Microbial Corrosion in Cooling Tower of Ramin Power Plant: Determination and Corrective Solution

Abstract

There is a great importance in investigating and measuring microbial corrosion in the cooling tower of thermal power plants, especially in the case of open cycles. Moreover, this issue becomes more important in the situation where the source of water supply for cooling tower is river or sea water. In this research, the cooling tower water for Ramin Power Plant, which is supplied from the Karun River, is examined as a point of of microbial growth. For this purpose, microbial tests including TBC (general test) and specific bacteria tests such as APB, FP, IRB, NRB, Aero, SRB and TRB, physicochemical tests (conductivity, salinity, pH, turbidity) and the amount anions and cations, are carried out in the water sample of the cooling tower. In the TBC test, the approximate number of bacterial colonies is 107 cfu/ml, which is in a very heavy range. The results of APB and IRB test indicate the value is much higher than the permissible limit and the presence of Aero bacteria. On the other hand, in the analysis of anion and cation, sulfate and chlorine species have a very high concentration of more than 1000 ppm. Therefore, to deal with microbial factors, and as a solution in the first priority, the method of chlorination with water shock is recommended. The second priority includes the general method based on oxidizers such as ozonation and bromination. Selective removal of sulfate and nitrate ions is suggested as the third priority solution due to the high concentration of these ions and the intense activities of SRB and NRB bacteria.

Keywords

• microbial corrosion
• ramin power plant
• corrosion prevention
• total bacteria count
• corrosion monitoring