Industrial Cooling Towers for Biodiesel Production

1. Company and Context of Installation

The customer, a multinational oil & gas company, has been in the oil products and environmentally friendly fuels business for a century. The company has a global presence and a strong focus on environmental sustainability.

• In 2003, the company decided to expand its biodiesel production plant in central Italy. The increase in production meant that more condensation water, generated in the process of separating biodiesel from glycerin, had to be cooled.
• In 2020, the company faced a further increase in scale, doubling its total thermal capacity (from 7 MW to nearly 14 MW).

2. Proposed solution

MITA Cooling Technologies proposed two different solutions, depending on the specific needs of each supply.

• For the 2003 supply, MITA proposed the supply of six PME-E 3015 CW open circuit cooling towers (to which inverters were added over time to automate the operating parameters). The towers were made of non-corrodible fiberglass, thus ensuring long durability.
• Instead, a large PMM A22 modular cooling tower was proposed for 2020 delivery: a modular solution whose four cells are factory-built and easily transported and installed on site.

3. Results and critical success factor

Both deliveries were successful, contributing to improvements in the efficiency of the customer’s production facility and subsequent increases in business scale.

Some of the success factors:

• The provision of non-corrodible and reliable solutions,
• quick installation time (three days in the case of the PMM tower),
• and an established relationship with the customer over time.