Services
What We Offer
Cooling Towers
Let’s treat your cooling tower. We have a variety of treatment options that can suit your unique application. We can provide solid feed or liquid chemistry. This includes both inhibitors and biocides. We also have tracer products which use the latest sensor technology where inhibitors levels are controlled automatically. We also have sensors to measure and control free bromine levels. Using this technology can help with your water management plan where you can demonstrate the effectiveness of the treatment program by showing graphs of the key indicators. As shown in the pictures below that shows the graph and the one below that shows the controller with the same sensors installed.
In addition to treatment, we provide legionella testing from an Elite level laboratory, which is the gold standard. We also have at our disposal the latest qPCR testing which provides results in 24 to 48 hours. If you have positive test results, we can assist in implementing a remediation plan.
Steam Boilers
Let Nova help you make your steam boiler less complicated and easier to maintain. We believe that most boiler problems are caused by the garbage in garbage out mentality. 80% of most boiler issues can be eliminated by having softened or high-quality make-up water that has been de-aerated and chemically treated with an oxygen scavenger. Nova can help you provide better make-up water quality by using a water softener, a water softener and de-alkalizer system or reverse osmosis system so that we can eliminate the garbage going into your boiler. Below are examples of a skid-mounted twin softener unit and reverse osmosis skid.
Using our years of experience, we have developed and produced our own line of boiler water treatment chemicals. We can customize a treatment program specifically for your application using various chemicals including sulfites, amines, phosphates, caustic and polymers. We will provide the technical support needed to implement this program by setting up your operators with the correct testing reagents and test procedure along a customized boiler treatment log. During our site visit, our technicians will review the treatment log to ensure that the program is working properly to ensure that boiler system is running efficiently to minimize water, fuel and chemical consumption. It is this cooperation that forms an effective business partnership. Use our design services to upgrade your existing system or get your new system right the first time. We can design Chevy or Cadillac to suit your budget. Below is one of the simpler designs but they can be upgraded include automatic batch making to eliminate hazards to operators, ultrasonic level transducers to visual tank level indication, 4-20 mA output to your BAS system, Cat-5 connections for direct internet communication to your controller system or BACnet compatibility. By using these available services, the only garbage leaving your boiler is through your bottom blow-down.
Closed Loops
Nova Consultants specializes in cleaning up closed loops. We clean up loops that been “treated” for years under a service contract where there are virtually no inhibitors levels present while the signs of corrosion slowly increase. By the time the service contract has expired the damage has already been done. Chuck and a truck treatment company moves on to the next guy’s service contract, while the customer is left holding the bag. This is where Nova comes in. We will take a sample of your loop for a detailed laboratory analysis. Based on the laboratory analysis, we can determine what kinds of corrosion is taking place, whether it is the steel, copper, zinc or aluminum corrosion. Nova will implement a treatment and filtration program. Below is an example of a loop that we cleaned. This loop is a heat pump loop that has an aluminum boiler. The steel piping was corroding from the inside out. The initial iron levels were over 1000 ppm with a pH of 5.5 and falling. In a little over a year, the loop is now clear with inhibitors levels within control limits and most the signs of corrosion have been filtered out.
Nova can provide numerous types of closed loop corrosion inhibitors and inhibited glycol solutions. These glycol solutions include propylene, ethylene, and denatured alcohol mixtures. They can be straight 100% mixtures or any pre-mix percentage that are required for your system to provide adequate freeze protection and inhibitor levels.
Water Management Plans
The world of Water Management has been rapidly evolving and changing in the last 10 years. The need to develop Water Management Plans became a reality for building water systems in 2015 when ASHRAE 188 was finalized as best practices for building owners. This process was slow to roll out until 2017 when CMS required all Health Care Facilities to develop a plan to receive Medicare Funds. The ability to set-up and manage a plan became more cumbersome in 2020 when ASSE 12080 certification for a legionella water specialist became the ANSI standard. In 2022, the Joint Health Commission expanded its jurisdiction to include water management plans as part of the accreditation process. In 2023 ASHRAE Standard 514 significantly broadened the scope of water management plans to include the prevention of other water-borne pathogens along with legionella. For Hospitals 2023 also included the adoption of AAMI Standard 108 for sterile processing departments. This standard includes water quality testing for utility water, critical water, steam, and condensate systems which need to be incorporated into a Water Management Plan.
All these new standards and regulations can be a daunting task for the average building owner. Let Nova Consultants’ certified ASSE 12080 certified legionella water safety specialists can assist in you with all of your management needs including:
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Determining the need for a Water Management Plan.
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Performing initial risk assessment and site survey.
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Develop a Water Management Plan.
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Once the Plan is developed & implemented, validate the process.
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Develop legionella sampling plans and if necessary, take the samples.
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Review test results and take remedial actions when necessary.
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Perform annual review of WMP and make changes based on results.
Chemical Cleanings
Nova has several chemical cleaning processes which can remove scale, iron oxide and other deposits to bring the inside of the system pipes, boilers, chiller tubes and heat exchanger back to bare metal. This will improve your heat transfer back to original design conditions which will reduce your fuel or energy cost while also reducing friction losses in your piping system so that your pump is not pumping against higher head pressures making your pump run more efficiently for a further reduction in energy cost. The type of cleaning needed is based on what on the deposit in your system. A deposit laboratory analysis is the best way to determine which cleaning is best for you. We have several nonhazardous cleanings to remove iron and scale and when necessary several hazardous cleanings using inhibited acids. Below are samples taken during a non-hazardous cleaning which show the levels of iron increasing in the cleaning solution as the internal rust is being removed from a piping system. This is followed by the before and after pictures of a 4” spool piece that was removed before and after the chemical cleaning, The final picture shows what the system water looked like before and after a chemical cleaning. For this customer it was a game-changing system reset.
Water Disinfections
Nova has the capability to perform water disinfections. This includes disinfection of domestic water, non-potable water and laboratory grade water systems. This includes new construction and modifications to existing systems. Nova Consultants has worked with local design engineering forms to produce standard drawing details to safely disinfect existing systems to eliminate the risk of cross-contamination. Below is a copy of this drawing detail.
Nova also has available several different disinfectant solutions to best suit your application. This includes sodium hypochlorite, hydrogen peroxide and chlorine dioxide. We also perform emergency disinfections when necessary. Most disinfections are performed using our mobile hand cart. This allows us to make a quick connection with minimum impact on your site. After the disinfection we will take an E-Coli sample to an approved lab or when dictated by job specification also take legionella or other water borne pathogens for approved laboratory analysis.
Training
A water treatment program is only as good as the operators and facilities technicians that run them. The more that they know, the better the results. Let us assist you in raising the level of your staff. We provide numerous training programs every year. They can be remote through Microsoft Teams, in person at your facility or a hybrid of both. These programs include Boiler Operations training, Cooling Tower Operations training, glycol and closed loop treatment programs and Legionella control for both cooling towers and domestic water. Here is a partial list of our recent presentations which even include presentations at the national 2024 AWT Annual Convention.