COOLING TOWER

1. COOLING TOWER

2. 8. COOLING TOWER • Purpose of a cooling tower is to provide cool water at a certain temperature. • The water used in a cooling tower is cooled by evaporation and is reused many times.

3. Cooling Water • The original method of cooling Cooling Water system is what is called straight pond type. • By 1920 the spray pond was the system generally in use. • The water was sprayed into the air to break it up into smaller particles, by discharging it through spray nozzles • The water issuing from the nozzle created a draft which , aided by natural breeze, effected the necessary evaporation • The objections to the method were its low cooling capacity and high water losses

4. Cooling Tower • The lost of water blown away in droplet form amount to 5 to 10 percent of the water circulated. • This is expensive and often damaging to nearby property and equipment • The result was installation of fences around pond. thus , the spray type cooler was developed.

5. Cooling Tower • The first natural draft type of cooling tower were built in 1920-30. These cooling towers were often called atmospheric type of towers. • After a time the forced draft and induced draft towers were developed.

6. Cooling Tower Advantage • Corrosion and scaling of cooling equipment is not as severe as with untreated river or well water • Cost of water is comparatively lower since it is reused many times. • The large lines, pumps, and sewer used to transfer water from river to a unit and back to the river would very expensive

7. Fundamentals Governing Cooling • Fluids require heat to change from a liquid state to a gaseous state and they give up heat in changing from a gas to a liquid. (When water is vaporized the liquid is cooled) • The temperature at which a change of state occurs is constant during the change, but this temperature will vary with pressure. [Increase in pressure requires increase in temperature to change water to vapor]. • Heat always will flow from a body at a higher temperature to a body at a lower temperature.

8. Evaporation A large factor that has decided effect on cooling tower evaporation is the process of evaporation. Laws of evaporations are reviewed here: • Evaporation increases as temperature increases. • Evaporation increases with the extent of exposed surface • Evaporation is much greater in dry air than in air containing vapor. • Evaporation increases as the vapor is removed from the surface of the liquid. • The rate of evaporation is determined by the pressure on the exposed surface (atmospheric pressure).

9. Type of Cooling Towers • Natural draft Also called atmospheric or open type, is one in which the air movement through the tower is dependent only upon atmospheric condition • Forced draft A mechanical-draft tower in which the fans located at the inlet or base of the tower and is forced upward through the top at lower velocity • Induced draft A mechanical draft cooling tower is a mechanical draft tower having one or more fans installed at the air outlet of the tower

10. Cooling Tower: Mechanism of Heat Transfer The cooling medium used in cooling towers is air. The amount of moisture that air can absorb varies with its temperature and increases greatly with a rise in temperature. The function of a cooling tower is to bring air and water into intimate contact so that the water will be cooled by the air. This cooling or interchange of heat is accomplished by convection and evaporation. In a tower, convection is taking place between the air and the water. Heat is also being dissipated through evaporation. For any liquid to evaporate, it must gain heat from some source. The relatively dry air is becoming laden with moisture from the evaporating water. The water that is now vapor has taken heat from the liquid water and, in turn, reduced the temperature of the liquid.

11. Cooling Tower

12. COOLING TOWER

13. Cooling Tower

14. Cooling Tower Previous figure provides illustration of a mechanical draft type cooling tower. Advantage of mechanical draft tower over natural draft: • Require less space • Require less piping • Require only about half the pumping head, which varies from 10 to 30 ft. Height of mechanical draft tower does not have to be as great as a natural draft tower. • Realize improved operations due to colder water temperature • Are independent of wind velocity, hence, they can be designed for more exacting performance.

15. Mechanical Draft Tower The primary features of this tower are: • Fan • Water return pipes • Water distribution box • Hot water basin • Fill • Cold water basin • Drift eliminator

16. Mechanical Draft Tower Operations • Air flow • Air flow is created by use of propeller located in the top of the tower • Air is drawn in through slats on the sides of the tower and discharged to the atmosphere from the top of the tower (Induced draft) • Water flow • Water is pumped through plant cooling equipment • The returning hot water flows to the top of the tower through the return system piping • The hot water flows into the hot water basin through the distribution box at the top of the tower. The hot water basin is perforated to allow the water to drip through the tower in many small flow streams

17. Mechanical Draft Tower • The space below the hot water basin is packed with “fill” which consists of staggered rows of perforated plates. The purpose of the fill is to expose as much water surface to the cooling action of the air flow as possible. 3. Cooling tower • Illustrated tower design is called “cross flow” because the air crosses the path of the water • Water cascades down through the fill section • Air is pulled across the flowing water and exhausted out the top of the tower. • The water is cooled by contacting with the air • Cooling is accomplished primarily by evaporation of a small portion (2/3 % of the circulating water) • Temperature of water reduced by 25/30 oF • Evaporation loss account to about 75 % of make up water.

