
well we’ve got another scene over here
going on it’s the cooling tower this
time
something’s fishy because we can’t get
the conductivity up to where it should
be we put the squeeze on the blow down
valve closed it completely we even
eyeballed a drain and there’s no water
coming out of that Lowdown line zilch
none Zippo it’s got us all feeling
jingle brain down here mixer oxidane
can you help I was looking for a good
reason to blow out of here Frank I’ll
jump start my Heap and be sliding you
away faster than two shakes get that
coffee brewing with that the water
detective shimmed into his Overcoat
donned his hat grabbed his test kit and
headed out the door
good to see you Mr oxidane hop on in
I’ll take you to the culprit detective
H2O I the pickup truck and climbed in
I’ve been considering getting one of
these but my old jalopy in the parking
lot would never forgive me you might
call me loyal well I can give you a jump
start later if you need it Frank
chuckled
[Applause]
this up here is the coolant tower system
it’s a big one all right multiple cells
with a common in-ground sump provides
cooling water to all the surrounding
buildings at food is good Incorporated
the conductivity is still way below
control ranges my fellas have
recalibrated both the lab equipment and
cooling tower conductivity controller
three times each they’re thorough that
way as they stop beside the water system
detective H2O got out and walked the
perimeter of the cooling towers he
observed the blowdown line there was an
air gap between the blow down piping and
the drain showing zero flow the manual
blow down valve was also closed
completely
next he looked for signs of excessive
splashing or Drift But found none he
checked the Overflow line and found no
flow the water detective grabbed a water
sample and the connectivity was indeed
well below the control range
well Frank all the obvious culprits
Chuck out fine your connectivity is low
the blowdown is tight as a clam I don’t
see any signs of bypassing the fill and
splashing outside the Basin nor do I see
excessive drift the Overflow line is
bone dry you are losing water somewhere
though
let’s do the math to see how big this
mysterious loss is asking a few
questions about the system size and
operating conditions detective H2O
pulled out his yellow notepad in a brick
of a calculator and begin crunching
numbers
he soon looked up and said if my
calculations are correct and they
usually are you would normally be
blowing down around 12 gallons per
minute
at your current Cycles you’re actually
blowing down around 33 gallons per
minute I’m no mathematician but that’s
nearly a three times the rate required
yes when you consider that a typical
garden hose flows around 12 to 13
gallons per minute a 33 gallon per
minute leak should stand out like a sore
thumb
either you’re Basin has sprung a leak
underground or you’re losing water out
in the process of one of these buildings
somewhere
short of shutting down and draining the
basins let’s start by following the
cooling tar lines into the facilities it
serves
we’ll need to check every takeoff line
valve Etc that sounds like a great idea
Detective we’re at the height of
production right now so shutting down
the cooling tower is not an option and
for what you tell me this low
connectivity is a very recent and sudden
phenomenon unless some of the
catastrophic happened in the Basin I
suspect water is being lost on the
process side somewhere anyway let’s
start with this building right here said
Frank as he led the way
Frank and the detective spent the
morning tracing down cooling water lines
and talking to plant Personnel looking
for the source of the water loss the
detective sketched a process flow
diagram as he went along
they covered two buildings thoroughly
but when it came to the third and last
building Frank said okay here’s the
sticking point due to the proprietary
nature of the production in this
building built in six were not allowed
in here the facility manager is quite a
stickler for protocol
hmm we’ve eliminated the other buildings
rather thoroughly it is most likely in
this building can we at least talk to
the boss sure thing I doubt we’ll get
anywhere with her well one thing’s for
sure if you don’t ask for something
you’re never going to get it despite
detective h2o’s best attempts to
convince the facility manager to let him
poke around looking for the water loss
she wouldn’t budge an inch
the best they achieved was a promise to
have her guys take a look themselves
calling her on the horn leader got the
response that nothing was found alrighty
then what now okay desperate times call
for desperate measures it’s time to get
this Canary to seeing one way or the
other let’s make this leak identify
itself
let’s put red dye in the cooling tire
water if that’s okay with you and your
Wastewater operations we’ll let the
facility managers know especially the
building 6 manager then we’ll observe
what drains we can for the dye I like it
[Music]
putting the plant into action
immediately Frank his team and detective
H2O spent the afternoon looking for
signs of the red dye
while none were found strangely the
conductivity in the cooling tar system
began to climb in the early evening
the next morning detective age Still’s
phone rang three times
detective eight Stroh here the best
water treater to this side of the Ohio
solving water problems drop by drop what
you got Mr oxidane this is Frank I
wanted to let you know that the coolant
Tower conductivity held at set point all
night long it looks like we found the
culprit yes it appears we did funny how
making the water loss undeniable can do
that while we didn’t catch the
perpetrator red-handed I’m sure someone
is red-faced
[Music]
in the underbelly and penthouses of the
Metropolis of Waterville for the boilers
percolate and cooling towers fog there
was one man who works tirelessly to end
corrosion stop scale fight low-life
microbes and conserve water that man is
detective H2O best water treater the
side of the Ohio solving water problems
drop by drunk
The Other Nation as you know I love
working with James McDonald and when he
asked me to be a voice on one of his
detective H2O stories I am just always
so humbled by that so James thank you
for including me I love doing water week
because we get to we get to dust off all
the detective H2O stories and bring them
back to life and and by the way if you
want to hear all of the detective H2O
stories James McDonald has a website
that houses all of that and we’re going
to have that on our show notes page of
course you can bookmark or what do you
call when you when you put a mark in
your podcast I can’t remember what
that’s called but whatever you do to
save an episode of a podcast you can of
course can save these I will tell you
that this is a very fun and
non-intimidating way that when you have
new people people that you are training
you can have them listen to these
detective H2O stories and it kind of
allows them to realize that there is
some fun in this industry when you’re
first starting out there’s so much to
learn and it is a little intimidating
and this is a way to learn with taking
the intimidation away so James thank you
for coming up with this format we all
love it Nation I would love it if you
would find your favorite cooling tower
and hashtag it to
iww.23 tell anybody you can about this
amazing job if you’re at awt come find
me and celebrate industrial water week
with me at awt and if you are in this
industry I’m asking you consider being a
mentor that’s something that has helped
me and I went out and asked my my
mentors to be mentors but maybe there’s
somebody that you know that you can call
up and you can say I would love to be
your Mentor maybe you don’t feel like
you’ve been in this industry long enough
well if that’s the case then ask
somebody to be your Mentor that
relationship is just amazing and when
you can call somebody that’s outside of
your day-to-day and ask them a question
about something that you just saw that’s
brand new to you it is amazing how
people really learn from that experience
and people love to share their past
experiences one thing’s for sure I love
to celebrate industrial water week with
you and we’re going to have a brand new
episode tomorrow for Waste Water
Thursday Happy industrial water week
everybody
[Music]
sure
[Music]