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The Zephyr Integrated Drive System complements Cooling Tower Modernization and can provide additional cooling within the current footprint. Cooling towers are mission critical, energy intensive capital assets for refining, power generation and petrochemical industries. Cooling performance and reliability directly affects production and profit. A cooling tower is a system, not a parts bin. With the majority of the cooling tower fleet well over 30 years old and in need of maintenance and repair, good money is being spent on incompatible parts that are not resulting in cooling performance. Some of these older towers had design flaws and require engineering in order to operate safely and to their intended design. Thermal and structural engineering are required to provide these corrections to the cooling tower and to determine the correct parts that will result in optimal cooling tower operation.
It is not uncommon for cooling towers to be purposely “flooded” when more water is introduced into the system in an effort to improve cooling performance. In fact, adding more water than design to a cooling tower not only decreases cooling performance but leads to component damage and can cause the cooling tower to collapse. Annual cooling tower inspections are vital to cooling tower safety and performance. Comprehensive annual inspections should include safety, water and mechanical systems and structural components.
Once the inspection has been completed, Prime Datum can provide an engineered solution to upgrade the existing cooling tower to modern standards by utilizing thermal engineering. Using advanced and proprietary aerothermal computer design codes, the existing cooling tower can be modified, upgraded and updated to provide additional cooling and service well into the future. This value proposition is very attractive when compared to the cost of a new tower and more importantly the time and legal issues involved to acquire permits. A structural analysis will also determine how best to repair and upgrade the tower to modern standards using fiber reinforced polymer (FRP). Almost all new towers today are being built with FRP and when properly designed, FRP can be used to replace wood structural components in older towers. An engineered solution will provide less production downtime and interruption, improved turn around, longevity of the upgrade (ROI) and greater cooling performance and structural integrity.
As opposed to buying parts, Prime Datum’s turnkey solution focuses on the delivery of cold water to the process with proper cooling tower operation, safety and structural integrity. A single point contract with cooling performance guarantee and service and parts warranty is available as a turnkey solution for cooling tower modernization. Repairing, modifying and upgrading cooling towers with the addition of the Zephyr not only provide required increased cooling performance but also lucrative energy savings. With the Zephyr Integrated Drive System operators will realize the untapped potential for additional cooling and energy savings in existing cooling towers when they are properly engineered, operated and maintained.
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