78-10: Preservative Treatment of Cooling Tower Lumber a State-of-the-Art Report

Preservative treatment of cooling tower lumber has been considered a necessity for many years, but relatively few owners and specifiers of cooling towers appear to know what preservative treatment entails. More important, few seem to know what they are really getting when they specify preservative treatment in terms of actual protection against wood decay. Cooling tower failure can cost an industrial plant thousands of dollars in lost production in a matter of hours, yet it is common for industrial customers to allow the "least common denominator" in cooling tower materials and preservative treat­ment to be furnished. In the course of this paper, we will establish the 
need for preservative treatment and review what is available in lumber treat­ment today, how it is applied, and what materials and processes give the best results, aiming toward the best way to specify lumber treatment to give the best cooling tower value for that hard-earned dollar. Also, we will comment on some promising developments in wood treatment for the future.