Water glycol solutions have a hard life. They start off as clean translucent fluids and, in many cases become a dirty, brown suspension within minutes of being introduced into a contaminated system.
The particulate matter that makes up the contamination can come from a variety of sources. Predominantly it tends to be ferrous particles from rust deposits, but can also be bacterial build up, other metallic particles such as plating corrosion, aluminium or brass, and plastic/rubber seal material.
Filtertechnik offers mobile and static side stream filtration solutions for cleaning up and maintaining cooling systems using water/ethylene glycol/propylene glycol mixes.
Our systems are designed as offline (side stream) filter systems and are self-contained “plug and play” solutions requiring minimal setup once located on site.
Whilst heavily contaminated water/glycol-based cooling systems don’t really exhibit any major loss in thermal efficiency over a clean glycol, the risk associated with dirty glycol lies in the hidden maintenance costs, these include;
- Hard contaminants can cause impact damage to sensitive components such as heat exchangers and valves.
- Soft contaminants can cause build-up on pipe walls and components, blockages in heat exchangers, and increased load and wear on pumps.
- Organic contamination can lead to acrid smelling coolant and bacterial growth.
- Erosion of pipe walls, especially on 90° bends.
- Higher running costs.
- Increased risk of unscheduled downtime.