Case Studies:

A large Gulf Coast chemical company found that they could save $500,000 a year for each degree they could lower their cooling temperatures.  They asked us how much we improve their tower with an upgrade so they could take advantage of this savings.  For their crossflow tower we proposed our Stack-Pack design that replaces some of their existing splash-bar fill with our clean operating film fill which improves the tower’s heat transfer. The film fill we use was originally designed for use in sewage treatment plants, and has very large corrugations so that it can operate well even in poor water quality conditions.  

The tower was measured beforehand to get baseline performance.  From there, we were able to determine how much of an improvement we could guarantee and what the costs would be for us to install the upgrade.  In their case the improvement was 3.8°F, and the cost for improving the tower had a very favorable payback.  The tower was upgraded one cell at a time during the cooler months of the year while the rest of the tower remained in service.  The tower was measured again once the upgrade was finished to ensure it was meeting its new performance, which it was.  No operating changes were necessary in their cooling tower water treatment program.

A large refinery in the Southwest had lost cooling tower performance due to film fill fouling, and the unit’s throughput had dropped.  Our inspection showed that not only had the fill trapped debris but many of the nozzle orifices were blocked, too.  We recommended a fill change that brought the temperatures down by over 7º.  That alone would not enough since replacing the fill in kind would mean this would be a short term fix, and the fill would shortly foul again.  The fill material and supports were changed for both present performance and long term cleanliness.  In addition, the distribution piping was flushed out.  The distribution piping normally does not get much attention except to remove and replace nozzles.  Flushing out these pipes kept the debris that was sitting in the pipes from immediately flowing back to the nozzles and fouling them.  The tower met its promised performance and was set to operate for many years of clean, well performing operation.

OUR SERVICES

• Upgrading
• New Towers or Add Cells for Tight Spaces
• Consulting and Bid Analysis
• Testing
• Water Conservation
• Optimization
• Repairs