Choosing the Best Filtration Solution for your Process Cooling Application

Background: A producer of biological buffers determined it was time to replace the old inefficient chillers they had been using for decades as they were becoming too difficult to repair and susceptible to frequent breakdowns. Challenges: To improve efficiency and mitigate potential maintenance costs, the company decided to install new process critical chillers with plate and frame heat exchangers. The new chillers were more efficient, but their design led to contamination and clogging in hard-to-clean areas of the plates. This clogging caused the equipment to shut down and required weekly cleaning by an outside contractor in an inefficient process. The entire system was shut down during each cleaning, resulting in four to five hours of unplanned downtime each week. Even worse, during high production cycles additional contaminants were introduced into the cooling water resulting in emergency calls for additional unscheduled cleanings. Solution: Plant officials approached an Eaton distributor about a self-cleaning filtration solution that would effectively filter contaminants out and prevent their new chillers from clogging and interrupting the process. A customer engineer explained that they had expected the switch to the new chillers to generate some contaminants, but not at the level they were experiencing. What they wanted was a solution that continuously cleaned itself. After reviewing the customer’s operation, needs and goals, Eaton Regional Sales Manager Jim Lago recommended the MCS-500 duplex strainer. This filter offered a higher level of filtration (30 micron) than the previous solution (60 micron), and the efficient design and small footprint allowed for installation in a tight space on the second floor of the production facility. Designed to handle fresh water from treated sources, the High Flow MCS-500 strainer addresses the challenges, water filtration can bring to industrial manufacturing. The MCS-500’s magnetically coupled actuation eliminates the need for dynamic seals. This technology provides quick and easy access for maintenance, reduces potential leaks, and requires few moving parts while providing a long service life. The filters were installed upstream of the new chillers to filter 100 percent of the condenser water supplied to the new process chillers. That means contaminants are filtered out of the water source before it comes into the process. Results: The new filtration system was installed in late August 2015, and the customer reports excellent results so far. The system has eliminated both the need for regular weekly cleaning and the associated cost and downtime, and the unscheduled downtime for emergency cleaning that had adversely impacted productivity.