Evaporative towers maintenance and revamping

In order to make a check of the operating conditions of an evaporative tower, the approaching of the warm season is the ideal moment to verify the efficiency of the filling pack, aiming to avoid the risk of production downtimes. Filling packs are indeed subject to clogging due to soil, limestone and various types of sediments, that block the air/water exchange channels. This leads to a bypass of the air and to an insufficient water distribution, leading to outlet water still at a high temperature, due to the reduced thermal transfer. At this point, the filling pack is suddenly replaced.

Furthermore, the condition monitoring of a cooling tower requires the check of a series of essential data, comparing the actual working data with the project ones:

• Design thermal capacity
• Air load
• Water load to be cooled
• Wet bulb temperature of incoming air
• Inlet and outlet water temperature

In order to keep the tower near to the design conditions as much as possible, as seen the filling pack must be monitored, ensuring that it is not clogged with scaling or sediments, or deformed by the heat of the water coming from the production processes. But also the cleaning level of the served system must be checked, as well as the cleaning and efficiency of water distribution channels, the efficiency of nozzles and of the water supply valve. The water level in the basin must be checked as well, and the efficiency of the refilling and treatment system. It is also suitable to arrange measuring equipments for temperatures, pressures and loads. Finally, it is necessary to control if the air is properly flowing inside the tower, in order to avoid a short circuit between the expelled air, which is warm and humid, and the incoming air, that could compromise the evaporative process halting the thermal transfer.

An efficient tower, managed using proper control activities, entails higher thermal exchange levels and maximum efficiency, maybe also with less fans at work, thus with a lower energy consumption.

Finally, in case of a boosting intervention of a tower, or revamping, it is also possible to consider making an upgrade of the tower itself, adding some accessory components that, with a small investment, will substantially increase the performance and the efficiency:

• Droplet separators
• Nozzles rack
• Distribution systems