Cooling Water Systems: An Overview

Abstract The scenery of climate change and the necessity to reduce fuel consumption indicate a tendency of developing solutions in Energy Efficiency at the Industrial Segment since the renewable sources of energy are not sufficient to supply the demand neither solve the question of carbon emissions. The low efficiency in thermal and electrical energy use is one of most CO2 emission responsible. This happens in the functioning of cities, in the power sector, and the industrial sector. Consequently, the insecurity about the availability of water and energy to society is the result of climate change cause by CO2 emission. The aim of the industrial sector is transforming matter and adds value. Thus, Unit Operations are used for that and they demand heat or cold for their achievement. The lower efficiency in transferring heat causes the necessity to produce more steam in order to maintain the production and the process quality. Similarly, the loss of efficiency in cold systems increases fuel burn, since the cooling system (towers and heat exchange equipment) is integrated with the processes of separation and with the heating system. Furthermore, the cooling tower is the largest consumer of water in the chemical process industry, and it is an important section in the scenario of low water supply due to climate change. This chapter shows an overview of cooling systems and discusses procedures to increase its operational control in order to reduce losses of thermal and electrical energy. The integration of the cooling systems (heat exchangers and tower) with the heating system (steam and hot equipments) and the production process is included in this study.