When we think of NASA, we usually think of achievements in exploring outer space — but it might surprise you that NASA is also a master of inner space.
NASA's Vehicle Assembly Building, located at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, is one of the largest buildings in the world. Originally built for the assembly of Saturn rockets and Apollo spacecraft which sent astronauts to the moon, the building now supports the Space Shuttle program.
Perhaps some comparisons will help you understand how large the Vehicle Assembly Building is:
- The footprint of the building occupies eight acres
- At 525 feet, it is 200 feet taller than the Statue of Liberty
- The enclosed volume (129,428,000 cubic feet) equals 3.75 Empire State Buildings
As you might imagine, the Vehicle Assembly Building requires an enormous air conditioning system. Two cooling towers, one 10,000 tons and the other 12,050 tons, are used to keep the facility cool.
But the air conditioning cooling towers were causing trouble for NASA. Even with supplemental chemical dosing, NASA was only achieving about four cycles of concentration per blowdown. In layman's terms, water could run through the system only about four times before a complete flushing was required.
In an environmentally sensitive area such as on Florida's coastline, achieving only four cycles of concentration was unacceptable performance. It not only wasted valuable fresh water, but it also violated NASA's operating permit. Further complications included the costly replacement of condenser tubes at regular intervals due to the rapid buildup of scale inside the tubes.
NASA turned to a completely engineered solution now offered by Water Energy. Precisely measured amounts of dissolved ozone were injected at specific points along the cooling water loop to facilitate a consistent level of dissolved ozone throughout the system. This ozone replaced the traditional chemical dosing that was causing the rapid buildup of TDS (scale-forming factors) in the system. The ozone works to eliminate contaminants and purify the cooling water to prevent bio-fouling and increase efficiency of the system.
This new ozone system has been in operation for the last four years at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center and has allowed the cooling towers to achieve between 10 and 12 cycles of concentration between blowdowns.
Thanks to ozone technology, NASA's Vehicle Assembly Building waste treatment is once again compliant with waste treatment facility regulations — and the condenser tubes are clean — all without supplemental chemical dosing.
