Overview
ARBOK-ClosedTower is explicitly not "another tower" and not a "tower upgrade" — it is a different class of equipment in which the classic "take water from the river → heat it → cool it → return it to the river" logic stops being the foundation. Water is filled once and runs in a closed loop as a working medium: no discharge, no continuous makeup, no open contact with the atmosphere. Water is cooled to the required cold-line temperature without a waterfall and without a plume, then returns to the process.
The central economic argument is the delta (ΔT) — the difference between the hot line after the process and the required cold line. In a classic wet tower, a larger delta means more evaporation and more makeup water, so delta acts as a penalty. In ARBOK-ClosedTower, water losses are removed and heat recovery inside the closed cycle reaches 98% (vapor enthalpy is higher than that of liquid water; condensation returns heat into the cycle instead of throwing it into the sky), so a larger delta means more usable internal energy and better relative efficiency.
The second argument is biological: the classic open tower has an open basin with warm standing water, iron from corroding pipes, amoeba and biofilm, and continuous aerosol — the complete habitat and delivery system for Legionella. ARBOK-ClosedTower removes the habitat entirely rather than treating it, making the biological threat architecturally impossible.
Applications
Cooling towers and cooling fields exist at thermal power plants, refineries, metallurgy, chemicals, pulp and paper, large compressor stations, data centers, and cold-storage terminals — different shapes, same mission: dump low-grade heat produced as a byproduct of the main process while keeping circulating water temperature inside a strict corridor.
- Replacement of classic wet cooling towers, fan-section fields, channels and ponds.
- Nuclear and thermal power plants facing summer curtailment: rivers become shallow and warm, cooling water is insufficient, and heated water cannot legally be returned above temperature limits.
- Sites with aerosol, sanitary, or Legionella regulatory exposure (nuclear plants, refineries, data centers, hospitals, hotels).
- Sites where water is scarce, expensive, or subject to abstraction restrictions.
The unit runs 24/7. If cooling fails, performance drops fast, restrictions kick in, and in the worst case the facility stops.
Operating Principle
Classic scheme (baseline being replaced): water is taken from a river, passes through condensers or heat exchangers, and leaves the process at typically 35–45 °C, reaching 60 °C on hard days. That hot water usually cannot be sent straight back to the river because it becomes a thermal shock, so it goes to a tower, becomes an artificial waterfall, meets air, part of it evaporates, and the rest cools. The water is then either discharged within limits or recirculated — with unavoidable losses and unavoidable makeup, because water is literally turned into vapor and salts force blowdown.
ARBOK-ClosedTower: water is filled once and runs as a closed-loop working medium. No discharge, no continuous makeup, no air contact. Water is cooled to the required cold-line temperature without a waterfall and without a plume, then returns to the process for the next cycle.
The single change closes 5 problems at once, as stated in the source:
- CAPEX and schedule — instead of high civil works (towers, basins, fan fields), cooling becomes modular container-type equipment, scaled by adding identical modules rather than by concrete construction and months of building uncertainty.
- Sanitation and ecology — no droplet drift, no salt aerosol around the site, no living basin, no visible plume, because water is not in open contact with air as a working regime.
- Water — losses by evaporation and blowdown are removed as a technology requirement; water stays inside the loop.
- Water quality — water is cleaned of impurities, oils, salts, radiation, and dust; heavy and dissolved components are removed and delivered as a dry solid residue for further handling and disposal as solid waste.
- Control — ARBOK-Sonar monitors water parameters 24/7, feeds the control center, and on deviation either alerts operators or shifts the installation to protective mode up to shutdown, so the human factor is not the quality regulator.
Heat balance: ARBOK-TERU, as a component of the unit, recovers parasitic heat from temperature differences to cover its own needs and cuts grid electricity consumption by up to 20%. Inside the closed cycle, heat recovery reaches 98%.
Constraints and consequences stated in the source:
- Heavy and dissolved components separated from the water leave the system as a dry solid residue that still requires further utilization and disposal as solid waste.
- Cooling is bound to the ARBOK unit's own delta and to the set temperature of the recirculating loop, rather than to river temperature and permitted return temperature — the dependency is transferred, not removed.
