The inside of a cooling tower looks like no place on

earth
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November 29, 2018

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Step into the vast, eerie structures at the heart of Drax Power Station.

Top Stories
29th November 2018

The silhouette of cooling towers on the horizon is one of the most recognisable symbols
of electricity generation around the world. But inside these massive structures is an
environment unlike any other.

When cooling towers are in operation, torrents of warm water cascade down to a huge
pond at its base, the air cooling it as it falls. Plumes of water vapour rise through the
structure and into the air.

But when shut down – for maintenance, for example – the inside of a cooling tower is a
very different place. The vast emptiness of the space can be eerily silent. Even the
smallest noise echoes around its concrete shell.

Standing at over 114 metres high, each of Drax’s 12 cooling towers are 86 metres in
1/5
diameter at their base, 53 metres at their summit, and could comfortably fit the Statue
of Liberty inside. Everything about them is huge, but they are not the unsophisticated
masses of concrete they appear from afar.

“Look at a cooling tower and you might think it’s a substantial, thick
structure. It’s not,” explains Nick Smith, a civil engineer at Drax. “It’s basically
like an egg shell. It is the shape that gives it its strength.” For the majority of
their height, a typical cooling tower is between just 178 and 180 mm – or 7 inches –
thick.

It’s a testament to the original design and construction that they require such limited
maintenance more than half a century after plans were first drawn up. Especially
considering they are in daily use.

What does a cooling tower do?

Water is an essential part of thermal electricity generation. It is turned into high-
pressure steam in the extreme temperatures of a boiler before being used to spin
turbines and generate electricity. Water within the boiler is ‘de-mineralised’ and
purified to prevent damage to the turbine blades and infrastructure.

Once it leaves the turbine, the steam is cooled to pure water again in the condenser so it
can be reused in the boiler. To do this the steam is passed over pipes containing cold
water from the cooling towers, which cools and condenses the steam while also heating
2/5
up the cold water to roughly 40 degrees Celsius, the temperature it is at when it enters
the cooling tower.

Inside the towers the warm water is poured over what’s known as the cooling tower
pack, a series of stacks of corrugated plastic that sit roughly 30 metres up the tower. The
heat and the tower’s height create a natural draught. This pulls air in from the cavities
at the base of the tower – called the throat – which cools the water to around 20°C as it
cascades down the stack into a pond below. It is then returned to the condenser where
the cooling cycle starts all over again.

Only around 2% of the water escapes through the top of the cooling towers as water
vapour – which is what can be seen exiting the top of the towers – with a further 1%
returned to the River Ouse to control water levels. These small losses are replenished
with water taken from the Ouse. It highlights the genius of the towers’ design that their
shape alone can cool water so efficiently on an industrial scale with minimal
environmental impact.

A lasting design
A cooling tower’s iconic shape is known as a hyperboloid, referring to its inward curve.
This makes them very stable, but to make them strong enough to last as long as they
have, Drax’s cooling towers have the added assistance of reinforced concrete.

“Concrete is very strong in compression, but it has hardly any tensile

strength,” says Smith. “Therefore our cooling towers have both vertical and
horizontal hoop reinforcement to take any tensile forces generated. It is
the concrete and steel working together that gives the reinforced concrete
its strength.”

3/5
The level of design and engineering of Drax’s cooling towers are all the more impressive
considering their age. “The construction of our first tower was completed in
1970 and designed in the mid 1960s,” says Smith, pointing out, “they were
designed at a time where there wasn’t huge computing processing power,
so they would likely have been designed by hand.”

“They were constructed to a very high degree of accuracy even when a lot
of the equipment used would have been manual,” he adds.

Designing and building a cooling tower today, he adds, would require significant
computing power and sophisticated setting-out equipment to ensure the accuracy of the
construction. However, the underlying principles of the towers’ shape and how well
they have continued to perform since their construction would give little reason to
deviate from the current design.

In fact, that consistent performance means that even as the nature of generating
electricity develops to include new fuels and technologies, cooling towers remain an
integral part of the process. Drax’s Repower project– which could see the conversion of
the plant’s remaining coal units to gas and the installation of a giant battery facility – is
a significant step forward in the evolution of power generation, yet the design and
purpose of the cooling towers would remain the same.

