I am looking for the downside effects of using DI water in a open tank chiller.
Is their any?
Is their any?
DI water use in chiller
jimp
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Is it straight water in this open tank chiller, or is there glycol and/or other chemicals mixed in? I would think if there is glycol or other chemicals in there then the distilled water would be a good thing.
If it's just water, theoretically the distilled water might cause issues with rusting/corroding faster than tap or other water with minerals in it would.
What is the application/what type of chiller is this? I think the only open type chillers I have ever seen (besides drinking fountains) were for keeping beer lines cold. Is this a small system like that, or is it a large chiller used to cool down a building?
If it's just water, theoretically the distilled water might cause issues with rusting/corroding faster than tap or other water with minerals in it would.
What is the application/what type of chiller is this? I think the only open type chillers I have ever seen (besides drinking fountains) were for keeping beer lines cold. Is this a small system like that, or is it a large chiller used to cool down a building?
No Glycol, just DI water, DI water is Deionized. Distilled isn't the same.
What level of DI water is it. A manufacturing plant in KC was dumping DI 10 waste water into the sewer. It ate the sewer pipe. That was years ago and I had to design the neutralization system. You need to find out what grade of DI water you have and then find out how active it is in the system you have. One thing I do remember is that stagnant DI water goes septic pretty quick. Wish I could help more but it's been too many years.
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You got me curious, so I looked up the difference between deionized and distilled water. From stuff that I just read I learned that DI water is very corrosive and can eat through pretty much any metal including copper and stainless much easier than "normal" water can, so I guess that might be a downside.
I don't really know what I'm talking about here, but if that's all you have available maybe you could "re-ionize" it somehow to make it less corrosive. I'm thinking maybe mix in some tap water or a pinch of salt or something?
Could you explain what type of chiller this is and/or why you need to use DI water? I'm just curious more than anything. There's a guy that pops in here from time to time called SLCtech that works on top secret government process stuff. I'd bet he could add some insight if we could summon him somehow.
It has (3) brazed plates, but it also has copper and brass in the system, so the DI will cause corrosion. They even went to the extreme of installing a EC transmitter in the loop which will open a solenoid to a deionizer, which will assure the water is pure.
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What will prevent the DI water from corroding everything it touches? Is the chiller built to withstand DI water?
PHM
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PHM
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From my research, DI will eat the copper. Their is copper in the system.
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DI water really has to be kept in glass. It is 'ion hungry' and will pull them out of virtually anything it contacts. And by the way; as soon as it does - it's no long DI. <g>
I was just curious how the engineering team was proposing to protect the chiller and piping.
PHM
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I was just curious how the engineering team was proposing to protect the chiller and piping.
PHM
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For DI water you can use copper. But better is just stainless (304 or 316) on the DI side and as stated a mixed resin bed is needed to maintain the water pure. Maintenance on the system needs to be much more frequent than a standard chilled water system. Large generators like in power plant use DI water for part of the cooling because the electrical resistance is very high. However the DI water nedds to be highly oxygenated or contain very low levels of oxygen. DI when oxygen levels are high or very low the ion tranfer rate is the least, which is probably why the open tank is being specified. The mixed resin bed probably will not last very long. If there is copper in the DI loop when the resin bed is opened; if there is green or blue green colorseen in the resin that is copper. The cyclotron guys are going to have to inspect their equipment on a frequent basis for copper bridging. Copper bridging betewwen energized components creates an electric circuit
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jimp,
Hate to disagree, it appears Greg's perspective is about potable water type sytems, not industrial process, when I look at their website and agree copper should not be used there.
Every large electrical generator like in a large power plant that is water cooled uses copper, but there are filters, a resin bed, and if kept highly oxygenated the copper passivates, (forms hard black patina) and works just fine with DI water. General Electric build highly oxygenated machines. Westinghouse/Seimens buld low oxygenated machines. Low to no oxygen in the DI water works the same way. Seen many machines with decade of age, still in acceptable condition. Know of one hewater to water heat exchanger with raw water (treated river water) on shell side with DI on tube side with 20 year old tube bundle (no plugged tubes)
It appears the OP is talking about a industrial system
Good Luck
Hate to disagree, it appears Greg's perspective is about potable water type sytems, not industrial process, when I look at their website and agree copper should not be used there.
Every large electrical generator like in a large power plant that is water cooled uses copper, but there are filters, a resin bed, and if kept highly oxygenated the copper passivates, (forms hard black patina) and works just fine with DI water. General Electric build highly oxygenated machines. Westinghouse/Seimens buld low oxygenated machines. Low to no oxygen in the DI water works the same way. Seen many machines with decade of age, still in acceptable condition. Know of one hewater to water heat exchanger with raw water (treated river water) on shell side with DI on tube side with 20 year old tube bundle (no plugged tubes)
It appears the OP is talking about a industrial system
Good Luck
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