Ball-Tech Energy Ltd.

Present the
BallTechnic® System

Air Conditioning and Industrial

Heat Exchangers
Cleaning Systems

Products line Prese. Ball Tech Energy Ltd. 1

 Ball-Tech Energy Ltd.
·
Established in 1989 as an R&D company.
· Reorganized in 1994 with new investment and
management.specializes in the field of water treatment.
· Main product line The BallTechnic System.
Patented throughout the world.
· Installed in air conditioning or industrial water piping.
Keep heat exchanger tubes permanently clean .
· Enables heat exchanger nonstop operation at
its optimum design condition.
· Over 1700 Installations in Israel, Italy, France, Mexico,
S. Africa Thailand, India, Malaysia, Singapore, China,
Hong Kong and the Philippines
Located in the modern Industrial Park in Rosh Ha’ain,
Israel.
 A total solution

for
Air-Con.& Industrial
cooling system’s
Scale Fouling and its
Environmental problems.
 The Problem
• Keeping Air Conditioning Systems in Full
Capacity & Efficiency

The Solution
• Keeping the Heat Exchanger Tubes
Always Clean
Central Air-conditioning System -Block Diagram

Make Up Water 2-2.5%

COOLING TOWER Evaporating Loss 1-1.5%

Blow down
water 1% 1T.R =3 G.P.M
COOLING WATER CYCLE
30 ºC
25 ºC
CONDENSER /
HEAT EXCHANGER
EXPANSION
VALVE
COOLANT CYCLE COMPRESSOR
1Kw / h = 1T.R (Piston)
0.8Kw / h = 1T.R (Cent)
EVAPORATOR
6ºC 10 ºC

FAN
COILS

CHILLED WATER CYCLE

COMPLETE COOLING CYCLE

 The Problem

• Cooling capacity of The majority of medium to large central air

conditioning systems are designed around a re-circulating open
water cooling systems.
• Water flow in the tubes of Shell & Tube heat exchanger and
remove the heat from the coolant gas.
• Water contains low solubility salts and sediments that deposit
and build a stony scale on the inner tubes surfaces, causing
fouling of the heat exchanger unit.

• Fouling of the heat exchanger unit is causing

reduction of the Air Conditioning C.O.P

• 1·mm of scale can be deposited in 2000 hours of operation.

• 1·mm scale reduces the the system by 45%
What is Causing Fouling? Why? How Fast ?

Water contain minerals of Magnesium and

Calcium that tend to deposit on hot
surfaces.
heat
Mg(HCO3 )2 MgCO3 + CO2 + H2 O
Deposit
heat
Ca(HCO3 )2 CaCO3 + CO2 + H2 O
Deposit

Scale, fouling sediments can be found

after 100-200 operation hours
Coefficient of Performance (COP) of A/C systems

Cooling Rate of A/C Systems T.R

QL
C.O.P = =
WC Electrical power required to generate above T.R

C.O.P
3

2.5

1.5

1 Clean
0.5 Regular

0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

No of operational
months
 The Problem
• Accumulation of stony deposits on the tube inner wall
has a heat insulating effect that results in:

• · Reduction of system C.O.P and overall capacity

• · Lower C.O.P requires extra installed capacity-
resulting in higher installation cost
• · Lower C.O.P means higher electricity consumption and
• maintenance costs.

• A/C system stoppage due to compressor high

head pressure.
The Effect of Scale on A/C
Performance
C.O.P
3
2.5
2
1.5
1 Clean
0.5 Regular
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
No of operational months
Refrigeration Another
100% unit added

Minimum Refrigeration

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Months
Electricity in Kw

100%
Another
unit added

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Months
 Current Design Consideration to Compensate
Fouling

• ·Add more capacity per unit

• ·Add units as backup during disassembly and cleaning

• Current Operational Consideration to

Compensate Fouling
• ·Use more electricity for the required cooling
• ·Operate another system earlier
• ·Special maintenance to disassemble and clean the heat
• exchanger
 The Increasing of Power Consumption
due to Fouling of Heat Exchanger
Scale Thickness mm
0 0.17 0.33 0.50 0.67 0.88 1.00
140%
Relative
Watts
Per T.R
120%

100%

0 0.0005 0.001 0.0015 0.002 0.0025 0.003

Fouling Factor
 Keeping Heat Exchanging Tubes Always Clean
Existing Solutions

• Chemical cleaning by acids.

