Is your system ready to take on a new life? Many technology solutions require clean water for their process. In the semiconductor industry, ultra-high purity water is a must with extreme deionization of water. Residential water heaters even have problems with scaling, and many of the high-efficiency tankless systems cannot be installed in areas with hard water.
Scaling issues with calcium and magnesium are commonly on the mind of a system developer maybe because it is something we experience everyday. On the other hand, biofouling is not always considered until it is too late. Much like scaling, once biofouling starts it may be impossible to treat, control or recover from the growth.
In system testing, it is common to set specifications for the end user and test for the environment that is readily available. Water quality around the world is not equal.
A Tale of Two Microbes
A problem was experienced when multiple systems tested in the Boston Massachusetts area over several years had no indication of problems with water except for hardness, which was treated with standard filtration and ion exchange materials. A major market was a well developed European country. The problem started with system overheating that required a tweak to the cooling pump curves every few months to keep the system operational. When a shutdown occurred and the system
