Cooling system protection for the expanded polystyrene industry
Country
UK
Application
Cooling water
Water source
Cooling water
Filtration solution
6” Sigma Pro
Background
Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) is used for a variety of industries and products, such as food containers, molded sheets for insulation in the construction ndustry, and as packing material in block form or as loose-fill pellets for cushioning fragile items inside packaging. Most of all EPS products are manufactured through injection molding.
The UK’s largest manufacturer and suppliers of EPS products were suffering with poor quality cooling
water.
Challenge
The customer who manufactures EPS was running into issues caused by dirty cooling water. The cooling tower was not performing at the required level, and the cooling system needed cleaning on a weekly basis. Chemical usage was also too high, incurring increased operational costs. Eventually this meant the customer had to invest in replacing the ageing cooling tower.
Amiad, working in partnership with their distributor John Morfield Ltd, were asked to look at the cooling system in the factory and propose a solution.
Solution
A sample of the cooling water was analysed for Total Suspended Solids (TSS) and Particle Size Distribution (PSD). Upon review of the results it became clear that the cooling water system was fouling due to the presence of scale and biofilm particles that were predominantly in the 80-100 micron size range.
Following a discussion with the end customer, an automatic selfcleaning filter was selected and the solution presented was Amiad’s 6” Sigma Pro filter with an 80 micron screen.
The cooling water flow rate varied between 30-50m3/hr and after the filter flowed into an open tank. To ensure optimum cleaning of the screen, Amiad also supplied a pressure sustaining valve downstream of the filter to provide sufficient water pressure during the backwash cycle.
Results
Following the installation works, one of Amiad UK’s service engineers commissioned the cooling water filtration system. The filter has now been running for 6 months providing the site with high quality cooling water which helps ensure the factory’s product quality is maintained.
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