A Mechanical and Economical Study on the Incorporation of Anti-Microbial Anodized Aluminum in Cooling Towers
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Cooling towers are heat exchangers that achieve cooling by exchanging heat between water and air.They are typically located outdoors and are used around the world for any industrial process in which cooling is involved.They play essential roles in many manufacturing processes, in the food industry, power plants and air conditioning.Organic particles, non-organic particles and micro-organisms suspended in the air can accumulate in the tower and cause it to clog and lose efficiency.This fouling process hinders heat exchange and the formation of a biofilm in particular leads to the proliferation of dangerous bacteria such as Legionella Pneumophila, which can cause a potentially deadly form of pneumonia called legionnaires' disease.In this context, the primary objective of this research is to determine if an anti-microbial anodized aluminum developed by A3Surfaces (AAA) can be successfully implemented to reduce biofilm development and microbial counts in cooling towers.The secondary objective is to establish design considerations and the economic viability of a cooling tower integrating AAA.The antimicrobial efficacy of AAA is evaluated in two separate experiments.First, colony forming units (CFU) were repeatedly measured for experiments involving AAA samples placed in petri dishes with contaminated water.The antimicrobial durability of silver was evaluated for electroplated silver as opposed to samples dipped in a silver nitrate and quaternary ammonium solution prior to sealing.After being tested in a wet environment, they were tested again in a dry-environment and compared to brand new samples.It was shown that as currently fabricated, AAA samples lose their antimicrobial properties.Electroplating improved the biocide durability significantly but still showed a loss in efficacy.Secondly, two identical prototype cooling towers were built and operated with contaminated water: one treated with AAA and one untreated.Bacterial counts (CFU/ml) for each tower were collected weekly.The entire water volume was replaced and the tower was cleaned with 70% isopropyl alcohol in between experiments.The AAA tower lost its capacity to reduce bacterial counts once the water volume was replaced in between runs.vi Lastly, a framework for the design considerations and economical viability of an anti-microbial cooling tower is proposed here.The framework shows how according to the climate, intended use, electricity and water costs, a tower reducing bio-fouling in cooling systems could have economic benefits despite being more expensive.The economic framework shows that a small reduction in annual maintenance, chemical, water or electricity costs can quickly compensate a larger initial investment if we look at the costs over the entire lifespan of the cooling tower.This viability point depends on the intended use of the tower and climatic conditions.Despite AAA not being durable enough as currently fabricated, the literature review suggests many avenues are left to explore to obtain an adequate biocide surface.The economic framework in this research suggests that such surface could potentially reduce the total costs and health risks related to operating a cooling tower.Aci erGa l va ni s é Aci ernoi r Cui vr e1010 Al um i ni um 95 um Al um i ni um 85 um Al um i ni um 80 um Corrosion apparente Corrosion apprente Corrosion sous contrôle Corrosion faible Corrosion faible Corrosion faible
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".