shellfish growth in the intake pipelines of desalination plants?

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Hello, I want to know what is the recommended approach for suppressing shellfish growth in the intake pipelines of desalination plants?thanks in advance.

3 Answers

  2. Hi Ria: An innovative approach to effectively remove barnacles from desalination plant intakes includes sequential addition of sodium hypochlorite at a dosage of 5 to 15 mg/L for 6 to 8 hours followed by the addition of sulfuric acid at dosages of 120 to 180 mg/L for 6 to 8 hours. While the chlorine helps to kill the shellfish attached to the pipe walls, the sulfuric acid dissolves the biological glue by which they are attached to the walls and they are than collected at the intake screens by the incoming seawater.

  3. Hi Ria, What has worked effectively for me is to have a small trace of Free Chlorine in the feed water (typically 0.2 - 0.5 mg/L Free Chlorine). Then periodically slug dose a larger concentration (5-10ppm). Slug dose should be irregular, to prevent organisms acclimatising to the daily rhythm. I've reviewed pipework after 24 months and 5 years and had no barnacle growth observed using this regime. This can be done using either liquid hypochlorite (Sodium), or by using electrochlorination (cheaper but has drawbacks). The free chlorine should be applied as close as possible to the intake structure (growth will occur from the point of intake). Hope this helps. Anthony