Evaporative heat transfer, cooling towers and cooling water treatment remain the focus of the Cooling Technology Institute’s annual conference. The meeting will take place February 7-11 at the Hilton Houston North in Houston.

The conference program includes a concurrent technical session schedule where two technical sessions will run simultaneously. Topics include:

• Mechanical behavior of polymer cooling tower fills and a study on PVC use in cooling towers.
• Retrofitting cooling tower fans to direct-drive technology as well as the use of large diameter fans for air-cooled heat exchangers.
• Cooling tower maintenance and safety.
• Cooling tower water makeup issues.
• Cooling water analysis, controlled hydrodynamic cavitation and scale and corrosion monitoring.
• Sessions on cooling water corrosion inhibitors, biocides to control microbial growth and surfactant blends to control biofilms.
• Research on the evaporative condensers unified nominal and performance evaluation.
• A case study exploring a carbon fiber water pipeline upgrade.
• Thermal model and computational fluid dynamics modeling of cooling tower performance under certain conditions.

Legionellosis is a key focus of the meeting due in part to new standards from ASHRAE and CTI related to Legionella testing, reporting and notification requirements. A session during the concurrent conference program will address the ASHRAE Legionella Standard 188. On Wednesday, February 10, CTI will host a half-day educational session on Legionellosis. During that panel, ASHRAE 188 as well as CTI’s CTI GDL-159, a guideline intended to assist those involved with evaporative heat rejection equipment in effectively managing the equipment relative to risk of Legionnaires’ disease, will be addressed.

The event also will include a panel discussion on water treatment and an owner-operator session as part of the conference program. On Tuesday, February 9, a tabletop exhibition allows attendees to meet with equipment and service providers to learn more about current evaporative heat transfer and water treatment technologies.

For additional information, visit www.cti.org.