Cooling tower

Natural draft wet cooling hyperboloid towers at

Didcot Power Station (UK)

Forced draft wet cooling towers (height: 34 meters)

and natural draft wet cooling tower (height: 122
meters) in Westfalen, Germany.

"Camouflaged" natural draft wet cooling tower in

Dresden (Germany)

A cooling tower is a heat rejection device

that rejects waste heat to the
atmosphere through the cooling of a
water stream to a lower temperature.
Cooling towers may either use the
evaporation of water to remove process
heat and cool the working fluid to near
the wet-bulb air temperature or, in the
case of closed circuit dry cooling towers,
rely solely on air to cool the working fluid
to near the dry-bulb air temperature.

Common applications include cooling

the circulating water used in oil refineries,
petrochemical and other chemical plants,
thermal power stations and HVAC
systems for cooling buildings. The
classification is based on the type of air
induction into the tower: the main types
of cooling towers are natural draft and
induced draft cooling towers.

Cooling towers vary in size from small

roof-top units to very large hyperboloid
structures (as in the adjacent image) that
can be up to 200 metres (660 ft) tall and
100 metres (330 ft) in diameter, or
rectangular structures that can be over
40 metres (130 ft) tall and 80 metres
(260 ft) long. The hyperboloid cooling
towers are often associated with nuclear
power plants,[1] although they are also
used in some coal-fired plants and to
some extent in some large chemical and
other industrial plants. Although these
large towers are very prominent, the vast
majority of cooling towers are much
smaller, including many units installed on
or near buildings to discharge heat from
air conditioning.

History
A 1902 engraving of "Barnard's fanless self-cooling
tower", an early large evaporative cooling tower that
relied on natural draft and open sides rather than a
fan; water to be cooled was sprayed from the top
onto the radial pattern of vertical wire-mesh mats.

Cooling towers originated in the 19th

century through the development of
condensers for use with the steam
engine.[2] Condensers use relatively cool
water, via various means, to condense
the steam coming out of the cylinders or
turbines. This reduces the back pressure,
which in turn reduces the steam
consumption, and thus the fuel
consumption, while at the same time
increasing power and recycling boiler-
water.[3] However the condensers require
an ample supply of cooling water,
without which they are impractical.[4][5]
The consumption of cooling water by
inland processing and power plants is
estimated to reduce power availability for
the majority of thermal power plants by
2040–2069.[6] While water usage is not
an issue with marine engines, it forms a
significant limitation for many land-
based systems.

By the turn of the 20th century, several

evaporative methods of recycling cooling
water were in use in areas lacking an
established water supply, as well as in
urban locations where municipal water
mains may not be of sufficient supply;
reliable in times of demand; or otherwise
adequate to meet cooling needs.[2][5] In
areas with available land, the systems
took the form of cooling ponds; in areas
with limited land, such as in cities, they
took the form of cooling towers.[4][7]

These early towers were positioned

either on the rooftops of buildings or as
free-standing structures, supplied with air
by fans or relying on natural airflow.[4][7]
An American engineering textbook from
1911 described one design as "a circular
or rectangular shell of light plate—in
effect, a chimney stack much shortened
vertically (20 to 40 ft. high) and very
much enlarged laterally. At the top is a
set of distributing troughs, to which the
water from the condenser must be
pumped; from these it trickles down over
"mats" made of wooden slats or woven
wire screens, which fill the space within
the tower."[7]

A hyperboloid cooling tower was

patented by the Dutch engineers Frederik
van Iterson and Gerard Kuypers in
1918.[8] The first hyperboloid cooling
towers were built in 1918 near Heerlen.
The first ones in the United Kingdom
were built in 1924 at Lister Drive power
station in Liverpool, England, to cool
water used at a coal-fired electrical
power station.[9]

Classification by use
Heating, ventilation and air
conditioning (HVAC)

Two HVAC cooling towers on the rooftop of a

shopping center (Germany)
An HVAC (heating, ventilating, and air
conditioning) cooling tower is used to
dispose of ("reject") unwanted heat from
a chiller. Water-cooled chillers are
normally more energy efficient than air-
cooled chillers due to heat rejection to
tower water at or near wet-bulb
temperatures. Air-cooled chillers must
reject heat at the higher dry-bulb
temperature, and thus have a lower
average reverse-Carnot cycle
effectiveness. In areas with a hot climate,
large office buildings, hospitals, and
schools typically use one or more cooling
towers as part of their air conditioning
systems. Generally, industrial cooling
towers are much larger than HVAC
towers.

