The increasing scarcity of fresh water — driven partly by strong global economic growth — is propelling demands to use seawater in cooling water systems. Seawater is widely used for cooling in many areas of the world, particularly in the Mediterranean, Middle East, Latin America and Pacific regions.

Adoption of sustainable practices often is stifled by lack of information, data and quantifiable results. These unknowns need to be addressed in order to validate findings and reassure decision-makers about their efforts to embrace alternate solutions.

While preparing for $35 million plant expansion between 2017 and 2018, the engineering team at Wako Chemicals U.S.A., a wholly owned subsidiary of FujiFilm, realized they needed to increase cooling capacity and provide a level of redundancy. At its facility in Richmond, Va., the producer of antibodies, enzymes, molecular biology, and bio and organic chemicals opted to replace and upgrade the facility’s primary R-22 process cooling chiller system.

Temperature control units are relatively simple in their design and operation, but the impact they have on industrial processes can be significant. To better understand this, it is important to review.