91-01: Evolution of the Water Cooling Tower Legionnaires' Disease

91-01: Evolution of the Water Cooling Tower Legionnaires' DiseaseThis paper covers the evolution of the cooling tower from its introductions into the U. S. in 1898 to the present. The driving forces creating the necessity for heat removal and the ingenuity used to solve the problem are discussed. The different types of design, their reasons, successes and failures are included. The materials used over the years are covered. The paper will be presented with slides depicting the subject matter.

It will present the mathematical procedure used to analyze the data

Within Cooling Towers

reduce water needs

An ion exchange based technology has been developed to selectively remove calcium from aqueous streams effectively eliminating calcium as the limiting constituent for COC

wet/dry cooling systems enable significant water savings

Case histories throughout the USA and Texas illustrated specific experiences and results in system protection

these approaches can be used to study corrosion of other metals or to evaluate any other problem

we can extrapolate that the number of cooling towers worldwide is roughly 1

Common causes of system failure unrelated to water treatment include: (a) Operational Issues

few seem to know what they are really getting when they specify preservative treatment in terms of actual protection against wood decay

the build-up of calcium can severely limit the extent of water re-use

The steam from the turbine exhaust condenses as it is directly cooled by forced convection of the ambient air