Varun Swarup Paharpur Cooling Towers Ltd, Kolkata CII National Seminar on Capabilities, Opportunities and Challenges in Boiler

Turbine and Generator (BTG) Industry India Habitat Centre, New Delhi 25th September 2013

What is a Cooling Tower ?

A cooling tower is a device for evaporative cooling of water by direct contact with air.

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Underlying Principles
Rate of heat transfer in a cooling tower depends on:
Surface area of water in contact with air Relative velocity of air and water during the contact

Duration of air-water contact

Ambient wet bulb temperature is the limiting

temperature to which water can be cooled.

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Classification of Cooling Towers

By method of providing air flow
Mechanical draught (usually induced draught) Natural draught

By air-water relationship
Counterflow Crossflow

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Mechanical Draught Counterflow Tower

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Mechanical Draught Crossflow Tower

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Natural Draught Tower

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More Choices
Type of Fill
Splash type Film type

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More Choices
Structure Material
Wood

FRP
RCC

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Drift Eliminators
Remove entrained water from the discharge air stream.

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Air Movement Package

Motor

Driveshaft
Gearbox Fan Fan stack

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Some Statistics

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Large Industrial Towers Flow Type

Crossflow 100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% 20 56 Counterflow 168 604 3,208 242 571 1,083

% of Cells Sold

1,246 1,566

1961-1970

1971-1980

1981-1990 Year

1991-2000

2001-2010

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Large Industrial Towers Structural Material

RCC 6,000 5,000 No. of Cells Sold 4,000 3,000 2,000 1,000 0 1961-1970 122 176 256 335 1971-1980 689 1,161 1991-2000 2001-2010 3,776 187 811 Wood FRP

415
836 1981-1990 Year

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Large Industrial Towers Fill Type

Splash 6,000 5,000 No. of Cells Sold 4,000 3,000 2,000 1,000 0 298 1961-1970 591 1971-1980 168 1,083 1981-1990 Year 4 455 1,391 1991-2000 2001-2010 Film Fill-less Hybrid

1 40 1,975

2,758

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Large Industrial Towers Fill Material

Wood 5,000 No. of Cells Sold 4,000 3,000 2,000 Plastic RCC ACB

1,000
0
ACB RCC Plastic Wood 1961-1970 12 56 230 1971-1980 53 113 44 381 1981-1990 286 773 192 1991-2000 134 1,665 47 2001-2010 53 4,652 29
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Large Industrial Towers Installed in Power Plants

120,000

Power Plant Capacity (MW)

100,000 80,000 60,000 40,000 20,000 1,865 4,085 1971-1980 1981-1990 Year 14,725

Cumulative 106,717 70,487

15,555

0
1961-1970 1991-2000 2001-2010

Note: These figures do not include smaller cooling towers serving diesel generating sets and small captive power plants.
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Thermal Design Parameters

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Design Parameters
Water Flow Rate
Hot Water Temperature Cold Water Temperature

Wet Bulb Temperature

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Effect of Varying Design Parameters on Cooling Duty

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Water Flow Rate

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Range (T)

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Approach

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Wet Bulb Temperature

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Summary
Cooling tower is limited only by the wet bulb

temperature Choice of mechanical draught vs. natural draught Choice of counterflow vs. crossflow Choice of film-type vs. splash-type fill Choice of structure material Drift is NOT a loss Fan weight does NOT affect power consumption Varying thermal design parameters affects tower sizing in different ways
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Thank You

Paharpur Cooling Towers Ltd Paharpur House, 8/1/B Diamond Harbour Road, Kolkata 700 027, INDIA Ph: +91-33-4013 3000 Fax: +91-33-4013 3499 E-mail: pctccu@paharpur.com