Evaluating Economics of Cooling Tower

Analysis on cooling tower market in India, its applications and USPs.

Cooling towers are heat transfer equipment. Cooling tower helps power plants to cool the circulating water used for condenser cooling. On the other hands, cooling towers also make power plants economical and green by reusing the cooling water. There are different types of cooling towers are manufactured for different applications. It serves chemicals, oil and gas, HVAC&R, and power generation etc. The market for new cooling tower is weak believes Harsh Bhargava, Director, Cooldeck Industries Pvt Ltd. Sharing his views on cooling towers market for power sector in India he says, “Cooling towers market for the power sector in India as a consequence of very few new thermal power projects being announced, the market for new cooling towers in the power sector is currently weak. Given the focus of new power generation based on solar and wind as well as the fact that numerous thermal power plants are unable to produce and sell power profitably, this situation is not expected to change over the next couple of years.”

Prabhakar Acharya, Sales & Marketing Manager, National Cooling Tower states, “In power generation sector cooling towers required in large numbers and large capacity of cooling tower.”

Major application areas of the components in cooling towers
Cooling towers are getting efficient every year with the use of better designed components such as the fans, fills, drift eliminators and the distribution system. Better materials used in the construction of these components also give a longer life to cooling towers thereby giving years of uninterrupted service to the user.

Sharing about major application areas of the components in cooling towers Bhargava says, “Aerodynamically designed axial flow hollow bladed FRP fans such as the ones manufactured by Cooldeck can provide up to 30 per cent power saving over conventional aluminium fan blades. By insisting on the right grade of FRP resin and fail proof moulding techniques these fans can offer 10-15 years of service lifetime.”

Both fill design and material also go a long way in determining the efficiency of the cooling tower. The most efficient fill media is the film fill but is also the most susceptible to fouling on account of untreated make up water. Towers based on film fill designs such as COOLFill CD-19 and COOLFill CD-12 can be designed to be of small footprints to treat large amounts of water thereby reducing construction as well as running costs. For water sources where they may be limited amount of suspended particles Cooldeck low clog fill media is a solution. However, with the limited sources of clean water and the cost of treatment many users are now opting for splash fill media for their cooling towers. There are available in the form of splash bars or splash grids, both of which are extremely forgiving to dirty water conditions.

Bhargava adds, “A good drift eliminator system not only minimises the quantum of makeup water regularly needed by the cooling tower but also keeps the environment around the cooling tower cleaner and safer. A proper distribution system with the right choice of nozzles also goes a long way in running an efficient cooling tower.”

According to Acharya, the applications area are:

• Chemical, petrochemical, oil and gas sector cooling tower application for their reactor vessel cooling purpose, we are circulate the water in limpate coil or jacketed for cooling the mass of the chemicals.
• Power generator set after cooler to heat dissipate circulation of the cold water it will cool down.
• Plastic processing industry, for example injection moulding machine, blow moulding machine, extrusion machine this machines are required cold water to cool down the mould and oil cooler.
• In paper industry, roller will be required cold water to cool down the roller.
• Pharmaceuticals also required cooled water for reactor vessels jacket and limpate coil.
• Food and beverages for cool down the water through heat exchanger it is called as indirect cooling system.

Cooling towers are heat transfer equipment by cooling tower water. In cooling towers heat and mass transfer takes place which is cooled by evaporative techniques. While sharing the USP of cooling towers of the company Acharya said, “National designs cooling tower are of vertical induced draft counter flow design. The tower deals with regards compact space, economically, high efficiency cooling tower with fiber-reinforced plastic (frp) body. The body of the tower made of tough FRP; it is sufficient structure strength so withstand high industrial vibration and velocity. Cooling tower compact, light weight and economical. It will contact high temperature for inlet temperature and throw of water with low temperature.”