- The classic scheme's blowdown often cannot be simply dumped; it must be treated or legally disposed of, adding cost and risk — a burden ARBOK-ClosedTower eliminates by removing blowdown.
- Payback at high delta is described as depending on the site's ability to accept new equipment quickly, not on the financial case.
Delta framework (why cooling duty varies): in river-based schemes, summer river temperature is often 21–23 °C, so discharged water must stay near 23–25 °C. With the process heating water to 35–45 °C, the required cooling delta is 10–22 °C. If the hot line reaches 60 °C, the delta to return to 23–25 °C is 35–37 °C. In winter the river can be 15–17 °C; if discharge must track that corridor, the same hot line produces a larger delta — 18–30 °C for a 35–45 °C hot line and 43–45 °C for 60 °C.
Key Parameters
Reference loop scale: 10,000 m³/h, 8,000 hours per year
| Parameter | Value |
|—|—|
| Heat to remove at ΔT 10 °C | About 116 MW |
| Heat to remove at ΔT 16 °C | About 186 MW |
| Heat to remove at ΔT 36 °C | About 418 MW |
| Hot line after process (typical) | 35–45 °C, up to 60 °C on hard days |
| Summer river temperature | 21–23 °C |
| Required discharge temperature | Near 23–25 °C |
| Winter river temperature | 15–17 °C |
| Electricity price used | $0.12 per kWh |
| Makeup water price used | $1.50 per m³ |
Classic wet tower vs ARBOK-ClosedTower
| Parameter | Classic wet tower | ARBOK-ClosedTower |
|—|—|—|
| Electricity per m³ of circulation / processed flow | 0.060–0.070 kWh per m³ ($0.0072–$0.0084 per m³) | 0.5–1 kWh per m³ ($0.06–$0.12 per m³; $0.048–$0.096 per m³ with TERU cutting grid draw by up to 20%) |
| Makeup water at ΔT 16 °C | About 3.8% of circulation, about 380 m³/h | None — water in closed loop |
| Makeup water at ΔT 35–37 °C | About 8.7% of circulation, about 870 m³/h | None — water in closed loop |
| Annual water cost at ΔT 16 °C | About $4,560,000 | $0 |
| Annual water cost at ΔT 35–37 °C | About $10,440,000 | $0 |
| Annual electricity | $576,000–$672,000 | $230,000–$384,000 |
| Annual service and chemistry | $160,000–$480,000 | $200,000–$300,000 |
| Total OPEX at ΔT 16 °C | $5,296,000–$5,712,000 per year | $430,000–$684,000 per year |
| Total OPEX at ΔT 35–37 °C | $11,176,000–$11,592,000 per year | $430,000–$684,000 per year |
| Heat recovery inside cycle | — | 98% |
| Aerosol / drift / plume | Yes | None |
| Blowdown | Yes, requires treatment or legal disposal | None |
Legionella parameters (classic open tower, from the Legionella document)
| Parameter | Value |
|—|—|
| Open basin water temperature | 32–42 °C — Legionella's optimal growth range |
| Aerosol spray rise | Up to 300 meters |
| Droplet drift range | 6–12 km downwind |
| Incubation period | 10 days |
| Legionella mortality, general population | 15–20% |
| Legionella mortality, hospitals | 28% |
| Philadelphia 1977 outbreak | 221 ill, 34 dead, mortality 16% |
| Pas-de-Calais, France 2003 (petrochemical plant cooling towers) | 86 infected, 18 dead, mortality 20%; bacteria spread 12 km from the plant |
| Transmission | Not person-to-person — by breathing contaminated aerosol |
Architecture and Components
- Modular container-type cooling equipment — scaling is by adding identical modules, not by constructing a concrete tower, basin and fan field.
- Closed recirculating water loop — water filled once, no discharge, no air contact.
- Water treatment stage — removes impurities, oils, salts, radiation and dust; heavy and dissolved components are output as a dry solid residue.
- ARBOK-TERU — recovers parasitic heat from temperature differences to cover the unit's own needs and cuts grid electricity by up to 20%.