HVAC use of a cooling tower pairs the

cooling tower with a water-cooled chiller
or water-cooled condenser. A ton of air-
conditioning is defined as the removal of
12,000 BTU/hour (3500 W). The
equivalent ton on the cooling tower side
actually rejects about 15,000 BTU/hour
(4400 W) due to the additional waste
heat-equivalent of the energy needed to
drive the chiller's compressor. This
equivalent ton is defined as the heat
rejection in cooling 3 US gallons/minute
(1,500 pound/hour) of water 10 °F (6 °C),
which amounts to 15,000 BTU/hour,
assuming a chiller coefficient of
performance (COP) of 4.0.[10] This COP is
equivalent to an energy efficiency ratio
(EER) of 14.

Cooling towers are also used in HVAC

systems that have multiple water source
heat pumps that share a common piping
water loop. In this type of system, the
water circulating inside the water loop
removes heat from the condenser of the
heat pumps whenever the heat pumps
are working in the cooling mode, then the
externally mounted cooling tower is used
to remove heat from the water loop and
reject it to the atmosphere. By contrast,
when the heat pumps are working in
heating mode, the condensers draw heat
out of the loop water and reject it into the
space to be heated. When the water loop
is being used primarily to supply heat to
the building, the cooling tower is
normally shut down (and may be drained
or winterized to prevent freeze damage),
and heat is supplied by other means,
usually from separate boilers.

Industrial cooling towers

Industrial cooling towers for a power plant

Industrial Cooling Towers for Fruit Processing
Industry

Industrial cooling towers can be used to

remove heat from various sources such
as machinery or heated process material.
The primary use of large, industrial
cooling towers is to remove the heat
absorbed in the circulating cooling water
systems used in power plants, petroleum
refineries, petrochemical plants, natural
gas processing plants, food processing
plants, semi-conductor plants, and for
other industrial facilities such as in
condensers of distillation columns, for
cooling liquid in crystallization, etc.[11]
The circulation rate of cooling water in a
typical 700 MW coal-fired power plant
with a cooling tower amounts to about
71,600 cubic metres an hour (315,000 US
gallons per minute)[12] and the circulating
water requires a supply water make-up
rate of perhaps 5 percent (i.e., 3,600
cubic metres an hour).

If that same plant had no cooling tower

and used once-through cooling water, it
would require about 100,000 cubic
metres an hour[13] A large cooling water
intake typically kills millions of fish and
larvae annually, as the organisms are
impinged on the intake screens.[14] A
large amount of water would have to be
continuously returned to the ocean, lake
or river from which it was obtained and
continuously re-supplied to the plant.
Furthermore, discharging large amounts
of hot water may raise the temperature
of the receiving river or lake to an
unacceptable level for the local
ecosystem. Elevated water temperatures
can kill fish and other aquatic organisms
(see thermal pollution), or can also cause
an increase in undesirable organisms
such as invasive species of zebra
mussels or algae. A cooling tower serves
to dissipate the heat into the atmosphere
instead and wind and air diffusion
spreads the heat over a much larger area
than hot water can distribute heat in a
body of water. Evaporative cooling water
cannot be used for subsequent purposes
(other than rain somewhere), whereas
surface-only cooling water can be re-
used. Some coal-fired and nuclear power
plants located in coastal areas do make
use of once-through ocean water. But
even there, the offshore discharge water
outlet requires very careful design to
avoid environmental problems.

Petroleum refineries also have very large

cooling tower systems. A typical large
refinery processing 40,000 metric tonnes
of crude oil per day (300,000 barrels
(48,000 m3) per day) circulates about
80,000 cubic metres of water per hour
through its cooling tower system.

The world's tallest cooling tower is the

202 metres (663 ft) tall cooling tower of
Kalisindh Thermal Power Station in
Jhalawar, Rajasthan, India.[15]

Field erected cooling tower

Classification by build
Package type

Field Erected Cooling Towers

Brotep-Eco cooling tower

Package cooling tower

These types of cooling towers are factory

preassembled, and can be simply
transported on trucks, as they are
compact machines. The capacity of
package type towers is limited and, for
that reason, they are usually preferred by
facilities with low heat rejection
requirements such as food processing
plants, textile plants, some chemical
processing plants, or buildings like
hospitals, hotels, malls, automotive
factories etc.

Due to their frequent use in or near

residential areas, sound level control is a
relatively more important issue for
package type cooling towers.

Field erection type

Facilities such as power plants, steel

processing plants, petroleum refineries,
or petrochemical plants usually install
field erected type cooling towers due to
their greater capacity for heat rejection.
Field erected towers are usually much
larger in size compared to the package
type cooling towers.

A typical field erected cooling tower has

a pultruded fiber-reinforced plastic (FRP)
structure, FRP cladding, a mechanical
unit for air draft, drift eliminator, and fill.

