What is less expensive, air coolers or water coolers?
Plants, in general, never have enough cooling water. Water users at the plant always exceed the supply. A water cooler will almost always be less expensive and smaller than an air-cooled heat exchanger. However, there may be cases when, because of the process temperature involved, the film temperature of the cooling water becomes excessive and water causes excessive fouling in the water system. In these cases, the use of an air cooler is recommended.
