A local South African company is changing the Australian skyline, with its innovative and fresh take on the building of cooling towers for power stations.

Recognised as a thermal solutions market leader, Industrial Water Cooling (IWC) has designed and constructed numerous pultruded, concrete and steel structured cooling towers around the globe. Each cooling tower requirement is analysed and IWC’s customer-centric solution considers fan power, pumping head, plan area, water quality and environmental considerations to ensure the best possible solution.

The company’s latest project in Queensland, Australia, is said to raise the bar in cooling tower design and technology.

“In the dynamic landscape of power generation, the Queensland Power Station has taken a leap forward with the introduction of the new IWC pultruded cooling towers,” IWC said in a statement.

IWC’s subsidiary company, IWC Australasia was instrumental in the design implementation and construction of the two new pultruded cooling towers with the support of its subcontractor, UGL. Nestled near Biloela in central Queensland, the power station is a major contributor to Australia’s electricity grid.

The project initiated a transformative phase, demolishing the existing wooden cooling towers and erecting the new mechanical draught counter flow cooling towers with a glass reinforced plastic (GRP) structure.

The two IWC cooling towers, each comprising 18 cells and stretching over 200 m, represent a change in construction methodology from the previously built wooden towers. These new pultruded GRP cooling towers offer a host of advantages including reduced construction times.

Pultruded GRP has emerged as the material of choice for large, field-erected cooling towers owing to its extended service life, rapid deployment capabilities, and reduced construction durations. Moreover, these towers exhibit chemical and corrosion resistance, high impact strength, and a remarkable combination of rigidity and lightweight design.

The company will be manning its stand at this year’s Electra Mining Africa event and treating attendees with a virtual reality (VR) experience of its latest creation.

“Designed to be both educational and engaging, the VR experience provides users with a dynamic exploration of our latest cooling tower project in Australia, specifically focusing on products used in the construction of the tower.

“This VR experience incorporates interactive elements, inviting users to don a pair of goggles and to press a virtual button, triggering the scissor lift to elevate them for a broader perspective of the cooling tower structure from the ground up, with an exhilarating bungee jump finish at the end,” said marketing manager Christine Storey.

Green Zone Stand P43