Heat transfer methods

With respect to the heat transfer
mechanism employed, the main types
are:

dry cooling towers operate by heat

transfer through a surface that
separates the working fluid from
ambient air, such as in a tube to air
heat exchanger, utilizing convective
heat transfer. They do not use
evaporation.
wet cooling towers (or open circuit
cooling towers) operate on the
principle of evaporative cooling. The
working fluid and the evaporated fluid
(usually water) are one and the same.
fluid coolers (or closed circuit cooling
towers) are hybrids that pass the
working fluid through a tube bundle,
upon which clean water is sprayed and
a fan-induced draft applied. The
resulting heat transfer performance is
much closer to that of a wet cooling
tower, with the advantage provided by
 a dry cooler of protecting the working
fluid from environmental exposure and
contamination.

In a wet cooling tower (or open circuit

cooling tower), the warm water can be
cooled to a temperature lower than the
ambient air dry-bulb temperature, if the
air is relatively dry (see dew point and
psychrometrics). As ambient air is drawn
past a flow of water, a small portion of
the water evaporates, and the energy
required to evaporate that portion of the
water is taken from the remaining mass
of water, thus reducing its temperature.
Approximately 970 BTU of heat energy is
absorbed for each pound of evaporated
water (2 MJ/kg). Evaporation results in
saturated air conditions, lowering the
temperature of the water processed by
the tower to a value close to wet-bulb
temperature, which is lower than the
ambient dry-bulb temperature, the
difference determined by the initial
humidity of the ambient air.

To achieve better performance (more

cooling), a medium called fill is used to
increase the surface area and the time of
contact between the air and water flows.
Splash fill consists of material placed to
interrupt the water flow causing
splashing. Film fill is composed of thin
sheets of material (usually PVC) upon
which the water flows. Both methods
create increased surface area and time
of contact between the fluid (water) and
the gas (air), to improve heat transfer.

Air flow generation methods

Access stairs at the base of a massive hyperboloid

cooling tower give a sense of its scale (UK)

With respect to drawing air through the

tower, there are three types of cooling
towers:
Natural draft — Utilizes buoyancy via a
tall chimney. Warm, moist air naturally
rises due to the density differential
compared to the dry, cooler outside air.
Warm moist air is less dense than drier
air at the same pressure. This moist air
buoyancy produces an upwards
current of air through the tower.
Mechanical draft — Uses power-driven
fan motors to force or draw air through
the tower.
Induced draft — A mechanical
draft tower with a fan at the
discharge (at the top) which pulls
air up through the tower. The fan
induces hot moist air out the
discharge. This produces low
entering and high exiting air
velocities, reducing the possibility
of recirculation in which
discharged air flows back into the
air intake. This fan/fin
arrangement is also known as
draw-through.
Forced draft — A mechanical draft
tower with a blower type fan at the
intake. The fan forces air into the
tower, creating high entering and
low exiting air velocities. The low
exiting velocity is much more
susceptible to recirculation. With
the fan on the air intake, the fan is
more susceptible to complications
due to freezing conditions.
 Another disadvantage is that a
forced draft design typically
requires more motor horsepower
than an equivalent induced draft
design. The benefit of the forced
draft design is its ability to work
with high static pressure. Such
setups can be installed in more-
confined spaces and even in some
indoor situations. This fan/fin
geometry is also known as blow-
through.
Fan assisted natural draft — A hybrid
type that appears like a natural draft
setup, though airflow is assisted by a
fan.
Hyperboloid (sometimes incorrectly
known as hyperbolic) cooling towers
have become the design standard for all
natural-draft cooling towers because of
their structural strength and minimum
usage of material. The hyperboloid shape
also aids in accelerating the upward
convective air flow, improving cooling
efficiency. These designs are popularly
associated with nuclear power plants.
However, this association is misleading,
as the same kind of cooling towers are
often used at large coal-fired power
plants as well. Conversely, not all nuclear
power plants have cooling towers, and
some instead cool their heat exchangers
with lake, river or ocean water.
Thermal efficiencies up to 92% have
been observed in hybrid cooling
towers.[16]

Categorization by air-to-
water flow
Crossflow
Mechanical draft crossflow cooling tower used in an
HVAC application

Package crossflow cooling tower

Typically lower initial and long-term cost,

mostly due to pump requirements.

Crossflow is a design in which the air

flow is directed perpendicular to the
water flow (see diagram at left). Air flow
enters one or more vertical faces of the
cooling tower to meet the fill material.
Water flows (perpendicular to the air)
through the fill by gravity. The air
continues through the fill and thus past
the water flow into an open plenum
volume. Lastly, a fan forces the air out
into the atmosphere.

