Development of an Anti-corrosion and Anti-scaling Ingredient Based on Bark Extracts for Cooling Towers and Other Closed Systems

Cooling towers are essential for dissipating heat from buildings. There are over 2 million of them in North America. Their regular maintenance requires large quantities of chemicals.

TGWT, a Canadian leader in green chemistry, markets alternative products composed of tannins. These products come from abroad and TGWT wishes to develop biosourced products from Quebec, in collaboration with Innofibre. This project aims to evaluate the effectiveness of Quebec bark extracts in inhibiting corrosion and scale for use as a replacement for conventional products. The extracts that will be studied contain several phenolics. The literature mentions that antioxidant molecules, such as phenolics in plant extracts, can play an anti-corrosion or anti-scaling role. It is therefore expected that the extracts studied will be able to fulfill these roles.

For TGWT, these new products, which will probably be commercialized around 2027-2028, will allow it to increase its competitiveness on the Canadian and American markets. For Quebec, this circular economy project will make it possible to replace imported products with local resources, support the emerging extractible sector, create wealth for the forest industry and create new jobs.