Industrial Water Treatment Question Summary

Print Date 1/2/2020

Topic # Date Title Question

1 11/1/2011 Challenges What are the top challenges for industrial water treatment today?
Boiler cycles, how high do we go? Some recommend 50. The ASME recommends 100 maximum. At the recent convention, one
2 11/2/2011 Boiler Cycles
chemical provider was claiming 200 cycles. Who's correct?
3 11/5/2011 Alternative Cooling Tower Makeup Sources What alternative water sources could one consider for cooling tower makeup to reduce water bills?
4 11/6/2011 Neutralizing Amine Feed Points Where is the best location to feed neutralizing amines to a boiler system?
An automatic boiler blowdown controller can greatly enhance the control of "cycles of concentration" or typically
5 11/7/2011 Automatic Blowdown Controller
"conductivity" for a boiler. What are some tips for success?
Boiler condensate is a valuable water source that should be returned to the boiler when possible. What assets make up the
6 11/8/2011 Condensate Value
true value of condensate?
7 11/9/2011 Dechlorination What methods are there to dechlorinate water, and what are some advantages/disadvantages of each?
8 11/10/2011 Cooling Tower Water Minimization How can cooling towers be managed to use less water?
Control of water treatment requires accurate water analysis. What water analysis advice do you have? Sampling tips? Analysis
9 11/11/2011 Water Analysis
tips?
Reverse Omosis units make high quality water for process applications & boiler makeup, but typically 25% of the water is
10 11/14/2011 RO Reject Uses
rejected. What are possible uses for this "wastewater?"
Deaerators must be vented to remove dissolved gases such as oxygen from boiler feedwater, but how much should they be
11 11/15/2011 Deaerator Venting Requirements
vented? What are the rules of thumb and methods for determining deaerator venting requirements?
Boiler inspections can be the ultimate report card for a water treatment program. When you inspect a boiler, what are some
12 11/16/2011 Boiler Inspections
things you inspect? What tips do you have?
With more advanced systems such as Reverse Osmosis, are dealkalizers yesterday's technology or are they still relevant for
13 11/17/2011 Dealkalizers
boiler makeup?
A properly operating deaerator will help protect boilers from oxygen pitting and reduce the consumption of oxygen
14 11/18/2011 Deaerator Oxygen Testing
scavengers (e.g., bisulfite). How can one test the oxygen removal efficiency of a deaerator?
15 11/21/2011 Water Softener Reduced Capacity What factors could lead to a water softener producing fewer gallons of softwater (less capacity) than before?
Reverse Omosis units make high quality water for process applications & boiler makeup, but typically 25% of the water is
16 11/22/2011 Water/Energy Nexus
rejected. What are possible uses for this "wastewater?"
The dissociation curves for chlorine and bromine show that bromine chemistry should theoretically be the more effective
17 11/25/2011 Chlorine vs. Bromine Chemistry
biocide at the more basic pH's seen in cooling towers. Does this agree with reality though?
There are several trade organizations that deal with industrial water. Which ones have you joined, and how have you found
18 11/28/2011 Industrial Water Organizations
them beneficial?
19 11/29/2011 Chelant Boiler Treatment What are the benefits and disadvantages of using chelant chemistry in internal boiler treatment (e.g., EDTA)?
20 11/30/2011 Acid Pump An acid pump gets stuck on and the cooling tower pH drops to 2.5. What corrective actions do you recommend?
Maintaining consistent chemical feed is vital to many water management programs. What methods or tips are there for
21 12/1/2011 Chemical Feed Pumps
keeping chemical feed pumps primed and ready?
22 12/2/2011 Cooling Tower Cycles of Concentration What are the advantages and disadvantages of using conductivity to calculate the cycles of concentration in a cooling tower?
23 12/5/2011 Langelier Saturation Index What are the uses and limitations of the Langelier Saturation Index (LSI)? What factors determine and affect it?
Dissimilar metals in contact in an aqueous environment can lead to galvanic corrosion (e.g., a chiller with copper tubes and
24 12/6/2011 Galvanic Corrosion
carbon steel tubesheet will see corrosion on the carbon steel tubesheet). How can one minimize galvanic corrosion?
25 12/7/2011 Skin Temperatures What are rules of thumb for estimating skin temperatures for use in scaling indices?
Your free chlorine levels are half what they should be in your cooling tower? Should you double the setting on the bleach feed
26 12/8/2011 Chlorine Pump Settings
pump? Why or why not?
27 12/10/2011 Books and Other Resources What books and other resources do you use to learn about Industrial Water Treatment?
What types of analysis can be conducted in the field on boiler/cooling deposits before considering sending the sample off to a
28 12/12/2011 Deposit Analysis
lab?
29 12/13/2011 Coagulants and Flocculants What are typical dosage ranges for coagulants and flocculants?
30 12/14/2011 Freezing Cooling Towers With freezing weather conditions on the way, what can cooling tower owners do to keep them from freezing?
31 12/15/2011 Determining Cooling Tower Recirculation Rate When the cooling tower recirculation rate is unknown, what are some ways it can be determined or estimated?
In some installations, deaerator vent piping can take more convoluted routes to exit the building. Are there issues with
32 12/16/2011 Deaerator Vent Piping
running deaerator vent piping horizontally?
Within a cooling tower, cooling takes place due to both sensible heat transfer and evaporation. How does the percent cooling
33 12/19/2011 Cooling Tower Percent Evaporation due to evaporation change throughout the year? What is the average percent evaporation for different areas throughout the
year?
34 12/20/2011 Anodic Corrosion Inhibitors How does an anodic corrosion inhibitor work?
35 12/21/2011 Retrograde Solubility What is "retrograde solubility" in relation to temperature and what are some examples of salts with retrograde solubility?
For some salts such as calcium bicarbonate, the amount that passes through an RO membrane can be 0.6%. For other salts
36 12/22/2011 Reverse Osmosis Salt Passage such as sodium nitrate, the passage can be 5%. What are some reasons behind different salts and organic molecules have
different passage rates by RO membranes?
When using bisulfite to dechlorinate feedwater going to a Reverse Osmosis unit, what is the best setting for a solenoid
37 12/23/2011 Bisulfite Dechlorination chemical feed pump's speed and stroke? (e.g., high speed/low stroke, low speed/high stroke, medium speed/medium stroke,
etc.)
Today's question is a little off the wall, but if Industrial Water Treatment had a theme song, what would it be? (All genres are
38 1/3/2012 Theme Song
open.)
39 1/4/2012 Condensate Contamination What are some tips for identifying and tracking down condensate contamination? (Examples are welcome too.)
What is the proper feedpoint for filming amines? Deaerator storage section, feedwater tank, feedwater piping, boiler, steam
40 1/5/2012 Filming Amine Feed Point
header, or someplace else?
41 1/6/2012 Sidestream Filtration What are the benefits of sidestream filtration on a cooling tower?
How does one estimate the chlorine dosage required for a cooling tower? (This question assumes this is a new cooling tower
42 1/9/2012 Cooling Tower Chlorine Dosage Estimation
or new account for the water treatment company. Remember, chlorine dosage must meet both demand and residual needs.)
43 1/10/2012 Attemperation What water related issues must one consider with attemperation?
44 1/11/2012 Acid Feed to Cooling Tower What is the proper way to feed acid to a cooling tower?
45 1/12/2012 Certification What certifications are available for water professionals to instill end-user confidence in their abilities?
46 1/13/2012 RO Projection Software What Reverse Osmosis (RO) projection software is available to help one design and/or predict the performance of an RO?
47 1/17/2012 Carbon Footprints Are companies interested in the Carbon Footprints of their water treatment systems? Why or why not?
48 1/18/2012 Breakpoint Chlorination Why might breakpoint chlorination be important in Reverse Osmosis (RO) pretreatment?
49 1/19/2012 Nanofiltration What are the pros and cons of nanofiltration?
50 1/20/2012 Motivation What motivates you to wake up and tackle the issues of industrial water treatment each day?
51 1/23/2012 Steam Purity vs. Steam Quality What is the difference between steam purity and steam quality, and how does one test for each?
What are the advantages/disadvantages of basing chemical feed on cooling tower blowdown (aka, bleed) versus a makeup
52 1/24/2012 Cooling Tower Bleed & Feed vs. Makeup
meter?
Cooling towers reject heat through both evaporative and sensible cooling. What factors affect the amount of evaporative
53 1/25/2012 Evaporative Cooling
cooling achieved, and what is the annual average percentage in your area?
54 1/26/2012 Boiler Storage When would one choose wet boiler storage over dry boiler storage and vice versa?
55 1/27/2012 Boiler Carryover What is boiler carryover and what are some possible causes?
56 1/30/2012 Common Ion Effect What is the Common Ion effect, and why can it be important to scale formation?
57 1/31/2012 Best Web Resources What are the best web-based resources on water that you use on a regular basis?
58 2/1/2012 Dechlorination before RO Membranes What is the importance of dechlorination before an RO membrane and are there any tips we can share?
59 2/2/2012 MIC What is MIC?
60 2/3/2012 Chlorine Dioxide What are the advantages and disadvantages of using Chlorine Dioxide as a disinfectant?
What is your experience with remote monitoring of water systems? Were they easy to setup? Were they worth the effort?
61 2/6/2012 Remote Monitoring
Did they improve performance?
62 2/9/2012 Waste Heat Boilers How are Waste Heat Boilers different from regular boilers? What extra concerns do they have?
63 2/10/2012 Closed Loop Disinfection Which biocides are recommended for closed loop disinfection and which are not?
64 2/11/2012 Passing It On? Would you encourage your kid(s) to pursue a career in water? Why or why not?
65 2/13/2012 Mistakes What are some examples of your worst mistakes in water treatment that you learned the most from?
What are the advantages of open recirculating cooling (e.g., cooling towers) vs. once-through cooling? Are there any
66 2/14/2012 Once-Through vs. Open Recirculation Cooling
disadvantages?
67 2/15/2012 Closed Loop Sidestream Filtration Is sidestream filtration recommended on closed loops, and what are the advantages?
68 2/16/2012 Water vs. Air Why would a plant chose a water-based cooling system over an air-based cooling system?
69 2/17/2012 RO Microbiological Fouling How does microbiological fouling impact a Reverse Osmosis (RO) system, and how is it remediated?
70 2/21/2012 RO Data Normalization What is the purpose of Reverse Osmosis (RO) data normalization, such as Normalized Permeate Flow (NPF)?
71 2/22/2012 Water Treatment Professionals In one sentence, how would you summarize what a Water Treatment Professional does?
When mixing two different chemical products, what advice and warnings do you have? (For example, you are changing from
72 2/23/2012 Product Mixing
Inhibitor Product A to Inhibitor Product B and have a single bulk container used to feed the system.)
73 2/24/2012 Retrograde Solubility Which salts exhibit retrograde solubility in water treatment?
74 2/27/2012 Troubleshooting What are some general troubleshooting tips when tracing down water treatment problems?
What trigger points do you use when determining when to clean a Reverse Osmosis unit (e.g., Normalized Permeate Flow
75 2/28/2012 RO Cleaning Trigger Points
changes by x%)?
76 2/29/2012 Hydrogen Bonding What unique properties of water are due to hydrogen bonding?
77 3/1/2012 Low Boiler pH Your boiler water pH has dropped to less than 4. What do you do?
78 3/2/2012 Cooling Tower Foaming What can cause a cooling tower to foam?
79 3/12/2012 DPD Free Chlorine Test What is the optimal pH for the DPD Free Chlorine test?
Nitrite can be a great anodic corrosion inhibitor; however, can low levels of nitrite (e.g.,<100 ppm) cause more corrosion
80 3/13/2012 Nitrite Levels
problems than it prevents?
81 3/14/2012 Tolyltriazole vs. Benzotriazole What are the advantages/disadvantages of Tolyltriazole versus Benzotriazole for yellow-metal corrosion inhibition?
82 3/15/2012 Unknown Phosphate Source How might "unnoticed" phosphate in city water makeup affect a boiler or cooling tower treatment program?
83 3/19/2012 NPDES Why are NPDES permits important to industrial water treatment professionals?
84 3/20/2012 Boiler pH Why is boiler pH important?
Give an example of a water treatment challenge you solved that made you the "Super Hero of the Day" for the end user?
85 3/21/2012 Water Treatment Super Hero
(Brag all you want.)
86 3/22/2012 Tannins What are tannins used for and are they still relevant?
Water softeners can remove some dissolved iron from the water, but what is the practical upper limit where one would want
87 3/23/2012 Iron & Softeners
to consider an additional iron removal step?
Why would one use sodium sulfite vs. sodium bisulfite vs. sodium metabisulfite for oxygen control? What are the
88 3/26/2012 Sulfites
advantages/disadvantages of using one sulfite over the other?
89 3/27/2012 Heat Exchanger Fouling How can one track the fouling of an online heat exchanger?
90 3/28/2012 Corrosion Coupons Can corrosion coupons accurately predict how long system piping will last?
91 3/29/2012 Corrosion Coupon Order What order should copper and mild steel coupons be arranged and why?
When making down a dry flocculant, what percent solution should one target? What happens if the percent polymer is too
92 3/30/2012 Flocculant Makedown
high?
93 4/2/2012 Cooling Tower Blowdown Location Where is the optimal location for a cooling tower blowdown takeoff within a water system?
What qualities and qualifications should a company look for when selecting a water treatment provider? (Note: We have
94 4/3/2012 Selecting a Water Treatment Provider both end users and water services providers in this Group, so it should be interesting to hear this from both ends of the
equation.)
95 4/4/2012 Sample Cooling Why is it recommended to use sample coolers to cool boiler and condensate samples before analysis?
96 4/6/2012 Service Reports What do water treatment professionals use to prepare their Service Reports (e.g., software programs, carbon copies, etc.)?
97 4/9/2012 Training What good training programs are out there on industrial water treatment (both online and classroom)?
98 4/10/2012 Mass Balances How does one do a mass balance of "water in" to "water out" for a company? What are the benefits?
99 4/11/2012 VpCI's What are Volatile Phase Corrosion Inhibitors (VpCI), and how are they used to protect offline boilers?
Can you believe that 100 Daily Questions have now been posted for this Industrial Water Treatment Group? We've gotten
some good, informative discussions started with experts in the industry sharing their experiences. Some have asked why I do
this? My honest answer is to learn and hopefully help others learn too. One day back in October, I asked myself, "LinkedIn is
very popular, but what can it really do?" I started making new connections and met a lot of very interesting professionals. I
filled out my personal profile as completely as I could to get that desired "100% Complete" rating. Then I asked myself if there
100 4/12/2012 100th Question of the Day (4/12/12): Does this Group have Value? was anything different that I could do that is not already out there. The groups I had joined allowed the members to ask all
kinds of questions about water, but none of the groups tried to lead the discussion. That's when I wondered what would
happen if the equation was reversed...the moderator asked all the questions to see what conversation it could spark. Voila!
Industrial Water Treatment was born! It continues to be a personal hobby. My company did not task me with doing this. I
spend part of my drive time into work thinking up the next question each day. It's been fun, and I might just have another 100
questions in me, which brings me to today's real question. Does this group have value?
101 4/16/2012 Ryznar Saturation Index (RSI) What does RSI reveal and what range of numbers apply?
What are some creative uses for the reject water coming from a Reverse Osmosis system, instead of sending it down the
102 4/17/2012 Reverse Osmosis Reject
drain?
By just knowing makeup water characteristics and the desired number of cycles, how does one accurately predict what the
103 4/18/2012 Cooling Tower pH
cooling tower pH will be?
104 4/19/2012 Softener Resin Inspection What can one tell by visually inspecting softener resin?
105 4/20/2012 Anthracite Filtration Media What is the typical lifespan of anthracite filtration media, and how does one determine when it needs to be replaced?
106 4/23/2012 Neutralized Conductivity Why are "neutralized" conductivities run on boiler waters vs. unneutralized?
107 4/24/2012 Distribution Ratio Why is Distribution Ratio important when considering neutralizing amines?
108 4/26/2012 Economizers How can an economizer save boiler fuel and money?
You have a closed loop using a nitrite/azole/borate treatment. The nitrite levels keep dropping but the conductivity remains
109 4/27/2012 Closed Loop Troubleshooting the same and the makeup meter records zero makeup. What could be the problem? What troubleshooting steps would you
recommend?
You cannot maintain the conductivity setpoint (or cycles of concentration) in your cooling tower system. The system is always
110 4/30/2012 Cooling Tower Cycles Troubleshooting
running too low. What could be the cause of this? What troubleshooting steps would you recommend?
The phosphate levels and conductivity in the cooling tower have been maintained perfectly within range, but you notice the
inhibitor chemical product inventory has been going down MUCH slower than you expect. The chemical dosage pump settings
111 5/1/2012 Cooling Tower Phosphate
have been turned down to a minimum too. The inhibitor chemical product is phosphate based and dosage is controlled by
measuring phosphate in the cooling tower. What's happening? How would you troubleshoot this?
When reviewing boiler test logs, you notice the condensate conductivity has been 100+ microsiemens/cm during the past
112 5/2/2012 High Conductivity Condensate week. You grab a cooled condensate sample and notice the same thing. Condensate conductivity is typically 10
microsiemens/cm. What is going one? How would you troubleshoot this?
You start your RO up in February with 100 gpm permeate flow. In July you look at your RO and are still getting 100 gpm
113 5/3/2012 Reverse Osmosis Monitoring permeate flow. Does this mean your RO is running well? Does this mean you do not need to clean your RO? What might you
be missing and why?
An industrial powerhouse operator asks why the boiler sulfite levels are high every Monday morning . You look at the boiler
114 5/4/2012 Boiler Sulfite test logs, and sure enough, the sulfite levels are usually high each Monday morning. No boiler tests are done over the
weekend. What could be causing this phenomenon?
You get a frantic call from the cooling tower operator that the pH has suddenly dropped to a 2.3! Sulfuric acid is used for pH
115 5/7/2012 Cooling Tower Low pH
control. What corrective course of action do you recommend?
The cooling tower system has a 3/4" corrosion coupon rack installed with a rotometer. The isolation valve is often found
116 5/8/2012 Corrosion Coupon Flow closed and the maximum flowrate achieved is 3 gpm. Will these coupons give a representative corrosion rate of the system?
Why or why not?
When the normalized data indicates it is time to clean an RO, how does one determine the cleaning strategy and chemicals to
117 5/9/2012 Reverse Osmosis Cleaning
use?
118 5/11/2012 Sand Filtration Why size particles will a sand filter remove?
119 5/14/2012 Sidestream Filtration Sizing What rules of thumb should one use for sizing sidestream filtration on a cooling tower system?
120 5/15/2012 Cooling Tower Volume Estimation How does one estimate the volume of a cooling tower system?
You cannot maintain cycles in your cooling tower, even though the blowdown valve is completely closed. You believe you
121 5/16/2012 Cooling Tower Leak
have a leak or unauthorized water withdrawal somewhere. How can you estimate the size of and find the leak?
122 5/17/2012 Closed Loops & Oxidizers What are the advantages and disadvantages of using oxidizers as biocides in closed loops?