A distribution or hot water basin

consisting of a deep pan with holes or
nozzles in its bottom is located near the
top of a crossflow tower. Gravity
distributes the water through the nozzles
uniformly across the fill material.

Advantages of the crossflow design:

Gravity water distribution allows

smaller pumps and maintenance while
in use.
 Non-pressurized spray simplifies
variable flow.

Disadvantages of the crossflow design:

More prone to freezing than

counterflow designs.
Variable flow is useless in some
conditions.
More prone to dirt buildup in the fill
than counterflow designs, especially in
dusty or sandy areas.

Counterflow
Induced Draft Counterflow Cooling Towers
Forced draft counter flow package type cooling
towers

In a counterflow design, the air flow is

directly opposite to the water flow (see
diagram at left). Air flow first enters an
open area beneath the fill media, and is
then drawn up vertically. The water is
sprayed through pressurized nozzles
near the top of the tower, and then flows
downward through the fill, opposite to
the air flow.
Advantages of the counterflow design:

Spray water distribution makes the

tower more freeze-resistant.
Breakup of water in spray makes heat
transfer more efficient.

Disadvantages of the counterflow

design:

Typically higher initial and long-term

cost, primarily due to pump
requirements.
Difficult to use variable water flow, as
spray characteristics may be
negatively affected.
 Typically noisier, due to the greater
water fall height from the bottom of
the fill into the cold water basin

Common aspects

Common aspects of both designs:

The interactions of the air and water

flow allow a partial equalization of
temperature, and evaporation of water.
The air, now saturated with water
vapor, is discharged from the top of the
cooling tower.
A "collection basin" or "cold water
basin" is used to collect and contain
the cooled water after its interaction
with the air flow.
Both crossflow and counterflow designs
can be used in natural draft and in
mechanical draft cooling towers.

Wet cooling tower material

balance
Quantitatively, the material balance
around a wet, evaporative cooling tower
system is governed by the operational
variables of make-up volumetric flow
rate, evaporation and windage losses,
draw-off rate, and the concentration
cycles.[17][18]

In the adjacent diagram, water pumped

from the tower basin is the cooling water
routed through the process coolers and
condensers in an industrial facility. The
cool water absorbs heat from the hot
process streams which need to be
cooled or condensed, and the absorbed
heat warms the circulating water (C). The
warm water returns to the top of the
cooling tower and trickles downward
over the fill material inside the tower. As
it trickles down, it contacts ambient air
rising up through the tower either by
natural draft or by forced draft using
large fans in the tower. That contact
causes a small amount of the water to be
lost as windage/drift (W) and some of
the water (E) to evaporate. The heat
required to evaporate the water is derived
from the water itself, which cools the
water back to the original basin water
temperature and the water is then ready
to recirculate. The evaporated water
leaves its dissolved salts behind in the
bulk of the water which has not been
evaporated, thus raising the salt
concentration in the circulating cooling
water. To prevent the salt concentration
of the water from becoming too high, a
portion of the water is drawn off/blown
down (D) for disposal. Fresh water make-
up (M) is supplied to the tower basin to
compensate for the loss of evaporated
water, the windage loss water and the
draw-off water.
Fan-induced draft, counter-flow cooling tower

Using these flow rates and concentration

dimensional units:
 M = Make-up water in m3/h
C = Circulating water in m3/h
D = Draw-off water in m3/h
E = Evaporated water in m3/h
W = Windage loss of water in m3/h
= Concentration in ppmw (of any
X completely soluble salts ... usually
chlorides)
= Concentration of chlorides in
XM
make-up water (M), in ppmw
= Concentration of chlorides in
XC
circulating water (C), in ppmw
= Cycles of concentration = XC /
Cycles
XM (dimensionless)
ppmw = parts per million by weight
A water balance around the entire
system is then:[18]

M=E+D+W

Since the evaporated water (E) has no

salts, a chloride balance around the
system is:[18]

and, therefore:[18]

From a simplified heat balance around

the cooling tower:
where:
= latent heat of vaporization of
HV
water = 2260 kJ / kg
= water temperature difference
ΔT from tower top to tower bottom, in
°C
= specific heat of water = 4.184
cp
kJ / (kg °C)

Windage (or drift) losses (W) is the

amount of total tower water flow that is
entrained in the flow of air to the
atmosphere. From large-scale industrial
cooling towers, in the absence of
manufacturer's data, it may be assumed
to be:

W = 0.3 to 1.0 percent of C for a natural

draft cooling tower without windage
drift eliminators
W = 0.1 to 0.3 percent of C for an
induced draft cooling tower without
windage drift eliminators
W = about 0.005 percent of C (or less)
if the cooling tower has windage drift
eliminators
W = about 0.0005 percent of C (or less)
if the cooling tower has windage drift
eliminators and uses sea water as
make-up water.

