Abstract:
Industrial plants are facing increasingly restrictive phosphorus discharge limits, forcing them to reduce or eliminated their use of phosphorus treatment to control corrosion in semi-open recirculating cooling systems. As a result, many suppliers have been required to significantly modify their traditional treatment programs. Also, other suppliers have successfully circumvented fouling by using phosphorus basis as inhibitors for antiscaling. Surface analyses were used to identify passivation films that could render surfaces less susceptible to corrosion. Further efforts correlated the chemical composition of passivation films to respective treatment and water conditions, providing the knowledge to manipulate film Chemistry for performance.
Applying this combined knowledge led to the development of Engineered Carboxylate
Oxide Films (E.C.O.Film) technology for non-phosphorous cooling applications. A part of E.C.O.Film technology uses carbon-hydrogen-oxygen (CHO) inhibitors, which facilitate the construction of passivation films under non-phosphorous conditions.
Their use will be discussed from a surface analysis perspective. This paper will provide a review of metal solutions, as well as, highlight recent advances in the use of all organic solutions to control corrosion in semi-open evaporative Cooling systems.