ABSTRACT
Cooling is necessary to many industrial processes, such as power generation units; refrigeration and air conditioning plants; and the manufacturing, chemical, petrochemical, and petroleum industries. As recently as 20 years ago, cooling towers were more the exception than the rule in the industry because of their high operating cost and the large capital required for their construction. Due to the recent stringent environmental protections, cooling towers became more common. Cooling towers range in sizes and types. Wet, dry, and hybrid are the main types, and each type has many variations in design according to the way the fluids are moved through the system. Some of the advantages and disadvantages of these types, methods of determining their performance, different ideas identified and tested by some researchers to improve the efficiency of some types of cooling towers as well as the use of solar energy to enhance performance of cooling towers and some terminology common to the cooling industry are presented in this entry.
