Closed Circuit Cooling Towers

Tower Tech closed circuit (or closed loop) cooling towers redefine what a cooling tower can do. The closed loop models add to Tower Tech's record of minimizing life cycle costs and maximizing efficiency. Combining the cooling tower operation and heat exchanger into a single, cost-effective package prevents contamination for systems where a clean process is critical.

What Makes a Tower Tech Closed-Circuit Tower the Superior Choice?

Tower Tech's modular cooling towers are the highest-quality towers available on the market. With the best-in-class operational expenses of any cooling tower, a Tower Tech cooling tower "pays for itself" faster than the competition. It also requires less maintenance and uses fewer water and chemical resources than conventional cooling towers, all while maximizing real estate and avoiding Legionella and corrosion.

By eliminating direct contact between the water to be cooled and the external environment, closed-circuit cooling towers offer exceptional contaminant control and comply with more stringent safety requirements like those in the EU. Tower Tech's TTCC models can also operate in dry mode and free-cooling mode to save water and energy costs, and the forced draft design allows for the smallest footprint requirement of any cooling tower.

Tower Tech's closed-circuit cooling tower uses a factory-assembled, counterflow, forced draft design with patented technology to provide the most efficient cooling at reduced life cycle costs. Our towers are made from 100% non-corrosive Fiber Reinforced Polymer, including polymer coils, which unlike traditional copper or steel, reduces cost, weight and maintenance. Most applications rely on multiple cooling towers to provide redundancy and to avoid overworking a single tower. 

Core Patented Components

XchangeTech™ Heat Exchanger (Coils)
Usually taking the form of coils, the heat exchanger conducts the cooling fluid through the tower without exposure to the process water. Tower Tech has reduced maintenance times by choosing polymer coils, which are inherently corrosion-resistant and lightweight.

XchangeTech™ Fill Media
Tower Tech's OEM fill media uses a unique waterfall technology that optimizes the heat exchange surface are via materials design and engineered air/water patterning. The cross-corrugated PVC film is designed to operate under most thermal, process and water quality conditions while resisting biological and chemical degradation.
 
Variable Flow Rotary Nozzles
 Our patented water nozzle designs distribute the water in a square pattern over the tower’s fill media to use the full surface area and cool more efficiently while avoiding clogs.

Air Management Components

Multiple Bottom-Mounted Direct Drive Fans
Ambient air is pushed up through the tower to perform the cooling process. Tower Tech uses a series of smaller fans that increase the efficiency of our open loop towers and add redundancy to maintain uptime. The cool intake airstream protected from the elements and easily accessible at ground level, compared to the traditional side- or top-mounted fan design.

Drift Eliminator
Perhaps Tower Tech’s best-known efficiency story, our drift eliminator captures water that escapes the tower as mist in the air. The final drift rate of a Tower Tech tower is an industry-best 0.0004%.

Water Collection System
Tower Tech's patented water collector system moves inlet air into the fill media and channels water flow into the FlowThru Basin while providing a leak-free barrier. This protects the tower's mechanical components, allowing the motors to be placed at the bottom of the cooling tower and allowing for easy, ground-level maintenance.

Fluid Management Components

FlowThru™ Basin
Unlike the low velocity, cold water, settling basins common to conventional cooling tower designs, this patented basin has high water velocities in the channel that continually scrub the walls and floor to eliminate the build-up of sediment and potentially bio-hazardous material. The enclosed design eliminates any contact with sunlight, which stops algae and other biological growth. This reduces chemical use and mitigates the risk of deadly Legionella.

Re-Circulation Pump
This pump recirculates the fluid when operating in wet mode. The water is recirculated from the FlowThru basin up to the variable flow nozzles. The nozzles distribute water over the ExchangeTech coils for heat transfer of the process fluid. The water collector system will then channel the water into the FlowThru basin to be recirculated again.

Process Cooling Fluid
Heated fluid from the process is pumped through a closed loop system and circulated through the coils for heat rejection. By adding glycol to the process fluid, closed circuit cooling towers can operate in cold climates without freezing. This facilitates the continuous operation critical to industries such as power generation and chemical processing.

Common Questions about Closed Circuit Cooling Towers

More FAQs

  • A heat transfer takes place between the process fluid inside the coil and the ambient air. This prevents direct contact between the process water and the external environment. By keeping the process fluid isolated from the atmosphere, a closed loop prevents contamination from dirt, dust and other pollutants. This is essential for industries such as food processing, pharmaceuticals and electronics manufacturing, where even minute contaminants can ruin products.

  • The primary difference is how the cooling process is handled. Open-circuit systems allow direct contact between process water and ambient air, while closed circuit systems use a heat exchange coil to separate the process water from the external environment. Closed circuit towers are important for industries that require the strictest purity, like hospitals, or require precise, constant temperatures with no water escape, like data centers.

  • Initial expense is only the smallest part of a tower's total life cycle costs. Tower Tech provides the lowest total cost of ownership and best return on investment in the cooling tower industry. Our proprietary analytical software tool creates a Performance Analysis Competitive Evaluation (PACE) report to substantiate the savings. Our innovative technology saves more valuable resources than any other cooling tower through reduced:

    • Fan and Pump Energy
    • Water Usage
    • Chemical Treatment
    • Installation Materials, Labor and Cost
    • Maintenance
    • Environmental Impacts
    • Lifetime Carbon Footprint

  • Closed loop cooling towers offer superior control over process fluid and contaminants. Because the fluid to be processed moves through an enclosed system, very little water is lost compared to an open-circuit tower. This makes the closed circuit design excellent for areas where water is scarce or where water must be extensively treated to be of useful quality.

    Because the system is closed, there is also little opportunity for the external environment to contaminate the process water. This significantly reduces the presence of impurities or biological agents. It also eliminates the risk of bacterial formation, like Legionella, that can thrive in sun-soaked open louvers, a common problem of conventional cooling towers.

  • Closed circuit towers are suitable for a wide range of climates. They can be particularly advantageous in areas with harsh water conditions or limited water availability. Because they are closed, they are less prone to freezing and evaporation. The closed loop design also reduces chemical treatment, increases cycles of concentration and can operate in a dry mode when cold ambient conditions allow.
  • Because the system is closed, the water stays in its uncontaminated state for far longer. The clean process fluid provided by a closed circuit cooling tower also reduces maintenance and wear to all connected components, extending equipment life and saving on replacement costs and downtime.
  • Common maintenance of conventional tower practices includes regular inspections of the heat exchanger coil and recirculating fluid loop. Monitoring fluid quality and conducting periodic fluid analyses are also very important. Some maintenance occurs more regularly than others, but a full-tower health check should be conducted at least on an annual basis to ensure optimal performance. By using lightweight, corrosion-resistant polymer coils instead of copper or steel, Tower Tech closed circuit towers reduce necessary maintenance and make any necessary maintenance faster and safer.
    • Data Centers and Semiconductor Manufacturing
    • Pharmaceutical Manufacturing
    • Chemical Processing
    • Food and Beverage Industry
    • HVAC Systems in Sensitive Environments, like Healthcare Facilities

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