Cooling Tower

[newengr]

I was trying to investigate the details on installing a hyperbolic cooling tower. After some research, I noticed that in order to have a hyperbolic, there is a lot of cooling water required (500,000gpm). I was wondering if anybody knew the recommended min. requirement for cooling water for a hyperbolic cooling tower?(gpm)

 

[TD2K]

Try

http://www.marley.com.

I believe it's because until you have a very high cooling water flow rate (and heat rejection rate), the additional cost to build a hyperbolic compared to a more conventional cooling tower with fans can't be justified.

I don't think there is a minumum amount of cooling water that you MUST have before you can build one, just that it's going to cost you but I've got only a very general knowledge of cooling towers.

 

[MJCronin]

newengr,

Hyperbolic cooling towers are not often built for anything but large electric power plants where there are restrictions on either the water usage or dischrage temperature.

Marley (and others) have built these towers in the past for power plants.... but the market is not currently there.....

Also try the "Cooling Tower Institute" for information

http://www.cti.org

Good Luck

 

[JeffHofacre]

I work for AEP. We operate 14 natural draft cooling towers in the United States. AEP pioneered the use of the natural draft cooling tower in the western hemisphere in 1963 at Big Sandy Unit 1. This tower cools 120,000 gpm. This is installed for a 260 MW plant. It stands 320 ft tall and is 245 ft in diameter. Our largest towers are for our 1300 MW units. They cool 600,000 gpm. They stand 534 ft tall and are 405 ft in diameter.

When these towers were built a big emphasis was placed on best overall efficiency. Without auxilliary power for fans this was attractive. However, the capital costs are very high.

I have priced out cooling towers recently for a 600 MW plant. In this instance a mechanical cooling tower had better economics considering overall operating and capital cost.

 

[aliansari]

Hyperbolic towers are normally built for power plants where huge water is circulated through condensers. I have the same opinion that hyperbolic towers are not built for small flow rates. Reason being the economics. You need very large fans to provide the required L/G. Result . Tremendous horsepower consumed.

Since Hyperbolic towers operate on natural draft, no fans are required. The only difference is high capital investment due to large civil structures.

I think you should contact leading manufacturers like Marley or Hamon to suggest you the best available option suitable to your specific requirements.

You probably did not mention your flow rates. However mechanical draft (induced type) are normally appropriate to handle cooling requirements of small to medium capacities say upto 150,000 gpm as I have seen in large fertilizer plants.

Visiting CTI website would also be helpful

Mohammad Ali Ansari