November 20, 2016
International Cooling Tower’s U.S. headquarters now located in Houston
International Cooling Tower (ICT) is a turnkey cooling tower engineering, construction and service company that recently moved its U.S. headquarters to Houston. ICT has completed projects throughout the U.S. since 1989 and recently entered the Gulf Coast market in 2008. The company has the ability to serve customers as a single source for a wide range of cooling tower products, services and solutions, including design and engineering, field construction services, maintenance and repairs.
“One of the biggest challenges facing process and refining owner/operators today is budgeting and scheduling major repairs or replacements of cooling tower facilities,” said ICT Regional Manager Dave Staat, who is located in Houston. “Cooling tower repairs are frequently overlooked or undetected, and when repairs are identified, they can be significant. Most plants, if not all, cannot take long outages or turnarounds to address major issues. There are a number of different techniques available to ensure tower reliability while minimizing downtime. You simply don’t have to take a full outage to perform extensive repairs. It’s surprising, but we find there are many in the industry who do not realize the flexible options available.” Historically, industrial cooling towers for petrochemical and power plants have most commonly been constructed with pressure-treated wood. In the early 2000s, fiberglass reinforced plastic (FRP) was introduced as a replacement material for pressure-treated wood.
ICT has completed projects throughout the U.S. since 1989
ICT’s team of engineers and field staff possess the knowledge and expertise that enable them to perform structural replacements on a combination of counterflow and crossflow towers at petrochemical facilities, power plants and refineries.
On-line replacements
On-line replacements enable ICT to complete a wood-to-FRP conversion while the existing cooling tower is operational or, alternatively, with the use of rental cooling towers. ICT completes the wood-to-FRP upgrade through cell isolation and scaffold support of any necessary water distribution or electrical systems.
Demolition and reconstruction
ICT recently completed a six-cell demolition/reconstruction from wood-to- FRP due to a structural collapse on one of the existing cells. ICT mobilized immediately after the demolition of the existing tower, utilizing its in-house engineering team to decrease the design time for fabrication as well as supply material instantly to start the initial installation. Through the reconstruction process, ICT was able to complete the new FRP tower two weeks ahead of schedule, reducing cost implications at the plant. The project was completed with zero safety incidents, and the cooling performance of the new tower has surpassed the previous tower’s, enabling increased production rates.
Stay tuned for the December/January issue of BIC Magazine, where ICT will highlight some of its most successful projects.
For more information, visit www.ictower.com or call (281) 479-3255.