Both high and low pH's can corrode aluminum in a water system. What is typically considered the least corrosive pH range for
123 5/18/2012 Aluminum Corrosion
aluminum?
124 5/21/2012 HRSG How do Heat Recovery Steam Generators (HRSG) differ from the typical boiler?
125 5/24/2012 Softener Backwash vs. Temperature How does temperature affect softener backwash? Why is this important?
126 5/29/2012 Blowdown Flash Tank What is the benefit(s) of having a blowdown flash tank on a boiler?
127 5/30/2012 Condensate Polishing In what ways could condensate be "polished" for reuse in the boiler system?
128 5/31/2012 Carbon Dioxide for pH Control What are the advantages, disadvantages, and tips for using CO2 to pH control in cooling towers?
129 6/1/2012 Blowdown Valve What is the rule of thumb for sizing cooling tower blowdown valves?
As you are driving up to an industrial plant, what are some possible things you can determine about the water systems from
130 6/4/2012 Plant Arrival
this distant observation?
131 6/5/2012 Microbiological Activity What problems can microbiological activity cause in a cooling tower system?
At atmospheric pressure, one pound (or kilogram) of liquid water will expand by how approximately how many times when
132 6/6/2012 Steam Density
converted to steam?
Why does a typical, cocurrent water softener use a diluted brine solution during regeneration (e.g., 30 salometer degrees)
133 6/7/2012 Softener Regeneration
instead of a 100% saturated brine solution?
134 6/8/2012 Local Water Initiatives What local water initiatives are in your area? Are you involved with them? Feel free to provide websites if you have them.
Your pH meter gives you an unexpectedly high or low pH reading. What chemical reagents might the typical Water Treatment
135 6/11/2012 Troubleshooting pH Readings
Professional or industrial water lab have on hand to confirm whether these pH readings are in the "ballpark" of being correct?

Aside from the standard pinks & blues field equipment, what "extra" equipment have you found handy to have in the field
136 6/12/2012 Extra Tools
(e.g., magnet, magnifying glass, etc.)?
137 6/13/2012 RO Cleaning pH Approach When the foulant to an RO is unknown, is it better to clean fist with at low pH or high pH cleaning solution?
138 6/15/2012 Humidification What are neutralizing amine guidelines when steam is used for humidification?
What methods are available to monitor microbiological activity in cooling towers? What are their advantages and
139 6/18/2012 Microbiological Monitoring
disadvantages?
140 6/19/2012 Alum What is the optimal pH range for applying alum in clarification?
141 6/20/2012 Suspended Solids What methods are available for removing suspended solids from water?
142 6/21/2012 Catalyzed or Uncatalyzed Dechlorination Should catalyzed or uncatalyzed sulfite products be used for Reverse Osmosis dechlorination?
143 6/22/2012 Calcium Carbonate Scale Potential What are ways to decrease the likelihood of calcium carbonate scale in a cooling tower system?
What are the advantages/disadvantages of solid chemical blended products for cooling towers (e.g., corrosion and scale
144 6/25/2012 Solid Chemical Blends
inhibition) and boilers (e.g., scale inhibition and oxygen scavenging)?
145 6/26/2012 Spectrophotometer/Colorimeter Glassware Why is it important to keep spectrophotometer and colorimeter glassware clean and scratch free?
146 6/27/2012 Smell How can you use your sense of smell in water treatment?
147 6/28/2012 Dealkalizer Caustic Regeneration What is the benefit to adding caustic to a dealkalizer regeneration sequence in addition to the brine?
In respect to the water side of the equation, how can boiler efficiency be improved? Think chemistry, equipment, operation,
148 6/29/2012 Boiler Efficiency
etc.
149 7/9/2012 Ferric Chloride vs. Ferric Sulfate What are the advantages and disadvantages of using ferric chloride vs. ferric sulfate?
This is the 150th question asked of this group. While I still have many more questions to ask, some group members do submit
questions that I sometimes turn into official "Questions of the Day." There are many other groups that allow you to submit
150 7/10/2012 What are Yours? your own questions; however, if you have a question, go ahead and submit it. If it fits the format of the group, I may turn it
into a "Question of the Day." So today's question is, "What questions would you ask of the Group?" (Please don't be
offended if I don't use your question and feel free to take advantage of the other groups to ask your question too.)
151 7/11/2012 White Rust What is white rust and how is it prevented?
152 7/13/2012 Cooling Towers Costs What variables influence the cost of running an industrial cooling tower? How do these variables interrelate?
153 7/16/2012 Oxygen Pitting What is oxygen pitting and what does it look like?
154 7/18/2012 Gaseous Chlorine What are the advantages and disadvantages of using gaseous chlorine for microbiological control?
155 7/19/2012 Industrial Wastewater Types What are the types of industrial wastewater one might experience?
156 7/20/2012 Oily Wastewater What are ways to treat oily wastewater?
157 7/23/2012 Biocide Selection Which parameters help determine which biocide to use in a cooling system?
158 7/24/2012 Tolyltriazole Testing What are some challenges and tips when testing for tolyltriazole (TT or TTA) in a cooling system?
159 7/26/2012 Cooling Towers & Ammonia What affect will ammonia contamination have on a cooling tower system?
160 7/27/2012 Cooling Tower Conductivity What effect, if any, do cooling tower chemical products have on system conductivity?
161 7/30/2012 Boiler Cycles Determination How do you determine the true cycles of concentration for a boiler using high-purity makeup?
162 7/31/2012 High Purity pH Measurement What are some tips for measuring the pH of high purity water?
Aside from well-known oxidizing biocides such as chlorine gas and bleach, what other "cutting edge" oxidizing biocides are out
163 8/1/2012 Alternative Oxidizing Biocides
there? (Exception Granted: Members are allowed to share information on their own products for this question.)
164 8/2/2012 Reverse Osmosis Pretreatment What are pretreatment options to consider before a reverse osmosis unit?
165 8/3/2012 Dry Flocculants What is the proper makedown procedure for dry flocculant polymers?
What is the problem with placing a copper corrosion coupon upstream of a mild steel corrosion coupon in a cooling tower
166 8/6/2012 Corrosion Coupons - Copper Vs. Mild Steel
system?
167 8/7/2012 Tannins vs. Sulfites How do tannins compare to sulfites when used for oxygen corrosion control in boilers?
168 8/8/2012 Developing Water Skills How do you enhance your industrial water treatment skills?
169 8/9/2012 Hearing In what ways can the sense of hearing be used in industrial water treatment?
170 8/16/2012 Macrofouling How is macrofouling controlled (e.g., zebra mussels, bryozoans, etc.)?
171 8/17/2012 Silica Solubility What factors influence the solubility of silica?
172 8/20/2012 Controlling Cooling Tower pH When controlling cooling tower pH, how do you chose how low to drop the pH setpoint?
173 8/21/2012 Activated Carbon vs. Sulfite Pretreatment What are the advantages/disadvantages of using activated carbon vs. sulfite chemistry as Reverse Osmosis pretreatment?
What are the advantages/disadvantages of operating boilers in oxidizing environments? For example, All Volatile Treatment-
174 8/22/2012 Boiler Oxygenated Treatment
Oxidizing (AVT-O) and Oxygenated Treatment (OT).
175 8/23/2012 Softener & Dealkalizer Why should a Chloride Anion Dealkalizer be preceded by a water softener?
What are some tips for using citric acid for cleaning water-related equipment? (For example: Which foulants is it effective
176 8/24/2012 Citric Acid Cleaning
against? How should pH be controlled? What concentrations?)
177 8/27/2012 Predicting pH With only the makeup water quality known, how do you predict the pH of the cycled up cooling tower water?
178 8/28/2012 Cooling Tower Treatment Chemistry What factors do you consider when picking the right chemical products for cooling tower systems?
Within a cooling tower system, how is water chemistry and product selection affected by the Holding Time Index (i.e., half life,
179 8/29/2012 Holding Time Index
residence time)?
180 8/30/2012 Neutralizing Amine Selection What factors affect the choice of neutralizing amine in a boiler system?
What types of permit-required confined spaces are there with water-related equipment? Why is it important to follow the
181 8/31/2012 Permit-Required Confined Spaces
confined space entry guidelines?
When dechlorinating with a sulfite-based product, do you also have to take into account the oxygen demand when calculating
182 9/6/2012 Sulfite-Based Dechlorination
product dosage? Why or why not?
183 9/7/2012 Cooling Tower Inspection What are some items to observe while inspecting a cooling tower?
184 9/10/2012 Reverse Osmosis Rejection What types of contaminants do RO membranes reject better than others?
185 9/11/2012 Closed Loop Makeup Which is a better water for closed loop makeup: hard water, soft water, or high purity water? Why or why not?
If you wanted to do a Performance Evaluation on several heat exchangers at an industrial plant to determine performance,
186 9/12/2012 Heat Exchanger Performance Evaluation
utilization, fouling, and proper sizing, etc., what would you do? Is there software available to help?
187 9/14/2012 Glutaraldehyde biocide What are advantages and disadvantages of using glutaraldehyde?
188 9/17/2012 Phosphate for Corrosion Control Can phosphate be used for corrosion control in a cooling tower system with soft water makeup?
189 9/18/2012 Hydrofracking What technologies are available to deal with the wastewater from Hydrofracking?
190 9/24/2012 Calcium Carbonate Scale What will increase the likelihood of forming calcium carbonate scale in a water system?
191 9/24/2012 Association of Water Technologies For those members who just attended the Association of Water Technologies 2012 Convention, what new did you learn?
192 9/25/2012 One Book If you could recommend one book for someone starting off in Industrial Water Treatment, what would that book be?
During the fall and spring when cooling towers may be running intermittently depending upon the temperature, how do you
193 9/26/2012 Intermittent Cooling Tower Operation
control corrosion while the system has no flow?
194 9/27/2012 Morpholine What is the lowest recommended boiler pressure for using morpholine as a condensate neutralizing amine?
195 9/28/2012 RO Permeate pH What would cause the pH in Reverse Osmosis permeate to be higher than the pH of the feedwater?
196 10/1/2012 Grades of Salt What grade of salt should be used in water softeners?
197 10/2/2012 RO Rate of Salt Passage Does the "rate of salt passage" depend upon pressure in a Reverse Osmosis system?
198 10/11/2012 RO Data Tracking What Reverse Osmosis (RO) data should one record and how often?
199 10/12/2012 Metal Plating Water Savings How can metal plating operations reduce water usage?
200 10/15/2012 Cascading Boiler Blowdown What is cascading boiler blowdown and how is it implemented?
201 10/19/2012 Books to be Written What books still need to be written in Industrial Water Treatment?
202 10/22/2012 Boiler Treatment Chemistry (Low to Medium Pressure) What factors do you consider when picking the right chemical products for low to medium pressure boiler systems?
203 10/23/2012 Low Pressure Boiler Amine Choice When dealing with a 15 psig (or lower) boiler pressure, does this affect the neutralizing amine choice?
On average in the midwestern United States, approximately 75% of the annual cooling that takes place in a cooling tower is
204 10/24/2012 Percent Evaporative Cooling
due to evaporative cooling. The rest is sensible cooling. What is the percentage used in other parts of the country and world?
205 10/25/2012 LSI & Temperature Which temperature should be used when calculating the Langelier Saturation Index? (Bulk water, skin, or other?)
206 10/26/2012 Iron & Softener Resin Why can iron be bad for softener resin?
207 10/29/2012 Magnetic Iron Are all forms of iron magnetic?
On a 150 psig (10.3 bar) boiler, you find the conductivity, sulfite, and phosphate readings are all 50% higher than setpoint.
208 10/30/2012 Boiler Control
Knowing only this information, what should be the corrective action?
209 10/31/2012 Safety What industrial water safety tips do you have to share to help us all come home to our families at night?
210 11/1/2012 Resin Life What are some typical life spans of various ion exchange resins?
211 11/2/2012 Sacrificial Anodes What advice do you have about the placement of sacrificial anodes in chiller end caps?
212 11/6/2012 Alkalinity What is alkalinity?
213 11/7/2012 Deposit Monitoring What online systems are available for deposit monitoring in cooling towers?
Does the presence of a high level of sulfate (e.g., >500 ppm) have any impact on the interpretation of the LSI or RSI calculated
214 11/9/2012 Sulfate vs. LSR/RSI
value?
215 11/12/2012 Boiler Condensate Microbiological Activity? Is it possible to have microbiological activity in boiler condensate?
216 11/13/2012 DBNPA How does the biocide DBNPA control microbiological activity in a cooling tower system?
217 11/14/2012 Softener vs. RO - Before or After What are the advantages or disadvantages of placing the water softener upstream or downstream of a Reverse Osmosis unit?
218 11/15/2012 Flocculant Molecular Weights What is a molecular weight range for typical flocculants?
219 11/16/2012 Hydrogen Peroxide What are the advantages and disadvantages of using hydrogen peroxide in a cooling tower system?
220 11/19/2012 Breaking Emulsified Oil How do you demulsify or break emulsified oil in wastewater?
221 11/20/2012 Cooling Tower Iron How much iron (mg/L) can reasonably be maintained in a cooling tower system with current polymer dispersant technology?
222 11/26/2012 Wood Rot What is wood rot in cooling towers and how can it be controlled?
223 11/27/2012 DAF vs. IAF What is the difference between Dissolved Air Filtration (DAF) and Induced Air Filtration (IAF)?
224 11/28/2012 Air Bubbles What causes the release of small air bubbles in secondary clarifiers after activated sludge systems? Can it be controlled?
Can you calculate the Langelier Saturation Index (LSI) of a water after chemical addition? (A group member suggested this
225 11/29/2012 LSI after Chemical Addition
interesting question.)
226 11/30/2012 Flocculant Application What is the proper way to apply flocculant in a wastewater application?
227 12/3/2012 Expressed as CaCO3 What is the advantage of expressing analytical results as CaCO3 (e.g., hardness, alkalinity)?
Can sulfite-based products fed before a reverse osmosis system for dechlorination make microbiological fouling worse? Do
228 12/4/2012 RO Bisulfite & Microbiological Fouling
you have examples where you've seen this?
229 12/6/2012 Chlorides & Stainless Steel What is the recommended chloride limit for a cooling tower system that has stainless steel components?
How do water treatment considerations differ when dealing with an Open Cooling Tower vs. an Evaporative Condenser (or
230 12/10/2012 Open Cooling vs. Evaporative Condenser
closed circuit) tower?
231 12/11/2012 Online Chlorine Analyzers What online chlorine analyzers are available, and what has been your experience with them?
232 12/12/2012 Activated Sludge How do you know when you have healthy activated sludge in your biological wastewater treatment system?
233 12/13/2012 Antifoams How do antifoams work, where are they used, and what types are available?
In a field that seems to appreciate experience and knowledge as much as industrial water treatment does, do water treatment
234 12/14/2012 Do Industrial Water Treaters Retire?
professionals ever really "retire" or do they just keep contributing until they slowly dissolve away?
235 12/17/2012 Cleaning Biofouled Cooling Tower What advice do you have about cleaning a biofouled cooling tower?
236 12/18/2012 Boiler Precleaning Why should a new boiler system be precleaned prior to putting it online?
237 12/19/2012 Emulsion Polymer What is an emulsion polymer (in relation to wastewater treatment)?
I will be on vacation starting December 20 and returning January 7. Depending upon what I find myself up to, you may or may
12/19/2012 Happy Holidays not find daily questions posted during this time period. Regardless, I would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas, Happy New
Year, and Joyous whatever other holiday you may celebrate during this time of year.
Happy New Year to all our members! Here's to a profitable, prosperous new year for all! The daily questions will start back up
1/1/2013 Happy New Year
on Monday, January 7, 2013.
This is a big question, but what guidance do you have in regards to proper wastewater polymer selection? Cationic vs.
238 1/7/2013 Wastewater Polymer Selection
anionic? Low, medium, or high molecular weight or charge?
239 1/9/2013 RO Energy Recovery What type of energy recovery schemes are available for Reverse Osmosis?
240 1/10/2013 Your Story How did you end up in industrial water treatment?
241 1/11/2013 Phosphonate Testing Phosphonate testing can be a challenge at times. What tips and cautions do you have?
Some analytical tests are very time sensitive due to changes in the sample as it sits and should be run almost immediately.
242 1/14/2013 Time Sensitive Tests
What are some examples of such time sensitive analytical tests?
243 1/15/2013 Touch In what ways can one use the sense of touch in industrial water treatment?
244 1/16/2013 PVC What are some concerns with using PVC piping in industrial water treatment?
245 1/17/2013 Ultrafiltration Cleaning How does one perform a Clean-in-Place of an ultrafiltration system?
246 1/18/2013 Overcycled Cooling Tower What are the risks of cycling a cooling tower's water too high (i.e., allowing the water to become too concentrated)?
247 1/21/2013 Boiler Steam Separation Devices How do steam separation devices work in boilers?
248 1/22/2013 Taste In what ways can one use the sense of taste in industrial water treatment?
RO's typically have a train of pretreatment equipment upstream (e.g., multimedia filters, softeners). What is the purpose of
249 1/23/2013 Reverse Osmosis Prefilter
having an RO prefilter immediately upstream of the unit?
250 1/24/2013 Measuring Dissolved Oxygen (ppb) What methods are available for measuring dissolved oxygen in the parts-per-billion range for boiler applications?
What are the effects of increasing condensate return on a boiler system? (For example, going from 50% condensate return to
251 1/25/2013 Increasing Condensate Return
90%.)
252 1/28/2013 Nominal vs. Absolute What is the difference between nominal and absolute filter ratings?
253 1/29/2013 Beneficial Microorganisms? Are there any beneficial microorganisms in a cooling system?
254 1/30/2013 Big Picture Advice What big-picture advice do you have for people new to the field of industrial water treatment?
Is there a system to recover 0.6% Mono Ethylene Glycol from the cooling water in a PET/Polyester fiber manufacturing plant
255 1/31/2013 Recovery Technology (Peer Submitted) which uses Terephthalic Acid and MEG in a polycondensation reaction? If so, who are the technology suppliers? Who
manufactures it, and how do I get in touch with them? (Question submitted by Ahmed Soorma)
256 2/1/2013 Cooling Tower Chemical Tracing What options are available for the tracing of chemical products in cooling tower systems (e.g., 3D TRASAR, BlueTrak)?
257 2/4/2013 Glycol Feed Systems (Peer Submitted) What is the importance of glycol feed systems, and what issues have you seen?
258 2/5/2013 RO vs. Temperature What effect will temperature have on Reverse Osmosis membrane performance?
259 2/6/2013 Stabilized Bromine What is "stabilized bromine," and what are advantages/disadvantages of using it?
260 2/15/2013 Water & Energy When calculating the "true value" of water, what energy costs should be considered?
261 2/19/2013 Slime vs. Biofilm Is there a difference between "slime" and "biofilm?" (Question submitted by Scott Lamb)
262 2/20/2013 Cooling Tower Lifespan What are typical lifespans of cooling towers?
