Acid Feed for Scale Control

Definition

The practice of feeding acid to a cooling system to hold pH low enough that carbonate is suppressed and calcium carbonate scaling risk dissipates.

Keeping pH low keeps carbonate scarce, but if pH drifts upward carbonate is unleashed and scaling risk amplifies. The author’s tower relied on sulfuric acid and worked marvelously until the acid feed failed when the primary pH sensor failed silently. The customer had declined a redundant pH probe, so the silent failure went unnoticed for weeks and the entire tower scaled.

Related concepts

Acid Demand · pH (Lever) · pH Sensor Redundancy

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Part of The Blueprint of Water · 🛠️ operations