TREVOSE, Pa. - GE has introduced a new technology platform called TrueSense™ that gives users tools designed to optimize efficiency and increase water savings in the monitoring and control of cooling tower systems, which are used in industrial facilities to cool production equipment and in large commercial and institutional facilities for air conditioning.

According to GE, TrueSense integrates three new and unique functionalities into one platform: direct online monitoring of critical water chemistries; personal instrumentation that significantly cuts offline testing time; and a powerful data analysis and display capability that provides insight into system status.

Cooling tower systems are used for production in many industrial plants and for comfort cooling in commercial and institutional facilities. Corrosion, deposition, and microbiological fouling must be kept at bay to avoid damage to equipment and system inefficiencies, which can result in losses in production and/or excessive water and energy consumption, said GE. In addition, microbiological growth that is not tightly controlled can result in increased employee and community exposure to health risks such as Legionnaires’ disease.

“Maintaining cooling system efficiency to manage costs and minimize our water footprint is a critical aspect of our operation,” said Terry Black, water treatment supervisor at NMLK Indiana, a Portage, Ind.-based steel mini-mill specializing in the production of hot rolled coils. “With TrueSense, we now have seen the impact of a much more precise and timely understanding of our water chemistry. This information has enabled us to optimize the amount of chemicals and water that we use and gives us the ability to operate the system more efficiently, leading to cost savings and less water used.”

Decisions about how to operate a cooling tower system from a water treatment perspective impact total operational costs related to fresh water consumption, energy consumption, cooling tower treatment chemicals, and wastewater discharge, noted GE. Optimization of a cooling system using TrueSense is said to yield an estimated total operating cost savings of 25 percent or more when enabled with the right treatment chemistry. In a moderately sized industrial cooling tower, a system running under optimal conditions could save nearly $400,000 per year in fresh water acquisition costs alone, said the company.

For more information, visit www.ge.com.

Publication date: 08/23/2010