Cost-orientated control of a regenerable filter

Abstract

A process of cost-optimized control of a mechanical filter that is situated in a flow of cooling water driven by a cooling water pump in a heat exchanger and that can be regenerated by means of a flushing system involves the following steps: at least one measurement value is determined from which the filter's current degree of soiling is derived and this value is fed to a flush command generator; by means of the functional dependencies and/or data stored in the flush command generator a first and a second performance loss are calculated at predeterminable intervals, the first performance loss comprising the performance loss due to the filter's degree of soiling and the second performance loss comprising the performance loss due to a flushing operation at the current degree of soiling; from the progression over time of the first computed performance loss are determined the total performance losses since the last regeneration as a result of the soiling of the filter; a current second energy loss is calculated for each regenerating operation, containing the second performance loss multiplied by the duration of the regenerating operation; each current second energy loss is added in to the currently accumulated total energy loss and the sum is divided by the time expired since the last regeneration, including the time required for a regenerating operation; the progression over time of this quotient is monitored and a regenerating operation is triggered when this quotient has gone through a minimum and is rising again.