- ARBOK-Sonar — 24/7 water parameter monitoring, transmission to the control center, alerting and automatic switch to protective mode up to shutdown on deviation.
- Circulation pumps and the connection to plant condensers/heat exchangers.
Component-level specifications (module capacity, dimensions, weight, heat rejection method inside the module): [требует уточнения из базы]
Advantages
- Water: the continuous water bill for cooling disappears entirely. At the reference scale that is about $4,560,000 per year at ΔT 16 °C and about $10,440,000 per year at ΔT 35–37 °C removed from OPEX.
- Delta becomes a resource, not a penalty. In the classic scheme a larger delta increases evaporation and makeup; in ARBOK a larger delta increases the internal energy of the process and lowers relative costs, with 98% heat recovery inside the cycle.
- OPEX does not explode with delta: ARBOK OPEX stays at $430,000–$684,000 per year across both the ΔT 16 °C and ΔT 35–37 °C cases, while classic OPEX roughly doubles.
- CAPEX advantage of $4,000,000–$6,000,000 at the start, plus a shorter schedule because there is no high civil works package.
- Legionella eliminated architecturally, not managed. The three conditions Legionella requires — standing warm water at 32–42 °C, iron/amoeba/biofilm, and aerosol delivery to human lungs — are all removed. No biocides, no Legionella testing, no basin cleaning.
- No droplet drift, no salt aerosol, no visible plume, no noise-generating waterfall, no living basin.
- No blowdown and therefore no blowdown treatment, disposal cost, or associated regulatory risk.
- Independence from river conditions: the site is no longer tied to river flow, river temperature, or permitted return temperature — which is what forces summer output curtailment at nuclear plants.
- Monitoring removes the human factor as the quality regulator, via ARBOK-Sonar with automatic protection.
- Modular scaling replaces months of construction uncertainty.
Integrations
- ARBOK-Sonar — mandatory 24/7 water quality and recirculation control, with data transmission to the control center and automatic protective shutdown on deviation.
- ARBOK-TERU — parasitic heat recovery component of the unit, reducing grid electricity draw by up to 20%.
- Plant side: connects to condensers and heat exchangers in place of the classic wet tower circuit.
Interfaces to plant SCADA/DCS, retrofit sequencing on existing sites: [требует уточнения из базы]
Deployment & Operation
- Delivered as modular container-type equipment; capacity is scaled by the number of identical modules.
- Water is filled once; there is no continuous makeup and no discharge.
- Operates 24/7, with the reference economics based on 8,000 hours per year.
- ARBOK-Sonar runs continuous monitoring; on deviation the unit alerts operators or moves to protective mode up to shutdown.
- Ongoing operational tasks: scheduled service (budgeted at $200,000–$300,000 per year at the reference scale) and handling of the dry solid residue produced by water cleaning.
- The source notes that at high delta the timeline is set by how quickly the site can accept the new equipment.
Installation duration, commissioning procedure, staffing: [требует уточнения из базы]
TRL
TRL 5 — проставлен Михаилом 2026-08-06.
— no TRL value, pilot installation, reference site, or third-party validation is stated in either source. The documents present engineering logic and comparative OPEX/CAPEX economics only.
Market Potential
Where the equipment applies: power generation, refineries, chemicals, metallurgy, pulp and paper, compressor stations, data centers, cold-storage terminals — the source notes cooling towers exist almost everywhere.
France as a scale marker (nuclear curtailment due to cooling water):
Пересчёт (июль 2026). В источнике стояли две цифры недовыработки французского речного флота АЭС — 0.5 ТВт·ч и 1.0 ТВт·ч. Проверка арифметикой: 0.3 % от 320 ТВт·ч годовой генерации = 0.96 ТВт·ч. Следовательно верна цифра 1.0 ТВт·ч, а 0.5 ТВт·ч — ошибка. Оценка в 200 млн € построена на правильной цифре и подтверждается:
| Величина | Расчёт | Результат |
|—|—|—|
| Годовая генерация Франции | — | ~320 ТВт·ч |
| Доля недовыработки | 0.3 % | 0.96 ≈ 1.0 ТВт·ч |
| В мегаватт-часах | 1.0 ТВт·ч | 1,000,000 МВт·ч |
| Потери при 200 €/МВт·ч | 1,000,000 × 200 | 200 млн €/год |
Это потери исключительно из-за отсутствия охлаждающей воды.
