Sources of Water for Cooling System Makeup

Water is a universal solvent, and as a result all sources of water used for domestic and industrial purposes contain various concentrations of dissolved minerals and gases, in addition to suspended solids and biological matter. The relative amounts of each of these impurities tend to vary considerably with geographic location and season, resulting in countless permutations of water type and quality around the world potentially available for use as makeup to cooling systems. As a precursor to looking at these sources of water, a recap of some fundamentals of water chemistry relevant to our purpose is provided here. 

An unavoidable result of this supply-and-demand relationship is that water for cooling systems and other industrial purposes is today seldom available in desired quantities and qualities, necessitating strict usage controls and usually some form of pretreatment. 

Of course, for many large industrial cooling systems, the level of supply water pretreatment provided may be less than ideal for the makeup water 

The growing availability of computerized predictive modeling and data management systems in the field is providing helpful new tools to aid control under these more difficult operating conditions. Nevertheless, interpreting data and providing suitable practical recommendations for corrective action still remain essentially a human function. 

Water for use as makeup can be obtained from a wide variety of sources including those discussed here. 

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