Energy conservation strategy, the ignored cooling tower

Cooling towers in electric generating plants are ignored by many engineers and operators. All resources and efforts to de-bottleneck are usually spent on the highly visible production equipment. Sub standard performance of cooling towers is not physically apparent and therefore neglected. The importance of the cooling water is that more energy is required since hotter water reduces product output at greater energy input to overcome resultant high head pressures and high head temperatures. Generating plants, chemical processes and refrigeration loops, that utilize cooling towers, could be superior money makers if better understood. Towers hardly ever break down. As long as the "box" stands there and appears solid, with fans constantly rotating, there are numerous engineers that think that all is well with the cooling tower, turn their backs on it, and proceed to spend funds on their power generating and process equipment. Conversely, colder water generates better vacuums, equipment runs cooler which saves energy and makes more dollar profit. This presentation investigates basic cooling tower technology and compares state-of-the-art retrofit and upgrading to optimize the different types of cooling towers. Actual field operations are presented with detailed statistics of costs, energy savings generated and payback. The quality of cold water discharged is the criteria which is considerably effected by, and dependant on the wet bulb temperature. This becomes apparent when extra energy is required to maintain the process, or when production declines.