Cooling tower water cleaning system

[Mechya]

Hi everybody
Cooling tower basin cleaning system are being promoted by many suppliers as an easy and cost effective means of controlling and minimizing the water consumption especially in the areas of water scarcity. These systems have hydro boosters installed in the piping network which is laid on the tower basin. Can anybody comment on the pros and cons of using these systems.

Thanks in advance

 

[tombmech]

It's difficult to put in smaller towers of less than about 500 tons (just IMHO), but on larger towers it can be quite beneficial. You reach a point of diminishing returns in comparison to the piping complication on smaller towers.

Pardon me if you already know this, but the problem is that tower systems, by virtue of their operation, evaporate water. As a consequence, the water collecting in the tower basin may become over-saturated with the water treatment chemicals. In severe cases, the chemicals may eat holes clean through the basin - ruining it and perhaps the tower as well.

To prevent this, most towers have a "blow-down" cycle where the basin is emptied at a high rate in order to replenish with clean water. This drives the water usage way up. Cooling Tower basin spray nozzles help to minimize the number of these blowdown cycles.

They also make filtration more effective. Many things may accumulate on the basin bottoms - besides just chemicals. The basin spray nozzles help to keep the basin surface turbulent so that contaminants will flow out where they can be filtered. This saves both water usage and maintenance from frequent periodic cleaning.

 

[thermcool]

Cooling towers need periodic inspection and cleaning to avoid the bacterial culture that can result from the dampness and warm environment present inside the tower.

 

[imok2]

I like the sand filters with automatic blow down and self cleaning

 

[KiwiMace]

I specced an eductor type nozzle system on a set of towers, but particularly liked the vortex type filters that you can get to compliment this system. A good maintenance routine can make the nozzle system redundant, but in most cases it's a decent idea. There are several pipe and pump configurations to consider, better if you can get away with as little parasitic pump cost as possible though.