18. Cooling Water Management Fundamentals • Cycles of Concentration 2. Make Up - The loss of water by evaporation, blowdown, and windage requires that water be added to the system 3. Blowdown - Because of the loss of water from evaporation, the dissolved solids in the water are concentrated. - This would cause mineral deposits in the system if a portion of the water were not drained off and replaced with fresh water. This drain off is called blowdown. - This blowdown prevents the solids from building up in the water and coating or fouling the cooler surface

19. Cooling Water System Problems • Scale – A dense adherent layer of minerals tightly bound to itself and to metal surface • Corrosion – A natural process converting processed metals to their native state. • Fouling – Loose non-adherent deposits made up of insoluble particulates present in the make up water or introduced to the cooling system by process leaks, wind or microbial growth.

20. Deposit Control Deposits are conglomerates that accumulate on water wetted surfaces and interfere with system performance, either by gradually restricting flow or by interfering with heat transfer. • Deposits include scale, foulants, or combination of the two. • Scale forms when the concentration of a dissolved mineral exceeds its solubility limit and the mineral precipitates - Langelier index or Stability index indicates a condition of CaCO3 supersuturation.

21. Deposit Control (con’t) • Foulant is any substance present in the water in an insoluble form, such as: 1. silt 2. oil 3. process contamination 4. biological masses. • Deposits are most often an accumulation of sediments or settled solids that drop out of at some point in a system where the water velocity falls to a level too low to support the material in the stream.

22. Deposit Control Deposition: Likely order of events • - Silt from make up water may begin to deposit in a low flow section of a heat exchanger - If water is on the border of CaCO3 instability, the settling solids may act as the initiator for the scaling mechanism, further obstructing flow, and deposit (silt and scale) will form - Dormant microbial organisms may become active, and if the deposit were analyzed, all 3 constituents would be found. • - The sequence could have started with microbial activity blocking the flow, causing the codeposition of the other 2 constituents

23. Deposit Control Deposit Sources The sources of potential depositing material may be: • External to the system 1. Water supply itself - suspended solid such as silt - soluble or precipitated iron - manganese - carryover from clarifier or other pretreatment unit 2. Air particularly in an open recirculating cooling system with cooling tower. Cooling towers act as large air scrubbers capturing - dust - microbes - debris

24. Deposit Control Deposit Sources (con’t) external to the system con’t: 3. Industrial gases - ammonia - hydrogen sulfide - sulfur dioxide etc they react chemically, changing the water characteristics. Sometimes this change can be so dramatic that scaling, corrosion, or microbial masses may suddenly obstruct a system in a matter of days. 4. Leakage of process fluids into a water stream. This leakage may contribute directly or indirectly to the deposits. Most common effect is to provide food for microbial growth. - organic such as oil or food substances

25. Deposit Control Deposit Sources external to the system con’t: 5. Miscellaneous external sources - water used in pumps - lubricant applied to valves, pump glands and bearing that leak into system.

26. Deposit Control Deposit Sources (con’t) 2. Internal to the system (originating from circulating system) 1. chemical precipitation 2. formation of corrosion products 3. polymerization 4. biological growth Chemical precipitation - is usually induced by temp change or disturbance in the equilibrium of system Polymerization of organic – example is coagulation of proteins w/c occurs when water temp reaches 60 to 65 oC Biological activity - may be encouraged by nutrients and food substances present in the water.

27. Treatment to Control System Deposits Chemical treatments to control system deposits • Threshold inhibitors • Dispersants • Surface active agents • Crystal modifier 1. Threshold Inhibitors This includes sequestering agents such as polyphosphates, organophosphorous compounds, and polymers (ie polyacrylates) These exerts a “threshold effect” reducing the potential for precipitation of calcium compounds, iron and maganese. Threshold inhibition causes a delay in precipitation by application of substoichiometric amount of Inhibitor. This threshold dosage is possible because chemical adsorbs Only on the surface of the incipient precipitate, so that only a small Fraction of the precipitating material consumes the active inhibitor.

28. (con’t) 2. Dispersants Organic dispersants include organophosphorous compound and Polyelectrolytes. Polyelectrolytes will disperse suspended solids by Adsorbing to their surfaces, adding electrostatic charge to each particle, causing mutual repulsion. Other dispersants condition the surfaces of the suspended solids in other ways to keep them from coagulating and settling. 3. Surfactants They are surface active chemicals. Those that penetrate and dispere Biomasses are called biodispersants. Some are surface active agents are effective wetting agents and anti foulants which help fluidize solids and keep them moving with the flowing water. Others emulsify hydrocarbon and removed by blowdown.