Cycles of concentration
Cycle of concentration represents the
accumulation of dissolved minerals in
the recirculating cooling water. Discharge
of draw-off (or blowdown) is used
principally to control the buildup of these
minerals.

The chemistry of the make-up water,

including the amount of dissolved
minerals, can vary widely. Make-up
waters low in dissolved minerals such as
those from surface water supplies (lakes,
rivers etc.) tend to be aggressive to
metals (corrosive). Make-up waters from
ground water supplies (such as wells)
are usually higher in minerals, and tend to
be scaling (deposit minerals). Increasing
the amount of minerals present in the
water by cycling can make water less
aggressive to piping; however, excessive
levels of minerals can cause scaling
problems.

Relationship between cycles of concentration and

flow rates in a cooling tower

As the cycles of concentration increase,

the water may not be able to hold the
minerals in solution. When the solubility
of these minerals have been exceeded
they can precipitate out as mineral solids
and cause fouling and heat exchange
problems in the cooling tower or the heat
exchangers. The temperatures of the
recirculating water, piping and heat
exchange surfaces determine if and
where minerals will precipitate from the
recirculating water. Often a professional
water treatment consultant will evaluate
the make-up water and the operating
conditions of the cooling tower and
recommend an appropriate range for the
cycles of concentration. The use of water
treatment chemicals, pretreatment such
as water softening, pH adjustment, and
other techniques can affect the
acceptable range of cycles of
concentration.

Concentration cycles in the majority of

cooling towers usually range from 3 to 7.
In the United States, many water supplies
use well water which has significant
levels of dissolved solids. On the other
hand, one of the largest water supplies,
for New York City, has a surface
rainwater source quite low in minerals;
thus cooling towers in that city are often
allowed to concentrate to 7 or more
cycles of concentration.

Since higher cycles of concentration

represent less make-up water, water
conservation efforts may focus on
increasing cycles of concentration.[19]
Highly treated recycled water may be an
effective means of reducing cooling
tower consumption of potable water, in
regions where potable water is scarce.[20]

Maintenance
Surfaces with any visible biofilm (i.e.,
slime) should be cleaned.

Disinfectant and other chemical levels in

cooling towers and hot tubs should be
continuously maintained and regularly
monitored.[21]

Regular checks of water quality

(specifically the aerobic bacteria levels)
using dipslides should be taken as the
presence of other organisms can support
legionella by producing the organic
nutrients that it needs to thrive.[22]

Water treatment

Besides treating the circulating cooling

water in large industrial cooling tower
systems to minimize scaling and fouling,
the water should be filtered to remove
particulates, and also be dosed with
biocides and algaecides to prevent
growths that could interfere with the
continuous flow of the water.[17] Under
certain conditions, a biofilm of micro-
organisms such as bacteria, fungi and
algae can grow very rapidly in the cooling
water, and can reduce the heat transfer
efficiency of the cooling tower. Biofilm
can be reduced or prevented by using
chlorine or other chemicals. A normal
industrial practice is to use two biocides,
such as oxidizing and non-oxidizing
types to complement each other's
strengths and weaknesses, and to ensure
a broader spectrum of attack. In most
cases, a continual low level oxidizing
biocide is used, then alternating to a
periodic shock dose of non-oxidizing
biocides.[23]

Legionnaires' disease
Legionella pneumophila (5000x magnification)

Another very important reason for using

biocides in cooling towers is to prevent
the growth of Legionella, including
species that cause legionellosis or
Legionnaires' disease, most notably L.
pneumophila,[24] or Mycobacterium
avium.[25] The various Legionella species
are the cause of Legionnaires' disease in
humans and transmission is via
exposure to aerosols—the inhalation of
mist droplets containing the bacteria.
Common sources of Legionella include
cooling towers used in open recirculating
evaporative cooling water systems,
domestic hot water systems, fountains,
and similar disseminators that tap into a
public water supply. Natural sources
include freshwater ponds and
creeks.[26][27]

French researchers found that Legionella

bacteria travelled up to 6 kilometres
(3.7 mi) through the air from a large
contaminated cooling tower at a
petrochemical plant in Pas-de-Calais,
France. That outbreak killed 21 of the 86
people who had a laboratory-confirmed
infection.[28]
Drift (or windage) is the term for water
droplets of the process flow allowed to
escape in the cooling tower discharge.
Drift eliminators are used in order to hold
drift rates typically to 0.001–0.005% of
the circulating flow rate. A typical drift
eliminator provides multiple directional
changes of airflow to prevent the escape
of water droplets. A well-designed and
well-fitted drift eliminator can greatly
reduce water loss and potential for
Legionella or water treatment chemical
exposure.

