Niagara Blower designs and manufactures Wet Surface Air Cooler (WSAC) closed-loop, evaporative coolers and condensers as a cost-effective technology for both heat transfer and water conservation. Used in a wide variety of industries, applications for these WSAC coolers and condensers include fluid loop cooling, direct vapour condensing, hydrocarbon desuperheating and subcooling. Units are ideal for use on drilling rigs, and in shale gas formation exploration and production, including applications involving high-pressure natural gas cooling, supercritical CO2 cooling for well injection, and for multistage compression.
WSAC systems can potentially eliminate the first stage of multistage compression, and provide increased CO2 density and flow rate. Units provide cooler outlet temperatures, consistent performance, and the potential for greater operating capacity/efficiency, and smaller plot-space requirements.
According to Niagara Blower, the use of WSAC fluid coolers and vapour condensers may reduce the amount of water required in a plant due to the technology’s ability to use poor-quality water as spray makeup. Commonly used for adding capacity in “thermally challenged” plants, these systems offer additional direct cooling without having additional tower capacity or makeup water. Recently, Niagara teamed up with Flow Process Technologies, Inc. for the third time to provide WSAC systems (mud coolers) to cool drilling fluids.
“There has been a large demand from the drilling cooling industry lately,” said Allyn Conwell, Flow Process President. “Niagara Blower has been instrumental in supplying these systems in a timely manner.” Flow Process Technologies, with operations in Houston, Texas and Singapore, provides specialized mixing equipment to offshore and land-based oil and gas applications, as well as other industries.