Compositions comprising transition metals for treating and monitoring liquid systems

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to avoid all of the aforementioned problems by incorporating a transition metal compound as a tracer into a treatment formulation for industrial process waters to provide lo quantitative measurement and control of treatment chemical feed rate and performance.
The phrase "transition metal compound" as used herein is intended to include transition metal ions, oxyanions, cations and associated complexes which are soluble in water.
This phrase is also intended to include those compounds which form these ions, cations, oxyanions and complexes in water.
The water soluble species are especially suitable for quantitative measure.
This measurement allows for the calculated control of the feed rate of water and water treatment chemicals in fluid systems such as industrial process waters.
Most industrial operations utilize some aqueous systems which must be treated before being transferred to the environment; recycled to the system or process; or fed to the system or process.
Preferably, aqueous systems are contemplated by this invention which include, but are not limited to, domestic wastewater, process wastewater, cooling water systems, boiler water or any other aqueous system that is treated physically or chemically before use in a process, during use in a process or before discharge to the environment where it is necessary to quantify the effects of the physical or the chemical treatment.
This invention can also be utilized in a broad range of aqueous, mixed aqueous/non-aqueous, or non-aqueous liquid systems where the level of physical or chemical treatment affects performance of the system.
The most preferred aqueous system contemplated by this invention involves the treatment of cooling waters used in cooling systems.
Cooling systems used in industrial processes typically include multiple water flow pathways through heat-exchangers, multiple sources of "makeup" and "blowdown" water, and control means for maintaining desired process conditions