COOLING TOWER

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, nuclear
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, 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.

Natural draft wet cooling hyperboloid towers at Didcot Power

Station (UK)

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 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)

History:

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 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. 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. However the condensers require an ample supply of cooling water,
without which they are impractical. 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. 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. 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.

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. 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.

A hyperboloid cooling tower was patented by the Dutch engineers Frederik van
Iterson and Gerard Kuypers in 1918. The first hyperboloid cooling towers were built
in 1918 near Heerlen. The first ones in the United Kingdom were built in 1924 at

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Lister Drive power station in Liverpool, England, to cool water used at a coal-fired
electrical power station.

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

Two HVAC cooling towers on the rooftop of a shopping center

(Germany)

Cell of an open loop cooling tower with fill material, and circulating
water visible

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

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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. 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

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 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. 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) 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. A large cooling water intake
typically kills millions of fish and larvae annually, as the organisms are impinged on
the intake screens. 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

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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.

Field erected cooling tower

Classification by build:
Package type:

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 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.

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 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 erected 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

Heat transfer methods:

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

 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.
 closed circuit cooling towers (or fluid coolers) 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 close to that of a wet cooling
tower, with the advantage of protecting the working fluid from environmental
exposure and contamination.
 dry cooling towers are closed circuit cooling towers which 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.
 hybrid cooling towers are closed circuit cooling towers that can switch
between wet and dry operation. This helps balance water and energy savings
across a variety of weather conditions.

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

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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.

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  Mechanical draft — Uses power-driven fan motors to force or draw air
through the tower.

o 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.
o 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.

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Categorization by air-to-water flow:
Crossflow:

Mechanical draft crossflow cooling tower used in an HVAC application

Package crossflow cooling tower

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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

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 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.

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  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.

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.

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 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. Highly treated
recycled water may be an effective means of reducing cooling tower consumption of
potable water, in regions where potable water is scarce.

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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.

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.

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. 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)

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 A multitude of microscopic organisms such as bacterial colonies, fungi,
and algae can easily thrive within the moderately high temperatures present
inside a cooling tower.

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.

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 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.

Studies have found Legionella in 40% to 60% of cooling towers.

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.

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  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.

 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.

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  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:

o Film type fill (causes water to spread into a thin film)

o 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

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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 in the early 2000s. 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.

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Fog production:

Fog produced by Eggborough power station

Under certain ambient conditions, plumes of water vapor 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.

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

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standards are not imposed or not implemented to minimize the drift emissions from
wet cooling towers using seawater make-up.

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).

Use as a flue-gas stack:

Flue gas stack inside a natural draft wet cooling tower

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 At some modern power stations equipped with flue gas purification, such as
the Grobkrotzenburg 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.

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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.
 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.

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 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.

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

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shape of the cooling towers caused westerly winds to be funneled 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.

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