The CDC does not recommend that

health-care facilities regularly test for the
Legionella pneumophila bacteria.
Scheduled microbiologic monitoring for
Legionella remains controversial because
its presence is not necessarily evidence
of a potential for causing disease. The
CDC recommends aggressive
disinfection measures for cleaning and
maintaining devices known to transmit
Legionella, but does not recommend
regularly-scheduled microbiologic assays
for the bacteria. However, scheduled
monitoring of potable water within a
hospital might be considered in certain
settings where persons are highly
susceptible to illness and mortality from
Legionella infection (e.g. hematopoietic
stem cell transplantation units, or solid
organ transplant units). Also, after an
outbreak of legionellosis, health officials
agree that monitoring is necessary to
identify the source and to evaluate the
efficacy of biocides or other prevention
measures.[29]

Studies have found Legionella in 40% to

60% of cooling towers.[30]

Terminology

Fill plates at the bottom of the Iru Power Plant

cooling tower (Estonia). Tower is shut down,
revealing numerous water spray heads.
Windage or Drift — Water droplets that
are carried out of the cooling tower
with the exhaust air. Drift droplets have
the same concentration of impurities
as the water entering the tower. The
drift rate is typically reduced by
employing baffle-like devices, called
drift eliminators, through which the air
must travel after leaving the fill and
spray zones of the tower. Drift can also
be reduced by using warmer entering
cooling tower temperatures.

Blow-out — Water droplets blown out

of the cooling tower by wind, generally
at the air inlet openings. Water may
also be lost, in the absence of wind,
through splashing or misting. Devices
such as wind screens, louvers, splash
deflectors and water diverters are used
to limit these losses.

Plume — The stream of saturated

exhaust air leaving the cooling tower.
The plume is visible when water vapor
it contains condenses in contact with
cooler ambient air, like the saturated
air in one's breath fogs on a cold day.
Under certain conditions, a cooling
tower plume may present fogging or
icing hazards to its surroundings. Note
that the water evaporated in the
cooling process is "pure" water, in
contrast to the very small percentage
of drift droplets or water blown out of
the air inlets.

Draw-off or Blow-down — The portion

of the circulating water flow that is
removed (usually discharged to a
drain) in order to maintain the amount
of Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) and
other impurities at an acceptably low
level. Higher TDS concentration in
solution may result from greater
cooling tower efficiency. However the
higher the TDS concentration, the
greater the risk of scale, biological
growth and corrosion. The amount of
blow-down is primarily designated by
measuring by the electrical
conductivity of the circulating water.
Biological growth, scaling and
corrosion can be prevented by
chemicals (respectively, biocide,
sulfuric acid, corrosion inhibitor). On
the other hand, the only practical way
to decrease the electrical conductivity
is by increasing the amount of blow-
down discharge and subsequently
increasing the amount of clean make-
up water.

Zero bleed for cooling towers, also

called zero blow-down for cooling
towers, is a process for significantly
reducing the need for bleeding water
with residual solids from the system by
enabling the water to hold more solids
in solution.[31][32][33]

Make-up — The water that must be

added to the circulating water system
in order to compensate for water
losses such as evaporation, drift loss,
blow-out, blow-down, etc.

Noise — Sound energy emitted by a

cooling tower and heard (recorded) at
a given distance and direction. The
sound is generated by the impact of
falling water, by the movement of air by
fans, the fan blades moving in the
structure, vibration of the structure,
and the motors, gearboxes or drive
belts.
Approach — The approach is the
difference in temperature between the
cooled-water temperature and the
entering-air wet bulb temperature
(twb). Since the cooling towers are
based on the principles of evaporative
cooling, the maximum cooling tower
efficiency depends on the wet bulb
temperature of the air. The wet-bulb
temperature is a type of temperature
measurement that reflects the physical
properties of a system with a mixture
of a gas and a vapor, usually air and
water vapor

Range — The range is the temperature

difference between the warm water
inlet and cooled water exit.

Fill — Inside the tower, fills are added

to increase contact surface as well as
contact time between air and water, to
provide better heat transfer. The
efficiency of the tower depends on the
selection and amount of fill. There are
two types of fills that may be used:
Film type fill (causes water to
spread into a thin film)
Splash type fill (breaks up falling
stream of water and interrupts its
vertical progress)

Full-Flow Filtration — Full-flow filtration

continuously strains particulates out of
the entire system flow. For example, in
a 100-ton system, the flow rate would
be roughly 300 gal/min. A filter would
be selected to accommodate the entire
300 gal/min flow rate. In this case, the
filter typically is installed after the
cooling tower on the discharge side of
the pump. While this is the ideal
method of filtration, for higher flow
systems it may be cost-prohibitive.

