Set Management Objectives for Your Cooling Towers

To many industries an adequate and sustainable supply of cooling water is absolutely vital to their manufacturing process. Because of this criticality, the cooling tower can provide a number of lucrative opportunities, identified through
diagnostic cooling tower testing, to reduce total operating cost and gain competitive advantage through:

• Operational excellence
• Cost reduction
• Risk management
• Capital management

Operational Excellence

Typically cooling towers are the most neglected of any major process equipment units. However, inefficient cooling can create process bottlenecks with huge financial consequences. By restoring or upgrading cooling tower efficiency in processes that are cooling limited and enhancing operator training, process throughput can be maximized.

Cost Reduction

Significant reductions in product unit cost can be achieved by reducing energy requirements, water usage, unscheduled outages and chemical requirements while increasing operational time between turnarounds.

Risk Management

Many risks are inherent in industrial cooling system operation. The following proactive interventions can limit both risk and potential liability by:

• Ensuring worker safety through training and routine cooling tower inspections.
• Achieving operational reliability by identifying structural, operational and safety risk factors.
• Minimizing health and environmental risks through managed approval and disposal of: construction and repair materials; new tower lumber leachate management; implementation of tower hygiene standards to guard against Legionnaires Disease; and drift control.

Capital Management

A new cooling tower represents a major capital investment. By upgrading the thermal performance of existing cooling towers, instead of adding additional tower cells or building an entirely new tower, capital outlay can be delayed or avoided altogether. Where capital expenditure is unavoidable, design analysis, bid review and contract assistance will expedite project completion while achieving ROI targets.