Cooling Water

Cooling is the transfer of thermal energy from one medium to another. In industrial applications, cooling can be imperative in ensuring that processes do not cause equipment or products to overheat. Many cooling applications use water as a medium to absorb heat, because water has a high boiling point and high specific heat. There are many different types of industrial cooling systems, which can be summarized based on how cooling water is used in each system.

Types of cooling systems include, once-through cooling, closed recirculating system/dry cooling tower, and open recirculating system/wet cooling tower/evaporative cooling tower.

Open recirculating cooling systems or wet cooling towers are the most widely used designs in industrial facilities. Just as in closed recirculating systems, the open system uses the same water repeatedly. The most visible feature is the large, outdoor cooling tower that uses evaporation to discharge heat from the cooling water. Named after the evaporation process, this type of cooling tower is also called an evaporative cooling tower. This system consists of three main pieces of equipment: the recirculating water pump(s), the heat exchanger(s), and the cooling tower.

Because cooling systems rely on water as a heat transfer medium, water quality is essential for continuous and efficient operation. Cooling tower filtration may be sized for full flow filtration or side stream filtration. Self-cleaning filters for cooling towers will be equipped with screens corresponding to the cooling tower system design.