Side-Stream Filtration — Side-stream

filtration, although popular and
effective, does not provide complete
protection. With side-stream filtration,
a portion of the water is filtered
continuously. This method works on
the principle that continuous particle
removal will keep the system clean.
Manufacturers typically package side-
stream filters on a skid, complete with
a pump and controls. For high flow
systems, this method is cost-effective.
Properly sizing a side-stream filtration
system is critical to obtain satisfactory
filter performance, but there is some
debate over how to properly size the
side-stream system. Many engineers
size the system to continuously filter
the cooling tower basin water at a rate
equivalent to 10% of the total
circulation flow rate. For example, if
the total flow of a system is 1,200
gal/min (a 400-ton system), a 120
gal/min side-stream system is
specified.

Cycle of concentration — Maximum

allowed multiplier for the amount of
miscellaneous substances in
circulating water compared to the
amount of those substances in make-
up water.

Treated timber — A structural material

for cooling towers which was largely
abandoned about 10 years ago. It is
still used occasionally due to its low
initial costs, in spite of its short life
expectancy. The life of treated timber
varies a lot, depending on the
operating conditions of the tower, such
as frequency of shutdowns, treatment
of the circulating water, etc. Under
proper working conditions, the
estimated life of treated timber
structural members is about 10 years.

Leaching — The loss of wood

preservative chemicals by the washing
action of the water flowing through a
wood structure cooling tower.

Pultruded FRP — A common structural

material for smaller cooling towers,
fibre-reinforced plastic (FRP) is known
for its high corrosion-resistance
capabilities. Pultruded FRP is
produced using pultrusion technology,
and has become the most common
 structural material for small cooling
towers. It offers lower costs and
requires less maintenance compared
to reinforced concrete, which is still in
use for large structures.

Fog production

Fog clouds produced by Eggborough Power Plant

(UK)

Under certain ambient conditions,

plumes of water vapor (fog) can be seen
rising out of the discharge from a cooling
tower, and can be mistaken as smoke
from a fire. If the outdoor air is at or near
saturation, and the tower adds more
water to the air, saturated air with liquid
water droplets can be discharged, which
is seen as fog. This phenomenon
typically occurs on cool, humid days, but
is rare in many climates. Fog and clouds
associated with cooling towers can be
described as homogenitus, as with other
clouds of man-made origin, such as
contrails and ship tracks.[34]

This phenomenon can be prevented by

decreasing the relative humidity of the
saturated discharge air. For that purpose,
in hybrid towers, saturated discharge air
is mixed with heated low relative
humidity air. Some air enters the tower
above drift eliminator level, passing
through heat exchangers. The relative
humidity of the dry air is even more
decreased instantly as being heated
while entering the tower. The discharged
mixture has a relatively lower relative
humidity and the fog is invisible.

Salt emission pollution

When wet cooling towers with seawater
make-up are installed in various
industries located in or near coastal
areas, the drift of fine droplets emitted
from the cooling towers contain nearly
6% sodium chloride which deposits on
the nearby land areas. This deposition of
sodium salts on the nearby
agriculture/vegetative lands can convert
them into sodic saline or sodic alkaline
soils depending on the nature of the soil
and enhance the sodicity of ground and
surface water. The salt deposition
problem from such cooling towers
aggravates where national pollution
control standards are not imposed or not
implemented to minimize the drift
emissions from wet cooling towers using
seawater make-up.[35]

Respirable suspended particulate matter,

of less than 10 micrometers (µm) in size,
can be present in the drift from cooling
towers. Larger particles above 10 µm in
size are generally filtered out in the nose
and throat via cilia and mucus but
particulate matter smaller than 10 µm,
referred to as PM10, can settle in the
bronchi and lungs and cause health
problems. Similarly, particles smaller
than 2.5 µm, (PM2.5), tend to penetrate
into the gas exchange regions of the
lung, and very small particles (less than
100 nanometers) may pass through the
lungs to affect other organs. Though the
total particulate emissions from wet
cooling towers with fresh water make-up
is much less, they contain more PM10
and PM2.5 than the total emissions from
wet cooling towers with sea water make-
up. This is due to lesser salt content in
fresh water drift (below 2,000 ppm)
compared to the salt content of sea
water drift (60,000 ppm).[35]

Use as a flue-gas stack

Flue gas stack inside a natural draft wet cooling

tower
Flue gas stack connection into a natural draft wet
cooling tower

Large hyperboloid cooling towers made of structural

steel for a power plant in Kharkov (Ukraine)

At some modern power stations

equipped with flue gas purification, such
as the Großkrotzenburg Power Station
and the Rostock Power Station, the
cooling tower is also used as a flue-gas
stack (industrial chimney), thus saving
the cost of a separate chimney structure.
At plants without flue gas purification,
problems with corrosion may occur, due
to reactions of raw flue gas with water to
form acids.