263 2/21/2013 Dissolved Metals What methods are available to remove dissolved heavy metals from a wastewater?
264 2/22/2013 Galvanized Metals What special considerations does using galvanized metals pose in water treatment?
265 2/25/2013 Demineralization Train Order Why do cation resin units come before anion resin units in demineralizer trains?
266 2/26/2013 Activated Carbon Aside from free chlorine removal, what other benefits can activated carbon provide in industrial water treatment?
What are the average additional costs to produce RO water from municipal water with a low SDI (including equipment cost
267 2/27/2013 RO Costs (Peer Submitted) and operational cost)? (The member who submitted this question has estimated the additional costs to be $2.50-$3.75/1,000
US gallons and wants to see if others agree.)
268 2/28/2013 ATP Testing What are the pros and cons of using ATP testing to monitor microbiological activity in a water system?
269 3/1/2013 Wastewater Polymer Overfeed What can happen if you overfeed polymer in a wastewater application?
270 3/4/2013 Microbiological Immunity Can microbes become immune to certain biocides?
271 3/5/2013 Stabilized vs. Unstabilized Bromine What are the differences between stabilized and unstabilized bromine-based biocides?
272 3/6/2013 Fire Suppression Systems What water treatment challenges do fire suppression systems pose?
273 3/7/2013 Phosphonate Chlorine Tolerance Which phosphonates are more chlorine tolerant than others?
274 3/8/2013 Ion Exchange and Pressure Is there any relationship between ion exchange performance and vessel pressure? (Peer submitted)
275 3/11/2013 Jar Testing What is "jar testing?"
276 3/13/2013 Aging What is "aging" in regards to the preparation of wastewater polymers?
Calculating the remaining chemical volume in a vertical cylinder tank is easy, but what if the cylinder tank is laying
277 3/14/2013 Chemical Volume in Horizontal Cylinder Tank (in honor of Pi Day 3/14)
horizontally? Knowing the depth of liquid in the horizontal tank, how does one calculate chemical volume?
278 3/15/2013 Reducing Calcium Carbonate Scale What methods are available to reduce calcium carbonate scale in industrial water applications?
279 3/18/2013 Detackification How does wastewater detackification work?
What are "nonchemical devices" (NCD) in water treatment, and how do they work? (Please read the introductory statements
280 3/19/2013 Nonchemical Alternatives
by the moderator for ground rules on this topic.)
 Nonchemical devices is a topic ripe with emotion on both sides of the issue, and a topic I have not approached before now. As
the moderator, I am asking and will be vigilant about each side sticking to the facts, avoiding emotional attacks, and no
advertising. This can be a very good discussion if we all play fair and professionally. I will do my best to be fair to both sides,
but I will delete comments without further discussion as I see fit to maintain the decorum of this venue. You are allowed to
include hyperlinks to your website for case studies and pertinent facts, but please avoid brand names.
If you do not agree with what someone has said, please state it matter of factly and why, without insulting the individual or
company. I am personally convinced that, almost universally, we all want what's best for our customers. Some of us have
taken alternative routes in hope they pay off.
Personally, there are many nonchemical devices I have varying levels of confidence including filters, electrostatic precipitation,
and even a case could be made for softeners and reverse osmosis being "relatively" nonchemical. Other technologies have yet
to gain my confidence with properly vetted testing and case studies.
281 3/20/2013 Monovalent vs. Divalent Membrane Selectivity? Are there membranes that offer monovalent vs. divalent selectivity in a water-based environment?
282 3/21/2013 Water Treatment Degrees Are there any colleges/universities that offer degrees in water treatment?
For those who don't know, there is also a trade magazine called INDUSTRIAL WATER TREATMENT published by Tall Oaks
Publishing Inc., the same folks who publish the ULTRAPURE WATER journal. There is no connection between this LinkedIn
Group and the magazine aside from the fact that they happen to share the same name. The magazine is aware of this LinkedIn
group and asked if they could publish one of our conversation threads. I said, "Why not!" since we have stated in the Group
283 3/21/2013 Industrial Water Treatment Magazine
Rules that "This is an open group, which means it will be indexed by search engines (e.g., Google). As a result, it is hoped that
member involvement will enhance their own online credibility." We chose the Tannin vs. Boiler Sulfite discussion, and it was
published in the January/February issue of the online magazine here:
http://digital.ultrapurewater.com/DigitalAnywhere/viewer.aspx?id=58&pageId=26&refid=392894&s=upws
284 3/22/2013 Reverse Osmosis and Iron What are the upper reverse osmosis feedwater limits for iron? Why is iron a problem, and how can it be controlled?
285 4/1/2013 Ammonia Removal What methods are there for removing ammonia from water?
286 4/2/2013 Sludge Thickeners What are sludge thickeners, and why are they important?
287 4/3/2013 Liquid Smoke (Peer Submitted) How would one treat the wastewater effects of a poultry plant starting to use "liquid smoke?" (See more in comment below.)
288 4/4/2013 UV What are the advantages/disadvantages of using ultraviolet light for disinfection in a water system?
289 4/5/2013 Zinc How does zinc inhibit corrosion in water systems?
290 4/8/2013 Nitrite What is the mechanism for nitrite corrosion inhibition?
291 4/9/2013 Coagulation vs. Flocculation What is the difference between coagulation and flocculation?
292 4/10/2013 True Cost of Water What is the "true" cost of water? What should be considered beyond the basic water bill?
293 4/11/2013 Entering a Boiler What suggested precautions should one take before entering a boiler for inspection?
294 4/12/2013 Pilot Research Boiler (Peer Submitted) How would one develop a small scale boiler for testing various boiler chemistries?
295 4/15/2013 Filter Aid What is "filter aid" chemistry?
296 4/16/2013 CA vs. PA Membranes What are the advantages/disadvantages of using cellulose acetate (CA) versus polyamide (PA) reverse osmosis membranes?
297 4/17/2013 Nitrite vs. Microbiological Activity How does microbiological activity affect the use of nitrites in closed loops?
Why is chlorine incompatible with polyamide (PA) reverse osmosis membranes? What can worsen or reduce the effects of
298 4/18/2013 Chlorine vs. PA Membranes
chlorine on PA membranes?
299 4/19/2013 Microfloc What properties must one look for in microfloc (pin floc) to know it is time to add flocculant? (Peer Submitted)
300 4/22/2013 Years of Experience How many years of industrial water treatment experience do you have?
301 4/23/2013 Softener Conductivity Why is the conductivity of a softener's effluent water a little different than the influent water? Is it typically higher or lower?
302 4/24/2013 Heat Exchanger Approach Temperature How does one calculate the approach temperature of a heat exchanger?
303 4/25/2013 Iron Deposits & Dispersants (Peer Submitted) What levels of iron can be carried in a water application, and what dispersants can be used to minimize deposits?
304 4/29/2013 Filming Amine Over Feed What could happen if a filming amine is overfed in a steam system?
305 4/30/2013 Dirt Loading What is meant by "dirt loading" in regards to filtration?
306 5/1/2013 Economizer Issues What issues might an economizer have if water chemistry is not managed properly?
307 5/2/2013 Multimedia Filter pH Change (Peer Submitted) What would cause the pH to change across a multimedia filter?
What is your routine as you walk into a powerhouse or water plant? What do you notice? What do you read? To whom do
308 5/3/2013 Walking In
you talk?
309 5/6/2013 Ceramic Membranes What are the advantages/disadvantages of using ceramic membranes?
310 5/7/2013 Legends In your opinion, who are the "legends" of the industrial water treatment industry?
Check out the article by Jeff Haden on our Industrial Water Treatment group. http://www.inc.com/jeff-haden/7-ways-to-
5/8/2013 Inc. Article on this Group create-awesome-linkedin-group.html I had commented on one of his other articles which lead to a discussion of this group.
He asked if he could write an article about it, and I said, "Sure!" Thank you guys for making this such a great group!
311 5/9/2013 Using LinkedIn How do you use LinkedIn to make connections, grow business, and learn about industrial water treatment?
312 5/10/2013 Training "Back in the Day" What was the training like "back in the day" at the big water treatment companies (e.g., Six Pack companies)?
313 5/13/2013 Steam Traps How do steam traps separate liquid condensate from steam?
314 5/14/2013 Analog vs. Digital Conductivity Meter Are analog conductivity meters accurate enough for industrial water treatment or should digital meters be used instead?
315 5/15/2013 Storing pH Probe Should deionized water be used for pH probe storage?
316 5/16/2013 Categories of People Employed Aside from engineers and chemists, what other categories of people are employed in industrial water treatment?
For those who carry portable test kits, do you prefer drop tests, burettes, digital titrators, or other type of kit? What's the
317 5/17/2013 Test Kits
basis of your preference?
What are some examples of acronyms used in industrial water treatment that can mean more than one thing (e.g., PAC, SDI)
318 5/20/2013 Acronyms
or even two different acronyms that mean the same thing?
What are the pros and cons of this group developing a book? What are the complications? What are the liabilities? What
319 5/21/2013 Book? would the group gain as a whole? How could it be kept fair? Should this group even consider such a project? Is it
appropriate?
320 5/22/2013 CO2 vs. Condensate How does carbon dioxide affect a condensate system?
321 5/23/2013 DBNPA vs. RO How should DBNPA be applied to a reverse osmosis system? (Feed frequency, dosage, etc.)
322 5/24/2013 Titles (Peer Submitted) What do water treatment professionals call ourselves? What are the ranges of job titles we use?
323 5/28/2013 Oxygen vs. Condensate How does oxygen get into a condensate system?
324 5/29/2013 Pump Seal Failure What are water-related causes for a pump seal to fail?
325 5/30/2013 Knowledge Management How is industrial water knowledge managed within your company?
326 5/31/2013 Estimating Conductivity Knowing the specific ions in the water from a water analysis, how can the conductivity be estimated?
327 6/3/2013 Lime Softening Sludge What are possible uses for sludge generated by the lime softening process?
328 6/4/2013 Sulfate Reducing Bacteria How can you determine if you have sulfate reducing bacteria in your system causing corrosion?
329 6/5/2013 Water Experiments for Kids What are some cool water experiments to show or do with children?
330 6/6/2013 Deaeration vs. Antifoams Can antifoams improve the oxygen removal efficiency of deaerators?
Complex inorganic or organic phosphates can break down and revert to orthophosphate in a cooling system. What reversion
331 6/7/2013 Phosphate Reversion Rates
rates (or percentages) do you assume and how do you determine this?
332 6/11/2013 Boiler Scale and Deposits What are typical scales and deposits seen in low pressure boilers (<600 psig or 40 bar)?
333 6/12/2013 Mixed Bed Demineralizer Exhaustion What is the first ion to typically leak through a mixed bed demineralizer as it nears exhaustion?
334 6/13/2013 Warm Caustic (Peer Submitted) What is the advantage of using warm caustic for regenerating strong base anion resin?
335 6/14/2013 Molybdate How does molybdate function as a corrosion inhibitor?
336 6/17/2013 Silica How does silica function as a corrosion inhibitor?
337 6/18/2013 Mixed-Bed Anion vs. Cation Resin Exhaustion (Peer Submitted) In a mixed-bed demineralizer, should cation or anion resin be designed to exhaust first? Why?
338 6/19/2013 Brine Saturation Time How long does it take for brine in a brine tank to reach saturation between refills?
339 6/20/2013 Calculating Evaporation How do you calculate cooling tower evaporation?
340 6/24/2013 Emulsion Polymer Mixing How frequently should a container of emulsion polymer be mixed to maintain the emulsion?
For industrial water treatment providers, how and when should the end user (e.g., client) let you know they are unsatisfied
341 6/25/2013 What If You're Doing a Bad Job?
with your service?
342 6/27/2013 Maximum Cooling Tower Cycles of Concentration How do you determine the maximum cycles of concentration to run a cooling tower?
343 7/2/2013 Blowdown Valves What should one consider when selecting the type of blowdown valve to use?
344 7/8/2013 Windshield Time What are some productive things you can do (safely) as you are driving to and from a water treatment account?
345 7/9/2013 High Pressure Boiler Phosphate Selection How do you chose which phosphate to use for high-pressure-boiler coordinated phosphate programs?
346 7/10/2013 RO High Pressure Drop What problems can a high pressure drop across a Reverse Osmosis unit cause?
347 7/11/2013 Chromate What were the advantages/disadvantages of using chromate in cooling systems? Is it still used anywhere?
348 7/15/2013 Cooling Tower Blowdown Reuse Can cooling tower blowdown be reused or recycled in any way (e.g., agricultural irrigation)?
349 7/16/2013 Oil Detection How can oil be detected in a water sample onsite?
350 7/17/2013 DEHA What are the advantages/disadvantages of using DEHA? Where and how is it used? What does it do?
What salt savings can be realized by reusing/recycling brine during softener regeneration? Does reusing/recycling softener
351 7/18/2013 Softener Brine Reuse/Recovery
brine really work?
352 7/19/2013 Bleach Injection Point Clogging How can you keep a bleach injection point from clogging when feeding to a cooling tower side stream?
353 7/22/2013 Boiler Blowdown Reuse Can boiler blowdown be reused or recycled?
354 7/23/2013 First Things First What is the first information you need to know when choosing a chemical/physical solution for a water system?
355 7/30/2013 Removing Phosphate What methods are available for removing phosphate from wastewater?
356 7/31/2013 Cooling Tower Acid Trough Why would one use an "acid trough" to feed acid to a cooling tower, and how should it be designed?
357 8/1/2013 Dissolved Organics in Produced Water (Peer Submitted) What are options to remove dissolved organics in produced water during the oil refinery process?
358 8/5/2013 Copper Erosion Corrosion What does copper erosion corrosion look like?
What units of measure do you use for pressure, flow rate, volume, concentration, conductivity, flow velocity, etc? (Please
359 8/6/2013 Units of Measure
identify your country too.)
360 8/7/2013 FOG Test Will the Fats, Oil, and Grease (FOG) test include any other contaminants besides just fats, oils, and greases?
361 8/8/2013 Polyampholyte What is a polyampholyte?
362 8/13/2013 Sweep Floc What is "sweep floc?"
Does anyone have any experience to share on feeding hydrogen peroxide in an air washer system (e.g., levels to maintain,
363 8/14/2013 H2O2 & Air Washer
control schemes, etc.)?
How may elevated levels of chlorine (or other oxidants) affect the behavior of typical water analysis (e.g., total alkalinity, total
364 8/16/2013 Water Analysis vs. Elevated Chlorine
hardness, etc.)? How could you compensate for the effect?
365 8/19/2013 Description from Others How do your spouses, children, and friends describe what you do for a living to others?
366 8/20/2013 Cooling Tower Controllers What is your favorite brand and model of cooling tower controllers? Why?
367 8/21/2013 ORP What is ORP and how is it useful in water treatment?
368 8/22/2013 Cavitation What is cavitation and why is it bad for a pump?
369 8/26/2013 Equalization In wastewater treatment, what is the purpose of the Equalization Tank (EQ Tank)?
370 8/27/2013 Inclined-Plate Clarifiers What are some advantages of using inclined-plate clarifiers (e.g., Lamella)?
371 8/28/2013 Flocculant Mixing What is the proper way to mix a flocculant into a wastewater stream (e.g., fast, slow, short time, long time)?
372 8/29/2013 Turbidity Measurement How is turbidity measured?
373 8/30/2013 Removing Acetone and Acetaldehyde (Peer Submitted) How do you remove acetone and/or acetaldehyde from process water?
374 9/4/2013 Calcium Testing How does one test for calcium, and what test interferences are there?
375 9/5/2013 RO Normalization Software (Peer Submitted) What reverse osmosis data normalization software is available?
376 9/6/2013 Benchmarking Reports What benchmarking reports are available about the industrial water treatment industry?
377 9/11/2013 Mixed-Bed vs. Single-Bed Demineralization (Peer Submitted) For boiler pretreatment, what are the benefits and costs associated with mixed-bed vs. single-bed demineralization?
What resources (e.g., books, websites) are available for the NON-water-treatment professional (e.g., plant engineer, end user,
378 9/12/2013 NON-Water Treatment-Professional Resources
operator) to understand their systems and needs?
379 9/13/2013 Types of Corrosion What are the general types of corrosion found in industrial water treatment systems?
380 9/16/2013 Chemical Product Concentration How do you determine whether your chemical product has been blended to the correct concentration?
381 9/17/2013 Chlorides vs. Corrosion How do chlorides affect corrosion?
382 9/18/2013 Proper Chemical Delivery (Peer Submitted) What do end users do to ensure the proper chemicals are delivered to the correct storage containers/tanks?
383 9/19/2013 Watertube Steam Purity Problems What can cause problems with steam purity on <600 psig (<40 bar) watertube boilers?
384 9/20/2013 Cooling Tower Wood When a cooling tower has wooden components, what do you need to know and do?
385 9/24/2013 What Are You Doing Today? What water-related activity are you doing today?
386 9/25/2013 Metals Precipitation What chemistries are available to precipitate metals out of water in wastewater treatment?
387 9/27/2013 Green Chemistry What is Green Chemistry and how is does it apply to industrial water treatment?
388 9/30/2013 Globally Harmonized System (GHS) What is the Globally Harmonized System (GHS), and why is it important to industrial water treatment?
389 10/1/2013 Data Centers What water challenges and needs are faced by data centers?
390 10/2/2013 Parts of the Cooling Tower System What are the parts of the cooling tower system that an industrial water management professional needs to consider?
391 10/3/2013 Silt Density Index (SDI) What is the Silt Density Index (SDI)? What are the strengths and weaknesses of this test?
Where is the optimal location for feeding polymer to a low/medium pressure boiler system and why? What are alternative
392 10/4/2013 Boiler Polymer Feed Point
feed locations?
What are the advantages/disadvantages of using sodium hydroxide vs. ammonia for pH control? How would usage rates
393 10/7/2013 Sodium Hydroxide vs. Ammonia
compare?
What are you doing for tomorrow? What are you doing to improve industrial water technologies, service, techniques,
394 10/9/2013 Tomorrow (Peer Submitted)
conservation, water/wastewater quality, etc?
395 10/10/2013 Boiler Fireside Why would a water management professional be interested in the fireside of a boiler system (both low and high pressure)?
396 10/11/2013 Fluoride Removal What methods are there for removing fluoride from water?
397 10/15/2013 Selenium Removal What methods are there for removing selenium from water?
398 10/16/2013 Molybdate Replacement What are possible replacements for using molybdate as a tracer in a water treatment chemical product?
399 10/17/2013 Selenium Form (Peer Submitted) How does the form of selenium affect the treatment processes considered?
400 10/18/2013 400th Question of the Day: Education What type and level of education does one need to be an industrial water treatment professional?
401 10/21/2013 DAF When should a Dissolved Air Filtration (DAF) be used vs. other clarification technologies where solids sink instead of float?
402 10/22/2013 Polyacrylamide (PAM) (Peer Submitted) How do you determine the active content of polyacrylamide (PAM)?
403 10/23/2013 Scale & Corrosion Inhibitor Feedpoints What are the various methods of feeding scale and corrosion inhibitor to a cooling tower system?
