Limescale is deeply disturbed by FloKare
15 Jan 2000
A Portuguese paper company, Fapajal, had trouble with limescale build-up in condensate removal pumps.
Steam for heating the drying cylinders causes condensate which is collected in separators. To prevent air locks, vacuum pumps draw incondensable gases from the top of the separator, but the high temperature caused limescale to build-up within the pump.
The blockages caused up to 60 per cent reduction in diameter of the vacuum pipe. This required costly downtime for acid and manual descaling.
The solution was not to remove solute but to stop it from ever settling.
Using crystallisation disturbance due to induced fields (CDIF) technology from FloKare, an induced magnetic field is generated within the pipework causing small pH changes in the water. Calcium carbonate is particularly sensitive to pH and is destabilised. While other compounds are still precipitated, the hard adherent scale of calcium carbonate is not. Treatment also softens existing scale deposits and are gradually removed from the system through the water flow.
