Evaporative cooling towers reject heat into the atmosphere in the form of warm saturated wet air, the larger the heat rejection the more water will be rejected into the environment, and in the right conditions this water vapour will form visible clouds above the cooling towers. Think of it as nothing more than when you breathe out on a cold day, the moisture in your breath cannot be absorbed by the cold air outside of your body quickly enough, so water droplets are formed, which reflect light creating visible plume. On a large scale this could be considered as a safety concern, where plume may ground near equipment creating wet and potentially icey surfaces, it could obscure visibility on roads or around airports, or people just don’t like the look of it!
Whatever the reason, a greater degree of plume control can be achieved by installing air side dampers, which can vary the airflow into a cooling tower reducing plume formation or increasing performance.
The Solution
Using manually operated rolling doors to vary the airflow into the cooling towers, it is possible to increase the plume abatement effect of the cooling towers seasonally, so maximum plume abatement could be achieved in the winter and maximum evaporative performance could be achieved in the summer.
This system can be scaled up and utilised on power stations where summer cold water temperatures can be reduced by more than 1°C leading to increased generating capacity in the summer when the price per MW can be higher.
Benefits
- Cost effective Plume Abatement Control
- Easy and fast installation
- Minimal additional steelwork required.
- Screens Available up to 60 m
- ROI Will be realised in increased generating capacity
