Cooling towers are used to dispose of waste heat in various industries, including power plants. They can use evaporative or non-evaporative processes and natural or mechanical draft. They can also be part of a heating and cooling system. However, they can be vulnerable to damage and visually unappealing.
A cooling tower is a structure designed to dispose of waste heat. The heat is removed from the process that generates it and conveyed into the cooling tower so that it can be expelled. Cooling towers are used in a number of different industries, and many people are familiar with them, even if they’re not entirely sure what they’re for, because they’ve become visually associated with nuclear power plants. The distinctive towers seen on the ground of such structures are, in fact, cooling towers, not the plant itself.
Some cooling towers work with evaporative processes. In this case, the hot water is driven through the cooling tower and some of the water evaporates, allowing the heat to dissipate and causing the cold water to flow back into a holding tank. Other cooling towers use a non-evaporative process in which heat transfer between hot fluids and cool atmospheric air occurs, but evaporation is absent. The choice of dry or wet process depends on the setup and the preferences of the designer.
A natural draft cooling tower relies on natural temperature differences to create a constant flow of air to aid in cooling. Others use fans and other mechanical devices for a draft, especially if they are smaller, because height is needed for an effective natural draft. An advantage of natural draft cooling is that it will continue to operate without electricity and with minimal maintenance, because the draft is fully automatic.
Power plants use cooling towers to process the hot liquids they generate, as do other industrial facilities such as factories and refineries which generate a large amount of waste heat. Some use heat exchangers to recover some of the waste heat so it can be used for energy, which increases energy efficiency and makes the plant more environmentally friendly. A cooling tower is also used as part of a heating and cooling system.
Due to their size, cooling towers can be vulnerable to certain types of damage. Strong winds and inclement weather can damage a cooling tower or even cause it to collapse, especially if it’s built on less solid ground. These structures can also be visually unappealing, with some companies masking or decorating their cooling towers to address community complaints about their appearance. The cooling tower can also present a contamination route if associated facilities are not properly maintained, with hazardous substances being inadvertently released from the tower.
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