Green cooling towers

摘要

Green Cooling Tower Solutions (GCTS), based in New Orleans, USA, has patented an induced draft, modular cooling tower (Green Cooling Tower - GCT) that uses pressurized water available within the cooling system, and does not use electricity. It eliminates all electrical infrastructure, and saves 100 % cost of electricity, in addition to lower annual maintenance costs, improved reliability and safety (no spark/ explosion risk). GCT harnesses hydraulic energy to drive a specially designed hydro-turbine, which turns a fan shaft and fan blades on the unit. A sufficient amount of airflow is generated by this mechanism to cool the water flow (supplied to the turbine) to the optimal approach to the saturation (wet bulb) temperature of the air. It has been used at Citgo refinery in Lake Charles, LA since early 2009, where GCT 2-cell tower has replaced an existing 7-cell tower and enabled Citgo to take the old system offline permanently. The tower has performed flawlessly since its installation, maintaining existing production, requiring little maintenance and eliminating electricity costs. Its energy efficiency impact is both large scale and significant - in power plants, for example, it can achieve savings of 0.5 % to 2 % (up to 20 MW in a 1,000 MW plant) of the gross generation capacity. It is the best-in-class cooling tower technology currently available for refineries, power, chemical and processing plants - it minimizes energy consumption, achieves optimal efficien- cy in production, and helps with environmental compliance (lower noise, higher safety, low water use and less environmental footprints). GCTS targets large manufacturing and power plants that currently use cooling towers or once-through cooling systems. By embracing this rare advancement in cooling technology that is both green and energy efficient, its user can save energy and O&M expenses, bring additional revenue by sale of saved energy, and potentially generate additional revenue through carbon and green credits.