What is a Cooling Tower Plume?
Cooling tower plumes form when water vapor generated in the cooling tower mixes with the colder ambient air as it leaves the tower and condenses. They are often seen at power plants, chemical plants, data centers and commercial buildings. The plume, sometimes called white smoke, consists of small droplets of water that are suspended in the air, similar to fog. The size of these droplets is on the order of micrometers, a tenth of the thickness of a human hair, making them very difficult to capture unless Infinite Cooling’s electric-field-enabled WaterPanel™ is used. Infinite Cooling has developed a proprietary algorithm that can help determine the frequency of plumes, their size and the amount of water that can be recovered from them using Infinite Cooling’s plume abatement technology.
Issues Caused by Cooling Tower Plumes
While cooling tower plumes consist in mostly water, they can result in significant issues in plant operations.
Public Relations: The common association of cooling tower plumes with smoke or other toxic emissions may lead to opposition from the general public.
Reduced Output: Plumes can go into production equipment like a gas turbine inlet and reduce production output or cause unplanned outages due to icing.
Equipment corrosion: Plumes can drift to nearby equipment such as switchyards and cause rapid corrosion resulting in high maintenance costs.
Safety: Plumes can cause major visibility issues on nearby roads and for air traffic. They can also cause icing on roads in the winter. Plume abatement may also be required for an air permit.
Advanced Cooling Tower Technology
Our patented technology developed at MIT significantly enhances cooling towers with real time monitoring of tower performance, advanced controls, and the WaterPanel™, our cooling tower plume capture system.
Plume Abatement
Retrofittable plume elimination system captures clean water for re-use
Energy Savings
Efficient utilization of cooling tower fans for reduced power consumption
Water Savings
Minimizing evaporation & re-using clean water from tower plumes
Reliability
Maximizing plant output & avoiding unscheduled outages with real time tower monitoring
Get Started with Advanced Plume Abatement Technology
Reach out to our knowledgeable staff today to learn more about decreasing your plant’s annual operating costs with our innovative cooling tower plume elimination technology. Connect with us via email or give us a call today. Additionally, you can complete our online contact form to learn more about the full range of exceptional benefits offered by our plume abatement technology.
Maher Damak
CEO & Co-Founder
Karim Khalil
CTO & Co-Founder