29. (con’t) 4. Crystal modifiers Presence of particulates induces precipitation of scale from supersaturated solution. Scale is often one of the fraction of a deposit. Although precipitation is not prevented by crystal modifier, the resultant material that precipitates is structurally weak – more like a foulant than scale.

30. Corrosion Corrosion is the deterioration of a substance (usually meta) or its properties by either chemical or electro-chemical reaction with a given environment. Why metals corrode. Most metals are found in nature as “ores” which are metallic oxide. The most common form of iron ore is an oxide called hematite (Fe2O3). Rust is converted to iron by the addition of energy (during refining) and this same energy is expended when the iron converts back to rust due to corrosion. It is the energy stored in the metal during the refining process which makes corrosion possible. This energy supplies the driving force for corrosion.

31. Corrosion Nature of corrosion reaction • Nearly all corrosion problems are due to the presence of water. Corrosion in the presence of water is an electrochemical process. • Electrical current flows during the corrosion process. • In order for current to flow, there must be a driving force, or a voltage source, and a complete electrical circuit.

32. Corrosion Voltage source • In order for current to flow, there must be a driving force, or a voltage source, and a complete electrical circuit.

33. Corrosion Corrosion is nature’s way of returning processed metals, such as steel, copper, and zinc to their native states as chemical compounds or minerals. For example iron in its natural state is an oxidized compound (ie Fe2O3, FeO, Fe3O4), but when processed into iron and steel it loses oxygen and becomes elemental iron (Fe) In the presence of water and oxygen, it revert back to an oxide (Fe2O3 And Fe3O4) Corrosion reaction • Loss occurs from that part of the metal called the anodic area (anode). In this case, iron (Fe0) is lost to the water solution and becomes oxidized to Fe2+ ion. • As a result of the formation of Fe2+, two electrons are released to flow through the steel to the cathodic area (cathode). • Oxygen (O2) in the water solution moves to the cathode and completes the electrical circuit by using the electrons that flow to the cathode to form hydroxyl ions (OH-) at the surface of the metal.

34. (con’t) Chemically, the reactions are as follows: Anodic reaction: Fe0  Fe2+ + 2e- Cathodic reaction: ½ O2 + H2O + 2e-  2(OH-) In the absence of oxygen, hydrogen ion (H+) participates in the reaction at the cathode instead of oxygen, and completes the electrical circuit as follows: 2H+ + 2e-  H2 Fe2+ OH- O2 2e- cathode anode

35. Corrosion Rate • As noted before, 3 basic steps are necessary for corrosion to proceed. If any step is prevented from occurring, then corrosion stops. The slowest of the 3 steps determines the rate of the overall corrosion process. The cathodic reaction (step 3) is the slowest, so it determines rate of corrosion. This is due to difficulty of oxygen encounters in diffusing through water. • One factor in increasing corrosion then is increasing water temperature, which reduce its viscosity and speed the diffusion of oxygen. • A large cathodic surface area relative to the anodic area allows more oxygen, water, and electrons to react. Increasing the flow of electrons from the anode to corrode it more rapidly. • Conversely, as the cathodic area becomes smaller relative to the anodic area, the corrosion rate decreases.

36. Polarization/Depolarization Polarization • As noted earlier, hydroxyl ions (OH-), hydrogen gas (H2) or both, are produced at the cathode as a result of the corrosion reaction • If these products remain at the cathode they produce a barrier that slows the movement of oxygen gas or hydrogen ions to the cathode • This barrier becomes a corrosion inhibitor because it insulates or physically separates oxygen in the water and the electrons at the metal surface Depolarization • The removal or disruption of this barrier exposes the cathode and corrosion resumes

37. Polarization/Depolarization (con’t) Depolarization • Barrier removal is enhanced by two factors: 1. Lowering the ph of water. This increases the concentration of the hydrogen ions reacting with hydroxyl ions to form water, thereby eliminating the hydroxyl barrier 2. Increasing water velocity into the turbulent flow region tends to sweep away hydroxyl ions and hydrogen from the surface of the cathode, therby depolarizing it.