404 10/29/2013 Ion Exchange vs. Reverse Osmosis (Peer Submitted) Should ion exchange or reverse osmosis be used? What factors go into deciding between these two technologies?
405 11/4/2013 Silica Removal with Magnesium Oxide (Peer Submitted) What advantages can Magnesium Oxide (MgO) offer over traditional Lime & Dolomite dosing for silica removal?
406 11/6/2013 Softener vs. Antiscalant before Reverse Osmosis Which is your preferred method and why: softener or antiscalant as pretreatment for an RO?
407 11/8/2013 Cleaning a Cooling Tower What are tips and advice for a typical maintenance cleaning of a cooling tower?
408 11/12/2013 Silica in Boilers Why are silica levels controlled in boilers?
Who are the top suppliers of outsourced water treatment services for industrial facilities in the United States? Which of these
409 11/14/2013 Top USA Water Treatment Services
suppliers offers operation and maintenance services (i.e., without equipment rental)?
410 11/15/2013 Valuable Waste What are some industrial water examples where waste was turned into value (e.g., wastewater sludge, waste streams)?
411 11/19/2013 Professional Licenses What professional licenses are available and help in industrial water treatment?
412 11/20/2013 Condensate Corrosion What does condensate line corrosion typically look like?
How should an end-user (e.g., company) compare industrial water service providers when going out for bid? What questions
413 11/22/2013 Comparing Industrial Water Service Providers (Peer Submitted)
should they ask? How should they manage references?
414 11/25/2013 Cleaning Scaled Boilers How do you clean scaled boilers?
Today is the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States. I am thankful for many things; one of which is this Industrial Water
415 11/28/2013 Thanksgiving Group. What a wonderful, global community we have formed! Thank you for all the experiences, information, and good will
that you have shared. Even if you are not from the United States, what are you thankful for today?
416 12/2/2013 Decommissioning RO Plant (Peer Submitted) What are some guidelines and recommendations for decommissioning a Reverse Osmosis plant for long-term preservation?
417 12/3/2013 Essential Tools (Peer Submitted) What is a list of essential tools for an industrial water treatment professional (e.g., jar test kit, SDI kit, etc.)?
418 12/4/2013 Softeners vs. Chloride Discharge Limitations Are chloride discharge limitations restricting the use of water softeners in your area?
419 12/5/2013 Metal Hydroxide Precipitation What are some tips for using metal hydroxide precipitation in wastewater treatment?
420 12/9/2013 Arsenic Removal What methods are available for removing arsenic from a wastewater?
421 12/10/2013 Filter Selection How do you properly select and size a filter?
Aside from using conductivity and chlorides, what are other methods of determining the cycles of concentration in a cooling
422 12/11/2013 Cooling Tower Cycles Determination
tower?
423 12/12/2013 Cooling Tower Fill How does the type of cooling tower fill affect the choice of water treatment, if at all?
424 12/13/2013 Snake Oil Salesmen Are industrial water treatment companies just snake oil salesmen?
425 12/16/2013 Nitrate Treatment (Peer Submitted) How do you treat for high nitrate levels in drinking water?
426 12/17/2013 Boiler Explosion What can lead to a boiler explosion?
427 12/18/2013 Ultrasonic Disinfection in Water Tanks (Peer Submitted) What is your experience with using ultrasonic treatment for disinfection in water tanks?
What recommendations do you have for iron testing (e.g., sample run time, material of construction of sample point, test
428 12/19/2013 Iron Testing
method, etc.)?
429 12/20/2013 Boiler Carryover Problems What problems can boiler carryover cause in low, medium, and high pressure boiler systems?
When water utilities charge customers based upon incoming water, how does one avoid paying sewage fees on water
430 12/23/2013 Evaporative Credits
evaporated by cooling towers or other consumptive processes?
Are there wastewater treatment issues with antiscalant and biocide in reverse osmosis (RO) concentrate? If so, how do you
431 12/30/2013 RO Concentrate Treatment
handle the issues?
A high pressure boiler with demineralized makeup has a whitish film. Deposit analysis shows high iron, phosphate, and
hardness. There appears to be no condenser tube leaks and the feedwater quality is within requirements. Boiler water
432 12/31/2013 High Pressure Boiler Problem (Peer Submitted) analysis showed chlorides and hardness. Phosphate was near zero even though TSP was being dosed at higher rates.
Hardness and chloride levels are slowly dropping. What advice do you have to help track down probably causes and solve the
problem?
I'm feeling generous, so let's start off this new year with a different kind of post: Jobs. Are you looking for a job? Are you
433 1/7/2014 Jobs
hiring? For this once-a-year opportunity to reach over 3,064 members, please post either here.
434 1/8/2014 Leaking Steam Traps Why are leaking steam traps a problem?
What are good resources for understanding the background chemistry, interferences, etc. of chemical water tests (e.g.,
435 1/9/2014 Water Testing Resources
Hardness, Calcium, Phosphate, etc.)?
436 1/10/2014 RO Probing How and why do you probe an RO?
437 1/13/2014 Testing Supplies Labels (Peer Submitted) Private-label or trusted third party name? What do you prefer on your testing supplies and why?
438 1/14/2014 Data Collection What do water treatment professionals and companies use to collect and store their water-related data?
When standing above an industrial plant looking out over the various processes, what might you see that would tell you about
439 1/16/2014 Observing a Plant
the state of the water operations?
440 1/17/2014 Deaerator Steam vs. Accountant How do you convince the company accountant that the steam venting off the deaerator is not a waste of money?
441 1/21/2014 Reverse Osmosis Prefilter Rating What filter rating should be used on a reverse-osmosis prefilter (e.g., 1 micron, 5 micron, 10 micron, etc.)?
442 1/24/2014 What to do with Data? You've recorded LOTS of data, now what do you do with it?
443 1/28/2014 Fuel Type & Water Treatment How does the type of fuel used in a boiler affect the water treatment program?
444 2/3/2014 RO Cleaning Endpoint During a Clean-in-Place (CIP), how do you know when you have cleaned an RO enough and can place the unit back online?
445 2/4/2014 Technical Department How does your Technical Department offer support to the water management professionals in the field?
Why does the conductivity of demineralizer effluent often decrease at the end of a service run when silica breakthrough
446 2/6/2014 Demineralizers, Silica and Conductivity
occurs?
447 2/7/2014 Condensate Sampling What is the proper way to sample condensate?
448 2/10/2014 Carbonic Acid & Amine How much amine is required to neutralize carbonic acid in condensate systems?
449 2/11/2014 Iron Filtration Test What does an iron filtration test on condensate tell you (e.g., Babcock & Wilcox method)? How is it useful?
450 2/13/2014 Bottom Blowdown How does one determine the recommended frequency and duration of the bottom blowdown on a boiler?
What contaminants get scrubbed from the air by cooling towers? Are they seasonal? What impact can they have on the
451 2/14/2014 Air Scrubbing Cooling Towers
system?
452 2/17/2014 Non-Oxidizing Biocide vs. Iron-Depositing Bacteria (Peer Submitted) What non-oxidizing biocides are effective against iron-depositing bacteria in cooling water and at what dosages?
453 2/18/2014 Sludge Thickening with Polymers How can polymers enhance the sludge thickening processes?
454 2/19/2014 Potable H2S Removal What is the recommend way to remove H2S from potable drinking water?
455 2/20/2014 DBNPA: Oxidizing or Nonoxidizing Is DBNPA an oxidizing or nonoxidizing biocide?
456 2/21/2014 KOI What is a KOI, and how do you use it?
457 2/25/2014 KPI What is a KPI, and how do you use it?
458 2/28/2014 Silica & Cooling Towers (Peer Submitted) What types of silica scales form in cooling tower systems and where?
459 3/3/2014 Heterotrophic Plate Counts What do heterotrophic plate counts of planktonic microorganisms tell about an industrial water system?
460 3/4/2014 Condensate Contamination Sources What are some sources of boiler condensate contamination? Please give examples.
461 3/5/2014 CO2 vs. Other Acids for pH Control Why would carbon dioxide be used instead of other acids (e.g., HCl, H2SO4) for pH control?
462 3/6/2014 Biodispersants What are biodispersants and how can they improve microbiological control?
463 3/7/2014 Cooling Towers on Soft Water What is the best treatment for cooling towers on soft water?
464 3/10/2014 Aluminum Corrosion Rates What are industry accepted corrosion rates for aluminum (e.g., mpy)?
465 3/11/2014 Webinars Are there any upcoming webinars about industrial water treatment that the general public is invited to attend?
466 3/12/2014 Apps What smartphone/tablet apps do you use that make your job easier as a water management professional?
467 3/14/2014 What End User Should Know What do water management professionals wish the end user knew?
468 3/17/2014 Boroscopes/Video Scopes What boroscopes/video scopes do you recommend for industrial water systems inspection?
469 3/20/2014 ZLD Is zero liquid discharge (ZLD) really possible?
470 3/21/2014 Oxygen Scavenger Feed Points What are the recommended oxygen scavenger feed points to a boiler system?
471 3/25/2014 Condensate Return How do you calculate percent condensate return for a boiler system?
FYI, I was on vacation last week and am behind on approving some comments, granting membership, and reading most of the
3/31/2014 On Vacation Last Week
posts from last week. I will catch up soon though.
472 4/1/2014 Universal Solvent Why is water called the "universal solvent?"
473 4/2/2014 FAC What is FAC?
474 4/3/2014 Convincing Unbelievers (Peer submitted) How do you convince someone who doesn't believe in cooling tower chemical treatment?
475 4/4/2014 Receiving Negative News How do you handle disappointing news (e.g., lost bid, lost customer, missed promotion, etc.) in your business and career?
476 4/7/2014 Isothiazolin vs. Sulfides (Peer submitted) Is isothiazolin deactivated by sulfides, and, if so, what is the ppm/ppm ratio?
477 4/8/2014 Algae and Moss on Louvers (Peer submitted) What can be done to minimize algae and moss growing on cooling tower louvers?
478 4/10/2014 Mild Steel Pitting Corrosion What can cause pitting corrosion in mild steel?
479 4/11/2014 Jokes Know any good water jokes? (I'm not talking about your competitors.) (Chemistry jokes will work too.)
480 4/14/2014 RO Membrane Lifespan What is a typical lifespan for reverse osmosis membranes?
481 4/15/2014 Water Testing Interferences What are some of the most common test interferences when analyzing boiler and cooling tower water chemistry?
482 4/16/2014 Cold Lime vs. Hot Lime Softening What are the pros and cons of cold lime softening versus hot lime softening? When would one be chosen over the other?
483 4/17/2014 Sludge Bed Control How do you control the sludge bed in a clarifier?
484 4/21/2014 Changes pH but not Alkalinity (Peer submitted) Can one decrease the pH without decreasing the total alkalinity of an open-circuit cooling tower?
What is the "ideal" clean-in-place (CIP) frequency for a reverse osmosis unit (e.g., 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, 12 months,
485 4/22/2014 Ideal RO CIP Frequency
etc.)?
486 4/24/2014 Cooling Tower Particle Size What are typical particle sizes (in microns) found in cooling tower water?
Why are reverse osmosis systems designed in stages (e.g., 6:2 array) instead of just one stage (e.g., all the membranes in the
487 4/28/2014 RO Stages
first stage)?
488 4/29/2014 RO Cleaning Effect on Membrane What effect does cleaning have on reverse osmosis membranes?
489 4/30/2014 RO Membrane Cleaning Damage Does cleaning damage an RO membrane?
Atmospheric testing is required for confined space entry. What kinds of hazards atmospheres might an industrial water
490 5/1/2014 Hazardous Atmospheres
treatment professional be concerned about?
491 5/6/2014 Nanofiltration vs. Reverse Osmosis What is the difference between Nanofiltration and Reverse Osmosis?
492 5/8/2014 Cooling Tower Drift What is the estimated drift rate from modern cooling towers?
493 5/9/2014 Aluminum Boilers What are water treatment recommendations for aluminum boilers?
494 5/12/2014 Boiler Program Selection In dealing with lower-pressure boilers (<450 psi or 3.1 MPa), how does one choose a chemical treatment program?
495 5/13/2014 Common Drain What could happen if a dealkalizer, water softener, and boiler blowdown all share the same drain?
496 5/14/2014 RO & Biocides (Peer submitted) What biocides can be used with polyamide reverse osmosis membranes?
497 5/15/2014 Cooling Tower Automatic Monitoring What cooling tower parameters can be monitored automatically with sensors and controllers?
498 5/16/2014 Chlorine Dioxide & Cooling Towers Is chlorine dioxide an effective biocide to use in cooling towers? What are the advantages and disadvantages?
499 5/19/2014 Scaling Indices What are the various scaling indices available to predict the tendency of scale formation?
500 5/20/2014 Softener Resin Iron Fouling Cleaning How is softener resin cleaned from iron fouling?
There are industry-accepted corrosion rates, but are there industry-accepted scaling rates in open, recirculating cooling
501 5/21/2014 Scaling Rate (Peer Submitted)
systems? If so, how can it be monitored?
502 5/22/2014 Pockets What do you routinely carry in your pockets as you manage industrial water treatment systems?
503 5/23/2014 Deaerator Inspection What are some checklist items to observe and note during a deaerator inspection?
504 5/30/2014 Stainless Steel Erosion Corrosion What would erosion corrosion look like on stainless steel?
What are the current laws on the books in the United States that regulate the control of Legionella in water systems? (This
505 6/2/2014 Legionella Laws in United States
does not include guidelines from trade organizations.)
What food & beverage trade shows are beneficial for industrial water companies to attend and exhibit (i.e., not too retail
506 6/3/2014 Food & Beverage Trade Shows
focused, but production focused)?
507 6/4/2014 Other LinkedIn Groups What other LinkedIn groups do you find beneficial?
In what ways can spent brine from the regeneration of a strong-acid-cation softener be treated for reuse elsewhere in the
508 6/5/2014 Treating Spent Brine from SAC Softening (Peer submitted)
plant?
509 6/6/2014 Passion How do you keep your passion or reignite your passion in industrial water treatment?
510 6/9/2014 Cleaning Calcium Sulfate Scale What are recommended methods to clean calcium sulfate scale?
511 6/12/2014 Chlorides Test How accurate is the chlorides test? What test methods are available? Can they be made more accurate?
512 6/13/2014 Sodium Sulfate Removal (Peer submitted) What technologies and methods are available to remove sodium sulfate from wastewater?
513 6/16/2014 New & Future Technologies (Peer submitted) Where do you go to find information on new or future technologies in industrial water treatment?
514 6/17/2014 Member-Written Blogs, etc. Do any of our members write regular blogs, e-articles, etc. that would interest this group?
515 6/18/2014 Microbiological Activity in High Purity Water Can microbes grow in high purity water?
516 6/19/2014 Power Trade Shows What power trade shows are beneficial for industrial water companies to attend and exhibit?
When industrial water equipment fails, what temporary solutions are available for pretreatment, cooling, boiler, and/or
517 6/20/2014 Temporary Equipment
wastewater operations? (Commercials allowed.)
518 6/23/2014 RO Cleaning & Air Scouring Can air scouring be used in cleaning reverse osmosis membranes? Why? Why not? What are the results?
519 6/24/2014 Why Hire You? Why should a potential client hire you?
520 6/25/2014 App Development If you could design a dream app for industrial water treatment, what would it do?
521 6/26/2014 Ionic Balance Why do the cations and anions have to balance out in a water analysis?
522 6/27/2014 Co-ops/Interns Do you hire co-ops or interns? Why or why not?
523 6/30/2014 Combustion Feed Air Temperature (Peer Submitted) Can reducing the temperature of combustion feed air to a boiler improve its combustion efficiency?
524 7/3/2014 Reducing BOD/COD How do you reduce BOD and COD?
525 7/7/2014 UF - Inside Out vs. Outside In For hollowfiber ultrafiltration (UF) membranes, which is the preferred direction of flow and why? Inside out or outside in?
526 7/8/2014 UV Beyond Biocide Aside from microbiological control, what are other uses for UV in industrial water treatment?
527 7/14/2014 Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) What types of personal protective equipment (PPE) may be required in industrial water treatment?
528 7/30/2014 Landfill Leachate What are the unique challenges of treating landfill leachate?
529 8/6/2014 Freeboard Space What is the purpose of the freeboard space above the resin in a typical, co-current flow water softener.
530 8/13/2014 Fenton's Reagent What is Fenton's Reagent and how is it used?
531 8/14/2014 RO Antiscalants What are typical components of Reverse Osmosis antiscalants?
What information do you capture from a Reverse Osmosis unit, and what program(s) do you use to trend and analyze the
532 9/19/2014 RO Data Analysis
data?
533 9/27/2014 Precleaning & Passivation Why should new water equipment and piping be precleaned and passivated?
What do you call the iron solids that show up when a cooling tower system is restarted after being offline for a season when it
534 9/29/2014 Cooling Tower Startup Iron Solids wasn't properly stored? This includes the suspended and chipped piece of iron from piping that plugs up spray nozzles,
strainers, etc.
535 10/1/2014 RO Silica What are maximum silica levels that can be controlled with antiscalants in reverse osmosis systems?
 What are the recommended water quality parameters for treating a galvanized cooling tower? What types of water treatment
536 10/2/2014 Galvanized Cooling Towers
chemistry should be used?
537 10/3/2014 Average Age What do you think is the average age of today's Industrial Water Treatment professional?
538 10/7/2014 Removing Cooling Tower Makeup Alkalinity Does it make sense to remove makeup alkalinity with a dealkalizing resin for a cooling tower system?
539 10/8/2014 Women in Industrial Water Treatment What are unique challenges and benefits that may be faced by women in the industrial water treatment profession?
540 10/9/2014 Association of Water Technologies Who is going to the Association of Water Technologies (AWT) convention this year?
For a low-to-medium pressure boiler reverse-osmosis makeup system, how do you properly size the RO permeate storage
541 10/10/2014 RO Permeate Storage Tank
tank?
Once you calculate the softening capacity of a SAC water softener, what is your volumetric setpoint to trigger regeneration? Is
542 10/13/2014 Softener Capacity Setpoint
it 100% of capacity? 95%? 90%? 85%? Why?
Can someone explain the equilibrium between carbon dioxide in the air and in cooling water? Will alkalinity cycle up like
543 10/14/2014 CO2 Equilibrium
everything else or will this equilibrium affect this?
544 10/15/2014 Biofilm Penetration How do you penetrate biofilm for effective microbiological control?
545 10/20/2014 Hydrogen Sulfide How is hydrogen sulfide formation controlled?
546 10/23/2014 Cobalt How is cobalt used in water treatment?
547 10/30/2014 Background Fluorescence What causes background fluorescence in water?
What are the advantages/disadvantages of a single-biocide program versus a multiple-biocide program for a cooling tower
548 11/5/2014 Single vs. Multiple Biocide Programs
system?
549 11/10/2014 Ammonia Sources What are potential sources of ammonia contamination in industrial water systems?
