Corrosion may cause deleterious problems in cooling water systems and typically, when poorly controlled, may lead to decreased plant efficiency due to loss of heat transfer or even equipment failure. Most industrial cooling towers utilize orthophosphate, polyphosphates or other phosphorous-containing water treatment programs as corrosion mitigation measures. However, the use of such corrosion inhibitors is steadfastly becoming the object of federal and local regulations due to phosphorous contamination of surface water. In this regard, this paper details the technological development of non-phosphorous corrosion inhibitor for use of cooling water systems. Extensive testing of the non-phosphorous corrosion inhibitor clearly shows excellent corrosion inhibition efficiency in a wide range of cooling water conditions including compatibility with oxidizing biocides. Remarkably, this non phosphorous corrosion inhibitor also performs in high chloride contain cooling water. In general, treatment programs in such highly corrosive cooling water conditions require high level phosphate to achieve acceptable carbon steel corrosion rate. This highly tunable technology allows for corrosion mitigation strategies in response to new corrosion challenges in cooling water system not only to meet more stringent environment regulations but also to address corrosive water systems.
