Cooling Towers Purpose
In an effort to lower costs and meet new environmental regulations, companies are developing new ways to do things. One of the developments which meets both cost decrease and environmental awareness is the cooling tower. This chapter will summarize the advantages of cooling towers and how they function.
Before the development of cooling towers, rivers, lakes, and cooling ponds were required to supply cooling. Through the development of the mechanical draft cooling tower, as little as one square foot of area is needed for every 1000 square feet required for a cooling pond or lake. Cooling towers minimize the thermal pollution of the natural water heat sinks and allow the reuse of circulating water. An example of the manner in which a cooling tower can fit into a system is shown in Figure cooling system containing cooling tower below
The cooling of the water in a cooling tower is accomplished by the direct contact of water and air. This cooling effect is provided primarily by an exchange of latent heat of vaporization resulting from evaporation of a small amount of water and by a transfer of sensible heat, which raises the temperature of the air. The heat transferred from the water to the air is dissipated to the atmosphere.