38. (con’t) Metal surface is covered with innumerable small anodes and cathodes develop from: 1. Surface irregularities from forming, extruding and other metalwork operations 2. Stresses from welding, forming, or other work 3. Compositional differences at the metal surface (different microstructure)

39. Types/Form of Corrosion • Galvanic corrosion • Concentration cell corrosion • Stress corrosion cracking • Caustic embrittlerment • Chloride induced stress corrosion cracking • Corrosion fatique cracking • Tuberculation • Impingement attack

40. Type/Form of Corrosion Galvanic corrosion • Two dissimilar metals are connected and exposed to water environment • One metal becomes cathodic, other becomes anode example – copper and steel, steel becomes the anode. It is said to be anodic to copper w/c is the cathode • Fixed concentration of water

41. Type/Form of Corrosion Concentration cell corrosion • Single metal exposed to different concentration (ionic strengths) of water solution • Galvanic current – attack occurs at the anode • Take place in the concentrated solution (concentration cell)

42. Type/Form of Corrosion Stress corrosion cracking • Corrosion environment • Tensile stress 1. external force which causes stretching, bending 2. internal stresses locked in metal during fabrication, rolling, shaping, welding the metal Caustic Embrittlement • Type of stress corrosion that sometimes accurs in boilers • Caused by high concentration of NaOH in boiler water • High stress such as where the boiler tubes are rolled into the drum • Water must contain silica, which directs the attack to grain boundaries leading to intercrystalline attack

43. Type/Form of Corrosion Chloride induced stress corrosion cracking • Caused by chloride concentration and tensile stress focused together to cause both inter-granular and trans-granular branch-type cracking • Type of stress corrosion cracking induced by a chloride concentration cell • Chloride level in water is not much of a factor • Main factor is the existence of conditions that allow chloride concentration cells to develop

44. Type/Form of Corrosion Tuberculation • Is the results of a series of circumstances that cause various corrosion process to produce a unique nodule on steel surfaces 1. Initially, metal ions are produced at an anodic site 2. A high ph, caused by hydroxyl or carbonate ions, encourages iron to redeposit adjacent to the anodic area 3. Mechanism continues until the original anodic area is pitted from metal loss and the pit is filled with porous iron compounds forming a mound 4. Within the tubercle, the aquatic environment is high in chlorides and sulfates and low in passivating oxygen 5. As a result, both oxygen differential cells and concentration cells forms 6. Advanced tubercles may contain sulfides or acids.

45. Types/forms of corrosion Impingement attack • A form of selective corrosion involving both physical and chemical conditions, which produce a high rate of metal loss and penetration in a localized area. 1. It occurs when a physical force is applied to the metal surface by suspended solids, gas bubbles, or the liquid itself, with sufficient force to wear away the natural or applied passivation film of the metal 2. Process occurs repeatedly and each occurrence results in the removal of successive metal oxidation layers 3. Cavitation is a form of impingement attack often found in pump impellers. This is caused by collapse of air or vapor bubbles on metal surface with sufficient force to produce rapid, local metal loss.

46. Type/Form of Corrosion Dezincification • Type of corrosion usually limited to brass • Two forms – general (large surface of affected) and plug type (highly localized) • Occurs when: 1. Zinc and copper are solubilized at the liquid-metal interface 2. Zinc is carried off in the liquid medium, while copper replates 3. The replated copper is soft and lacks the mechanical strength of the original metal

47. Corrosion Inhibition • Complete corrosion protection of metal and alloys maybe impractical • Goal is control corrosion to tolerable level 1. By good design 2. Selection of proper materials of construction 3. Effective water treatment Note: Level of corrosion = metal loss in mils per year 1 mil = 0.001 in = 0.0025 cm 1mpy = 0.025 mm/yr In cooling system, an acceptable loss may as much as 10 to 15 mpy In supercritical boiler it might be zero

48. Corrosion Inhibition Material of construction • Use of corrosion- resistant materials such as copper, stainless steel, copper-nickel alloy, concrete, and plastic may offer advantages over carbon steel • Coating and lining • Use of insulation if joining of dissimilar metal which can lead to galvanic corrosion can not be avoided e.i. – insulating aluminum equipment from steel piping to prevent galvanic attack

49. Corrosion Inhibition Applied Chemical Inhibitors • Any chemical applied to the water to stop anodic reaction will stop corrosion • Any material added to reduce the rate-determining cathodic reaction will reduce corrosion. • Typical corrosion inhibitors

50. Monitoring Results • Corrosion coupon - Pre-weighed metal specimens put into system for 30 to 90 days - Following removal, they are cleaned, reweighed, and observed - Metal loss and type of attack (general, pitting) is then determine • Corrosion nipples - Similar to coupons in concept, but not preweighed and only visually evaluated • Corrosion meter - The meter works by measuring an electrical potential across electrodes made of the metal being evaluated