Cooling towers are one of the great workhorses of industrial installations. They have enormous advantages from the point of view of process efficiency and economy, but they have an Achilles’ heel: they require extraordinarily rigorous maintenance since they present health risks, especially the possibility of the appearance of legionella bacteria, so they are subject to strict regulations regarding the establishment and monitoring of maintenance programs.
Hygienic-sanitary maintenance operations include, among others, water treatment, cleaning and disinfection programs to prevent the appearance of Legionella outbreaks, for the application of which specialized and adequately trained personnel are not usually available, and external advice and management is required.
NALCO Ecolab is a world leader in water treatment solutions and is responsible not only for proposing the most suitable formulations for the treatment of cooling water, but also for the management of the customer’s installations.
Once the appropriate type of treatment and dosage have been determined, it monitors the consumption of the additive tanks at the customer’s premises and, when they reach a preset level, it carries out the refilling operation. This requires a high level of flexibility in deliveries, as they must be made in a timely manner to avoid failures in maintenance schedules.
The operation of replenishing additives, generally chemical compounds of a certain hazardous nature, is subject to compliance with strict health and safety regulations, and NALCO chose BDTrans as its preferred partner for this operation thanks to its “transfer service“. Thus, when it is detected that a tank needs to be replenished, NALCO generates a delivery order to BDTrans, which, through its equipment and specialized personnel, is in charge of carrying it out at the customer’s facilities.
In order to carry out these operations, BDtrans not only complies with the regulations of Coordination of Business Activities (necessary to operate in third party facilities), but also follows the internal safety protocol ZDD (Zero Defect Delivery), which NALCO requires to carry out the transfer, and which includes all the requirements of training and accreditation, use of specific personal protective equipment, and correct sequence of operations to certify the safety of the transfer.
BDTrans has not had a single safety incident in transfer service operations for more than 15 years, which proves that besides being a fully automated process, it is completely safe for both people and facilities.
