Cooling towers are essential in every processing facility—they act as a heat exchange. Whether you consider cooling tower rentals as a temporary replacement or pricing a new cooling tower, choosing the right contractor is equally important.
One size cooling tower does not fit all. Choosing a cooling tower type depends on what you’re trying to cool and the target temperature needed. Once you know your product and process, the right option becomes obvious.
If your cooling towers are nearing capacity, consider rental towers before buying. The following cooling tower primer provides the information you need to know about cooling towers before purchasing or renting. Talk to one of our experts—starting with a good knowledge base is vital.
Dry Type vs Wet Type vs Hybrid Cooling Towers
Cooling towers are available in various types and sizes–from small rooftop units to large stand-alone units.
Dry-type cooling towers are known as indirect contact towers. Water is sent through a heat exchanger coil and cooled with air. You don’t get provides, but if you don’t need the evaporative cooling effect a wet tower provides or the need to get the water temperature below 1000 F, this type of tower can be very energy efficient in humid environments.
Wet-type cooling towers are the most common and are known as “evaporative” systems. Wet-type cooling towers allow a small amount of the water to evaporate into a moving air stream to supply significant cooling to the water stream; the heat transferred to the air stream is then expelled into the atmosphere. Wet-type systems are typically used for processes requiring significantly lower water temperatures.
Hybrid-type systems typically use a combination of indirect and direct cooling for heat ejection. For example, the system may be a combination of outside water spray and an indirect cooling exchanger. Or it may be a wet type of tower used to cool the refrigerant for large chiller systems. In both cases, it combines the methods of both wet and dry types to attain the necessary cooling.
Chillers are often used as a complementary cooling option for companies with seasonal needs, especially when the humidity is higher, and there’s a need to get water temperatures down an extra five degrees. Chillers use a refrigerant fluid to supplement cooling.
Cooling Tower Design
Tower Location: Some towers are sizable, while others can be set on rooftops. Deciding where the tower will sit is essential. Towers need good airflow and need to be kept free of debris. While there may not be a perfect location at your facility, minimizing exposure to these could prevent significant issues.
Water Pump Location: Towers should be close enough to the building to put the pumps inside to prevent freezing in the winter. For remotely located towers, a removable, heat-traced box may be necessary. In some cases, a small, heated building may be needed.
Pipe Sizing: The water pump’s location affects the pipe sizing. Pumps located away should use oversized piping to prevent pump cavitation issues.
Header Sizing: Another consideration is the header size for utility piping to the plant. Bigger bore pipes typically allow longer runs, prevent bottlenecks, and keep velocities down.
Water Pump Sizing: Remember that the pump must develop enough pressure to get water to the highest and farthest points in the plant. Plants often operate beyond the design capacity; the cooling tower must keep up. Factor in some excess flow in the pump/tower design for these situations. Sizing the tower water pump is essential. Tower rental is available to supplement a temporary increase in operation or until a new, permanent tower is installed.
Basic Cooling Tower Equipment
Determining a cooling tower type will depend on reliable components and preventive maintenance to keep it operating smoothly.
CTCA can meet all your emergency heating rental and your package unit rental needs by delivering, installing, and starting up a portable rental package unit to meet your facility’s needs. There are necessary structural, mechanical, and electrical components; each item needs to be spec’d. It is essential to understand what a supplier has included in their price. We provide you with this information in our proposal.
Common Cooling Tower Oversights
Anticipating issues that may arise allows you to plan alternatives if any do come up. Sizing your tower right for the extremes at the onset is the best way to avoid any capacity issues.
Pipe Sizing: Size the piping correctly for the process and pump location to help minimize stress.
Add-Ons: If your company is growing, keep expansion in mind when designing your cooling tower; building for a set capacity, then increasing the load over time won’t cool properly. Consider what processes may need to feed into the tower in future—make the adjustments during the design phase that can increase your cooling capacity without requiring a new tower. Remember that rental towers can help bridge the gap while waiting for additional towers.
Fouling: Fouling is another common problem. Fouling occurs when cooling towers suck in air, dust, dirt, leaves, seeds and anything else in the air. A strainer basket in your scope can limit the amount of work required for cleaning out the tower.
Portable Cooling Tower Rental
A leading provider of 24-hour emergency commercial and industrial rental cooling tower systems is CTCA. Our cooling towers can be transported quickly to locations in need of emergency maintenance repairs or outages. All cooling tower rentals provided by CTCA are fully functional in single and multi-unit configurations so that we can meet any water cooling needs.
Augment and supplement cooling water flows
Provide cooling for planned system turnarounds.
Tower Rentals Sized to Your Needs
CTCA has the cooling tower rentals to keep your facility operating at peak performance for planned projects, emergencies, or supplemental cooling needs. CTCA can customize your rental towers precisely to your operational needs.
CTCA has you covered, no matter the industry your business serves.
But we don’t stop at great equipment: our climate control rental experts work closely with you to identify the temporary solution that best fits your business needs, so you’re up and running in no time.
Let us know what you need—we will help you find the right solution. Call us today to discuss your facility’s needs with one of our professionals.