The structures that will shape the landscape of the future of electricity generation may
include wind turbines, biomass domes and solar panels. But the enduring functionality
of natural draught concrete cooling towers means they will still play a role in producing
the country’s electricity – even as generation diversifies.
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Watch Inside a cooling tower

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5/5
Cooling tower design and construction
designingbuildings.co.uk/wiki/Cooling_tower_design_and_construction

For more information, see Cooling tower.

Contents
1 Introduction
2 Hyperboloid structure
3 Construction
4 Find out more
4.1 Related articles on Designing Buildings
Wiki
4.2 External references

Introduction
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.
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Cooling towers were invented during the industrialisation of the 19th century through
the development of condeners for use with the steam engine. By the early 20th century,
advances in cooling towers were fueled by the rapidly growing electric power industry.
Where there were areas of available land, the systems took the form of cooling ponds,
whereas in city areas they were cooling towers, either positioned on building rooftops or
as free-standing structures.

Hyperboloid structure
Hyperboloid structures are often designed as tall towers, where the strength of the
hyperboloid’s geometry is used to support an object high off the ground. They have
superior stability and resistance to external forces than ordinary structures; however,
the drawback is the shape resulting in low space efficiency. This means they are most
suited to purpose-driven structures such as cooling towers.

The hyperboloid shape is particularly suited to cooling tower construction as the wide
base provides a large space for the water and cooling system. The narrowing effect of
the tower helps with the laminar flow of the evaporated water as it rises. As the tower
widens out at the top, it supports the turbulent mixing as the heated air makes contact
with the atmospheric air.

The first hyperboloid structure was a 37-metre lattice water tower, built in 1896 for the
All-Russian Exhibition located in Pilibino, Russia.

Dutch engineers Frederik van Iterson and Gerard Kuypers patented the hyperboloid
cooling tower in 1918, with the first being built near Heerlen that year. The UK saw the
first tower being built in 1924 in Liverpool, to cool water used at a coal-fired electrical
power station.

Construction
Cooling towers can be small-scale roof-top installations, medium-sized packaged units,
or very large structures sometimes associated with industrial processes or power
stations with their characteristic plume of water vapour in the exhaust air.

These large cooling towers can be up to 200 metres (660 ft) tall and 100 m (320 ft) in
diameter. They are often constructed as hyperboloid, doubly-curved concrete shell
structures supported on a series of concrete struts. The foundations typically consist of
an inclined pond wall forming a circular ‘tee’ beam with a wide concrete strip. The beam
acts to resist the lateral load of the tower’s shell structure. As well as the ‘tee’ beam,
piled foundations are normally required to minimise differential settlement and reduce
the risk of cracking.

The cooling system is housed in the tower’s base which is typically the bottom 10
metres, the rest of the tower consisting of an empty shell. The water falls and collects in
a pond at the base of the tower, formed by a base slab and the pond wall.
2/3
In natural-draught cooling towers the open structure at the base allows a natural
movement of air. Mechanical-draught cooling towers use fans to provide a draught,
where it is necessary to maintain or not exceed a fixed temperature level. The costs
associated with the operation of mechanical-draught may be higher, but it is more
efficient than natural draught.

Find out more

Related articles on Designing Buildings Wiki

Air handling unit.
Bridge construction.
Caisson.
Civil engineer.
Cofferdam.
Cooling.
Cooling tower.
Dam construction.
Driven piles.
Evaporative cooling.
Grouting in civil engineering.
HVAC.
Institution of Civil Engineers ICE.
Marine energy and hydropower.
Pile foundations.
Refrigerants.
Skyfarm.
Structural engineer.
Tunnelling.
Water engineering.

