Cooling Tower Isolation

Cooling Tower Isolation

Separating Open Tower Water From a Clean Loop

An isolation exchanger puts a barrier between open tower water and a closed process loop. The tower still rejects the heat, but the fouling, the biology and the dissolved solids stay on the tower side.

What it protects. Chillers, process equipment and instrumentation that would otherwise see tower water directly. Cleaning one isolation exchanger is far cheaper than cleaning every piece of equipment downstream of it.

Approach temperature is the cost. Isolation inserts an extra temperature approach into the system, and that approach directly reduces how cold the closed loop can get. A plate exchanger keeps that penalty to a few degrees, which is why it is the standard choice for this duty.

Cleaning. The tower side will foul. Specifying a frame that opens easily, with adequate access around it, is what makes the periodic clean a routine job rather than a project.