Cooling Water Treatment

Engineered chemistry for the
cooling loops that
run heavy industry.

AquaKem designs and operates cooling water treatment programs that hold corrosion, scale and biological fouling below the thresholds that destroy heat transfer. From a single chiller loop to a refinery-wide tower network — we engineer the chemistry, install the controls, and report against KPIs you can audit.

Explore the program library See how we deliver →
Field Operations · 2025
/ 01
30–50%
reduction in unplanned shutdowns from fouling and corrosion
/ 02
Up to 15%
energy savings through restored heat-transfer efficiency
/ 03
<0.1 mm/y
typical corrosion rate target on mild steel coupons
01 / Why it matters

Cooling water is the cheapest fluid in the plant — and the most expensive to ignore.

Water droplets on polished pipe

A 0.6 mm calcium carbonate film on a heat exchanger tube can raise approach temperature by 4–5 °C and drive compressor power up double digits. A neglected biofilm can shelter bacteria from biocide by three orders of magnitude. A corrosion pit deeper than a tube wall ends production for days.

AquaKem treats cooling water as a controllable engineering system, not a commodity consumable. Every program we deliver is sized to the metallurgy, the heat flux, the make-up chemistry and the operating envelope of the actual plant — and instrumented so that performance is measured, not assumed.

Asset life

Extend tube bundles, pumps and tower fill well beyond design life by holding corrosion below 0.1 mm/y.

Heat transfer

Keep approach temperatures within commissioning spec — protecting throughput and yield.

Operating cost

Lower energy, water, chemical and downtime cost through cycle optimisation and on-line control.

Compliance & safety

Documented Legionella, discharge and biocide compliance ready for audit.

02 / The three failure modes

Three forces destroy cooling systems. Each needs its own chemistry.

Corrosion, scale and biology rarely act alone — they accelerate each other. An AquaKem program addresses all three concurrently, with chemistry chosen for the actual water and metallurgy on site.

/ 01

Corrosion

Dissolved oxygen, low pH, chloride excursions and galvanic couples attack carbon steel, copper alloys and stainless steel — silently thinning tubes, baffles and headers.

  • Carbon steel protection
    Phosphonate / azole inhibitor blends, stabilized zinc programs and pH control for header piping and shell-side surfaces.
  • Copper alloy protection
    Tolyltriazole (TTA) and halogen-stable azole films for admiralty brass and 90/10 cupronickel condensers.
  • MIC mitigation
    Targeted biocide rotation and dispersant chemistry to disrupt SRB and APB colonies under deposits.
  • On-line monitoring
    Linear polarization probes, ER probes and corrosion coupon racks reported monthly.
/ 02

Scale & Deposition

Concentrated cycles drive calcium carbonate, calcium phosphate, silica and iron oxide past saturation — insulating heat-transfer surfaces and choking flow.

  • CaCO₃ control
    Polymeric threshold inhibitors stable to 70 °C skin temperatures and high LSI water.
  • Phosphate & sulfate scales
    Acrylate / sulfonate copolymers tuned to feedwater chemistry and stress regime.
  • Silica & iron management
    Dispersant systems for reactive silica >150 mg/L and iron-rich make-up.
  • Cycle optimization
    Conductivity-based blowdown control to maximise cycles without exceeding saturation indices.
/ 03

Biological Fouling

Warm, oxygenated, nutrient-rich cooling water is an ideal incubator for biofilm, algae and Legionella — degrading heat transfer and creating health risk.

  • Oxidising biocides
    Stabilized bromine, chlorine dioxide and monochloramine programs sized to halogen demand.
  • Non-oxidising rotation
    Isothiazolone, DBNPA and glutaraldehyde rotation to prevent resistance.
  • Biofilm dispersants
    Surface-active polymers that lift sessile organisms for biocide kill.
  • Legionella risk management
    ACoP L8 / ASHRAE 188-aligned monitoring, sampling and risk assessment support.
03 / Program library

Six families of programs.
One engineered to your plant.

Every AquaKem treatment program starts from a base chemistry family, then is dosed, sequenced and monitored for the specific system — metallurgy, heat flux, water source, cycles and discharge constraints.

P-1

Open Recirculating Towers

Integrated corrosion, scale and microbiological control for evaporative cooling towers operating 4–8 cycles of concentration.

P-2

Closed-Loop Systems

Nitrite, molybdate or organic-acid based chemistries for chilled water, hot water and glycol loops.

P-3

Once-Through Cooling

Low-dose dispersant and biofouling control for seawater and river-water cooling with minimal discharge impact.

P-4

HVAC & District Cooling

Compliance-driven programs for commercial chillers, district networks and data-centre heat rejection.

P-5

Heavy Industry

Refineries, petrochemicals, steel mills and power generation — engineered to high-stress, variable-load duty.

P-6

Pre-Treatment Integration

Softening, filtration and side-stream filtration design to extend program performance and cycle limits.

04 / Method

We don't sell drums of chemicals. We deliver an instrumented treatment program.

  1. STEP / 01

    Site audit

    Walk-down of towers, exchangers, basins and chemical feed. We sample, photograph and map every critical loop.

  2. STEP / 02

    Water & deposit analysis

    Full ionic balance, metals, organics and microbiological profile. SEM/EDX on suspect deposits when required.

  3. STEP / 03

    Program engineering

    Saturation modelling, dose calculations, metallurgy review and KPI definition delivered as a written treatment plan.

  4. STEP / 04

    Commissioning

    Chemical feed installation or upgrade, controller tuning, and operator training on dosing, sampling and safety.

  5. STEP / 05

    Monitor & optimise

    Monthly service visits, on-line telemetry, quarterly reviews — chemistry tuned to changing load and water quality.