External references
‘Introduction to Civil Engineering Construction’ (3rd ed.), HOLMES, R., The
College of Estate Management (1995)

Retrieved from
"https://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/wiki/Cooling_tower_design_and_constructio
n"

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Why Do Cooling Towers Have Such A Unique Shape?
scienceabc.com/pure-sciences/why-cooling-towers-are-shaped-that-way.html

More from this author December 15, 2015

While driving through the countryside, you have likely laid your eyes on a number of
factories and industrial plants. Without a doubt, the enormity of those structures is
overwhelming, but does present viewers with a picturesque vista. Out of these
installments, the one feature that always seems to stand out is the cooling tower – a tall
chimney that issues a white (or sometimes blackish) smoke. Many cooling towers are
made in a specific cylindrical shape; their base is wide, they narrow at the middle, and
become broad again at the top. This shape is called “hyperboloid”.

Have you ever wondered why cooling

towers are hyperboloid in shape?

First Shukhov Tower, the world’s first

hyperboloid structure.

Cooling Tower

1/4
 Credit: Creative Lab/Shutterstock

A power plant consists of many components, but cooling towers are some of the most
important. For example, many people see cooling towers as an identification feature of
power plants. The function of a cooling tower is to release the excess heat (or waste
heat) to the atmosphere by cooling down hot fluid (water, in most cases) to a lower
temperature.

These towers employ different methods to cool water down, but the most popular
method involves evaporation. Excess heat is removed from water through the simple,
old-school process of evaporation to cool it down. The other method involves closed
circuit dry cooling towers, which are entirely dependent on the use of electrical
equipment to cool the working fluid.

Why Do Cooling Towers Have that Hyperboloid Shape?

There’s no universal rule regarding cooling towers that everyone has to follow. There
can be (and actually are) many different shapes of cooling towers. However, the most
common sight, especially in power plants and nuclear plants, is hyperboloid-shaped
cooling towers. Why do architects and engineers find this shape so mesmerizing?

The Strength Factor

2/4
First and foremost, the hyperboloid shape impacts the strength of the entire structure.
Since cooling towers are supposed to cool the working fluid down to a low temperature,
they release vapors into the atmosphere through the opening at the top of the tower.
Therefore, these towers have to be sufficiently tall (they can be as tall as 200 meters!),
or else the released vapor may cause fogging or recirculation. To support such a high
structure, it is extremely important that the base is considerably consolidated and
spread over a large area so that it can support the tall, heavy structure above it. This is
why cooling towers have a large, circular base.

Facilitating Aerodynamic Lift

As mentioned above, hot fluid is cooled down by evaporation in cooling towers. As hot
water evaporates and begins to rise in the concrete structure, the narrowing effect of the
tower helps to enhance the speed of parallel layers of vapor without any disruption
(referred to as laminar flow). Since hot air is less dense than cool air, it easily rises
inside the tower, particularly due to the narrowness of the tower in the middle.

Faster and More Efficient Diffusion into the Atmosphere

If the narrowness at the center helps to speed up the updraft, then why is the open top
so wide?

3/4
 A wider top opening enhances the diffusion process
(Credit: Petr Louzensky/Shutterstock)

The top of cooling towers widens because this is the point where hot air from inside the
tower diffuses and mixes with the atmospheric air. Therefore, we want to maximize the
area through which this diffusion takes place, so that more hot vapor is quickly mixed
and the entire process of cooling is done more efficiently.

There are a few other reasons behind this shape. For example, a wide base not only
provides strength to the whole structure, but also offers ample space for the installation
of machinery. From a logistical standpoint, this shape is easier to build, as it employs a
lattice of straight beams to erect the tower. Also, this type of structure is more resistant
to external natural forces than straight buildings.

It is amazing how a seemingly simple change in the ‘look’ of a structure can make such a
staggering difference in both the quality and quantity of the desired product, which, in
this case, is the amount of cooled water!

References:
1. Cooling Tower – Wikipedia
2. Hyperboloid Structure – Wikipedia

The short URL of the present article is: http://sciabc.us/e9zE4

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Cooling tower
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/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
A typical evaporative, forced draft open-loop
temperature. cooling tower rejecting heat from the condenser
water loop of an industrial chiller unit.
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.
Natural draft wet cooling
Cooling towers vary in size from small roof-top units hyperboloid towers at Didcot
to very large hyperboloid structures (as in the Power Station (UK)
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,[1] 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 Forced draft wet cooling towers
to discharge heat from air conditioning. (height: 34 meters) and natural
draft wet cooling tower (height: 122
1 History meters) in Westfalen, Germany.
4 Heat transfer methods
5 Air flow generation methods
9 Terminology
1/20
 10 Fog production
11 Salt emission pollution
12 Use as a flue-gas stack
13 Operation in freezing weather
14 Fire hazard
15 Structural stability
16 See also
"Camouflaged" natural draft wet
17 References
cooling tower in Dresden
18 External links (Germany)

