Types of Cooling Towers

Our Range of Cooling Tower Categories

So how many types of cooling tower are there, exactly? Cooling towers are generally grouped by construction material and by how air moves through the fill:

• FRP Cooling Tower — corrosion-resistant fibreglass construction, covering most modern industrial and commercial installations, further divided by draft type:
  • Induced Draft Cooling Tower — fan mounted at the air outlet, pulling air through the fill
  • Forced Draft Cooling Tower — fan mounted at the air intake, pushing air through the fill
  • Cross Flow Cooling Tower — air moves horizontally across the falling water
  • Counterflow Cooling Tower — air moves vertically against the falling water
  • Round Cooling Tower — single central fan, compact circular footprint
  • Square Cooling Tower — modular, multi-cell design that scales with demand
• Timber Cooling Tower— treated timber structure, used in legacy and large-scale industrial installations
• Atmospheric Cooling Tower — relies on natural wind rather than a fan to move air through the fill

Cooling Tower Types — Specification Table

Cooling Tower Uses in Industries

Cooling towers are implemented in any place where industrial processes produce surplus heat, which must be effectively removed and in a continuous manner. Various categories and types are used in various sectors depending on the scale, load and site conditions:

•  Large-scale power plants and other energy-generating facilities that need continuous-duty cooling.
• Chemical and petrochemical facilities utilizing process heat of equipment and reactors.
• Commercial buildings and large facilities HVAC systems.
• Cooling of manufacturing and heavy industrial units of machinery and production equipment.
• Metal and metallurgical and steel plants with high temperature operations.
• Processing plants that involve the controlled cooling cycle of food and beverages.
• Pharmaceutical and chemical processing departments that require an accurate temperature regulation.
• Server and data center facilities that need high-performance cooling.

The correct choice of cooling tower to use in each of these applications varies depending on heat load, available footprint, and site conditions, so selecting the appropriate category and type is more important than selecting one single, so-called, standard design.

Understanding Draft Types Beyond the FRP Range

Beyond the fan-driven FRP and timber designs above, a natural draft cooling tower — sometimes spelled natural draught cooling tower — works on a different principle entirely, using the natural buoyancy of warm, moist air rising through a tall hyperbolic structure rather than a mechanical fan. It's classed as a wet cooling tower, meaning heat is rejected primarily through evaporation as water and air come into direct contact — the same underlying principle used across most tower types in this range, just without fan-driven draft. This design, also referred to simply as a natural cooling tower, suits very large, continuous cooling loads such as power plants, where the tower's own height generates enough airflow to be effective.

How Airflow Moves Through a Natural Draft Design

In this design, hot water is distributed across a fill or splash system near the base of a tall, typically hyperbolic concrete shell.Since the evaporating water heats the surrounding air, this air is made less dense and naturally ascends through the structure pulling cooler ambient air in through the openings in the base to replace it, and this cooling convective cycle needs no fan. The following natural draft diagram of a cooling tower is a typical representation of this airflow path: cool air enters at the low point around the perimeter, rises through the fill and ascending water droplets, and escapes the tower as warm and humid air at the top of the shell, and cooled water is recirculated by a basin beneath.

Choosing the Right Cooling Tower for Your Application

With this many categories and types available, the right choice comes down to your specific heat load, available footprint, site wind conditions and budget — a compact round or square FRP tower suits most standard industrial and commercial needs, while natural draft or timber towers are typically reserved for very large, continuous-duty installations like power plants. Rather than guessing between designs, our team reviews your site conditions and recommends the category and type that actually fits, before you commit to a specification. Every cooling tower type solves a different combination of load, space and site conditions — the right one is the one matched to yours, not the biggest or most advanced. Talk to our team before you specify, and we'll help you get that match right the first time.