Cooling towers – orcooling towers – they are used to cool the process water by direct or indirect exchange with the ambient air.
They are used as heat disposal systems in those industrial or air conditioning processes where thermal cycles are present (such as hospitals, steel mills, food industries...) for which it is essential, in order for the cycle itself to be completed and industrial production to continue, that the process water be cooled and reintegrated into the production cycle.
Their operation is based on the natural principle of evaporative cooling, which, through exchange with ambient air, reduces the temperature of process water by evaporating a small part of it.
There are different types of cooling towers, although they all operate on the same basic principle:
The most common type is counter flow (whether forced or induced) because it provides greater operating efficiency.
Read more in the article What is an cooling tower and how does it work?
Industrial cooling towers are usually placed near refrigeration plants, as they are a component of them.
A cooling tower can be found within commercial, hospital, civil or industrial air conditioning(HVAC), power generation and industries(process cooling of steel mills, automotive, food, plastics, chemical-pharmaceutical industries... ).
The cooling tower works as a water-to-air heat exchanger in which the water mass is cooled by exchange with the ambient air.
In the case of cooling towers at open circuit, the direct encounter of air with process water allows a small amount of water to evaporate and the remaining part to cool to a lower temperature, which will be recirculated in the industrial process.
In cooling towers at closed-circuit, while still based on the principle of evaporative cooling, the process water remains inside a heat exchanger, without coming into contact with the ambient air, thus remaining free from possible contamination.
Read more in the article What is an cooling tower and how does it work?
An cooling tower consists of several sections:
There are different types of industrial cooling towers:
Both can in turn be:
Adequate water treatment for cooling towers It allows the circulation water of the tower to be kept within optimal limits, avoiding corrosion of the surfaces of the collection tank, the formation of localized or diffuse encrustations, the development of biofilm, legionella or other micro-bacteria. It is a treatment carried out by specialists with chemicals that are not harmful to humans but are very effective in preventing these negative phenomena inside the cooling system.
Considering that there is no single water treatment but this must be configured according to numerous aspects (including the size of the plant, the quality of the water, the specificities of the evaporative tower, etc.), it is very important, when involving water treatment specialists, to provide them with all the necessary indications to study the most appropriate treatments for the purpose. In this regard, to learn more about the main chemical-physical values accepted by Decsa cooling towers based on the materials used for their construction, read the article: "Legionella in cooling towers: how can we avoid it?"
An evaporative condenser is a heat exchanger with a shell-and-tube coil that, by means of the principle of evaporative cooling of water, allows a refrigerant gas to be cooled and condensed.
Read the article"What is and how does an evaporative condenser work" for more details.
By performing proper cleaning and maintenance of the cooling tower, the proliferation of bacteria, including legionella, can be prevented. High water temperature inside the system and humidity can result in the profiling of bacteria that are very dangerous to humans. Good maintenance and appropriate water treatment programs help preserve cooling tower and keep it safe and efficient in performance.
Read the article Legionella in Cooling Towers to learn more, or contact our Service Department to request assistance and define a scheduled maintenance on your tower.
The choice of original components in the cooling towers It ensures the correct operation of the equipment over time, while ensuring the thermal performance provided in the design phase. Genuine spare parts allow you to:
For more details on maintenance and spare parts for cooling towers and evaporative condensers, visit the service page.
Do you need assistance? Contact us to request assistance from our Service Team.