History

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.[2] 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.[3]
However the condensers require an ample supply of cooling water, without which they
are impractical.[4][5] 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.[6] 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.[2][5] 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.[4][7]

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.[4][7] 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."[7]

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A hyperboloid cooling tower was patented by the Dutch engineers Frederik van Iterson
and Gerard Kuypers in 1918. [8] The first hyperboloid cooling towers were built in 1918
near Heerlen. The first ones in the United Kingdom were built in 1924 at Lister Drive
power station in Liverpool, England, to cool water used at a coal-fired electrical power
station.[9]

Classification by use

Heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC)

Main article: HVAC
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 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 British thermal units per hour (3,500 W). The
equivalent ton on the cooling tower side actually rejects about 15,000 British thermal
units per hour (4,400 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 per minute (11 litres per minute) or 1,500 pounds per
hour (680 kg/h) of water 10 °F (6 °C), which amounts to 15,000 British thermal units
per hour (4,400 W), assuming a chiller coefficient of performance (COP) of 4.0.[10] 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 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
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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.[11] 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)[12] and the circulating water requires a supply water make-up rate of perhaps 5
percent (i.e., 3,600 cubic metres an hour, equivalent to one cubic metre every second).

If that same plant had no cooling tower and used once-through cooling water, it
would require about 100,000 cubic metres an hour [13] A large cooling water intake
typically kills millions of fish and larvae annually, as the organisms are impinged on the
intake screens.[14] 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 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 towers are the two 202 metres (663 ft) tall cooling towers of
Kalisindh Thermal Power Station in Jhalawar, Rajasthan, India. [15]

Field erected cooling tower

Classification by build

Package type

Field Erected Cooling Towers

Brotep-Eco cooling tower

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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.

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, and a 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

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of the water is taken from the remaining mass of water, thus reducing its temperature.
Approximately 420 kilojoules per kilogram (970 BTU/lb) of heat energy is absorbed for
the evaporated water. 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.
Mechanical draft — Uses power-driven fan motors to force or draw air through
the tower.
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.
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.

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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. [16]

Categorization by air-to-water flow

Crossflow

Mechanical draft crossflow cooling tower used in an HVAC application

Package crossflow cooling tower

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.

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Counterflow

Showers inside cooling tower

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.
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.

Wet cooling tower material balance

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Quantitatively, the material balance around a wet, evaporative cooling tower system is
governed by the operational variables of make-up volumetric flow rate, evaporation and
windage losses, draw-off rate, and the concentration cycles.[17][18]

In the adjacent diagram, water pumped from the tower basin is the cooling water routed
through the process coolers and condensers in an industrial facility. The cool water
absorbs heat from the hot process streams which need to be cooled or condensed, and
the absorbed heat warms the circulating water (C). The warm water returns to the top of
the cooling tower and trickles downward over the fill material inside the tower. As it
trickles down, it contacts ambient air rising up through the tower either by natural draft
or by forced draft using large fans in the tower. That contact causes a small amount of
the water to be lost as windage or drift (W) and some of the water (E) to evaporate. The
heat required to evaporate the water is derived from the water itself, which cools the
water back to the original basin water temperature and the water is then ready to
recirculate. The evaporated water leaves its dissolved salts behind in the bulk of the
water which has not been evaporated, thus raising the salt concentration in the
circulating cooling water. To prevent the salt concentration of the water from becoming
too high, a portion of the water is drawn off or blown down (D) for disposal. Fresh water
make-up (M) is supplied to the tower basin to compensate for the loss of evaporated
water, the windage loss water and the draw-off water.