Sometimes, natural draft cooling towers

are constructed with structural steel in
place of concrete (RCC) when the
construction time of natural draft cooling
tower is exceeding the construction time
of the rest of the plant or the local soil is
of poor strength to bear the heavy weight
of RCC cooling towers or cement prices
are higher at a site to opt for cheaper
natural draft cooling towers made of
structural steel.

Operation in freezing
weather
Some cooling towers (such as smaller
building air conditioning systems) are
shut down seasonally, drained, and
winterized to prevent freeze damage.

During the winter, other sites

continuously operate cooling towers with
4 °C (39 °F) water leaving the tower.
Basin heaters, tower draindown, and
other freeze protection methods are
often employed in cold climates.
Operational cooling towers with
malfunctions can freeze during very cold
weather. Typically, freezing starts at the
corners of a cooling tower with a reduced
or absent heat load. Severe freezing
conditions can create growing volumes
of ice, resulting in increased structural
loads which can cause structural
damage or collapse.

To prevent freezing, the following

procedures are used:

The use of water modulating by-pass

systems is not recommended during
freezing weather. In such situations,
the control flexibility of variable speed
motors, two-speed motors, and/or two-
speed motors multi-cell towers should
be considered a requirement.[36]
Do not operate the tower unattended.
Remote sensors and alarms may be
installed to monitor tower conditions.
Do not operate the tower without a
heat load. Basin heaters may be used
to keep the water in the tower pan at
an above-freezing temperature. Heat
trace ("heating tape") is a resistive
heating element that is installed along
water pipes to prevent freezing in cold
climates.
Maintain design water flow rate over
the tower fill.
 Manipulate or reduce airflow to
maintain water temperature above
freezing point.[37]

Fire hazard
Cooling towers constructed in whole or in
part of combustible materials can
support internal fire propagation. Such
fires can become very intense, due to the
high surface-volume ratio of the towers,
and fires can be further intensified by
natural convection or fan-assisted draft.
The resulting damage can be sufficiently
severe to require the replacement of the
entire cell or tower structure. For this
reason, some codes and standards[38]
recommend that combustible cooling
towers be provided with an automatic fire
sprinkler system. Fires can propagate
internally within the tower structure when
the cell is not in operation (such as for
maintenance or construction), and even
while the tower is in operation, especially
those of the induced-draft type, because
of the existence of relatively dry areas
within the towers.[39]

Structural stability
Being very large structures, cooling
towers are susceptible to wind damage,
and several spectacular failures have
occurred in the past. At Ferrybridge
power station on 1 November 1965, the
station was the site of a major structural
failure, when three of the cooling towers
collapsed owing to vibrations in 85 mph
(137 km/h) winds. Although the
structures had been built to withstand
higher wind speeds, the shape of the
cooling towers caused westerly winds to
be funnelled into the towers themselves,
creating a vortex. Three out of the
original eight cooling towers were
destroyed, and the remaining five were
severely damaged. The towers were later
rebuilt and all eight cooling towers were
strengthened to tolerate adverse weather
conditions. Building codes were changed
to include improved structural support,
and wind tunnel tests were introduced to
check tower structures and
configuration.

See also
Alkali soils
Architectural engineering
Deep lake water cooling
Evaporative cooler
Evaporative cooling
Fossil fuel power plant
Heating, ventilating and air
conditioning
Hyperboloid structure
Mechanical engineering
Nuclear power plant
 Power station
Spray pond
Water cooling
Willow Island disaster

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3. Croft, Terrell, ed. (1922). Steam-Engine
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Handbook of Chemical Processing
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17. Beychok, Milton R. (1967). Aqueous
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External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related
to Cooling tower.
 What is a cooling tower? – Cooling
Technology Institute
"Cooling Towers" – includes diagrams
– Virtual Nuclear Tourist
Wet cooling tower guidance for
particulate matter, Environment
Canada.
Striking pictures of Europe’s
abandoned cooling towers by
Reginald Van de Velde, Lonely Planet,
15 February 2017 (see also excerpt
from radio interview , World Update,
BBC, 21 November 2016)

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