COOL SENSE - Minimizing chemicals discharge and health hazards at cooling circuits by a novel sensing approach

Cooling circuits are treated by the injection of a variety of chemicals, in order to limit scaling, corrosion and above all biofouling. Biofouling has two adverse effects: the reduction of cooling performance and the development of infectious micro-organisms, such as Legionella Pneumophilla and of various species of amoebas. Controlling the process of chemicals injection is difficult with regard to the prevention of biofouling. Therefore these chemicals are provided in excess, with the consequence that biocide substances and disinfection by-products are unnecessarily released to the environment. The COOLSENSE project aimed at providing a cost effective approach for the control of biofouling prevention. The applied approach was based on innovative sensor systems, which rely on the application of recently developed electronics manufacturing technologies.