Sage-Tips

What process is used to cool the water in a cooling tower?

A cooling tower is a specialized heat exchanger in which air and water are brought into direct contact with each other in order to reduce the water’s temperature. As this occurs, a small volume of water is evaporated, reducing the temperature of the water being circulated through the tower.

What is the thermodynamic process used in large scale industrial water cooling towers?

How Does A Cooling Tower Work? Cooling towers operate through a heat transfer process that efficiently cools the already cycled water to be reused. The fill acts as the transfer surface, as heat from the hot water droplets is transferred to the cool air rising through the fill.

What is the temperature of cooling tower water?

What is the temperature of cooling tower water? As previously stated, typical HVAC conditions call for an entering water temperature of approximately 95ºF (35.0ºC). All PERFECT Cooling Towers are capable of withstanding temperatures of at least 120ºF (48.9ºC) with standard fill materials..

How can Scaling be reduced in water towers?

Scale control can be achieved through operation of the cooling system at subsaturated conditions or through the use of chemical additives. The most direct method of inhibiting formation of scale deposits is operation at subsaturation conditions, where scale-forming salts are soluble.

How do cooling towers reduce condenser water temperature?

How does a cooling tower reject heat? The warm condenser water enters near the top of the cooling tower. It passes through some nozzles which spray the water in small droplets across the fill packaging. The spray increases the waters surface area which allows it to reject more heat.

How wet cooling towers work?

Wet cooling towers use water to cool machinery that heats up (hence the “wet” part of the name) and these towers use the natural process of evaporation to cool machinery. These towers rely on an exchange of heat between the machinery, the water in the tower, and the air passing through the tower.

How can we improve cooling tower efficiency?

How to Increase Your Industrial Cooling Tower Efficiency

1. Save energy.
2. Reduce the amount of water being consumed.
3. Decrease the amount of chemicals required for water treatment.
4. Extend the equipment service life.
5. Reduce operating costs, overall.

What should a cooling tower approach?

Cooling tower approach is the difference in temperature of the water entering the basin (cold) and the wet bulb temperature. For the purpose of tower design, a tower with a smaller approach (small delta between basin water temperature and wet bulb temperature) is considered superior.

How do you stop a cooling tower from scaling?

Pretreatment of the cooling tower makeup to partially or completely remove calcium will prevent these scales from forming. Pretreatment methods such as cold lime softening, which reduces the calcium hardness and total alkalinity, is effective as is ion exchange softening.

How can the hardness of a cooling tower be reduced?

Depending on what’s causing the issue, some solutions to decreasing the amount of cooling tower blowdown might include:

1. Improved feed water filtration.
2. Higher-quality side-stream filtration.
3. Increased cycle of concentration (depending on quality of makeup and circulation water—not always the right solution)

How do cooling towers cool the buildings?

Hot water is pumped into the cooling towers across an array of water distribution devices such as water jets. These jets force the water onto what is known as the exchange surface which spreads the water across a larger area thus speeding up the cooling process.

Where does the water go from the cooling tower sump?

It eventually enters the tower sump at the bottom. The cool water then goes back to cool the initial heat source and the cycle repeats. For the sake of system dilution, of portion of the system water goes to the drain through a bleed-off valve. The makeup line feeds the cooling tower with fresh water for replenishment.

What is a natural draft cooling tower?

There are many processes where cool water is used to extract heat from mechanical operations such as power production. One such type of cooling tower is the natural draft cooling tower which as the name suggests makes use of natural airflow.

Why are cooling towers used in oil and gas industry?

In oil-and-gas refineries, industrial equipment is often jacketed or sleeved with flowing water to cool fluids and absorb process heat. This equipment generates a large heat load that can disrupt operations if not properly handled. Cooling towers are used to cool this process water for reuse.