Subject Category 7

Cooling Tower Fans and Drives

Chapter 7.1

Consider Innovative Cooling Tower Fan

Motor and Drive Technology

INTRODUCTION
Since 1986, a cooling tower engineering firm (“CTE,” for short) has been de-
signing and installing high-quality cooling towers for the large institutional
market, including hospitals, universities, and airports (Fig. 7.1.1). The systems
use an air-conditioning approach that requires a cooling tower to exchange heat
and return cooled water back to the chiller. However, for two or more decades,
CTE had been searching for a better method of driving fans in cooling towers.
In about 2008, they found what they had been looking for in Baldor's RPM AC
Direct Drive Cooling Tower Motors (Fig. 7.1.2).

THE SEARCH FOR A BETTER SOLUTION

In the arrangement of Fig. 7.1.2, the same very compact electric motor and
control technology that is used to power today's most sophisticated hybrid au-
tomobiles have been adapted for cooling tower drive applications. Advances
in motor power density using laminated steel frame construction are combined
with high-flux strength neodymium iron boron (NdFeB) permanent magnet
salient pole rotor technology. This resulted in the full commercialization of a
high-torque, slow-speed, low-profile motor that is mounted directly to the fan
and operates at variable speed to maximize system efficiency. The permanent
magnet rotor design allows these fan drive motors to excel in many ways. The
motors produce high torque at superior efficiency, low weight, low noise, and
very high reliability. Power is supplied via a cooling tower drive module made
by the same company.

Petrochemical Machinery Insights. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-809272-9.00007-4

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FIG. 7.1.1  Traditional cooling tower configuration with right-angle gear and fan.

FIG. 7.1.2  Baldor variable speed direct drive cooling tower fan arrangement.
 Cooling Tower Fan Motor and Drive Technology  Chapter | 7.1  81

A MATURE PRODUCT
It took little time for these products to mature, and many are now installed in
petrochemical plants and oil refineries. Sizes in the 150 kW range are not un-
common, and Saudi Aramco oil company is installing low-speed direct drive
motor fan units on over 75 cooling tower drives and heat exchanger fin fans on a
grassroots gas plant project scheduled for completion in 2017. In Baldor's RPM
AC Direct Drive Cooling Tower Motors, this major user found a product which
neatly sidesteps all of the issues of a traditional system. “If you don't mind the
phrase, I think it's a simple and elegant solution,” said a seasoned cooling tower
professional with CTE. From his vantage point, it is elegant in the sense that a
user will have traded all of the old-style components for one moving part.
Finally, many retrofits have been implemented because retrofits are neither
difficult nor time consuming. The Baldor engineers and designers succeeded in
creating a low-profile motor design that fits in the same space and a mounting
footprint identical to the traditional gearbox. Indeed, it is almost just a drop-
in replacement. In all, we believe that permanent magnet-based variable speed
low-profile salient pole motors deserve our consideration in original projects
and retrofit applications. The reasons can be summarized in just four important
findings:
(1) Elimination of drive shafts, couplings, and gearboxes in cooling towers.
(2) Elimination of gearbox lubrication and maintenance.
(3) Elimination of belts, pulleys, drive shafts, bearings, and their maintenance
in forced draft process heat exchangers.
(4) Variable speed drive motor is standard drive, can pay back costs in 1–2 years'
operation by energy savings alone. And if there is any question on the reli-
ability of permanent magnet salient pole motors, the manufacturer can be
required to furnish a 2- or 3-year motor warranty.
It will be interesting to see the cost breakdown for the various fan drives in
contention for a particular application. Be on the lookout for developments as
time goes on.