Water Use in Cooling Towers 1.0 Introduetion Water is used in cooling towers in three different ways, First water is evaporated, Evaporation of water is how cooling towers remove heat, and the amount of evaporated water is a measure of the load on the system. The evaporated water contains no minerals, ‘The second method of water use is loss in drift and splash-out, Drift is water that is carried out of the tower by the force of the air moving through the cooling tower. Drift is recirculating water containing all the minerals, chemicals, and bacteria that are in the tower. Drift is basically an uncontrolled loss usually listed as a percent of tower recirculating flow. The drift percent varies greatly among tower designs with 0.008% being a reasonable estimate for a typical new tower in good mechanical condition ‘The third method of water use is blowdown (or bleed), which is recirculating water containing all the minerals, chemicals, and bacteria that are in the tower being intentionally removed. Blowdown is a controlled water removal process to prevent the minerals in the recirculating water from becoming too concentrated. Blowdown is typically accomplished with a conductivity controller operating a solenoid valve, although several other methods are also commonly used. 2.0 Water Use by Evaporation ‘The following is an example of water use by evaporation and energy balance on a cooling, tower operating with a mechanical chiller. ‘A ton of cooling is the removal of 12,000 Btwhr from water. A mechanical chiller adds approximately 3,000 Btu/hr of parasitic heat load. Therefore, a ton of cooling ina cooling tower is the removal of 15,000 Btu/hr of heat’. © Rule of Thumb 1: There are 3 gallons-per-minute of recirculating flow per ton of cooling with a 10°F AT. A 3-gpm flow with a 10°F AT will result in 15,000 Btu of heat being removed from the system in one hour as shown in equation (1)? "An absorption chiller has a much greater parasitic heat load. For each ton of chilled water produced, an absorption chiller generates 18,000 Btu of heat. Thus, a tower for an absorption chiller must remove 30,000 Biufon. 2 The rule of thumb with en absorption heater is 4 gpm per ton witha 15°F AT.60min 8.33705 1 Btw ir gal” 1b=F 3 gpmx x10 F=15,0008ty/ ‘equation (1) « Rule of Thumb 2: There are 1.8 gallons-per-hour of evaporation per ton of cooling. Evaporation of 1 pound of water takes about 1,000 Btu of heat. Evaporating 1.8 gallons of water requires 15,000 Btu of heat as shown in equation (2) *. Ub 1 gal 15,000 Bru/hr x — 1,000 Bru” 8.33716 8 gallons/hr equation (2) 3.0 Water Use by Drift Drift is the uncontrolled blowing of water droplets from the tower. A new tower in good condition would lose about 0.008% of the recirculating water via drift. The water lost per ton of cooling in one hour is 3 gpm/ton x 60min/hr x 0.008% = 0.0144 gallons /hr equation (3) ‘This is only a small quantity of the water used in the tower; however, a chemically treated '500-ton tower operating around the clock will result in quite a large uncontrolled release of chemically contaminated water. 0.018 gph/ton x 500 tons x24 hr/day x30 days/month = 5,184 gal./mon. equation (4) A rule of thumb for drift is that it will amount to about 10 gallons/month/ton. Spills and leaks can also be a large contributor to potential contamination. ‘The spill conditions are affected by strong winds and operating with less than full fan power. 4.0 Water Use by Blowdown Blowdown is the intentional, controlled removal of mineral-laden water from the cooling system. Blowdown is quantified by the term “cycles of concentration” (cycles). Cycles are equal to the ratio of make-up water volume to blowdown water volume (assuming that drift and spills are negligible). Cycles can be calculated by the ratio of the concentration of a soluble mineral (chloride is often a good choice) in the recirculating water to the concentration of that mineral in the incoming water. If the mineral were twice as * For an absorption chiller since twice the amount of Btu must be removed, twice the amount of water must be evaporated. Thus for an absorption chil the rule of thumb i 3.6 gpvion. Page 2 of 4concentrated in the recirculating water as in the make-up water, the tower would be running at 2 cycles. Ifthe mineral were four times as concentrated, the tower would be running at 4 cycles. ‘The equations that relate these parameters are: Make-up Volume = Evaporation Volume+ Blowdown Volume Cyele’ Cycles Blowdown Volume = 5.0 Minit Volume of Make-up Water Volume of Blowdown Evaporation Volume (Geles—1) jing Water Use ‘The amount of water evaporated by the cooling tower Chloride Concentration in Blowdown Chloride Concentration in Make—up ‘equation (5) equation (6) equation (8) system. ‘The amount of water lost through drift and spillage is a function of the tower design and its mechanical maintenance. It is the amount of blowdown that can be affected by water treatment. Water use in gallons per hour for a 100-ton cooling tower at different cycles are indicated in the following table and graph. Drift and splash-out losses are included in the blowdown value. 5 EVAPORATION BLOWDOWN “MAKE-UP oe (gph) (gph) (gph) Once Through 0 18,000 18,000. 12 180 900 1,080 a 180. 360. 540 2.0 180. 180 360 25 180. 120 300. 3 180. 90 270. 4 180. 60 240 5 180. 45 225, 6 180. 36 216 7 180 30, 210 8 180. 26 206, 10 180. 20 200, Page 3 of 4Gallons per Hour Note that as the cycles of concentration increase, the total make-up water usage approaches the evaporation water usage. Also, increasing the cycles of concentration at a high cycle provides less of a water savings than increasing the cycles at a low level. Going from 2 to 6 cycles will reduce water usage by 144 gph (360-216); however, going from 6 to 10 cycles will only reduce water usage by 16 gph (216-200). ‘These results are shown graphically in the following figure. ——Blowdown + Evaporation '~-—Evaporation Rate Co ee ee ee yo Cycles of Concentration Page 4 of 4