Custom-engineered cooling towers made of Pultruded Fibreglass Reinforced Polyester (PFRP) represent the best solution in impervious corrosive environments. Thanks to its unique properties, PFRP is becoming the preferred industry standard for new projects as well as for the refurbishment of old cooling towers.

FRP material is recognised for its many advantages over conventional materials of construction, such as concrete, wood or steel, owing to:

Exceptional chemical and corrosion resistance to acid, salt, sand., due to the
inert nature of the material

Resistance to all types of aggressive water, such as sea water and brackish water

SEA WATER AND PFRP COOLING TOWERS

The countries of the GCC region are blessed with shorelines and, hence, have more responsibility in terms of saving the marine life and preserving the potable water. Many process industries are located in coastal areas and are using once-through cooling systems.

Now, such systems have a negative impact on the marine ecosystem, when discharging the water back to the sea at a higher temperature. More recently, stringent environmental regulations on industrial cooling water usage and discharge have made such once-through systems redundant. According to new environmental standards, it is mandatory to cool the process water before discharging it to the sea, to avoid a thermal shock to marine life.

Using cooling towers to cool the process results in economical control of the discharge temperatures within acceptable international and local guidelines. In the event of non-availability of utility water supply, mobility of potable (tanker) water is the most critical factor within cooling towers, but it can lead to an escalation of process costs.

Many sea water cooling applications with successful case studies, describing very large sea water cooling towers for applications ranging from owing to the benefits they can bring to the industrial sector.

PFRP cooling towers for sea water applications can directly contribute to safeguarding the delicate marine ecosystem in several plants and to reducing the environmental impact. Sea water cooling tower technology has succeeded in saving the costly desalinated water, which also results in reducing the carbon footprint.

When using sea water as make-up, the selection of materials is a very important issue. The best choice involves the use of corrosion-free plastic materials for the cooling tower structure and the main internal components. The mechanical equipment should be protected with suitable coating

PFRP is endowed with numerous positive characteristics, some of which I have enumerated here:

• Resistance to any weather condition, as it is not affected by UV, sunlight, sandstorms, snow and acid rains.
• High-impact strength and rigidity, which allows for deformation without fractures. FRP approximates the strength of steel in tension and compression. It is 80% less than steel and 30% less than aluminium.
• Very good life cycle cost.
• The light-weight nature minimises foundation loads, which is very important in many applications and in areas like the Middle East, characterised by sandy-soil.
• High fire resistance, which minimises the need for a costly fire-protection system. PFRP can be supplied with a flame spread rate below 25.
• High-temperature resistance, which makes it ideal for high-temperature process cooling.
• Excellent cost performance. It has a low-installation cost and involves 50% reduction of erection time compared to concrete. It also has a long service life than traditional materials and requires minimal maintenance.
• Excellent creep and fatigue performance, owing to a high glass content.
• Very low rate of deposit and scale formation.
• Inert to biological attack and microorganisms.
• Lends itself to high-quality construction, owing to pre-cut and pre-drilled components, as per specification. The PFRP will not wrap, twist or split after fabrication, which simplifies field assembly. Tower construction is safe, reliable and efficient using pultruded structural components. As it involves only bolted connections, with FRP plates, nuts and bolts, no specialised manpower is required to assemble the structure.
• The material is environmentally friendly and fully recyclable.