At least initially, operating costs of open cooling towers tend to be lower. However, these can increase rather dramatically if heat exchangers become fouled. To maintain optimum heat transfer, it is essential to maintain a rigorous cleaning schedule. Open cooling towers also require additional water treatment, which increases the operating costs.
closed circuit cooling towers operate similarly to open towers except there is a heat exchanger coil within the tower that separates the cooling tower water from the building cooling water. During operation cooling tower water is pumped from the basin up to a spray header where it is then sprayed onto a coil containing the building cooling water, thereby cooling it down. Since building cooling water is contained in the coil, it is not exposed to the atmosphere and not subject to fouling caused by oxygen and dirt. Another advantage is that by creating a closed building loop, we minimize the NPSH requirements of the building pumps.
When comparing a closed cooling tower’s cost to that of an open cooling tower with a plate and frame heat exchanger, the closed tower tends to have a higher first cost unless you look at the complete cooling tower system with adjacent components. This is because one must remember that open cooling towers often require filtration equipment and plate and frame heat exchangers are highly susceptible to fouling due to the small pathways within the unit. An open tower with a plate and frame heat exchanger will also require an extra set of pumps. When you add in the plate and frame heat exchanger, filtration and additional sets of pumps the open tower system can actually be a higher first cost than that of a closed loop. Operationally, closed cooling towers maintain their efficiency better than open towers with plate and frame heat exchangers simply because their heat transfer capability is far less impaired by surface fouling.
That’s a brief overview of the differences between open and closed cooling towers that an engineer should consider in the earliest design stages.