Imchlo
Imchlo, products and services for sustainable cooling water bio-control.
What are the challenges of hypochlorite acid use?
Hypochlorous acid (HOCl)/hypochlorite (OCl-)is very reactive. Due to this high and non-selective (it reacts with almost all substances and not just bacteria) reactivity of hypochlorite, a large part of it reacts without biocodal effect.
Because of this , an 'excess' must be dosed in the cooling water to guarantee good biological control. After all, the bacterial effect is only guaranteed if there is sufficient biocidal active material left in the water.
Due to this overdose, undesirable reactions occur when using hypochlorous acid, causing so-called Disinfection By Products (DBP). These DBP are often chlorinated hydrocarbons that are carcinogenic and unwanted in the environment.
Furthermore, the overdose of chlorine bleach in the cooling water creates a very corrosive environment, causing strong corrosion of steel pipes and heat exchangers in the cooling system.
Finally, due to the high reactivity, the biofilm penetration of chlorine bleach is very low. As a result, despite the high biocidality, the effect on biofilm control is often insufficient.