Demand drivers stated: rising summer temperatures forcing even nuclear plants to cut output; shallow and warm rivers; legal limits on returning heated water; water scarcity; aerosol bans and complaints; rising energy prices; the constant fight with scale, corrosion and biology; and Legionella liability — the source notes one outbreak can cost more than the entire CAPEX of switching, one lawsuit can end careers, and one headline can close a facility.
Market size in monetary terms: [требует уточнения из базы]
Typical Project Economics
Reference case: 10,000 m³/h loop, 8,000 hours per year
| Parameter | Classic wet tower | ARBOK-ClosedTower |
|—|—|—|
| CAPEX | Up to $10,000,000 (tower + basin + pumping station + installation), long implementation period | $4,000,000–$6,000,000 for comparable duty |
| OPEX at ΔT 16 °C | $5,296,000–$5,712,000 per year | $430,000–$684,000 per year |
| OPEX at ΔT 35–37 °C | $11,176,000–$11,592,000 per year | $430,000–$684,000 per year |
| CAPEX advantage at start | — | $4,000,000–$6,000,000 |
| Annual OPEX saving at ΔT 16 °C | — | $4,612,000–$5,282,000 |
| Annual OPEX saving at ΔT 35–37 °C | — | $10,492,000–$11,162,000 |
| Payback at ΔT 16 °C | — | About 7 years — standard horizon for industrial cooling assets |
| Payback at ΔT 35–37 °C | — | About 7 years; savings exceed $10,000,000 per year |
Classic OPEX breakdown at the reference scale
| Item | ΔT 16 °C | ΔT 35–37 °C |
|—|—|—|
| Makeup water | About $4,560,000 per year (380 m³/h, 3.8% of circulation) | About $10,440,000 per year (870 m³/h, 8.7% of circulation) |
| Electricity | $576,000–$672,000 per year | $576,000–$672,000 per year |
| Service and chemistry | $160,000–$480,000 per year | $160,000–$480,000 per year |
ARBOK OPEX breakdown: electricity $230,000–$384,000 per year (including the up-to-20% grid reduction from TERU) plus service $200,000–$300,000 per year; continuous water cost $0 per year.
Additional cost items not quantified in the source (dry residue disposal, module replacement, insurance):
Risk Factors
Stated in the sources:
- The dry solid residue containing heavy and dissolved components (including material separated from oils, salts and radiation) requires further utilization and disposal as solid waste — the contamination is concentrated, not destroyed.
- Deployment speed is limited by the site's ability to accept new equipment quickly; the source frames payback at high delta as a calendar issue rather than a financial one.
- The ARBOK CAPEX figure of $4,000,000–$6,000,000 is described as a reasonable target range for comparable duty, not as a quoted contract price.
- The unit runs 24/7 and is critical: if cooling fails, plant performance drops fast, restrictions apply, and in the worst case the facility stops. This criticality applies to any cooling architecture, including the closed loop.
- Higher specific electricity consumption than a classic tower: 0.5–1 kWh per m³ of processed flow versus 0.060–0.070 kWh per m³ of circulation for a wet tower. The economic case rests on the elimination of the water bill, not on lower electricity use.
Risks the technology is presented as removing (and which therefore define exposure for anyone staying on classic towers): Legionella liability, aerosol and salt drift complaints, blowdown disposal obligations, biocide and testing programs, scale and corrosion management, water abstraction restrictions, and river-temperature-driven output curtailment.
Commercial, certification, supply chain, and regulatory-approval risks for ARBOK-ClosedTower itself: [требует уточнения из базы]
Related Technologies
ARBOK-CoolTower · ARBOK-SONAR · TERU · ARBOK Low-Carbon Water · ARBOK Digital Twin