Shutting down and chemical-acid cleaning of the heat exchanger

tubes.

Frequent mechanical disassembly and acid cleaning of the heat

exchanger tubes require excessive maintenance time.

Acid can damage the tubes and the system.

An additional backup unit is required to provide cooling while
cleaning the system.
Loss of production and cooling for days.
Environmental problems due to the disposal of the chemicals.
•
 Ball Tech system
It is an hydro-mechanical system,
circulate Sponge Balls through condenser's
tubes and keep them permanently clean.
Ball Tech system installation
Ball Tech system Cleaning Concept
Features
*·The system injects and collects the soft balls in seconds
100% reliable system
* Inject and Clean the tubes every 40 min (adjustable) totally
avoids scale
* The Sponge Balls made of natural rubber with special wear resistance
additives
* The sponge ball’ls diameter is 1 mm larger than that of the heat
exchanger inner tube’s diameter..
* Sponge Ball’s and condense water specific weight are identical.
* Sponge Ball has Excellent Flexibility
* The sponge balls enter and moves through the heat exchanger tubes by
the water flow
* The sponge balls wipe off the inner tubes walls without disturbing the
condense water flow.
* Balls replacements - Every 1500 Hrs of the chiller works.
Ball Tech system installation
Ball Tech Injector and Sponge Ball rinsing
 Ball Tech system advantages

• It is a simple, reliable hydro-mechanical system.

• It keeps heat exchanger’s tubes permanently and
absolutely clean.
• It is simple to install and requires no modification to
the heat exchanger.
• The ball flow does not disturb the condense water
flow.
• It does not impair environmental quality.
• It preserves heat exchanger’s C.O.P. as designed by
the manufacturer.
• Saving on Air-conditioning’s energy consumption
about 15% and more.
• Reduce maintenance and chemicals cost.
• It is one-time investment recoverable within one year.
• It prevents accelerated chiller’s compressor wear.
• Clean and simple procedures for supervision by any
maintenance technician.
 Patent Protection •
• Ball-Tech Energy Ltd. has patented its BallTechnic System
products throughout the world
•
• Patents No
• · US 5176204 · Israel 96802
• · US 5176204 · Israel 94289
• · US 5086833 · Israel 79885
• · US 4865121 · Europe 0-417-332-B1
• Patents Applications in the following countries:
• ·Israel · Japan
 USA · China
 Mexico · Singapore
 S. Africa · Thailand
• ·Europe · Australia
The Thermodynamic Cycle P-H Graph

Pre ss u re
ID E AL
E NT RO PY
LINE
D S= 0
3’
2 2’
P’2
P 2 3
AC TU AL
EN TRO P Y
P 1 CO ND IT IO N S
QL

sat liq s at vap our

H3 H’3 H1 H es H2 H’2 EN THA LP Y

Clean sy stem therm al cycle C .O .P= Q L m (H 1 -H 3 )

=
A chieved w ith B allTec hnic Wc m (H 2 -H 1 )

Fo ulin g effect - Sy stem therm al cycle C .O .P = Q L m (H 1 -H’ 3 )

=
after 10 00 Hrs of o peratio n Wc m( H ’ 2 -H 1 )
 Calculation of Cleaning Reliability:
• The BallTechnic system is using 30 balls for every 100
tubes in a pass (30% of the counted tubes)
• · Can this ratio clean all the tubes?
• · Yes, with 99.999....% reliability
• Some simple probability calculations
• · The chance of a ball not to pass through a specific
• tube is 0.7
• · There are, however, about 40 cleaning cycle in 24Hrs
• and deposits are formed within 200 Hrs.
• · The probability of a ball not to clean a tube is reduced
• over 24 Hrs. at the power of 40 is:
• (0.7)40 = 6.3 * 10-7= 0.00000063
• ·Conclusion: cleaning reliability of every tube is proved.
• ·Field experience: Unnecessary disassembly of the heat
• exchangers of systems equipped with BallTechnic shows
100% clean tubes with no exception
 Ball Transfer Force

• Balls specific gravity is the same as water

• Ball diameter is 1 mm larger than tube diameter
• Pressure drop on tube is at least 1 meter (0.1 bar) per pas

• Example
• A 20 mm tube diameter, with 0.1bar (1 meter) pressure difference per
pass

• The force that pushes the ball through the tube is :

• 0.1bar x (3.14x22 cm)/4 = 0.315 Kg

• This pressure is much higher than is required to
push the sponge ball through the tube.