Water, essential to live. Essential to cool your equipment. Essential to maintain your cooling tower in optimal working order. However, water in the form of drift can be costly, dangerous and deadly.
Naturally cooling towers have a normal amount of evaporation. An abundance of evaporation can result in a major expense as well as the risk of exposing the surrounding environment to the release of toxic chemicals. If you have a cooling tower on your facility to remove heat from your operations, you should be using a high-quality drift eliminator.
The Dangers of Drift
Facilities that process or use toxic chemicals in their operations also run the risk of releasing drift.
What is drift? Drift is the unwanted escape of toxins being released into the environment in via large water droplets that have escaped your cooling tower. These droplets can then contaminate the air around the facility or fall back to the ground and contaminate the ground or nearby water supply. They can then spread to other parts of the local environment, damaging ecosystems, wildlife, and residents alike. Drift can cause icing of public roads, parking lots, and fields downwind of the cooling tower.
Drift can also negatively impact your facilities ability to produce. The excess moisture in the air can lead to corrosion problems throughout the facility, damaging the pipes, electrical components, and other expensive equipment. This moisture can also cause the facility’s electrical systems to fail. All this leading to costly repairs and possible shutdown.
How Drift Eliminators Work
The goal is to eliminate drift. This is achieved by installing a high quality drift eliminator. A properly installed eliminator is designed to change the direction of the water droplets. By doing this, you change to velocity, therefore the water droplets will essentially hit the tower walls and run back down the cooling tower instead of being released.
The Solution to Drift
Most cooling towers should be fitted with a high quality drift eliminator as way of protecting the natural environment, according to the Federal Energy Management Program as laid out by the U.S. Department of Energy. Learn more about how these systems can help facility managers keep toxic chemicals out of the environment.
In order to prevent situations like the ones described above, costly shut down, fines from the EPA, damage to equipment and much more, your facility should work with a qualified and reputable drift eliminator manufacturer that can help you find the right solution for your cooling tower. The professionals at Kimre Inc. are know for being a reputable and qualified drift eliminator manufacturer. We will help you develop a custom cooling tower drift eliminator based on your facility’s specific needs. If you would like to know more about the benefits of adding a drift eliminator to your cooling tower, please contact us for more information.