550 11/13/2014 White Rust Inhibitors Are there any corrosion inhibitors that effectively control and prevent white rust in cooling towers?
551 11/17/2014 Exothermic Reactions What water treatment chemical combinations will result in a potentially dangerous exothermic reaction?
An industrial watertube boiler (temperature <180 C) has monoethylene in the feedwater (condensate tank). The makeup
552 11/20/2014 Boiler Glycol Contamination (Peer Submitted) water is free of this component. The situation currently makes it impossible to eliminate this contamination. What would the
effect be on corrosion rate, conductivity, and heat transfer?
553 12/3/2014 World Class Industrial Water Treatment Professional What are the qualities of a "World Class Industrial Water Treatment Professional?"
554 12/5/2014 Young Water Treatment Professionals How did younger water treatment professions (<30 years old) get into water treatment?
555 12/10/2014 Seasonal Effects on Boiler System How do seasonal changes in water affect overall boiler system operation?
Is there really a significant difference between the performance of chlorine and bromine chemistries at higher pH? Does
556 12/11/2014 Chlorine vs. Bromine Chemistry at Higher pH
theoretical effectiveness match up with practical application?
How easy is it to get "stuck in a rut" when servicing industrial water systems and doing your "pinks and blues" each day? How
557 12/12/2014 Stuck in a Rut
do you recognize it and get out?
What is the recommended ratio and method for using sodium bromide and sodium hypochlorite (bleach) in a cooling system
558 12/15/2014 Sodium Bromide & Sodium Hypochlorite
biocide program?
559 12/17/2014 DPD Free Chlorine Test Positive Interference What can lead a user to believe they have a free chlorine residual using the DPD free chlorine test, when none actually exists?
560 12/19/2014 Produced Water What is "Produced Water?"
What can you do in the next year to make yourself more valuable to your industrial water treatment clients that you haven't
561 12/31/2014 New Year Water Resolutions
done before?
Is there a size where it generally makes more economic sense to just replace the reverse osmosis membranes versus cleaning
562 1/2/2015 RO Cleaning vs. Size
them?
563 1/5/2015 pH vs. Temperature How does temperature affect pH measurement?
How do you modify Safety Data Sheets for diluted versions of the product? (Original Peer Submitted Question: Does anyone
564 1/6/2015 Safety Data Sheet (SDS) Writing (Peer Submitted) have experience modifying MSDS/SDS? For instance, I have an SDS for Cyclohexylamine. If I dilute it in water to 60% by weight,
how do I calculate the hazards for the new dilution?)
When training a new water management professional, what items should be on the checklist that this person must see and
565 1/7/2015 New Trainee Checklist
experience?
566 1/8/2015 Cooling Tower Silica Levels What are the highest silica levels that can be maintained in a cooling tower system?
Silica Levels in High-Cycle, Zero-Blowdown, Ultrasoft Cooling Tower Can silica levels of 200-800 ppm be maintained in a cooling tower system using a high-cycle, zero-blowdown, ultrasoft
567 1/9/2015
Programs program?
568 1/13/2015 Capturing Outgoing Experience As people retire or leave your companies, how do you capture their knowledge before it walks out the door?
What could cause a boiler to not cycle up properly even though the blowdown is 100% closed? (The makeup source is reverse
569 1/14/2015 Low Boiler Cycles
osmosis water.)
570 1/15/2015 Minimizing Carbon Dioxide in Condensate How do you minimize the level of carbon dioxide in boiler condensate?
When trying to maximize cooling tower cycles, is there a point where the makeup/blowdown savings start to plateau and
571 1/19/2015 More Cycles!
must be weighed against the increased risk of higher cycles? (Note: This is for a regular, hard water system.)
What should one do when their water softener is making hard water for their low-pressure steam boiler (used primarily for
572 1/20/2015 Hard Softener
space heating)?
573 1/21/2015 OH Alkalinity (Peer Submitted) What can cause a low-pressure boiler's OH-alkalinity to suddenly drop to zero?
574 1/22/2015 Hardness vs. Temperature How does temperature affect the solubility of calcium and magnesium hardness ions?
575 1/23/2015 Shot Feeding Biocide (Peer Submitted) At what frequency should oxidizing and nonoxidizing biocides be shot fed?
576 1/24/2015 Industrial Water Videos What are your favorite, online industrial water videos? Please include a hyperlink to the videos.
577 1/26/2015 RO Membrane vs. Pressure What are the effects of changing pressure on salt passage across a reverse osmosis membrane?
578 1/27/2015 Magnesium Hydroxide What are the advantages and disadvantages of using magnesium hydroxide for pH control?
579 1/30/2015 Boiler Sulfite Testing How do you test for sulfite in boiler water?
580 2/1/2015 Copper Corrosion Inhibitors What copper corrosion inhibitors are available?
How can we "gaze into the crystal ball" to foretell the condition of the boiler system, cooling system, heat exchangers, etc. so
581 2/2/2015 Crystal Ball
we know what to expect when they are open for inspection?
582 2/3/2015 Field Service Reports What advice do you have about writing field service reports?
583 2/5/2015 U Factor How do you determine the U factor on a heat exchanger?
584 2/9/2015 Nitrite & Low Pressure Steam Boilers Can nitrite be used in low pressure steam boilers? What are any recommendations and limitations?
585 2/10/2015 Phosphate Hideout What is Phosphate Hideout? How is it determined and controlled?
586 2/11/2015 Cleaning Aluminum Mold How do you clean calcium carbonate scale from an aluminum mold?
What are the advantages, disadvantages, advice, and warnings about using a specialty coating on chiller water boxes (end caps
587 2/12/2015 Coating Chiller Water Boxes
& tube sheets) to prevent corrosion? Can anyone do it or does it require a trained expert?
588 2/13/2015 Making a Name How does one make a name for himself/herself in the greater Industrial Water Treatment field?
589 2/19/2015 RO Membrane Chlorine Degradation Test How do you test for chlorine degradation on a Reverse Osmosis membrane?
590 2/20/2015 Publishing Articles How does an aspiring author get published in industrial water treatment trade publications?
What problems can manganese cause in an industrial water makeup source? What recommended limits apply? How is it
591 2/23/2015 Manganese
removed?
592 2/24/2015 Dream Invention If anything were possible and money no obstacle, what one new industrial water invention would you most like to have?
593 2/25/2015 Flow Velocity How does flow velocity affect water treatment? What is an idea flow velocity range?
594 2/26/2015 Neutralizing Amine Testing How do you test for neutralizing amine levels in condensate?
595 2/27/2015 Cooling Tower Plume Water Recovery Is it technically feasible to recover the water from a cooling tower plume?
596 3/4/2015 Process Flow Diagrams Do you develop process flow diagrams of your systems, and what do you include on them?
597 3/5/2015 Removing Molybdenum How is molybdenum removed from a wastewater down to the 100 ppb level?
598 3/6/2015 Stainless Steel When dealing with stainless steel metallurgies and water, what do you need to consider?
599 3/9/2015 Infrared Thermometers How are infrared thermometers (aka, infrared guns) used in Industrial Water Treatment?
In what order do you cover items in your typical field service report? Do you lead with a data table, executive summary, non-
600 Field Service Report Order
compliance issues? Do you end with a summary, project list, task list? What is your report outline?
In what order do you cover items in your typical field service report? Do you lead with a data table, executive summary, non-
601 3/10/2015 Field Service Report Order
compliance issues? Do you end with a summary, project list, task list? What is your report outline?
Do you have any recommendations or warnings for transitioning a lower pressure boiler system from a filming amine to
602 3/12/2015 Transitioning from Filming to Neutralizing Amine
neutralizing amine for condensate treatment?
Does anyone have experience with and recommendations for an on-line turbidity analyzer for clarified industrial wastewater
603 3/13/2015 Turbidity Sensor Recommendation and Experience (Peer Submitted)
routed to a Publicly Owned Treatment Works (POTW)? (Read leading comment for more information.)
604 3/16/2015 Cost of Neglect What does it cost to NOT maintain a cooling tower?
605 3/19/2015 Reverse Osmosis & Cooling Towers When, if ever, does it make sense to use reverse osmosis water for cooling tower makeup?
How can cooling tower blowdown be managed during intermittent biocide feedings to minimize valuable biocide going down
606 3/25/2015 Biocide vs. Blowdown
the drain?
607 3/26/2015 Boiler Polymer Testing (Peer Submitted) What can interfere with onsite testing of polymers in boiler water?
608 3/27/2015 Dream Cooling Tower Controller What would be the capabilities of your dream cooling tower controller, including sensors, communications, control logic, etc?
609 4/6/2015 Scale Sensors Are there sensors available that monitor the formation of scale in a water system?
610 4/10/2015 Odd What is the oddest item you have found in a cooling tower basin, prefilter, ion exchange vessel, leading end of an RO unit, etc?
611 4/16/2015 Operator Testing What is the value of onsite operators doing onsite testing when the water treatment professional is not there?
When testing for halogens (e.g., chlorine, bromine), when should you test for Free Residual Halogen versus Total Halogen or
612 4/17/2015 Free Residual vs. Total Halogen
both?
613 4/20/2015 How Many Tests? How many tests should a water treatment professional run on a boiler, cooling or other water system?
614 4/23/2015 Changing Providers Why do companies change water treatment providers?
If a shady water treatment provider wanted to maximize chemical usage for a cooling or boiler system to increase sales, what
615 4/24/2015 Shady Practices
tricks could this shady character use?
616 4/29/2015 Firetube Steam Rate How do you determine the amount of steam a firetube boiler is producing?
When inspecting the fireside of a watertube boiler, what is the purpose of shining a flashlight with the beam parallel to and
617 5/1/2015 Fireside Inspection & Flashlight
very close to the exposed boiler tubes?
618 5/5/2015 Soft Water Definition How would you define soft water? What levels of hardness?
619 5/6/2015 Cooling Tower Cleaning Disposal What is the proper disposal method for sludge and debris after a cooling tower cleaning?
As you are driving into a client's facility, what could you notice about their water treatment from just looking out your
620 5/7/2015 Driving In
windows?
621 5/8/2015 Cleaning RO Membrane Silica Fouling How should silica fouling be cleaned from a reverse osmosis membrane?
622 5/11/2015 Periodic Table of Water Treatment Which elements on the Periodic Table are of concern to us on a regular basis in industrial water treatment?
With the upcoming retirement boom in the United States (and perhaps other countries), how do we attract the next
623 5/18/2015 Next Generation of Water Treaters
generation to industrial water treatment?
624 5/21/2015 Measuring pH What are the various methods of measuring pH and the pros/cons of each?
625 5/28/2015 Closed Loop Metered Makeup Is it possible for a makeup water meter on a closed loop to miss measuring low levels of makeup?
626 6/1/2015 Analytical Test Order Is the order in which analytical tests are performed in the field important and why?
627 6/2/2015 RO Brine Seal What is the purpose of the brine seal around a reverse osmosis membrane element? Does it affect the way an element is loaded and r
628 6/3/2015 Brine Draw Problems What could cause problems with a brine draw during softener regeneration?
629 6/5/2015 Expired Membrane Antiscalants (Peer Submitted) Can reverse osmosis membrane antiscalants be used six months after their expiration date?
630 6/8/2015 Boiler Operator License Would there be any benefit for a water treatment professional to obtain a boiler operator license (e.g., Stationary Engineer)?
631 6/9/2015 Closed Loop Filters What types of filters are used for closed loops?
632 6/10/2015 HEDP Overdose & Boiler Metal (Peer Submitted) Can an exceptionally high dosage of HEDP phosphonate (>400 ppm) cause damage to the metal of a 100 psig boiler?
Can reverse osmosis (RO) permeate water be used to hydrotest a high pressure boiler with non-drainable super heaters? The
633 6/11/2015 Hydrotesting High Pressure Boiler with RO Permeate (Peer Submitted) RO permeate water will not reach the steam turbine, will stay in the system for at least 1 month, has a total dissolved solids
(TDS) of 25 ppm and silica of 0.44 ppm.
634 6/15/2015 Retired & Relevant How can retired water treatment professionals still say relevant and connected in the water treatment field?
635 6/16/2015 Oily Condensate What should one do when oily condensate is being returned to a low or medium pressure boiler?
What parameters must be known to choose a proper closed loop treatment? (Tomorrow's question will ask about the actual
636 6/17/2015 Closed Loop Treatment Parameters
treatment options available.)
637 6/19/2015 Closed Loop Treatment Options What are the closed-loop treatment options available? (A continuation of the 6/17/15 question.)
638 6/20/2015 Cost of Suspended Solids in Cooling System What is the cost of suspended solids in a cooling tower/chiller system?
639 6/22/2015 Cooling Tower Water Losses Aside from blowdown, how else may a cooling tower system lose water?
640 6/23/2015 Phosphonate Calcium Tolerance What factors affect the calcium tolerance of phosphonates, and which ones have higher calcium tolerances?
641 6/24/2015 Ton of Refrigeration What is a "ton" of refrigeration? How is it defined?
642 6/25/2015 Spherical Resin Beads How are spherical ion-exchange resin beads formed?
643 6/29/2015 Normally Open/Closed Valves What logic should one use to determine if a valve should be "normally open" or "normally closed" in case of power failure or malfuncti
644 6/30/2015 White Rust vs. Cooling Tower Lifespan Are there any studies that show how much white rust shortens the life of a cooling tower?
645 7/1/2015 Legionella & Nonoxidizing Biocides (Peer Submitted) Can Legionella be controlled with nonoxidizing biocides only?
What duration of time does it take for the typical "new" person to become an independent, skilled water treatment
646 7/2/2015 Learning Curve
professional adding true value to their company (e.g., weeks, months, years, decades)?
647 7/6/2015 Adjusting pH What are some tips for adjusting the pH of water? Safety concerns? Chemicals used? Dosage?
648 7/14/2015 Filtered & Unfiltered Phosphate Why does one run filtered and unfiltered phosphate on water samples?
649 7/20/2015 Hardness & Hach CuVer 1 vs. CuVer 2 At what level of hardness should Hach CuVer 2 be used in place of CuVer 1?
650 7/27/2015 "Sustainable" Industrial Water Treatment What does the term "sustainable" really mean in regards to industrial water treatment?
651 7/29/2015 Funny Numbers What should you do when your test results or readings are not what you expected?
What is the typical water quality in your part of the world? (Total hardness, calcium, magnesium, conductivity, alkalinity, pH,
652 7/31/2015 Your Water Quality
silica, iron, etc.)
How has the way industrial water treatment professionals dress changed over the years? How do you currently dress for the
653 8/4/2015 Dress
job?
654 8/18/2015 Dirty Cooling Tower What problems can be associated with a "dirty" cooling tower?
655 8/19/2015 Boiler Sight Glass (Gauge Glass) Erosion What is boiler sight glass (gauge glass) erosion and how is it prevented?
656 8/20/2015 Conductivity Calibration How often should conductivity meters be calibrated? What tips do you have?
657 8/22/2015 Define Process Water How is "Process Water" defined?
Does your city, state, province, country, etc. require a pesticide license to apply biocides to industrial water systems (e.g.,
658 8/24/2015 Pesticide License
cooling tower, closed loop)?
659 8/27/2015 Static Charge & pH Can static electrical charge buildup on a piece of equipment affect the pH of a closed loop of water used to cool it?
660 8/28/2015 Water vs. Air Where is the line between when water cooled or air cooled is more economical?
661 8/31/2015 Continuous vs. Intermittent Halogenation What are the benefits, drawbacks, and challenges of using continuous vs. intermittent halogenation of cooling tower systems?
662 9/1/2015 Inhibited Acid How are inhibited acids "inhibited" to minimize corrosion?
663 9/4/2015 Hydrogen Peroxide Product Care What special precautions should one take when handling hydrogen peroxide in water treatment?
664 9/8/2015 Capping Sand Filters Why would one consider capping a sand filter with anthracite?
665 9/14/2015 Oxidizer and Isothiazolin (Peer Submitted) Is there a synergistic effect when adding isothiazolin to a cooling tower treated with an oxidizing biocide such as bleach?
666 9/15/2015 Fluorescent Dyes (Peer Submitted) Which fluorescent dye is best to use in cooling tower tracer applications?
667 9/21/2015 Feel of Soft Water Why does soft water feel "slick" or "slippery" compared to harder waters?
When inspecting or installing reverse osmosis membranes, you put it all back together, fill the unit, and hear a loud thud
668 9/22/2015 RO Membrane Movement (Peer Submitted)
against the end cap. Does this movement of the membranes mean there is room for more spacers/shims?
669 9/23/2015 Copolymer What is a copolymer?
670 9/25/2015 Cooling Tower Disinfection How do you disinfect a cooling tower system?
671 9/28/2015 Feed Water Heaters What are the benefits and drawbacks of feedwater heaters for low pressure boiler systems?
What is the sulfate tolerance or maximum limit for a brackish water membrane with minimum calcium and magnesium (i.e.,
672 9/29/2015 Membrane Sulfate Tolerance (Peer Submitted)
no potential for calcium sulfate or magnesium sulfate scale)?
673 9/30/2015 Drinking Soft Water Are there any health benefits or detriments to drinking soft water?
674 10/1/2015 Shot Feeder Location & Plumbing Where should a shot feeder be located and how should it be plumbed into a closed-loop system?
675 10/5/2015 Calcium & Magnesium Source What is the source of the calcium and magnesium that we "manage" in water every day?
676 10/7/2015 Lithium Testing How do you test for lithium? Are there field test kits?
677 10/8/2015 Closed Loop Volume How does one determine the volume of a closed loop?
678 10/9/2015 Biofilm Structure What holds biofilm together?
679 10/13/2015 Copper Corrosion Coupon Rack (Peer Submitted) What are the pros and cons of using copper piping to make a corrosion rack on a chilled loop system?
680 10/16/2015 Boiler Alkalinity Relationships What are the alkalinity relationships in steam boilers?
We have all levels of experience within this group, but how does a less-experienced person separate the "wheat from the
681 10/20/2015 Wheat from the Chaff
chaff" when reading all the wonderful but varied answers our members provide?
682 10/21/2015 On and Off Boiler Operation How do you properly treat a firetube boiler that is frequently on and off and can sit off line for several days at a time?
683 10/22/2015 Oxidizing Biocide Method of Kill How do oxidizing biocides kill microorganisms?
684 10/29/2015 RO Concentrate Salt Discharge Limitations (Peer Submitted) How are salt discharge limitations managed when dealing with Reverse Osmosis concentrate streams?
685 11/2/2015 RO Membrane Preservation (Peer Submitted) What chemistries are recommended for reverse osmosis membrane preservation during extended shutdowns?
686 11/3/2015 Antifreeze Alternatives What are the alternatives to the traditional glycol-based antifreeze products?
687 11/4/2015 Tolyltriazole Odor Does pure tolyltriazole have an odor is it the impurities causing the characteristic "azole" odor?
688 11/5/2015 Well Water How can well water be unique from other water sources?
689 11/9/2015 Drift Eliminators How do cooling tower drift eliminators work?
690 11/11/2015 Deadband What is deadband, and why is it useful?