Fan-induced draft, counter-flow cooling tower

Using these flow rates and concentration dimensional units:

M = Make-up water in m3/h

C = Circulating water in m3/h

D = Draw-off water in m3/h

E = Evaporated water in m3/h

W = Windage loss of water in m3/h

X = Concentration in ppmw (of any completely soluble salts ... usually

chlorides)

XM = Concentration of chlorides in make-up water (M), in ppmw

XC = Concentration of chlorides in circulating water (C), in ppmw

Cycles = Cycles of concentration = XC / XM (dimensionless)

ppmw = parts per million by weight

A water balance around the entire system is then: [18]

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M=E+D+W

Since the evaporated water (E) has no salts, a chloride balance around the system is: [18]

and, therefore:[18]

From a simplified heat balance around the cooling tower:

where:

HV = latent heat of vaporization of water = 2260 kJ / kg

ΔT = water temperature difference from tower top to tower bottom, in

°C

cp = specific heat of water = 4.184 kJ / (kg °C)

Windage (or drift) losses (W) is the amount of total tower water flow that is entrained in
the flow of air to the atmosphere. From large-scale industrial cooling towers, in the
absence of manufacturer's data, it may be assumed to be:

W = 0.3 to 1.0 percent of C for a natural draft cooling tower without windage drift
eliminators
W = 0.1 to 0.3 percent of C for an induced draft cooling tower without windage drift
eliminators
W = about 0.005 percent of C (or less) if the cooling tower has windage drift
eliminators
W = about 0.0005 percent of C (or less) if the cooling tower has windage drift
eliminators and uses sea water as make-up water.

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

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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.

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.[19] Highly treated recycled water
may be an effective means of reducing cooling tower consumption of potable water, in
regions where potable water is scarce.[20]

Maintenance
Clean visible dirt & debris from the cold water basin and surfaces with any visible
biofilm (i.e., slime).

Disinfectant and other chemical levels in cooling towers and hot tubs should be
continuously maintained and regularly monitored. [21]

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
See also: Industrial 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
[17] 11/20
the continuous flow of the water.[17] 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.

The water consumption of the cooling tower comes from Drift, Bleed-off, Evaporation
loss, The water that is immediately replenished into the cooling tower due to loss is
called Make-up Water. The function of make-up water is to make machinery and
equipment run safely and stably.

Legionnaires' disease

Legionella pneumophila (5000x magnification)

Further information: Legionellosis and Legionella

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,[22] or Mycobacterium avium.[23] 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.[24][25]

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.[26]

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. Also, about every six
months, inspect the conditions of the drift eliminators making sure there are no gaps to
allow the free flow of dirt. [27]
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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. [28]

Studies have found Legionella in 40% to 60% of cooling towers.[29]

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.

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.

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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.[30][31][32]

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.

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:
Film type fill (causes water to spread into a thin film)
Splash type fill (breaks up falling stream of water and interrupts its
vertical progress)

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 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
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.

Fog production

Fog produced by Eggborough power station

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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.[33]

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 standards are not imposed or not
implemented to minimize the drift emissions from wet cooling towers using seawater
make-up.[34]

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 PM 2.5 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).[34]

Use as a flue-gas stack

Large hyperboloid cooling towers made of structural steel for a power plant in Kharkiv
(Ukraine)

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

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
17/20
replacement of the entire cell or tower structure. For this reason, some codes and
standards[35] 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.[36]

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.[37] Although
the structures had been built to withstand higher wind speeds, the 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.

See also

References
1. ^ CleanEnergy Footprints (cleanenergy.org). Identifying Nuclear Reactors in
Google Earth Retrieved 5/19/2014
2. ^ a b International Correspondence Schools (1902). A Textbook on Steam
Engineering. Scranton, Pa.: International Textbook Co. 33–34 of Section
29:"Condensers".
3. ^ Croft, Terrell, ed. (1922). Steam-Engine Principles and Practice. New York:
McGraw-Hill. pp. 283–286.
4. ^ a b c Heck, Robert Culbertson Hays (1911). The Steam Engine and Turbine: A
Text-Book for Engineering Colleges. New York: D. Van Nostrand. pp. 569–570.
5. ^ a b Watson, Egbert P. (1906). "Power plant and allied industries". The
Engineer (With Which is Incorporated Steam Engineering). Chicago: Taylor
Publishing Co. 43 (1): 69–72.
6. ^ a b c Snow, Walter B. (1908). The Steam Engine: A Practical Guide to the
Construction, Operation, and care of Steam Engines, Steam Turbines, and Their
Accessories. Chicago: American School of Correspondence. pp. 43–46.
7. ^ UK Patent No. 108,863
8. ^ "Power Plant Cooling Tower Like Big Milk Bottle". Popular Mechanics. Hearst
Magazines. February 1930. p. 201. ISSN 0032-4558.}}

