In short: an open cooling tower exposes the process water to dust, sand and air, so it fouls the equipment it is meant to cool. A closed-circuit tower keeps the process fluid inside a coil and sprays water only on the outside. BTGC supplies Baltimore Aircoil Company closed-circuit towers and adiabatic coolers, built for 50 °C ambient.
Operating in the Kingdom means battling ambient temperatures above 50 °C with air full of dust. A cooling tower is the plant's defence, and the wrong type becomes a maintenance burden: fouled heat exchangers, scaled jacket water circuits and chemical treatment costs that never stop.
Open tower or closed circuit
| Open cooling tower | Closed-circuit cooling tower | |
|---|---|---|
| Process fluid | Sprayed into the air stream, exposed to dust | Stays inside a coil, never exposed |
| Fouling of downstream equipment | Dust and scale carried into exchangers and jackets | None; only the tower spray water is treated |
| Water treatment | Whole process circuit | Spray water only |
| Suits | Large utility circuits with their own filtration | Jacket water, induction furnaces, compressors, closed process loops |
| Water use | Evaporation plus blowdown | Similar, with an adiabatic option to cut it |
When to choose an adiabatic cooler
An adiabatic cooler is a dry cooler with a water spray or wetted pad that runs only during the hottest hours. For most of the year it runs dry and uses no water. In the summer peak, the spray brings the air temperature down before it reaches the coil. The BTGC catalogue lists this as the choice for plants where water conservation is a design target.
Baltimore Aircoil Company from BTGC
Baltimore Aircoil Company (BAC) of the USA and Belgium is the global leader in factory-assembled cooling towers and closed-circuit fluid coolers. The range BTGC supplies in the Kingdom covers:
Series 3000 and Series 1500 crossflow and counterflow cooling towers
Closed-circuit cooling towers that isolate the process fluid from the atmosphere
TrilliumSeries adiabatic coolers that run dry in cooler months
Applications in the BTGC catalogue are district cooling plants, refinery process water and HVAC utilities. See our page for Baltimore Aircoil Company in Saudi Arabia and the full thermal management and cooling offer.
Tropicalised for the Kingdom
BAC units for Saudi sites are specified for the real design ambient, with corrosion-resistant construction for coastal air and fill and drift eliminators chosen for dusty conditions. State the design wet-bulb temperature and the site location in every enquiry; a tower sized for a European wet bulb will under-perform here.
BTGC support in Dammam, Jubail and Yanbu
BTGC supports petrochemical, refinery and district cooling customers from three branches, and supplies fill, nozzles, fans, drives and gearboxes as spares. For a quotation send the heat load, fluid, flow, inlet and outlet temperatures, design wet bulb and the site conditions.
Questions buyers ask
Can a closed-circuit tower replace an open one on an existing circuit? Yes, where the heat load and footprint allow; BTGC checks both.
How much water does an adiabatic cooler save? It depends on the site climate; the catalogue describes it as saving massive amounts by running dry outside the peak. BTGC can model the annual water use for the site.
Who services the towers? BTGC supplies spares and can arrange inspection and refurbishment through the Jubail service center and field teams.
Contact BTGC
Email info@btc-ksa.com or call +966 13 856 0528. Branches: Dammam, Jubail and Yanbu. Request a quote.