It can often be confusing for clients looking to install, upgrade or replace cooling equipment because of the wide range of products available to choose from and their respective advantages or disadvantages depending on the application.

For one client trying to choose between a cooling tower and an adiabatic cooler, Aqua carried out a cost analysis based on their facility and operating conditions, to illustrate the true lifetime cost of both options.

Based on the South Coast, the client specialises in cabling for energy and telecom applications. Their large factory facility had a cooling tower-based cooling system on site. However, after serving them well for 30 years, the aging towers were starting to raise health & safety concerns within the business. However, a question remained over whether they replaced the equipment with similar cooling towers or moved to adiabatic cooling.

“Often customers look to move away from cooling towers because of the associated risks of legionella and the ongoing water treatment costs and H&S implications but in reality, the key is good regular maintenance” explains Aqua Group Sales Manager, Shaun Lancaster.

“For our client we analysed the true costs of both systems – considering capital costs, energy costs and running costs (including maintenance) – and cooling towers came out on top. Where we like to feel we’re different as a business, is we give transparent energy & related cost savings. We look at the complete picture, considering capital and operational costs, our savings aren’t just on the supply of the equipment but on the lifetime operation and all the variables that brings.”

“We also considered how we could introduce glycol into the adiabatic cooling option without adding it to the main factory water. The answer was relatively straightforward – just add heat exchangers and additional pump skids – but the impact of this would have been an increase in the temperature of the supply water.”

Aqua supplied a replacement Marley NC tower unit, factory assembled, single cell, crossflow design. The cooling tower’s casing, structure, collection & distribution basin were constructed in galvanised steel to give additional corrosion protection. Aqua engineers erected, installed and commissioned the tower.

“The icing on the cake, so to speak, was that Aqua supplied the new tower based system for the buy- back cost of some redundant adiabatic units that the client had on site, so the project was completed with zero CAPEX investment.”

As an automotive component manufacturer, our client had historically relied on cooling towers to provide cooling to their hydraulic oil and spot-welding process. However, internal health & safety checks were frequently highlighting potential problems with their aging cooling towers, leading them to consider replacing the equipment.

Aqua designed a complete centralised cooling plant, which could feed the different stages of their manufacturing process. The system incorporated a cooling tower from the SPX Marley range which was constructed from 304 stainless steel. The anti-corrosive properties of 304 stainless are renowned – giving reliability and longevity to the product as well as overall peace of mind for the client.

Our design team selected a crossflow configured tower, giving energy saving benefits within a small footprint but with a relatively low maintenance requirement. Inspection, servicing and maintenance is made easier by large access doors. The tower’s plenum region is generous, which means it’s quick to carry out a visual inspection of the tower’s basin, as well as the internal structure and mechanical equipment.

The cooling tower was also designed with a quiet fan operation, but again with aluminium fan blades.

In addition, we built a pump set that could offer run and standby, using Danfoss inverters to ensure automatic change over and eliminating the need for manual intervention. Our client had already successfully trialled an inverter on their existing pump, so they were only too aware of the energy savings this offers. Now, as well as gaining efficiency, they were also adding reliability to the system.

Full solution included:

• Design and project management service
• Cooling tower, inverters and pump
• Delivery, installation and commissioning

“Our client now has a central cooling plant which can provide capacity for all of their different production phases. As well as immediate energy savings from the newer technology, our client now has reliability and longevity built within their system, future proofing their business for the years ahead”, explained Aqua Sales Manager, Shaun Lancaster.

Aqua Cooling’s latest cooling tower installation centred around a 3.4 MW project for the comfort cooling system at Lloyds Bank in Halifax.

The Lloyds Banking Group commissioned Arthur McKay Building Services with an initial design criteria that specified inlet and outlet temperatures of 37°C and 27°C respectively, a 293.8m³/h flow rate, and a wet bulb temperature of 20°C.

In response, Aqua supplied and installed a 3.4 MW cooling system, comprising four stainless steel SPX Marley cooling towers. Aqua Cooling is the approved UK distributor for the Marley range and the system was designed to incorporate spare capacity to allow maintenance to be carried out. The system’s overall capacity is in excess of 130%, so even with one tower out of operation the remaining three will still provide 98.4% capacity.

The towers, from Marley’s NC range, have been supplied in stainless steel to increase the versatility and life-span of the installation. “The NC model combines high capacity with high efficiency and a smaller profile, making it the ideal choice for larger applications”, explains Peter Fowles, Aqua’s Projects Engineer.

The NC towers have state-of-the-art components in a time-tested tower design which has proven itself again and again in installations world-wide. The NC achieves lower operation costs and energy usage, accomplishing ASHRAE 90.1 efficiencies up to six times more than required.

Lynne Allison, from Arthur McKay Building Services, commented: “The equipment was supplied and installed to a very good standard and met with the client’s requirements. Aqua Cooling provided very sound technical and project assistance to ensure that the overall project went very well and to the client’s satisfaction.”

State-of-the-art cooling technology supplied by South of England specialist Aqua Group is firing up to help put some of the world’s newest oil rig pumps to the test.

The innovative company, which last year won a Queen’s Award for Enterprise for its new Leak Prevention System, recently installed its ground-breaking oil pump system at energy sector engineering group Hayward Tyler’s Luton “Centre of Excellence” headquarters in a deal worth £200,000.

Designed as an energy-efficient, cost-effective alternative to traditional oil cooling methods, Aqua’s bespoke system removes up to 2 megawatts of waste energy produced from the testing of new and prototype performance-critical fluid-filled pump motors.

The pump motors, destined for use on high profile projects including offshore oil-rigs and located in some of the world’s most challenging marine environments, operate using up to 8 megawatts of input power and can generate extreme levels of heat.

During essential testing, Hayward Tyler relies on Aqua’s new equipment to maintain the oil pumps at a maximum temperature of 25 degrees Centigrade, dissipating the heat as it is produced. The equipment has increased Hayward Tyler’s overall test capabilities in the Centre of Excellence for specialist motor manufacture, simplifying the testing of larger motors it develops for companies such as GE and FMC.

Simon Davis, Aqua Cooling Sales Director, said:“We are very happy that, after extensive client consultation, Aqua was able to provide environmentally-friendly technology that not only does its job to a high-quality standard but has also saved Hayward Tyler hundreds of thousands of pounds.”

“Our Cooling Tower and Associated Pumping System is suitable for use in a wide range of motorised pump applications — from now on at Hayward Tyler’s Luton site they can be used for every kind of test run,”added Simon.