Many facilities have cooling water that circulates in a continuous loop. As the water comes into contact with machines and equipment, it picks up particles. If the water is not filtered, those particles foul pumps, heat exchangers, chillers and cooling towers, resulting in downtime and maintenance costs to clean that equipment. The most effective type of filter and the type most frequently used is a sand filter. In most cases, the filter is sized to handle a portion, but not all, of the water circulating in the cooling loop.
A side stream of 5-10% is the typical volume of water filtered at any time. Since the water recirculates many times through the facility, it also passes many times through the sand filter. For example, if you have 500 GPM in circulation, a side stream of 50 GPM (or 10% ) will keep the water quite clean and vastly decrease down time to clean cooling equipment and replace pump seals. Other types of filters can also be considered.
Here’s a List of Them and Their Implications:
Screen Filters – remove organic and inorganic particles- cleaning is automatic
Sand Separators – remove inorganic particles only – cleaning is automatic
Bags & Cartridges – remove both organic and inorganic particles; require manual replacement of filter elements
To discuss more information regarding Everfilt® Water Filtration Systems, talk with an Everfilt® Applications Engineer: 1.800.360.8380 / everfilt@everfilt.com