691 11/19/2015 Guarantees What absolute guarantees can we make with our water treatment programs?
692 11/30/2015 Carbon Dioxide Measurement (Peer Submitted) What is the most accurate way to test for carbon dioxide in water for a pH range of 3 to 8 (with a pH of 3.7 or less being key)?
693 12/1/2015 PTSA Interferences (Peer Submitted) What interferences can occur in testing for PTSA?
694 12/3/2015 Closed Loop Cleaning What tips do you have for cleaning a closed loop (both online and offline scenarios)?
What is the volume (gallons or liters) of a closed loop system if 2 gallons of a nitrite-based inhibitor is used to increase the
695 12/4/2015 Volume Calculation - Nitrite & Closed Loop
nitrite levels by 150 ppm (as NO2)? (Inhibitor product is 16% as NO2 with a specific gravity of 1.23)
What can be going wrong with this member's double-stage RO, double deionizer, and mixed bed DI? See her comments
696 12/7/2015 Bad/Decreasing Resistivity after Deionizer (Peer Submitted)
below.
697 12/8/2015 Finding Water Treatment Companies What is the best way to identify water treatment companies, both large and small?
698 12/9/2015 Mineral Scale vs. Biofilm Heat Transfer Which is more resistant to heat transfer: mineral scale or biofilm?
When testing for phosphonate, what is the math behind converting from a test result in PO4 to the ppm of the actual active
699 12/10/2015 Convert from PO4 to Active Phosphonate
phosphonate (e.g., PBTC, HEDP, etc.)?
700 12/11/2015 Rules of Thumb What "rules of thumb" do you use everyday to make your life as a professional water treater a little easier?
701 12/15/2015 Advice to Young People Aside from water topics, what key items should a young person new in the water treatment business know to be successful?
702 12/18/2015 Percent Condensate Return How do you calculate/estimate the Percent Condensate Return for a boiler system?
703 12/23/2015 Drop of Water Microscopically, what is happening to a single drop of water sitting outside on a table in the sunlight on a warm spring day?
Why don't you want to flow water "backwards" through a reverse osmosis membrane from the permeate side to the
704 12/29/2015 Backward RO Flow
feedwater side (are there ever exceptions)?
What are the advantages/disadvantages of using shell & tube heat exchangers versus plate & frame heat exchangers, and
705 12/31/2015 Shell & Tube vs. Plate & Frame Heat Exchangers
what unique water-related challenges does each pose?
706 1/4/2016 Periodically Dropping Cooling Tower Conductivity What can cause the conductivity of a cooling tower to drop each Monday morning after a weekend shutdown?
707 1/5/2016 304 Stainless Steel Corrosion (Peer Submitted) How does 304 stainless steel corrode, and what are the causes?
708 1/6/2016 Hydrometer How many ways is a hydrometer used in industrial water treatment? (Please list and describe.)
In industrial cooling, how critical is the adhesion rate (of biofilms) and what other water constituents such as inorganics or
709 1/7/2016 Adhesion Rate (Peer Submitted)
treatment chemicals (other than biocides to remove or kill biofilm) such as inhibitors impact adhesion in real world cooling?
710 1/8/2016 Nitrite vs. Temperature What is the upper temperature limit for using nitrite in a closed loop hot water system?
Why does orthophosphate as anodic inhibitor in an open, recirculating cooling system need to be maintained at higher
711 1/11/2016 Orthophosphate Concentrations (Peer Submitted) concentration (e.g., above 10 ppm) compared to orthophosphate as cathodic inhibitor (e.g., less than 10 ppm) to be effective?
What is the mechanism of these inhibitors?
What readings do you take to evaluate performance of an industrial water system? What do the readings indicate? (I know
712 1/12/2016 Taking Readings
this is a very open-ended question, but what you share may inspire someone else.)
713 1/13/2016 Silica Deposit Field Testing Is there a quick field test that can be done on a deposit to determine if silica is present?
Do you express your Percent Condensate Return calculation as "Percent Feedwater" or "Percent Steam"? What are the
714 1/14/2016 Percent Condensate Return Basis
advantages and disadvantages of each method?
715 1/19/2016 Reverse Osmosis Polymers (Peer Submitted) Which polymers are good to use as RO antiscalants?
716 1/20/2016 Oxidizing Biocides What are the oxidizing biocides used in water treatment?
717 1/21/2016 TDS Meters Are handheld meters that read "ppm TDS" really reading Total Dissolved Solids?
718 1/25/2016 Mixed Bed vs. Cation/Anion Single-Unit Train (Peer Submitted) When is a mixed bed demineralizer more suitable than a separate cation and anion unit demineralization train?
For the regeneration of a cation ion exchange unit, which acid is most efficient in regards to process, design, and/or cost (e.g.,
719 1/26/2016 Cation Deionization Regeneration Acid (Peer Submitted)
HCl, H2SO4), and what commercial grade and concentration of acid should be used?
720 1/27/2016 Molybdenum Precipitants? Are there any molybdenum precipitants that can form in a water system?
 After you've done your best to preclean a hydronic system, disinfected it, and added proper corrosion inhibitors, what could
721 1/28/2016 System Startup (Peer Submitted)
still go wrong?
722 1/29/2016 50% Sodium Hydroxide (Caustic) Freeze Point What is the freeze point of 50% sodium hydroxide (caustic) and how can this be managed in colder weather?
723 2/1/2016 Iron Removal in Boring Water for RO (Peer Submitted) How can high dissolved and suspended iron be removed in boring water upstream of a reverse osmosis (RO) unit?
724 2/4/2016 EDI RO Plant Validation (Peer Submitted) Do you need to be certified by a governing body to carry out a validation of an EDI Reverse Osmosis Plant?
725 2/9/2016 Sidestream Filtration Sizing for Closed Loops How does one size a sidestream filter for a closed loop water system?
726 2/14/2016 UF Application after WWTP Troubleshooting (Peer Submitted) What could be going on with the UF system described in the following comments?
What factors should one consider when adding a glycol-based antifreeze to a system that has never had antifreeze added
727 2/15/2016 Adding Antifreeze for First Time
before?
728 2/18/2016 Sitting RO (Peer Submitted) What concerns would you have for a reverse osmosis unit that has been sitting for three years with membranes installed?
729 2/19/2016 Water Meter How can having a water meter installed help save water and energy? What calculations can be done with water meter data?
730 2/22/2016 Pump Installation after Filter (Peer Submitted) Is it ever acceptable to install a pump on the outlet of a filter?
Is amine testing of a condensate sample a valid test for FDA compliance or should the sample be a condensed steam sample
731 2/23/2016 Amine Testing for Compliance (Peer Submitted)
prior to the point of use?
When using PAC, PAM, and lime for wastewater treatment, can a diaphragm-type dosing pump be used or is a special-type
732 2/24/2016 Wastewater Chemical Dosing Pumps (Peer Submitted)
dosing system required?
733 2/25/2016 Backwashing after Media Change (Peer Submitted) How much time is required to backwash a carbon-capped sand filter after the media has been replaced?
What are some animals you have encountered while providing industrial water treatment services? (No, I'm not talking about
734 2/26/2016 Animals
your competitors or clients.)
735 2/29/2016 High Softener Flux (Peer Submitted) What happens if the flux rate (gpm/ft^2) is too high in a water softener?
What can cause an electromagnetic flow meter and a positive displacement meter installed in the same 8-inch pipeline to
736 3/3/2016 Two Meters Reading Differently (Peer Submitted)
read differently by 400 m^3 daily?
737 3/4/2016 Softener Safety Relief Valves (Peer Submitted) Why would a safety relieve valve not be installed on a water softener pressure vessel?
738 3/16/2016 Removing Polymeric & Colloidal Silica (Peer Submitted) Can strong-base anion resin remove polymeric silica and colloidal silica? What is the best way to remove both forms of silica?
739 3/17/2016 Less than 1 Cycle Can a cooling tower have less than 1 cycle of concentration?
740 3/18/2016 More than 100% Condensate Return Can a boiler system have greater than 100% condensate return?
741 3/21/2016 Cast Iron Corrosion Rates What are industry-accepted corrosion rates for cast iron?
742 3/23/2016 Solder Corrosion Rates What are industry-accepted corrosion rates for solder?
743 3/24/2016 RO vs. Lead (Peer Submitted) What Reverse Osmosis remove lead?
744 3/25/2016 Boiler Blowdown Rate How do you calculate boiler blowdown rate?
What are some suggestions for someone facing high transmembrane pressure (TMP) on their Reverse Osmosis unit (they are
745 3/28/2016 High RO Transmembrane Pressure (Peer Submitted)
currently using an online antiscalant and biocide treatments).
746 3/30/2016 Pre-Packaged MBBR Unit Installation (Peer Submitted) What are your experiences with pre-packaged MBBR unit installations?
747 3/31/2016 HPA vs. Oxidizing Biocides How do oxidizing biocides affect the corrosion inhibition abilities of HPA?
748 4/1/2016 RO Water pH to Demin What are the effects of feeding Reverse Osmosis water at a pH of 6.0 versus 8.0 to a Demineralizer system?
749 4/4/2016 Aluminum Coupon Alloy for Boiler (Peer Submitted) Which alloy aluminum corrosion coupon should one use on a Harsco Patterson-Kelley boiler?
750 4/5/2016 Dead Legs What are "dead legs" and why are the of concern in a water system?
751 4/11/2016 Boiler Efficiency Calculation How do you calculate overall boiler energy efficiency?
752 4/13/2016 Removing CaF2 and BaSO4 Scale (Peer Submitted) How do you remove CaF2 and BaSO4 scale?
753 4/14/2016 Stray Current (Peer Submitted) How can stray currents affect controllers (e.g., pH, conductivity readings), and how can the source be found and corrected?
754 4/18/2016 Softener Waste vs. Blowdown What could happen if water softener regeneration wastewater enters the same trench/pipe as the boiler blowdown?
755 4/20/2016 Fluid Cooler vs. Evaporative Condenser What is the difference (if any) between a fluid cooler and evaporative condenser cooling tower?
756 4/27/2016 Chloride Removal (Peer Submitted) How can chloride be removed from water for use in a cooling tower application where chloride is the limiting factor?
757 5/3/2016 Operator Logs How important are operator logs for industrial water treatment?
758 5/10/2016 Feedwater Pumps vs. Chemical Feed How does the metallurgy of the boiler feedwater pump affect the choice and feed point of the boiler chemicals used?
759 5/14/2016 Water Charities What are some worthy water charities you would recommend learning more about?
What are the recommended injection quill orientations for horizontal and vertical piping (e.g., 6 o'clock positon, 12 o'clock
760 5/16/2016 Injection Quill Orientation
position, facing upstream or downstream)?
761 5/17/2016 Sodium-Free Cooling Product Formulation (Peer Submitted) How can one achieve a sodium-free cooling product formulation that a client is requesting?
762 5/21/2016 Sum of Cations & Anions Do cations and anions have to equal each other in a water sample and why?
763 5/25/2016 Safety Responsibility Who is the number one person responsible for your onsite safety?
What could cause the pH of a closed, chilled, molybdate-treated loop increase from 7.8 to 10 in a month's time, eve after pH
764 5/26/2016 Closed Loop pH Increasing
correction? (Peer Submitted)
765 6/2/2016 Cleaning Copper Heat Exchangers What are some tips of what to do (and not to do) when cleaning copper heat exchangers?
766 6/3/2016 Neutralizing HF Acid in Cooling Water (Peer Submitted) What is the recommended method to neutralize the pH depression in a cooling tower system caused by Hydrofluoric Acid?
767 6/8/2016 Non-Oxidizing Biocides vs. ORP Do non-oxidizing biocides have an affect on system ORP?
768 6/14/2016 Zebra Mussel Control How are zebra mussels controlled to prevent macrofouling of a system?
769 6/15/2016 Glycol System pH Boost (Peer Submitted) How can you boost the pH of a glycol cooling system?
770 6/16/2016 Sodium What negative effects can sodium have on an industrial water system?
771 6/17/2016 Barium What challenges does barium pose for industrial water systems?
What methods are there for foam control for a surfactant manufacturing unit's wastewater facility with a heavy foaming
772 6/20/2016 Foaming in Wastewater with Surfactant (Peer Submitted)
issue?
773 6/22/2016 Eastern Red Cedar Hot Shade Do eastern red cedar trees have "hot shade?" (Read more details below.)
774 6/23/2016 Dosage Pump Priming How do you keep your chemical dosing pumps primed for industrial water treatment applications?
775 6/27/2016 Your Website's Technical Resources Do you have technical resources available on your website that you can share the direct link here?
776 6/29/2016 Reducing TDS in Wastewater (Peer Submitted) How do you reduce TDS from 10,000 ppm to 2,000 ppm in a copper wire industry wastewater?
777 7/1/2016 Water Hammer What is water hammer, what causes it, and can it be stopped?
778 7/6/2016 Steam Trap Inspection What are the purpose and benefits of inspecting steam traps?
779 7/7/2016 Cooling Blowdown How is blowdown cooled before it is sent to the drain?
While reverse osmosis is generally a continuous process, how does the new technology that runs reverse osmosis as a batch
780 7/8/2016 Reverse Osmosis Batch Process
process at higher recovery rates work?
Why would the reverse osmosis salt rejection increase when the feedwater Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) and feed pressure
781 7/12/2016 RO System Changes (Peer Submitted)
increased, but all other parameters remained the same?
How do you calculate the dosage of chlorine required to treat water in a sewage treatment plant (e.g., 100 KLD plant)?
782 7/16/2016 Chlorination Calculation (Peer Submitted)
(Chlorine used is in the sodium hypochlorite form.) (Looking for an industrial method.)
783 7/19/2016 Recycle vs. Reuse vs. Recovery Is there a difference between the words recycle, reuse, and recovery in regards to industrial water treatment?
784 7/20/2016 Iron Removal via Chlorination How much reaction time is required before filtration when iron is oxidized with bleach (NaOCl)?
785 8/1/2016 Rain Water for Cooling Tower Makeup What are the challenges to using collected rain water for cooling tower makeup?
786 8/4/2016 Molybdenum and Iron Testing Is molybdenum an interference for some iron tests (e.g., FerroVer)?
787 8/5/2016 RO, Ion Charge & Hydration How do ion charge and hydration affect the apparent size of ions and their passage through reverse osmosis membranes?
What do you do? What's your business? How do you help your clients? (While this group is a commercial-free zone, your
788 8/8/2016 What do you do? (Commercials Welcome Here!)
commercials are welcome on this one post.)
789 8/9/2016 Deaerator Oxygen Removal How low can a properly functioning deaerator remove oxygen?
790 8/15/2016 Condensate Contamination & Carryover How do you confirm or rule out boiler carryover as the source of condensate contamination?
If you don't have deionized water available for dilution, what logic would you use to determine if the water you have on hand
791 8/16/2016 Dilution Water
can be used to dilute a sample for analysis?
When putting a cooling tower into long-term storage (>1 year), should any considerations be given to the storage of the
792 8/17/2016 Storage of Cooling Tower Fill
plastic fill?
793 8/18/2016 Conductivity Limit of Gland Steam Boiler (Peer Submitted) What are the ideal conductivity limits on the Gland steam boiler, and how does this affect the turbine and process?
794 8/19/2016 Rio Olympic Pool What turned the Olympic pools in Rio green?
795 8/22/2016 Conductivity vs. Temperature How is the conductivity of a water solution affected by temperature?
What can cause reverse osmosis membrane pressures to increase while permeate flow decreases? (See description in
796 8/25/2016 RO Pressure Increase & Problems (Peer Submitted)
comments for more information.)
How do you balance the "It's not my job" (e.g., the softener is out of my scope) to "Let me try to help" mentalities (e.g., the
797 8/26/2016 It's Not My Job vs. Let Me Try to Help
softener affects my scope)?
798 8/29/2016 Strontium What challenges does strontium pose to industrial water treatment?
799 9/5/2016 Glycol Closed Loop with Nitrite (Peer Submitted) Can nitrite-based corrosion inhibitors be used with an ethylene glycol-based HVAC closed-loop system?
800 9/14/2016 Chemical Treatment Synergies What are some chemical treatments that show synergies when used together?
How long should a sample point be flushed before taking a sample and are some tests more sensitive to proper flushing than
801 9/15/2016 Sample Flushing
others?
How should one neutralize the pH of a spent cleaning solution after cleaning a piece of water treatment equipment (e.g., RO,
802 9/16/2016 Neutralizing Spent Cleaning Solution pH
heat exchanger, cooling tower, etc.)? What are any precautions?
803 9/20/2016 Disinfection vs. Sanitization Are disinfection and sanitization different things or the same?
804 9/28/2016 Steam Accumulator What is a steam accumulator and when is it used?
805 9/30/2016 Sodium Hypochlorite Feed Time What is the best time of day to feed sodium hypochlorite to a cooling tower?
806 10/7/2016 Bucket Test Do you have examples of when you used a bucket to quantify the size of a leak to save the end user money?
807 10/11/2016 Types of Boilers What are the various types of boilers?
808 10/12/2016 The water's so hard… What are some analogies to express how hard a water is (e.g., "This water's so hard…")?
809 10/13/2016 Evaporative Salts on Cooling Towers How can one minimize the formation of unsightly evaporative salts on the sides of cooling towers?
For cooling tower systems that are rotated on/off on a monthly basis (e.g., some data centers) where water can sit for weeks,
810 10/14/2016 On/Off Cooling Tower Operation (Peer Submitted)
what are best practices for water treatment and maintenance?
811 10/17/2016 Total Hardness Test Interferences What are some common interferences for Total Hardness testing, and how are they remedied?
Are there regulations and what are the guidelines governing the use of neutralizing amines and other boiler chemicals for
812 10/18/2016 Humidification Regulations
steam humidification?
813 10/20/2016 Add Acid to Water What is the basis of the advice to "Add acid to water, not water to acid"?
When does it make sense to install a dealkalizer for low- to medium-pressure boiler makeup versus installing a reverse
814 10/21/2016 Dealkalizer vs. Reverse Osmosis
osmosis (RO) unit?
Not to be morbid or give anyone ideas but to remind people of the dangers of our profession, what are all the ways one could
815 10/24/2016 Ways to Die in Industrial Water Treatment
die in Industrial Water Treatment?
816 10/25/2016 Temperature and Time for Disinfection What temperature and time are recommended to disinfect a water system?
How do you setup the feed system for a cooling tower using the makeup meter to trigger chemical feed (e.g., how long should
817 10/27/2016 Cooling Makeup Meter Initiated Feed Setup
the pumps feed, at what settings, etc.)?
818 10/28/2016 Peak Flow Average Flow (Peer Submitted) How do you interpret water usage to determine peak flow average flow?
819 10/31/2016 Hard Hat Service Life What is the typical service life of a hard hat, and what causes a hard hat to need to be replaced?
820 11/1/2016 Cooling Towers & CO2 Does the absorption of carbon dioxide from the air drop the pH of a cooling tower any at all?
821 11/2/2016 Strainers on Cooling Tower Control Systems Why is it important to keep the strainers upstream of a cooling tower controller clean and functional?
