Patent ID: 7998352
Filing Date: 2011-08-16
Classification: C02F,C23F,F22B,G05D

Abstract:
1. A method of inhibiting and/or removing a deposit from an internal surface in a hot water system by controlling a real-time oxidation-reduction potential (“ORP”) at operating temperature and pressure in the hot water system, the method comprising: (a) defining one or more operational protective zones (“zone” or “zones”) in the hot water system; (b) selecting at least one of the defined zones, wherein one or more of the selected zones includes at least one ORP probe operable to measure the real-time ORP at operating temperature and pressure, wherein said operating temperature and pressure vary depending on whether the hot water system is online and operational or in a phase of a layup sequence, and operable to communicate with a controller; (c) assigning an ORP setting to one or more of the selected zones; (d) optimizing one or more of the assigned ORP settings to inhibit deposition or to cause release of at least a portion of the deposit into the water of the online hot water system; (e) either intermittently or continuously measuring the real-time ORP in situ at one or more of the selected zones; (f) transmitting the measured real-time ORP to the controller; (g) assessing whether the measured real-time ORP or a calculated ORP based upon the measured real-time ORP conforms to the optimized ORP setting; and (h) taking action to change the real-time ORP, if the measured real-time ORP or the calculated ORP does not conform to the ORP setting, wherein said action includes feeding an effective amount of one or more active chemical species into the hot water system and/or altering the temperature of one or more zones in the hot water system to inhibit deposition or to cause release of at least the portion of the deposit.