Editing Cooling tower (section)

{{short description|Device which rejects waste heat to the atmosphere through the cooling of a water stream}}
{{for|the historical Iranian architectural element|windcatcher}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2017}}
[[File:Evaporative Cooling Tower.jpg|thumb|right|A typical evaporative, forced draft open-loop cooling tower rejecting heat from the condenser water loop of an industrial chiller unit]]
[[File:Didcot power station cooling tower zootalures.jpg|thumb|Natural draft wet cooling [[Hyperboloid structure|hyperboloid towers]] at [[Didcot Power Station]] (UK)]]
[[File:Power station Westfalen. Cooling towers.jpg|thumb|Forced draft wet cooling towers (height: 34 meters) and natural draft wet cooling tower (height: 122 meters) in [[Westphalia]], Germany]]
[[File:Cooling tower power station Dresden.jpg|thumb|Natural draft wet cooling tower in [[Dresden]] (Germany)]]

A '''cooling tower''' is a device that rejects [[waste heat]] to the [[atmosphere]] through the cooling of a [[coolant]] stream, usually a water stream, to a lower temperature.<ref>{{Cite web |title=What Is A Cooling Tower? |url=https://spxcooling.com/coolingtowers/#:~:text=A%20cooling%20tower%20is%20a,being%20circulated%20through%20the%20tower. |access-date=2025-05-01 |website=SPX Cooling Technologies |language=en-US}}</ref> Cooling towers may either use the [[evaporation]] of water to remove heat and cool the working fluid to near the [[Wet-bulb temperature|wet-bulb air temperature]] or, in the case of ''dry cooling towers'', rely solely on air to cool the working fluid to near the [[Dry-bulb temperature|dry-bulb air temperature]] using [[Radiator|radiators]]. 

Common applications include cooling the circulating water used in [[oil refineries]], [[petrochemical]] and other [[chemical plant]]s, [[thermal power station]]s, [[nuclear power station]]s and [[HVAC]] systems for cooling buildings. The classification is based on the type of air induction into the tower: the main types of cooling towers are [[Natural convection|natural draft]] and [[Forced convection|induced draft]] cooling towers.

Cooling towers vary in size from small roof-top units to very large [[hyperboloid structure]]s that can be up to {{convert|200|m|ft}} tall and {{convert|100|m|ft}} in diameter, or rectangular structures that can be over {{convert|40|m|ft}} tall and {{convert|80|m|ft}} long. Hyperboloid cooling towers are often associated with [[nuclear power plant]]s,<ref>{{cite web|website=CleanEnergy Footprints (cleanenergy.org)|url=http://blog.cleanenergy.org/2012/12/31/identifying-nuclear-reactors-in-google-earth/|title=Identifying Nuclear Reactors in Google Earth|date=31 December 2012|access-date=19 May 2014|archive-date=23 October 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141023052158/http://blog.cleanenergy.org/2012/12/31/identifying-nuclear-reactors-in-google-earth/|url-status=dead}}</ref> although they are also used in many coal-fired plants and to some extent in some large chemical and other industrial plants. The [[steam turbine]] is what necessitates the cooling tower. Although these large towers are very prominent, the vast majority of cooling towers are much smaller, including many units installed on or near buildings to discharge heat from [[air conditioning]]. Cooling towers are also often thought to emit [[smoke]] or harmful fumes by the general public and [[Environmental movement|environmental activists]], when in reality the emissions from those towers mostly do not contribute to [[carbon footprint]], consisting solely of [[water vapor]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=2007-02-15 |title=Myth of cooling towers is symptomatic of global warming information shortage |url=https://www.rsc.org/news-events/articles/2007/02-february/cooling-towers/ |access-date=2022-03-02 |website=[[Royal Society of Chemistry]] |language=en-GB}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=2017-07-24 |title=What you need to know about nuclear cooling towers |url=https://nuclear.duke-energy.com/2017/07/24/blog_post-20170724 |access-date=2022-03-02 |website=[[Duke Energy]] {{!}} Nuclear Information Center |language=en}}</ref>