822 11/3/2016 Return on Investment What is an acceptable Return on Investment (ROI) for a money-saving water treatment plan?
I'm listening to "The Technologists" by Matthew Pearl during my drive to and from work. This morning, the diabolical
antagonist dropped the temperature of main reservoir to frigid, near freezing temperatures in the middle of summer in 1860's
823 11/4/2016 Stranger than Fiction Boston. Across the city, boilers started violently exploding from the sudden drop in feedwater temperature and resulting
shock to their systems. My question of the day is would 1860's boilers have reacted so violently to such a sharp drop in
temperature? (There are many holes in this diabolical premise, for sure.)
824 11/8/2016 Non-Oxidizing Biocide Method of Kill How do non-oxidizing biocides kill microorganisms?
Do water treaters really care about their customers and their needs or are they just there to make as much money as they can
825 11/9/2016 Caring
for as long as they can?
If it took 1 gallon of sulfuric acid to drop the pH of a water solution from 8 to 7, will it also take 1 gallon to drop the pH from 7
826 11/14/2016 pH Adjustment
to 6?
827 11/15/2016 NO2 vs. NaNO2 Do you express your nitrite test results as NO2 or NaNO2, and what difference does it make?
828 11/16/2016 Cracked Softener Beads What can cause water softener beads to crack?
829 11/18/2016 Donut Philosophy What is your philosophy on bringing goodies into your customer such as donuts, snacks, ice cream on a hot day, etc?
830 11/22/2016 Feed Spacers What is the purpose of the feed spacers in reverse osmosis membrane modules?
831 12/7/2016 UV Replaceables When using ultraviolet light equipment, what parts need to be replaced periodically?
832 12/8/2016 Cooling Tower Cleaning Frequency How often should a cooling tower be cleaned?
833 12/9/2016 Chlorine Demand What constituents make up the "chlorine demand" before a "free residual chlorine" can be established?
834 12/12/2016 Sampling Bottle Level When sampling water systems, how full should the sample bottles be filled?
835 12/13/2016 Closed Loop Draining Why would you want to drain water from a closed loop?
836 12/14/2016 Degas Membranes What is your experience in using degas membranes for oxygen removal in boiler feedwater compared to a deaerator?
837 12/15/2016 Wet Water Why is water wet?
838 12/16/2016 Coordinate Phosphate Treatment What is Coordinated Phosphate Treatment and in what types and pressures of boilers is it used?
839 12/19/2016 Boiler Alkalinity Tests What types of alkalinity should be tested in a boiler water?
840 12/20/2016 Engineers & Industrial Water Treatment Is industrial water treatment a good career choice for engineers?
What stories do you have of "someone" who did something "stupid" in water treatment, such as dropping camera batteries
841 12/21/2016 I Know Someone Who… inside a boiler and having to help retrieve them, dropping computers in clarifiers, shutting down boilers by sitting on draft fan
off buttons, etc? (Feel free to say "I have a friend" to protect yourself…I mean protect the innocent.)
842 12/22/2016 Nanomaterials in Water Treatment Does anyone have experience with using nanomaterials in water treatment (e.g., nanoparticles of Fe2O3)?
843 1/3/2017 Cooling Tower Efficiency How is cooling tower efficiency determined?
844 1/6/2017 Calculating RO Flow/Fouling Factor (Peer Submitted) How do you calculate the flow factor/ fouling factor of an RO membrane?
845 1/9/2017 Future Disruptive Technologies/Chemistries (Peer Submitted) What do you predict will be a major disruptive technology/chemistry in water treatment in the next 10-15 years?
846 1/10/2017 Company Acquisitions What can be the pros and cons of working for a water treatment company that has been acquired by another company?
847 1/11/2017 Online Analysis of Actives How many different active components of water treatment is it possible to monitor ON LINE with current technology?
848 1/16/2017 SDI Testing - Onsite vs. Offsite Does Silt Density Index (SDI) for an RO have to be tested onsite or can a sample be shipped offsite for SDI testing?
849 1/17/2017 Chemical Crossover to Everyday-Life What are examples of chemicals we use in water treatment that you will see in products you use in everyday life?
Are you retired but still consulting on industrial water treatment? Please let us know by sharing your scope of services,
850 1/18/2017 Retired & Consulting
geographic area, contact information, etc.
851 1/19/2017 Molybdate Tracer vs. Corrosion Inhibitor At what level does molybdate stop becoming an effective corrosion inhibitor and could then be defined as only a tracer?
852 1/20/2017 Color Blind What challenges may a color-blind individual face in a water treatment career?
How do you convert results expressed as Calcium to expressed as Calcium Carbonate and vice versa? What is the math behind
853 1/23/2017 Ca & CaCO3 Conversion Factors
these conversion factors?
854 1/24/2017 Deaerator Temperature How do you determine the proper operating temperature of a deaerator?
855 1/25/2017 Hearing Has working in water treatment had an impact on your hearing in any way and why?
856 1/26/2017 Social Media Sales Have you made sales due to your social media activity?
857 1/27/2017 Coatings to Prevent Scale Is there "coating" technology available that prevents the adherence of scale but does not impede heat transfer?
858 1/30/2017 Zero Blowdown Cooling Tower Can one truly achieve zero blowdown in a cooling tower system?
What technologies help reduce the power consumption of seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) systems and what innovation is
859 2/1/2017 SWRO vs. Power Consumption
emerging?
860 2/2/2017 Dead Legs and Microbiological Control How quickly can a dead leg re-inoculate a closed loop system with microbiological activity?
861 2/3/2017 HP Boiler Cold Startup Turbidity Limits (Peer Submitted) Are there turbidity (NTU) limits for the cold startup of high-pressure (HP) boilers? Is there an official reference?
862 2/6/2017 Picking Valves How does one determine which type of valve is best for a particular application?
863 2/7/2017 Leaking Heat Exchanger How can you tell if a heat exchanger is leaking without taking the unit offline to physically inspect?
864 2/8/2017 Chelant Testing How is chelant tested in a boiler system?
865 2/10/2017 Damaged Drift Eliminators What are the potential impacts of damaged drift eliminators in a cooling tower system?
866 2/15/2017 Under-Deposit Corrosion What is under-deposit corrosion?
867 2/21/2017 ORP vs. H2O2 (peer submitted) Has anyone trended ORP vs. hydrogen peroxide addition?
When Schedule 40 piping can meet the pressure and temperature requirements of a cooling tower application, why might one
868 2/23/2017 Cooling Tower Schedule 80 vs 40 Piping Choice (peer submitted)
still choose Schedule 80 piping? Which do you use and why?
869 2/24/2017 H2O2 & O3 Together for Drinking Water (Peer Submitted) Do hydrogen peroxide and ozone work well together for drinking water applications?
What technology can be used to control oil contamination in HDC cooling towers coming from the process in the aluminum
870 3/3/2017 Cooling Tower Oil Contamination in Aluminum Industry (Peer Submitted)
industry (i.e., floating oils, vegetable-based, cold and hot wells)?
Compared to the standard reverse osmosis (RO) continuous-flow array design, what are some alternative RO designs out
871 3/10/2017 Alternative RO Designs
there.
872 3/13/2017 Microbiological Control in RO Prefilters How is microbiological activity controlled in RO prefilters?
873 3/14/2017 Pi Day In celebration of Pi Day (3/14), how is Pi used in water treatment?
874 3/15/2017 Forward Osmosis (FO) What is Forward Osmosis, and is there any viable technology out there yet?
875 3/16/2017 Reducing Neutralizing Amine Usage How can neutralizing amine usage be reduced in a steam boiler system while still adequately protecting the system?
876 3/17/2017 Water Footprint How does an industry determine its true water footprint?
877 3/24/2017 Test Reagents on Hands Which common water testing reagents will turn your skin colors upon contact?
878 3/27/2017 Selling Water Treatment Business How does one determine the market value and "asking price" for their water treatment business?
879 3/31/2017 Polymer Testing What test methods are available for polymer testing in boiler and cooling tower water?
A member is asking for help to minimize scale in his system: "There is scale on air lines of circulation pum in our DAF system
880 4/3/2017 Stopping Scale (Peer Submitted)
we are working on drilling waste water treatment so how we can stop the scales?"
881 4/4/2017 80/20 Rule How does the 80/20 rule apply to industrial water treatment?
"Hello everyone
I hope you are all doing well
I need you to share me your experience to demonstrate all updated technology that can reduce the treatment cost for feed
water stream (70 – 120 m3/hr) characterized by high value of non-carbonate hardness ( Ca = 900 ppm as Ca, Mg= 600 ppm as
Mg, HCO3 = 195 ppm as CaCO3, Cl= 8300 ppm as Cl and SO4=1700 ppm as SO4). WOW it seems to be disaster
Actually, we have Soda Ash –Caustic Soda treatment program to decrease that catastrophic figures of hardness to be 5 ppm
for Ca and 1 ppm for Mg. The flocculation unit do this task well but huge amount of chemicals were consumed accompanied
with a lot of Sludge formation (CaCO3 and MgOH) that finally directed to dewatering system to achieve our ZLD design
882 4/5/2017 Decreasing Feedwater Hardness (Peer Submitted)
Unfortunately, the treatment technology what we have considered to be very expensive if considering OPEX point of view due
to too many expenses of chemicals used as well as sludge transportation outside of the plant
Taking into consideration that this is the only available source of water feed we have around and the current ZLD concept the
plant was designed with, what is a preferable technique that can be used to decrease the water hardness?
Thanks for any advice in advance
Respectfully yours,

Wael Abdel Rahman"

One of our group colleagues is using UF and RO to treat juice plant wastewater and is "having all sorts of problems." What
883 4/7/2017 Juice Plant Wastewater (Peer Submitted)
advice do you have for him?
"I was wondering if anybody in the group had any experience with the chemical anodamine. I work in the chemical lab at a
coal fired power plant and it is something that we are interested in. We have a super critical, once-through boiler. I'm
884 4/11/2017 Anodamine (Peer Submitted)
wondering how much it helps start ups, both short and long term shutdown. I'm also wondering how much it helps boiler
water chemistry for when the unit is running." Zach Foster
"Hi All, I've been working with a company in the UK to automate their azole dosing using an online measurement system. This
is a manufacturer who doses BTA to ensure product quality is consistent. I was wondering if this is something that anyone else
885 4/17/2017 Online Azole Measurement (Peer Submitted)
has wanted to do? If you've tried it or would like to, I'd like to know more about your experience and process. Any help
appreciated."
886 4/20/2017 Azole Fluorescence Does azole fluoresce and at what wavelength(s)?
887 4/21/2017 Thought Leaders Who are the thought leaders in Industrial Water Treatment?
888 4/24/2017 Antifoam Dosage What are typical dosage rates (ppm) for antifoams?
889 4/25/2017 DBNPA Dilution & Vessel Material (Peer Submitted) Can DBNPA be manufactured with dilution glycol in a stainless steel vessel or is a glass vessel preferred?
Would running a molybdate-treated closed loop water through a water softener have any impact upon the level of molybdate
890 4/26/2017 Molybdate vs. Softener (Peer Submitted)
in the system?
891 5/8/2017 Antifoam vs. Defoamer What is the difference between an antifoam and a defoamer?
892 5/15/2017 NH3 & CO2 Removal via RO Why might it be difficult to remove both ammonia and carbon dioxide with an RO system?
893 5/25/2017 Onsite Water Treatment Program Manual What information should be included in the onsite Water Treatment Program Manual for the operators?
894 5/26/2017 Chemical Formula of White Rust What is the chemical formula for white rust?
895 5/30/2017 Not Treating Boiler What are the potential results of not treating a low to medium pressure boiler?
896 6/20/2017 Softener Channeling What is "channeling" in a water softer, and how do you troubleshoot that it is happening?
897 6/26/2017 Lime Softening How does lime softening work?
898 6/27/2017 Lime Softening Issues What are common issues that occur when using lime softening?
899 7/3/2017 Borate Why is borate typically used as a pH buffer in closed-loop water systems more often than other buffers?
900 7/12/2017 Large vs. Small Water Treatment Companies What are the pros and cons of doing business with a large versus small water treatment company?
What could cause more iron to come out of a water softener than is going into the unit (according to the ppm total iron
901 7/20/2017 More Iron from Softener
tests)?
How does the addition of makeup water affect the pressure on a boiler feedwater tank? Can the pressure go below
902 7/27/2017 Pressure on Boiler Feedwater Tanks
atmospheric?
903 8/4/2017 Conductivity Contribution Do impurities all contribute the same conductivity to water or do some contribute higher or lower conductivities?
904 8/7/2017 Advantages of Cooling Tower Cleaning What are the advantages of cleaning cooling towers on a regular basis?
905 8/9/2017 Handwritten Notes In today's age of electronic communication, is there still any power to a handwritten note in industrial water treatment?
906 8/17/2017 Photometer & Isothiazolin (Peer Submitted) Is there a photometer on the market that accurately measures isothiazolin residual?
907 8/18/2017 Calcium Chloride Brine Treatment (Peer Submitted) What is the best treatment for calcium chloride brine, low-temperature, closed system?
908 8/21/2017 High/Low Deaerator Temperature (Peer Submitted) What happens when a deaerator temperature is maintained too high or too low?
After your customer tells you their complaints about your service/results/whatever, what should most likely be the very next
909 8/24/2017 Customer Complaint Response
few words out of your mouth (in most circumstances)?
910 8/25/2017 Free Cooling What is "free cooling" in regards to cooling tower systems?
911 8/30/2017 Temperature and Testing How can elevated temperatures affect water testing?
912 8/31/2017 Podcasts What podcasts do you like that are related to your job in industrial water treatment?
913 9/1/2017 Corrosion Coupon Pretreatment Should corrosion coupons be pretreated or not?
914 9/5/2017 Threshold Inhibition What is a threshold inhibition in regards to scale control?
915 9/7/2017 Polymer Monomers What are the typical monomers from which cooling and boiler water-treatment polymers are synthesized?
How does one search for patents, and what things can be learned from patent applications besides what your competition is
916 9/8/2017 Patent Searching
up to?
917 9/11/2017 Flooded Suction When is a flooded suction recommended for chemical dosage pumps?
918 9/12/2017 Lonely Job Can being an industrial water treatment professional in the field be a lonely job at times, and how do you deal with it?
919 9/18/2017 Testing Interferences & You How can you sometimes be the greatest "testing interference" of all when conducting water tests?
920 9/25/2017 Boiler Stack Temperature Do you record the boiler stack temperature and why?
921 9/26/2017 Winterization of Cooling Towers How does one "winterize" a cooling tower system that still needs to run?
922 9/27/2017 Tank Level Monitors What technology is available for automatically measuring tank levels?
923 10/2/2017 Multitasking How do you multitask when doing your industrial water treatment job?
924 10/3/2017 Trusting a Drip Why should you not trust that the clear liquid coming from a leaking pipe is just water?
925 10/6/2017 Confined Space Dangers What types of dangers may be present in the "confined spaces" an industrial water treatment professional may need to enter?
How does a young person or even a more experience person changing careers break into the industrial water treatment
926 10/10/2017 Breaking Into the Profession
profession?
927 10/11/2017 Calcium Sulfate Solubility How does one predict the solubility of calcium sulfate in water?
928 10/12/2017 U-Value What is the U-value for a heat exchanger and how is it calculated?
929 10/16/2017 Finding Qualified Employees How do you find qualified employees to work in industrial water treatment?
How much energy does it take to evaporate 1 pound of water vs. heating 1 pound of water by 1 degree F at room temperature
930 10/17/2017 Evaporation
(or for metric, to evaporate 1 kilogram of water vs. heating 1 kilogram of water by 1 degree C at room temperature)?

What advice do you have for treating water from a brewery bottling plant (particularly from the packaging plant with bottle
931 10/19/2017 Bottling Plant Wastewater (peer submitted)
washers, crate washers, and pasteurizers)?
932 10/24/2017 Professional Engineering (PE) License Usage In what ways are Professional Engineering (PE) licenses (or equivalent) utilized in industrial water treatment?
933 11/3/2017 Lighting & Testing Why is proper lighting important for water analysis in the field?
934 11/6/2017 Cobalt Precipitation What can cause cobalt to precipitate when injecting a catalyzed sulfite-based product?
Why does the Practical Scaling Index (aka, Puckorius Scaling Index) (PSI) use an equilibrium pH rather than the actual system
935 11/8/2017 PSI & pH
pH in its calculation?
936 11/9/2017 Household Products What water treatment chemicals are also used in common household products?
937 11/15/2017 Online Softener Resin Cleaning Can a water softener resin be cleaned online (e.g., iron fouling)?
938 11/17/2017 Parallel Career Field Fits What are parallel career fields from which a person could fit into Industrial Water Treatment well for a successful career?
939 11/22/2017 Worthy Employer What makes a good industrial water treatment employer?
940 11/27/2017 Hydrogen Peroxide & PA RO Membranes Can hydrogen peroxide be used to clean thin-film polyamide reverse osmosis membranes?
Given that two waters (one with a low calcium hardness and high total alkalinity and one with a high calcium hardness and low
941 11/28/2017 1 LSI & 2 Stories
total alkalinity) can have the same LSI, which one has a higher potential to form scale?
942 12/4/2017 Earliest Water Treatment? What are some documented examples of the earliest attempts at water treatment in human civilization?
943 12/5/2017 Bulk Briner What is a bulk briner, and how can it potentially save money?
944 12/8/2017 Boiler Blowdown Controller What are the sequence of steps taken by a typical boiler blowdown controller?
945 12/11/2017 Boiler Scale & Heat Transfer Inefficiency Estimates What are some estimates of how much scale will decrease boiler efficiency based upon the type and thickness of the scale?
946 12/13/2017 Cleaning Labware What is the importance of and tips for keeping your field testing labware clean?
947 12/15/2017 Customer Portal What items should be available on an internet-based customer portal for an industrial water treatment customer?
For a cooling tower system that loses pH control because the acid stops feeding, how long will it take before scale starts to
948 12/20/2017 Losing Cooling Tower pH Control
form in the system?
949 12/21/2017 Elevator Pitch In 100 words or less, what is your "elevator pitch" describing what an industrial water treatment professional does?
With tomorrow starting the traditional “12 Days of Christmas,” it got me to thinking what the “12 Days of Industrial Water
950 12/24/2018 Twelve Days of Industrial Water Treatment Treatment” would be sung to the same tune. So far, I’ve only come up with “5 O-rings!” I’m sure you can do better. What
would they be?
951 12/28/2017 Looking at a Water Sample What can one tell by simply looking at a water sample before any standard water analysis is done?
952 1/2/2018 Tolyltriazole Does tolyltriazole offer corrosion protection for more than yellow metals?
953 1/3/2018 Guard Shack What helpful information can you gather as you check into the guard shack, front desk, etc. during an account visit?
What is the most interesting manufacturing process you've seen at a client facility as an Industrial Water Treatment
954 1/4/2018 Interesting Process
Professional?
