Mitigation of scaling in heat exchangers by physical water treatment using zinc and tourmaline

This paper presents a study on the mitigation of calcium carbonate scaling in a double-pipe heat exchanger by physical water treatment (PWT) using zinc and tourmaline as catalytic materials. Artificially-hardened water at 300 mgL−1 was utilized as the fluid medium to form fouling deposits. The cooling water (i.e., hard water) velocity was varied from 0.3 to 0.8 ms−1. The inlet temperatures were maintained at 86 ± 1° C and 22 ± 1° C for hot- and cold-water sides, respectively. The results show that in PWT-treatment case, the fouling resistances are 13–50% lower than those in no-treatment case. The SEM image of the deposit shows a blunt shape crystal structure in case of PWT-treatment, while a pointed crystal structure in case of no-treatment. The calcium content of deposits formed in the cases of PWT-treatment is lower by 17–22% than those of the no-treatment, which corresponds to a thinner fouling in case of PWT-treatment.

► Physical water treatment (PWT) is a non-chemical method for scaling mitigation.
► We present the use of catalytic materials as PWT to mitigate scaling in heat exchangers.
► PWT using tourmaline and zinc decreased the fouling resistance by 13–50%.
► There was lower calcium content for deposits after PWT-treatment.
► PWT-treatment case showed thinner fouling deposits when checked visually.