Greetings! My name is Adam. I work in the advertising industry as a brand developer. I also teach surfing lessons and spend a lot of time volunteering with an animal hospital. When I was on a gap year, I took a job in a pen factory. Through that experience, I learned a great deal about how pens were made, but I also learned a lot about industrial work and manufacturing in general. In this blog, I plan to write about all aspects of these topics, and I hope that this information is interesting and informative to you. Please, grab a tea and start looking around. If you like my blogs, share them. Thanks.
By design, cooling tower systems use large amounts of water. The basic function of cooling towers is to absorb process heat and cool recirculated water to a desired temperature level. From a water efficiency viewpoint, it is best for you to maximise cooling tower water cycles. This is one of the effective ways that can be used to improve thermal performance and extend the service life of the equipment.
The efficiency and longevity of the equipment relies upon the proper management of water recirculated within the system and the cooling tower design. It is important to identify and manage sources of water loss in cooling tower systems so that thermal inefficiencies may be minimised. Water can escape from cooling towers in any of the followings ways.
Evaporation
Cooling towers dissipate heat from the system by evaporating water. As water turns to air and leaves the system through the heat-transfer mechanism, additional water is introduced into the tower to replace the lost water. The amount of water lost through evaporation is generally determined by the amount of heat transferred, and it can be minimised by reducing the cooling load demands of the building.
Blowdown
Blowdown also results in loss of a significant amount of the recirculating water from the tower. Water naturally holds dissolved minerals, such as calcium and magnesium, in solution. As water evaporates from the system, the concentration of dissolved minerals in the remaining water increases. This often leads to formation of scale. Scale works as an insulator and reduces the thermal performance of the tower. Regrettably, many system operators trying to cushion against scaling may allow excessive water to escape through the process of blowdown.
Drift
Drift refers to small water droplets that may leave the cooling tower together with the exhausted air. Water loss due to drift is small when compared to that lost because of evaporation and blowdown. In an attempt to keep this water loss down, cooling towers are often equipped with drift eliminators. As the air travels through the drift eliminators, condensed water collects on them and drips back into the tower by the force of gravity.
Faulty valves
Another significant cause of water loss usually results from overflows caused by poorly-adjusted or malfunctioning fill valves. Float valves are also susceptible to failure due to air flows when water becomes choppy. These valves should be regularly inspected to ensure they are in good working shape. It may also be a good idea to replace any ballcock-type float and fill valves with solenoid operated valves, which work better at minimising overflow problems.
Share