University Avoids Construction Debris in Chillers

A university needed to keep construction debris out of its new air conditioning system chillers and charge the 3-inch to 36-inch system pipelines for hydrostatic testing prior to, and during construction.

Rain for Rent’s proposal to flush the pipe system and remove particles over 10 microns was chosen.

The project consisted of two sites. First, the chiller plant to provide chilled water to new and existing buildings. Second, the utility corridor, consisted of underground tunnels and buried 36-inch and 24-inch pipe to distribute both chilled water and steam for heating.

The system started with three 21,000 gallon coated tanks manifolded together to hold 84,000 gallons of clean water for flushing. The tanks were manifolded to three 12-inch DV300i pumps and one 8-inch HH150 high head pump.

The pumps were manifolded together to provide flushing through 36-inch HDPE pipe at the chiller plant.

The flushed lines then fed 11 BF-100 bag filters. The filters were set up in stages with micron bags stepping down from 100 microns to 50, then 25 and lastly 10 micron bags. Water from the filtration section flowed back into a second 36-inch pipe, with a slip-stream flowing through a portable water quality monitoring system (PWQMS) to take readings of the water to ensure filtration specification.

Upon flowing back through the pipe, the water came back to the chiller plant side through another series of 11 BF-100 filters, using the same method of filtration, working from 100 micron Bags down to 10 micron Bags. This water then flowed into a third manifold flowing through the rear of the frac tanks, after flowing through a second PWQMS to check outcome before the system sent water to re-circulate.

All equipment had shut-off valves in the event that any piece had to be isolated. After the two 36-inch lines had been flushed, an 8-inch extra High-Head Pump flushed out the 12, 8 and 3-inch pipes using the same process.