Wet Surface Air Coolers

Niagara engineers have been providing cooling solutions for over 100 years for a wide variety of clientele. Each wet surface air cooling (WSAC) cooler or condenser is custom designed to fit a particular application. Design parameters are based on customer specifications for input and output temperatures as well as average weather conditions. All WSAC units are tailored to meet the unique needs of the most demanding applications in the world.

In a wet surface air cooling system, warm process fluids or vapors are cooled in a closed-loop tube bundle (the process fluid being cooled never comes in contact with the outside air). Open loop water is sprayed and air is induced over the tube bundle, which results in the cooling effect.

The following are examples of cooling applications:

• Cooling water, glycol, oil, fuel or gas
• Condensing steam, ammonia, propylene or butane

The following is a summary of the cooling process:

1. Air is induced downward over tube bundles
2. Water flows downward along with the air
3. Heat from the process stream is released to the cascading water
4. Vaporization transfers heat from the cascading water to the air stream
5. The air stream is forced to turn 180°F providing maximum free water removal
6. Fans discharge air vertically at a high velocity to minimize recirculation