Biochemica’s award-winning Bio Pack Clean (patent pending) is an in-situ cleaning technology especially developed by Biochemica Water Ltd for pack-fill used within cooling towers to allow a more efficient energy process.

Biochemica recognised that the cost of removing and cleaning cooling tower pack-fill can be significant to companies, as well as the costs associated with the downtime required to undertake the process and sustainability issues. Pack-fill must however, be cleaned as part of health and safety requirements to prevent the occurrence of Legionella (L8), which can proliferate on debris that is deposited on the material over its lifespan. As a solutions-focused company, Biochemica developed Bio Pack Clean to overcome these issues and in response to advice (http://www.hse.gov.uk/legionnaires/removal-coolingtowers.htm) from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

Removing pack-fill poses a number of challenges to a company, as well as dangerous threats to those undertaking the removal and cleaning process. Removal is a dangerous task, requiring numerous people to work at height within the tower, with the process taking around a fortnight. In this time, the tower must be shutdown – incurring the company costs. Pack-fill can often be brittle and difficult to remove, and is costly to replace. If replacement is required, the old pack-fill is disposed of at a landfill.

By eliminating these challenges, companies can save significant costs and time expense as well as benefit from a huge reduction in manpower requirements. The product allows simple logistics of execution with the process requiring just one day – a 99% saving of downtime.  Cleaning pack-fill allows a more efficient heat transfer process within the tower, bringing environmental benefits. As a result of using the product, the cooling system’s heat transfer is improved by around 30%. In large systems this allows sizeable long-term energy and cost savings. The product takes just one day to apply with immediate results. The foam also allows areas which can be difficult to reach to be cleaned easily.

The first commercial application of the product saved the company from complete pack-fill replacement (£250,000). By cleaning the pack-fill using Bio Pack Clean (£25,000), a huge saving of 90% was made, without considering future energy cost savings.

Although Bio Pack Clean is currently used to clean cooling tower pack-fill, there is potential for the product to be adopted in the wider water industry – including those within the wastewater field – and other sectors.

The product has been designed as such that it can benefit a multitude of industries, including energy, as it can be applied to any infrastructure requiring pack-fill. The product is also suited to solve problems where different materials cannot be cleaned easily to remove bio-foul, scaling and calcite deposits, such as air scrubbers.

Bio Pack Clean achieves numerous sustainability benefits as it allows a responsible management of resources, helping to reduce the carbon footprint made by industry. By using the product for cleaning cooling tower pack-fill, the robustness and lifespan of the material is addressed, assuring long-term sustainability benefits.

As the product evolves and reaches out to additional sectors, Biochemica – a company proud to be solutions-focused – will look to address further sustainability issues that arise.

Find out More

If you are interested in Biochemica’s award-winning Bio Pack Clean technology, please contact us today. For more details on the awards this pioneering product has won, please see the Awards page.