6. Cooling tower management

Wet cooling towers are hot circuit cooling systems based on the "air/water" heat exchanger principle, in which the water to be cooled is in direct contact with the ambient air. They discharge heat to the outside by spraying fine droplets into an air stream circulated in counter-current by a fan. This forced air circulation, which intensifies heat transfer between the two fluids, results in the entrainment of an aerosol of droplets in the plume. These entrained droplets are likely to carry bacteria.

System efficiency depends on the design and maintenance of the cooling tower, as well as on atmospheric conditions (temperature and humidity).

The regulations revised in 2013 came into force during 2014, and heading 2921 of the ICPE nomenclature was created. The following are subject to this heading:

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