How do industrial cooling towers work?

Cooling towers are essentially large boxes designed to maximize evaporation of water. To do this, they contain material, typically PVC plastic sheets, that create large surface areas for water evaporation to occur. This material is what fills the inside of the cooling tower and is called "Cooling Tower Fill".

How does a cooling tower operate?

Air enters the tower beneath the fill and is drawn up vertically into the tower. Above the fill, hot water is introduced through low pressure spray nozzles to divide the hot water over the surface of the fill in fine droplets. The cooling air draws heat from the water as it progresses to the bottom of the tower.

How do cooling towers work HVAC?

Cooling towers use evaporation to release waste heat from an HVAC system. In an open tower, hot water from the condenser is slowed down and spread out over the fill. Some of the hot water is evaporated in the fill area, or over the closed-circuit tubes, which cools the water.

How do cooling towers reject heat?

Cooling towers reject heat through the evaporation of water in a moving air stream within the cooling tower. The temperature and humidity of the air stream increases through contact with the warm water, and this air is then discharged. The cooled water is collected at the bottom of the tower.

What is a spray pump on a 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. Cooling Tower spray nozzles.

How Cooling Towers Work

How much electricity does a cooling tower use?

Based on seasonal operation of approximately 2,000 hours with a VFD controlled fan, the tower fan motor would consume 30,275.5 kWh and the system pump energy consumption would be approximately 7,974.6 kWh.

Where do cooling towers get water?

A water cooling tower is used to cool water and is a huge heat exchanger, expelling building heat into the atmosphere and returning colder water to the chiller. A water cooling tower receives warm water from a chiller. This warm water is known as condenser water because it gets heat in the condenser of the chiller.

How does a cooling tower lose water?

The cooled water pools in the bottom of the tower, where it gets recirculated back into your industrial equipment or air conditioning system. Throughout this process, wet cooling towers lose water in three ways: evaporation, drift (also called “windage”), and blow-down (also called “draw-off”).

Do cooling towers use refrigerant?

Cooling Tower water is circulated through a heat exchanger where refrigerant vapor is condensed and heat is transferred to the water. The purpose of the cooling towers is to cool the warm water returning from the heat exchanger so it can be reused.

What is difference between cooling tower and chiller?

Cooling towers are commonly used for large-scale operations such as nuclear power plants located near rivers or lakes, refining plants of oil and gas and thermal power stations while chillers are used in refrigeration, metal and plastic industries and more.

What is the difference between cooling tower and condenser?

What is the Difference Between a Cooling Tower and an Evaporative Condenser? Cooling towers are used to cool air and make it condense. An evaporative condenser, on the other hand, cools water by absorbing heat from the air. Evaporative condensers are typically used in places where there is a lot of precipitation.

How are large buildings cooled?

In some large systems, a cooling tower is used instead. The tower creates a stream of cold water that runs through a heat exchanger, cooling the hot condenser coils. The tower blows air through a stream of water causing some of it to evaporate, and the evaporation cools the water stream.

What is the difference between AHU and FCU?

In simple terms, an air handling unit (AHU) is a component of an HVAC system that cools and distributes air into the space through a duct. A fan coil unit (FCU) is a standalone system that circulates the existing air in a small space, but it can also be a part of an HVAC system.

What comes out the top of a cooling tower?

Air comes in from the sides of the tower and passes through the falling water. As the air passes through the water, heat is exchanged and some of the water evaporates. This heat and evaporated water flow out the top of the tower in the form of a fine cloud-like mist.

How many types of cooling towers are there?

There are three main types of cooling towers that are defined by how water or air pass through them. These types include crossflow, counterflow, and hyperbolic. There are also two varieties classified solely on airflow, known as induced draft and passive draft cooling towers.

How do you raise the pH in a cooling tower?

Calcium carbonate tends to increase the pH of the water, making it more alkaline. Acids like ascorbic acid, hydrochloric acid and sulfuric acid can be used to combat the rise in pH, but they can damage the cooling tower if it contains certain materials. The allowable pH ranges for different cooling towers vary.

What causes a cooling tower to overflow?

The reason for the overflow condition is that the condenser water pumps are oversized for the cooling towers they serve. During normal operation, the recommendation is to not flow at full capacity or to bring additional cooling towers on line if full condenser water capacity is required.

Why do cooling towers have a blowdown valve?

Blowdown is used to help avoid the over cycling of dissolved solids that would lead to deposition in your cooling system. If you find yourself over utilizing blowdown in a worst-case scenario, your makeup water conductivity will be very close to your cooling tower water as you dump large amounts of water to the drain.

What is inside a cooling tower?

Cooling towers are essentially large boxes designed to maximize evaporation of water. To do this, they contain material, typically PVC plastic sheets, that create large surface areas for water evaporation to occur. This material is what fills the inside of the cooling tower and is called "Cooling Tower Fill".

What is the water temperature of cooling tower?

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

How thermal power plants can save 80% of their water?

The principle is based on evaporation cooling. The hot air coming from ambient air acts as a heat source, and when it interacts with the water droplets, it evaporates, so there is a phase change in the air. The hot air becomes colder, saturated air.

How is cooling tower speed calculated?

How do you calculate TR on a cooling tower?

Multiply 500 times the water flow rate, times the temperature difference, divided by 12,000 or 500 x q x dt/12,000. The result is the tons of capacity of the cooling tower.

Can AHU work without chiller?

AHU's typically do not have their own cooling system built in, instead they will be connected to a central plant water or air cooled chiller, occasionally they will use some sort of split a/c unit and you can also find these connected to district cooling networks.