Did you know in June of 2016 the Center for Disease Control reported a 400% increase in the cases of Legionnaires’ disease since the year 2000? They also report cooling towers are a common source of Legionnaires’ disease. This is because most conventional cooling tower designs can be an ideal feeding and breeding ground for bacteria growth. Some designs are so effective at growing bacteria that Legionella can grow back within a matter of weeks after cleaning the cooling tower. Furthermore, that bacteria can be sprayed outside the cooling tower in the form of drift emissions.
Cooling towers routinely contain the Legionella super foods of scale and algae as well as iron, zinc, and potassium from corrosive metals. This is compounded by dirt and dust easily becoming entrapped in the cooling tower and settling to the bottom of a stagnant basin that has warm water in the summertime. It’s hard to imagine a scenario more capable of multiplying high Legionella cell counts!
To make matters worse, induced draft cooling towers typically emit between 0.002 and 0.005% of their circulating water flow in the form of drift emissions. That’s enough tiny water droplets to make it feel like it’s sprinkling outside when walking near a cooling tower. The problem is that if a person with a low immune system breathes in tiny water droplets that contain Legionella, they are susceptible to Legionnaires’ disease.
Tower Tech turned the cooling tower industry upside down by creating a totally-enclosed, flow-through basin. This blocks sunlight from the water and effectively eliminates algae. The enclosed basin greatly reduces the amount airborne dirt and dust that can get entrapped, and keeps the water moving an average of 5-7 feet per second. When combined with better water distribution that reduces scale in the fill media and fully non-corrosive pultruded FRP construction, the Tower Tech design enhances biocide effectiveness and significantly reduces the feeding and breeding of bacteria such as Legionella.
Not only does Tower Tech make it much more difficult for Legionella to feed and breed, its forced draft design has the industry’s lowest drift rate of just 0.0004%. That’s an 80-92% reduction in tiny water droplets available for someone to potentially breathe!
Tower Tech – the best Legionella risk mitigation strategy in cooling tower design!