Effective calcium protection for a recognized research institute

Effective calcium protection for a recognized research institute

When a doctor tells a patient that "your arteries are calcified", he or she means that deposits have built up in the patient's arteries and are interfering with blood circulation. The sanitation system at the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry in Munich suffered from the same problem for several years - and the "symptoms" got worse and worse: calcification of the plate heat exchangers was detected, which had serious consequences. This was even though the "patient", i.e. the institute, had received rejuvenating treatment shortly beforehand.

The Max Planck Institute's extensive building complex houses the scientific facilities, administration and management, a library - and even a kindergarten... The buildings date from the 1970s, which can be seen in the hot water tanks with pipework. the hot water tanks with tube heat exchangers that they had been in use for many years. As part of the modernization of the sanitary facilities, they were replaced with modern hot water modules.

Extremely high demands on the hot water supply 

An institute where around 850 employees carry out cell research, among other things, places extremely high demands on sanitary technology: The strict hygiene requirements for the hot water system had to be met and the risk of legionella from the central drinking water heating system had to be minimized. At the same time, no disinfection chemicals were to be used in the long pipe network.

Therefore, the institute decided in favor of a system that effectively kills the legionella bacteria that enter the hot water installation from the cold-water network via thermal disinfection. Initially, the positive effect failed to materialize; on the contrary, the old limescale deposits led to a noticeable drop in the performance of the plate heat exchangers. A specialized company needed to clean the heat exchangers before the positive effect could take effect.