Film fill fouling in counterflow cooling towers: Continuing research results
- Marley Cooling Tower Co., Mission, KS (United States)
High-efficiency crosscorrugated PVC film packing materials-first introduced in the U.S. for new counterflow cooling tower products in the 1970s-have in a number of instances of older splash and flat-sheet-filled counterflow towers. These highly interfaced PVC packs in new tower and retrofit service have been applied in a variety of circumstances and conditions. In some locations raw waters have fouled packs. This fouling process can, if left unchecked, reverse performance gains from the tower upgrade and add substantially to cooling tower structural loading. This paper details an effort to understand and reproduce that primary fouling mechanism in a controlled and accelerated laboratory regimen, and to conduct equal basis comparative fouling tests on a number of fill configurations to optimize geometry. These efforts proceeded in specially constructed lab cells which did not risk customer tower installations while defining optimum fill design features. Considerable effort went into evaluating our customer`s descriptions of field fouling and to duplicate field observations in the lab process. Field low-clog fill testing results are correlated with lab results. Many alternative fill shapes, spacing, texturing, support schemes, and materials are compared here in order to define the best geometry for the end user. Water conditions, particularly biological characterization and the relation of any circulating water biopotential to suspended solids concentration are discussed because of their specific casual relation in pack fouling. Low-clog fill application criteria are established. Water treatment needs are discussed. Washing of existing fouled packing is also considered. Finally, a laboratory method for thermal comparison of various packs in fouled condition is described.
- Research Organization:
- Electric Power Research Inst., Palo Alto, CA (United States); Yankee Scientific, Inc., Medfield, MA (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 48143
- Report Number(s):
- EPRI-TR--104867; CONF-9408224--
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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