Device which rejects waste heat to the atmosphere through the cooling of a water stream
Not to be confused with windcatcher.
A typical evaporative, forced draft open-loop cooling tower rejecting heat from the condenser water loop of an industrial chiller unitNatural draft wet cooling hyperboloid towers at Didcot Power Station (UK)Forced draft wet cooling towers (height: 34 meters) and natural draft wet cooling tower (height: 122 meters) in Westphalia, GermanyNatural draft wet cooling tower in Dresden (Germany)
A cooling tower is a device that rejects waste heat to the atmosphere through the cooling of a coolant stream, usually a water stream, to a lower temperature. Cooling towers may either use the evaporation of water to remove heat and cool the working fluid to near the wet-bulb air temperature or, in the case of dry cooling towers, rely solely on air to cool the working fluid to near the dry-bulb air temperature using radiators.
Common applications include cooling the circulating water used in oil refineries, petrochemical and other chemical plants, thermal power stations, nuclear power stations and HVAC systems for cooling buildings. The classification is based on the type of air induction into the tower: the main types of cooling towers are natural draft and induced draft cooling towers.
Cooling towers vary in size from small roof-top units to very large hyperboloid structures that can be up to 200 metres (660 ft) tall and 100 metres (330 ft) in diameter, or rectangular structures that can be over 40 metres (130 ft) tall and 80 metres (260 ft) long. Hyperboloid cooling towers are often associated with nuclear power plants,[1] although they are also used in some coal-fired plants and to some extent in some large chemical and other industrial plants. The steam turbine is what necessitates the cooling tower. Although these large towers are very prominent, the vast majority of cooling towers are much smaller, including many units installed on or near buildings to discharge heat from air conditioning. Cooling towers are also often thought to emit smoke or harmful fumes by the general public, when in reality the emissions from those towers mostly do not contribute to carbon footprint, and consist solely of water vapor.[2][3]
^"Identifying Nuclear Reactors in Google Earth". CleanEnergy Footprints (cleanenergy.org). 31 December 2012. Archived from the original on 23 October 2014. Retrieved 19 May 2014.
^"Myth of cooling towers is symptomatic of global warming information shortage". Royal Society of Chemistry. 15 February 2007. Retrieved 2 March 2022.
^"What you need to know about nuclear cooling towers". Duke Energy | Nuclear Information Center. 24 July 2017. Retrieved 2 March 2022.
water stream, to a lower temperature. Coolingtowers may either use the evaporation of water to remove heat and cool the working fluid to near the wet-bulb...
This is a list of coolingtowers above 500 ft / 150 m. indicates a structure that is no longer standing. List of tallest buildings and structures "Pingshan...
pair of coolingtowers that were left standing for safety reasons after the demolition of the Blackburn Meadows Power Station. The coolingtowers were a...
cooling pond instead of a coolingtower. This single pass or once-through cooling system can save the cost of a coolingtower and may have lower energy...
evaporative cooling to remove waste heat in coolingtowers or cooling ponds. Recirculating systems are open if they rely upon evaporative cooling or closed...
The Willow Island disaster was the collapse of a coolingtower under construction at the Pleasants Power Station at Willow Island, West Virginia, on April...
evaporative cooling air conditioner. In 1986, University of Arizona researchers W. Cunningham and T. Thompson built a passive evaporative coolingtower, and...
regarding passive cooling may include: improved passive cooling during warm season (mostly on still, hot days) improved night cooling rates enhanced performance...
to use free cooling: The coolingtower water can be directly linked into the flow through the chilled water circuit. If the coolingtower is open then...
Radiative cooling in Heat shields Radiators in automobiles Pumpable ice technology Thermoelectric cooling Vortex tube, as used in industrial spot cooling "cooling"...
Chimney pots in London, seen from the tower of Westminster Cathedral A seagull sits on top of a hot gas cooling chimney at The World of Glass in St. Helens...
Messier 29 or M29, also known as NGC 6913 or the CoolingTower Cluster, is a quite small, bright open cluster of stars just south of the central bright...
temperature of the water going into the coolingtower is 125 °F (52 °C), and the towercools it to 95 °F (35 °C). The tower is designed such that if it were...
A cooling pond is a man-made body of water primarily formed for the purpose of cooling heated water and/or to store and supply cooling water to a nearby...
two coolingtowers are a prominent landmark in Soweto. They were built in 1951 to supplement the spray pond cooling system as this source of cooling was...
or returns to a coolingtower where it either cools for more uses or evaporates into water vapor that rises out the top of the tower. The water level...
coolingtower with a height of 51.22 meters. It was originally going to use a wet coolingtower, but later it was decided to use dry coolingtowers because...
bodies might be used directly for cooling, replacing or supplementing coolingtowers. The deep water source cooling system in Toronto, Ontario, Canada...
an environment, or for cooling the fluid or coolant supplied to it, as for automotive engine cooling and HVAC dry coolingtowers. Despite the name, most...
differential: coolingtower To expel and disperse potentially harmful gases and particulates into the atmosphere: chimney To protect from exposure: BREN Tower, lightning...
effective way of cooling dry air. Simply moving the air also has a cooling effect. Humans cool themselves using evaporative cooling when they sweat. A...
bacteria do not become ill. Most outbreaks are traced to poorly maintained coolingtowers. The side chains of the cell wall carry the bases responsible for the...
Deep water source cooling (DWSC) or deep water air cooling is a form of air cooling for process and comfort space cooling which uses a large body of naturally...
destroyed the most visible symbol of its nuclear weapons program – the coolingtower at its main atomic reactor in the complex. The implosion was witnessed...
and radiant heating or cooling with more moderate source temperatures. This article mainly addresses radiant heating and cooling with moderate source temperatures...
output of 1,233 MWe. The units were cooled both by a Natural Draft CoolingTower, and a Spray Pond. The CoolingTower was 535 feet tall. The Turbo generators...
Global Information