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 9. ^ Cheremisinoff, Nicholas (2000). Handbook of Chemical Processing Equipment.
Butterworth-Heinemann. p. 69. ISBN 9780080523828.
10. ^ U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). (1997). Profile of the Fossil Fuel
Electric Power Generation Industry (Report). Washington, D.C. Document No.
EPA/310-R-97-007. p. 79.
11. ^ Thomas J. Feeley, III, Lindsay Green, James T. Murphy, Jeffrey Hoffmann, and
Barbara A. Carney (2005). "Department of Energy/Office of Fossil Energy’s Power
Plant Water Management R&D Program." Archived 27 September 2007 at the
Wayback Machine U.S. Department of Energy, July 2005.
12. ^ The Indian Point Energy Center cooling system kills over a billion fish eggs and
larvae annually. McGeehan, Patrick (12 May 2015). "Fire Prompts Renewed Calls
to Close the Indian Point Nuclear Plant". New York Times.
13. ^ https://www.constructionweekonline.com/article-18052-worlds-tallest-
cooling-towers-take-shape-in-india
14. ^ Gul, S. (18 June 2015). "Optimizing the performance of Hybrid: Induced-
Forced Draft Cooling Tower". Journal of the Pakistan Institute of Chemical
Engineers. 43 (2). ISSN 1813-4092.
15. ^ a b Beychok, Milton R. (1967). Aqueous Wastes from Petroleum and
Petrochemical Plants (1st ed.). John Wiley and Sons. LCCN 67019834.
16. ^ "Best Management Practice Cooling Tower Management". Energy.gov.
Department of Energy. 30 April 2005. Retrieved 16 June 2014.
17. ^ San Diego County Water Authority (July 2009). "Technical Information for
Cooling Towers Using Recycled Water" (PDF). www.sdcwa.org. San Diego
County Water Authority. Retrieved 18 June 2014.
18. ^ Ryan K.J.; Ray C.G. (editors) (2004). Sherris Medical Microbiology (4th ed.).
McGraw Hill. ISBN 978-0-8385-8529-0.
19. ^ William H Clark (1997), Retrofitting for energy conservation, McGraw-Hill
Professional, p. 66, ISBN 978-0-07-011920-8
20. ^ Institute of Industrial Engineers 1981– (1982), Proceedings, Volume 1982,
Institute of Industrial Engineers/American Institute of Industrial Engineers,
p. 101
21. ^ Mathie, Alton J. (1998), Chemical treatment for cooling water, Fairmont
Press, p. 86, ISBN 978-0-88173-253-5
22. ^ Sutherland, Scott (23 March 2017). "Cloud Atlas leaps into 21st century with 12
new cloud types". The Weather Network. Pelmorex Media. Retrieved 24 March
2017.
23. ^ a b Wet Cooling Tower Guidance For Particulate Matter, Environment Canada
Archived 3 April 2015 at the Wayback Machine, Retrieved on 2013-01-29
24. ^ National Fire Protection Association (NFPA). NFPA 214, Standard on Water-
Cooling Towers.
25. ^ NFPA 214, Standard on Water-Cooling Towers. Section A1.1

External links

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Cooling
tower.

What is a cooling tower? – Cooling Technology Institute

"Cooling Towers" – includes diagrams – Virtual Nuclear Tourist
Wet cooling tower guidance for particulate matter, Environment Canada.
Striking pictures of Europe’s abandoned cooling towers by Reginald Van de Velde,
Lonely Planet, 15 February 2017 (see also excerpt from radio interview, World
Update, BBC, 21 November 2016)

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