955 1/5/2018 Would You Do It Again? If you could start over at the beginning, would you become an Industrial Water Treatment Professional again?
956 1/8/2018 Isothiazolin Method of Kill What is the mechanism isothiazolin uses to control microbiological activity?
957 1/10/2018 Elution Study In regards to ion exchange, what is an elution study and how is it conducted?
958 1/12/2018 Standing & Observing What are some valuable things you can learn by just knowing where to stand and observing?
959 1/15/2018 City Water Variation What can cause variation in the quality of city water?
960 1/17/2018 OH Alkalinity Determination Is it better to calculate or test for OH Alkalinity in a low- to medium-pressure boiler?
961 1/20/2018 Water Day Celebrations Aside from World Water Day on March 22, on what other days is water celebrated?
962 1/23/2018 Interesting RO Prefilter Finds What are some interesting things found in a Reverse Osmosis Prefilter?
What experience can you share about using spray ponds for stripping ammonia from water? (pH = 10; Ammonia NH4+ = 3-30
963 1/24/2018 Spray Ponds & Ammonia Stripping (peer submitted)
ppm; contains lime and wastes from sanitation wastes)
964 1/31/2018 Equipment Design Software What are the various software used to design water treatment equipment?
965 2/8/2018 Dealkalizer & Cooling Tower Makeup Would it ever make sense to use a dealkalizer for cooling tower makeup?
966 2/10/2018 Loading RO Membranes One Direction Why are RO membranes only loaded in one direction?
967 2/12/2018 Brine Seal Why are RO brine seals shaped the way they are (V or U shaped)?
A fellow member asks, "What should be the typical value of SDI/Turbidity/microbiological growth to install UF membranes,
968 2/13/2018 UF Feed Quality & Impact (peer submitted)
and what would be the result of these units after treatment?"
969 2/16/2018 Softener Gravel What is the point of the gravel at the bottom of a water softener?
970 2/19/2018 RO Membrane Telescoping What is Reverse Osmosis membrane telescoping, and what causes it?
971 2/21/2018 Clogged Dropper Bottle Tips If a reagent dropper bottle's tip is clogged, what should you do?
972 2/22/2018 Short Test Reagent Shelf Life What are some testing reagents with the shortest shelf lives?
973 2/23/2018 The Little Things that Count What are the "little things" you may do during your time at a client's site that makes you a welcome visitor?
Is there or is there not an FDA limit on the combined levels of neutralizing amines for food-grade plants? (Sorry for the USA-
974 2/26/2018 Combined Neutralizing Amine Limit
centric question.)
975 2/28/2018 Microbiological Dip Slide Testing What are the pros and cons of using dip slides for microbiological testing?
"Does designing an activated carbon filter system at twice the installation requirements mean that one filter is idling too long?
976 3/2/2018 Activated Carbon Filter Sizing (peer submitted)
What is the maximum idling time for an activated carbon filter without creating new problems?"
977 3/5/2018 Tracer within Range If the tracer is within the control range for a cooling system, why would one need to run any other tests?
978 3/6/2018 Sulfite Test vs. Vigorous Stirring Can stirring the sulfite test sample too vigorously during the procedure affect the end result?
979 3/7/2018 License/Certification Has having a particular license or certification helped you win business?
How many times do you rinse out your test equipment before analyzing the next water sample? Which water do you use to
980 3/8/2018 Test Equipment Rinsing
rinse it?
981 3/9/2018 Preventing Cavitation How can pump cavitation be prevented?
What are some insane examples you've seen where water pipes were plumbed incorrectly (e.g., cooling tower water
982 3/12/2018 Bad Plumbing
mistakenly plumbed to bathroom fixtures).
983 3/13/2018 Salt Bridging What is salt bridging and what impact does it have on a water softener?
984 3/20/2018 Seasonal Boiler Storage Options When a boiler is taken offline for the season, what are the storage options?
985 3/21/2018 Cooling Tower Pre-Startup Inspection Prior to starting up a cooling tower, what should a water treatment professional be looking for in a pre-startup inspection?
986 3/23/2018 Cyclohexylamine Deposit Have you ever experienced cyclohexylamine forming deposits in your steam system?
987 3/27/2018 Probe vs. Colorimetric pH Reading of Condensate Sample Is it best to use a pH probe or colorimetric method for reading pH on a condensate sample? Why and why not?
What is the deposit buildup on the outside and inside edges of air inlet louvers on some cooling towers and how can it be
988 3/28/2018 Deposit on Louvers (peer submitted)
minimized/prevented?
989 3/29/2018 Larson-Skold Index Do you use the Larson-Skold Index, and at what range(s) do you start really getting concerned about corrosion?
Industrial Water Treatment Professionals can directly affect the makeup and blowdown rates from a cooling tower, but can we
990 3/30/2018 Cooling Tower Evaporation
affect the evaporation rate?
What is the danger of dropping an item inside a boiler while you're inspecting it (e.g., battery, screwdriver, flashlight), and how
991 4/5/2018 Dropped During Boiler Inspection
do you get the item out?
992 4/9/2018 Legionella Control What are the guidelines/best practices for Legionella control?
993 4/10/2018 Types of Water Meters What are the various types of water meters, and what is the best fit for each type?
994 4/13/2018 Hobbies Aside from industrial water treatment, what hobbies do you have?
995 4/17/2018 CaCO3 Scale vs. Biofilm Which inhibits heat transfer more, calcium carbonate scale or biofilm on a heat exchange surface?
996 4/18/2018 Neutralizing Amine Recycle How much neutralizing amine gets recycled back into the boiler system as it returns with the condensate?
997 4/20/2018 Silica Scale vs. Biofilm Which inhibits heat transfer more, silica scale or biofilm on a heat exchange surface (assuming equal thickness)?
998 4/23/2018 Backflow Preventer What is a backflow prevention valve and what types are available?
When using a fluorescent tracer (e.g., PTSA) in a cooling tower system and taking into account fluorescence already present in
999 4/24/2018 Makeup Fluorescence Cycling the makeup water, does this incoming "background" fluorescence in the makeup water cycle up like other constituents or
not?
1,000 4/25/2018 This Group (1,000th Question) What have you gained from this group?
1,001 4/30/2018 Silica/Phosphate in Hydronic Systems (peer submitted) What are the pros and cons of using a phosphate-silica treatment in large hydronic systems of varying water qualities?
What could be the cause of calcium cycles, conductivity cycles, and chloride cycles of concentration calculation results not
1,002 5/2/2018 Ca, Conductivity, and Cl Cycles Not Matching
matching for a cooling tower system?
If you stood in the middle of a typical water treatment account and closed your eyes, what would you sense about the water
1,003 5/8/2018 Close Your Eyes
systems?
What do you wish engineering and design firms knew about water treatment, and what design decisions do you wish they
1,004 5/9/2018 Engineering & Design Firms
would stop doing?
1,005 5/17/2018 Condensate System Corrosion Coupons Are corrosion coupons used for condensate systems, and how would the setup/design be different than a cooling system?
You touch both tanks of a twin-alternating water softener, and one is room temperature and the other is cool to the touch.
1,006 5/18/2018 Cool Water Softener
What does this tell you?
When using an online device to measure scale or deposit formation in a cooling system, is deposit thickness or heat transfer
1,007 5/24/2018 Measuring Scale/Deposit Formation
inhibition more important to know (or both)?
1,008 6/5/2018 Additional Chiller Energy Cost (peer submitted) How much does 1) biofilm and 2) scale add to annual chiller energy cost of operation? Do you have references you can share?
1,009 6/6/2018 A Water Treatment Professional A Water Treatment Professional walks into a bar…(Can you finish the joke?)
In regards to biofilm and scale, what references and rules of thumb do you have about their potential impact on chiller system
1,010 6/8/2018 Accelerated Chiller Repair/Replacement Costs (peer submitted)
repair and accelerated replacement costs?
1,011 6/12/2018 Top 3 Reasons for Account Loss What are the top 3 reasons a customer account is lost?
1,012 6/13/2018 Industrial vs. Commercial Cooling Water System (peer submitted) What parameters define an industrial cooling water system vs. commercial/institutional? What are the differences?
1,013 6/25/2018 Comparing Proposals When comparing two water treatment proposals, what metrics should the end user use to choose the winner?
What are the pros and cons of using Price per Volume (e.g., $/1,000 gallons) as one metric to compare boiler/cooling water
1,014 6/28/2018 Price per Volume
treatment proposals?
1,015 7/5/2018 Morning Routine Do you have a morning routine that helps start your day in industrial water treatment?
1,016 7/6/2018 Stainless vs. Galvanized What are the pros and cons of using stainless steel versus galvanized steel for the wetted areas in cooling towers?
What are the biggest skills gaps in the water treatment sales force today, and what is being done to address them to ensure
1,017 7/9/2018 Skills Gaps (peer submitted)
future capability?
1,018 7/10/2018 Film Forming Amines & Boilers What is your experience with using film-forming-amine-based treatment to protect boiler systems from corrosion and scale?
1,019 7/11/2018 Heavy vs. Light Industrial Water Treatment Regarding heavy versus light industrial water treatment, are there different skillsets required and why?
1,020 7/13/2018 Absorption Chiller Lithium Bromide Testing Which labs offer testing of lithium bromide solutions in absorption chillers?
Which new or upcoming environmental regulations do you foresee impacting the industrial water treatment industry in the
1,021 7/17/2018 Environmental Regulation Impact
next 5 years?
1,022 7/19/2018 FRC & SAC Resin What is the effect of free residual chlorine on strong acid cation (SAC) resin?
Are portable ultrasonic flowmeters reliable and what are some tips for using them in the field? Which models do you
1,023 7/20/2018 Portable Ultrasonic Flowmeters
recommend?
 What is a closed loop? How do you define it? Can a system with water in a tank exposed to the atmosphere still be called a
1,024 7/23/2018 What is a Closed Loop?
closed loop system?
How often should operators of a chiller and cooling tower system test their water or should they rely solely upon automation
1,025 7/25/2018 Operator Testing Frequency - Cooling System
and their Water Treatment Professional's periodic results?
1,026 7/26/2018 Flocculant Characteristics What are the range of characteristics that differentiate one flocculant from another?
1,027 7/31/2018 Over Stabilized Bromine Can stabilized bromine programs become "over stabilized" in a cooling system and, if so, how does one recover?
1,028 8/6/2018 Gaseous Hydrogen Sulfide What is the odor threshold and danger of gaseous hydrogen sulfide?
1,029 8/8/2018 Amphoteric What does amphoteric mean, and why is it important in industrial water treatment?
1,030 8/11/2018 Facilities Managers What should Facilities Managers know about water treatment?
1,031 8/15/2018 Small is Big What are some examples when small things in water treatment can have BIG effects?
1,032 8/16/2018 Erosion Corrosion Solutions Can erosion corrosion be treated chemically, mechanically, or both?
1,033 8/17/2018 Attending Tradeshows/Conferences? Is anyone attending any tradeshows or conferences in the coming months that they'd like to share?
1,034 8/21/2018 Upcoming Webinars Are there any upcoming webinars the industrial water treatment world should know about?
1,035 8/22/2018 Case Studies What is the secret to getting good case studies from the industrial water treatment professionals in the field?
1,036 8/23/2018 Concentration Polarization In regards to reverse osmosis, what is concentration polarization?
Do you leave the workspace at a client's facility cleaner and more organized than you found it, as you found it, or worse than
1,037 8/24/2018 Client's Workspace
you found it?
1,038 8/27/2018 Spilled Wastewater Polymer How do you clean up spilled wastewater polymer (i.e., flocculant)?
1,039 9/5/2018 Analysis Time Savers What are some time saving tips when conducting water analysis (that do not compromise the quality of results)?
1,040 9/6/2018 Flame Impingement What is flame impingement in a boiler, and why is it a problem?
1,041 9/7/2018 Boiler Stack What can you learn from looking at a boiler stack?
1,042 9/10/2018 RO Reject & Cooling Tower Makeup Can reverse osmosis reject be used for cooling tower makeup, and if so, under what conditions?
1,043 9/12/2018 Hydration Why is it especially important to stay hydrated in the industrial water treatment profession?
1,044 9/14/2018 Boiler Cleaning (peer submitted) What are your rules and procedures for chemically cleaning steam boilers?
1,045 9/17/2018 Who Taught You? Who taught you about industrial water treatment?
1,046 9/21/2018 RO Operational Costs What are the operational costs for a reverse osmosis system providing pretreatment to a boiler?
1,047 10/8/2018 Dairy Water Streams What are the various water streams in a dairy process?
1,048 10/12/2018 Mentally Service Do you "mentally service" your accounts before you arrive so you have a plan and can predict what to expect?
1,049 10/15/2018 Water Treatment & Fuel Usage How can water treatment impact fuel usage for a boiler system?
1,050 10/18/2018 Boiler Blowdown Flash Steam What are some uses for the low-pressure steam from a blowdown flash tank?
1,051 11/2/2018 Humidity vs. Cooling Tower How does humidity affect the performance of a cooling tower?
1,052 11/5/2018 Sales Days On what days of the week do you plan most of your sales activities?
1,053 12/21/2018 Elements? On the Periodic Table, which elements are typically of concern to industrial water treatment?
1,054 2/4/2019 Initial Observation Before running the first water test, what are some things an Industrial Water Treatment Professional should observe first?
1,055 2/6/2019 Inventory Remote Monitoring What technologies are available to remotely monitor the inventory of water treatment products?
1,056 2/11/2019 Servicing Flow Diagram What would a process flow diagram look like for a typical boiler/cooling water treatment visit to a facility?
1,057 2/13/2019 Vibrations What can feeling for vibrations tell you about a water treatment system?
1,058 2/15/2019 Wires Crossed How can miswiring lead to corrosion in a water system?
1,059 2/21/2019 Drop by Drop Chemically, how could a drop of rain differ from a drop of well water?
1,060 3/4/2019 Injection Quill Material of Construction How do you determine the proper material of construction for an injection quill?
1,061 3/5/2019 Project List Do you have a working project list for your customer, and do you share this with them?
1,062 3/8/2019 Holding Time Index Calculation How do you calculate the Holding Time Index (HTI) of a cooling tower system?
1,063 3/15/2019 I Don't Know… What if you don't know the answer to a question your customer asks? How should you respond?
1,064 3/27/2019 Treating Chilled Loop with 10% Methanol How would you treat a chilled loop with 10% methanol for corrosion inhibition?
What can cause softener resin beads to disintegrate between one's fingers when inspecting a sample from a softener with
1,065 4/19/2019 Disintegrating Resin Beads
capacity issues?
1,066 4/23/2019 Field Lab Equipment Log Book Do you keep a log book of the times field lab equipment is calibrated (e.g., pH meter, conductivity meter, ORP, PTSA)?
1,067 5/1/2019 Gloves Do you wear gloves when doing your standard water treatment tests?
1,068 6/24/2019 Safety Data Sheet (SDS) What can a Safety Data Sheet (SDS) reveal beyond just the safety aspects of a water treatment product?
1,069 7/5/2019 Specific Gravity What is specific gravity, and how is density calculated from knowing a substance's specific gravity?
1,070 7/8/2019 pH What is pH?
When taking over a water treatment account from someone else, should you just accept the previous water treatment
1,071 7/9/2019 Inherited Water Account
program as correct or question everything?
1,072 7/10/2019 Key Dates What are key dates in the history of water treatment that should be remembered and celebrated?
1,073 7/11/2019 Zeta Potential What is zeta potential?
1,074 7/12/2019 Aerobic Nutrient Ratio Why is the nutriment C:N:P ratio in areobic wastewater treatment typically recommended as between 100:5:1 and 100:10:1?
1,075 7/15/2019 Aluminum & Softeners How will aluminum in the makeup water affect the performance of a water softener?
1,076 7/17/2019 Cooling Tower by the Sea Can a nearby ocean/sea have an impact on the chloride level and conductivity in a cooling tower's recirculating water?
1,077 7/22/2019 Membranes & Chlorine Hours What are "chlorine hours" in regards to membranes?
1,078 7/23/2019 "Gunk Balls" What does the phrase "gunk balls" usually refer to in water treatment?
1,079 7/26/2019 Filming Amines Beyond Condensate How are filming amines being used beyond boiler condensate systems now?
1,080 7/31/2019 Staying Organized How do you stay organized?
1,081 8/5/2019 Galvanized Steel Coupons Can galvanized steel coupons be used in corrosion coupon racks? If so, what are the limitations and tips on using?
1,082 8/9/2019 Terpolymer What is a terpolymer?
1,083 8/12/2019 Industrial Water Treatment Industrial water treatment is…? (One word answers, please.)
1,084 8/15/2019 Characteristics of an Industrial Water Treatment Professional What characteristics should an Industrial Water Treatment Professional have?
1,085 8/16/2019 Seasonal Effects on Cooling Tower Systems What are the effects of seasonal changes on a cooling tower system?
1,086 8/20/2019 Minimum Flow Velocity What is the minimum flow velocity recommended for cooling water systems and why?
1,087 8/21/2019 Year Started in Industrial Water Treated What year did you start in Industrial Water Treatment?
1,088 8/23/2019 Basin Sweeper Jets or Not? When using sidestream filtration on a cooling tower system, do sweeper jets on the basin floor help the overall system or not?
1,089 9/15/2019 Dealkalizer Regeneration with Caustic Why does caustic improve the efficiency of a chloride-cycle dealkalizer regeneration?
1,090 9/24/2019 A Story Do you have a water treatment story you'd like to share?
1,091 9/25/2019 Cooling Tower Blowdown vs. Bleed Does a Cooling Tower have blowdown or bleed (which terminology do you use)?
1,092 9/30/2019 Transmembrane Pressure What is transmembrane pressure and how is it calculated?
1,093 10/2/2019 Getting Evaporative Credit How easy/hard is the process to get evaporative credits for a cooling tower?
1,094 10/25/2019 1 lb in 1,000 Gallons One pound of anything in 1,000 gallons of water is how many ppm?
Do you calculate boiler cycles based upon feedwater or makeup? What are the advantages and disadvantages of each
1,095 10/30/2019 Boiler Makeup vs Feedwater Cycles
method?
1,096 11/1/2019 Confined Spaces What is a "confined space," and what are some examples an Industrial Water Treatment Professional may enter?
1,097 12/2/2019 Dangers What are the dangers that Industrial Water Treatment professionals face each day?
1,098 12/3/2019 Satisfaction What gives you a sense of satisfaction after a long day's work as an Industrial Water Treatment professional?
1,099 12/9/2019 Cleaning RO Iron Fouling How do you clean an iron-fouled reverse osmosis (RO) system?
1,100 12/13/2019 Alkalinity Cycling in Cooling Towers Does alkalinity cycle similarly to chlorides in a cooling tower, and if not, what changes are happening?
Why does the United States typically endeavor to remove all oxygen in boiler water treatment but other countries endeavor
1,101 12/31/2019 Boiler Oxygen Treatment & Control
to control the oxygen? Why the two divergent paths?
1,102 1/2/2020 Geometry How do you use geometry in your everyday job as an Industrial Water Professional?