Research and application progress of electrochemical water quality stabilization technology for recirculating cooling water in China: A short review

Electrochemical water quality stabilization technology is a novel and active technique for quality control of recirculating cooling water. This paper firstly expounds the mechanism of that technology on scale cleaning, sterilization, algae and organic substances removal. Then, the material, function and selection basis of anode, cathode and power supply system are introduced. The typical forms of electrochemical devices on the market (i.e. manual and automatic), and system installation forms (i.e. directly immersive type and outer tank operated type) are systematically summarized, of which the relevant factors influencing the treatment effect (i.e. electrical indexes, power supply mode, hydraulic retention time, the cathode and water quality parameters) are accordingly analyzed. Ultimately, we review the applications of electrochemical water quality stabilization technology in practical recirculating cooling water system reported in China. It is pointed out that future perspective of research and practice should be to highlight the technology performance improvement and the application cost reduction.