Retrofit of a wet cooling tower in order to reduce water and fan power consumption using a wet/dry approach

• Published in: Applied thermal engineering Vol. 125; pp. 1002 - 1014
• Main Authors: Taghian Dehaghani, Shahed, Ahmadikia, Hossein
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01.10.2017; Elsevier BV
• Subjects: Air flow; Airflow regulation; Computer simulation; Consumption; Cooling; Cooling towers; Hybrid cooling tower; Power consumption; Water conservation; Water consumption; Wet cooling tower; Water conservation; Wet cooling tower; Power consumption; Airflow regulation; Hybrid cooling tower
• ISSN: 1359-4311; 1873-5606
• DOI: 10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2017.07.069

•Parallel Path Wet/Dry configuration is used to retrofit a 12-cell wet cooling tower.•Several computer programs are created to simulate wet and hybrid cooling towers.•The proposed PPWD approach leads to a satisfactory degree of water conservation.•Airflow control with high accuracy results in a major decline in consumed fan power.•Water requirements are highly affected by cooling load and ambient conditions. A Parallel Path Wet/Dry configuration and a high-precision airflow regulation method are implemented in order to retrofit an existing wet cooling tower. The modifications are intended to reduce water requirements and fan power consumption of a 12-cell wet tower. The proposed method of airflow control takes advantage of fans with variable frequency drive to regulate airflow with high accuracy. A number of simulations are carried out to predict different operating factors of the wet and hybrid towers. Experimentally obtained values of water consumption demonstrate the validity of those obtained using the computer simulations. According to the results, the accurate airflow control prevents sudden fluctuations in requisite fan power and water consumption rate and causes up to 64.6% decrease in fan power consumption. The results reveal that using the proposed wet/dry approach results in an average 9.4% decrease in water consumption. Given the relatively low degree of modifications made to the original wet tower and preserving the condenser operating condition, the accomplished amount of water conservation is satisfactory.