The dry and adiabatic fluid cooler as an alternative to cooling towers: an experimental view.

Abstract

Energy and environmental implications of a refrigeration cycle are largely conditioned by the choice of condensing system. Conventional solutions transfer heat to water, and recirculated through cooling towers or to atmospheric air through a dry condenser. While the use of cooling towers means less energy consumption due to lower pressure in the condenser, a number of environmental implications are questioning their installation. Mainly, it represents an emission of chemicals or microorganisms to the atmosphere as Legionella. The dry and adiabatic fluid cooler works as a standard fluid dry cooler enhancing the dry cooler’s capacity with adiabatic pre-cooling of the air intake. The ambient dry bulb temperature is reduced as the air passes through an evaporative pad especially designed to humidify and cool the air (Figure.1). The main objective of this study is to experimentally investigate the thermal performance of a dry and adiabatic fluid cooler. With the experimental data, a thermal model will be developed in order to compare the energy implications arising from the replacement of traditional systems (dry condenser and cooling towers) by condensing air coolers with adiabatic pre-cooling.