UNIVERSITI KUALA LUMPUR

MALAYSIAN INSTITUTE OF CHEMICAL BIOENGINEERING

TECHNOLOGY
LABORATORY REPORT COVER PAGE

SECTION A – To be filled up by Student

Subject Code & Subject CPB21404 SEPARATION PROCESS

Title of Experiment Cooling tower
Date of Experiment 28/2/2019 Date of Submission 7/3/2019
Name & ID No. 1) Stacy Bajik Jemot (55213117146)
2) Mohd Nazmi Bin Mohd Bukhari (55213117074)
Group No: ( 4 )
3) Muhammad Fareez Aizat Bin As’ad (55213117023)
4) Muhammad Syafiq Bin Ismail (55213117060)
Name of Lecturer DR. NOR SHAHIRAH MOHD NASIR
SECTION B – To be filled up by Lecturer

Very Satisfactory Good Excellent Marks

Poor
Criteria Poor (3) (4) (5)
(2)
(1)
Report format (5%) 1 2 3 4 5
1.Organization of the report.
Summary (10%) – max 1 page
1.Brief review on the objectives of the 2 4 6 8 10
experiment, major findings and significant
conclusions
Introduction & Theory (10%) – max
2 pages
1. State the background to the
experiment conducted. 2 4 6 8 10
2. Summary of theories including
formulations related to the experimental
work.
Data & Results (10%)
1. Data are presented as deemed 2 4 6 8 10
suitable with complete labels and units.
Analysis & Discussion (40%)
1. Explanations of the referred table and
figure are presented after the table and 8 16 24 32 40
figure
2. Discuss on the findings and relations to
the theory and objective of experiment
Conclusion & Recommendation
(10%)
1.Summary of the results to relate the
findings or results with the theory 2 4 6 8 10
applicable to the experimental
2.Suggest improvements in apparatus or
measurement procedure, or experimental
procedures for future
References & Appendices (5%)
1. Cite references in the text.
2. References taken from books, journals
1 2 3 4 5
and articles. References from website are
not recommended.
3. Put raw data and sample calculation.
TOTAL (90%)
Laboratory Psychomotor Student 1 Student 3
Assessment (10%)
Individual practical skills Student 2 Student 4

Student 1 Student 3
TOTAL (100%)
Student 2 Student 4

1
 UNIVERSITI KUALA LUMPUR
MALAYSIAN INSTITUTE OF CHEMICAL BIOENGINEERING
TECHNOLOGY
LABORATORY REPORT COVER PAGE

Table of content

No Content Page number

1.0 Summary 3

2.0 Objectives 3

3.0 Introduction 4

4.0 Data and result 6

5.0 Discussion 8

6.0 Conclusion and recommendation 10

7.0 References 11

8.0 Appendices 12

2
 UNIVERSITI KUALA LUMPUR
MALAYSIAN INSTITUTE OF CHEMICAL BIOENGINEERING
TECHNOLOGY
LABORATORY REPORT COVER PAGE

1.0 Summary

The purpose of this experiment was to investigate the effect of air velocity on wet bulb
approach and the pressure drop through the packing. In this experiment we used Bench Top
Cooling Tower (Model HE 152) to run the experiment. Before the experiment was started, the
valves V1 to V6 was closed while valve V7 partially opened. Then the distilled water was
loaded into the tank and the tank must be refilled with water when the water level reduced. The
experiment was started by set the temperature to 50℃. The heater was set to heat at 1kW. As
the temperature rise to 50℃, the pump were switched on and the valve V1 was slowly opened
and the water flowrate was set to 2.0 LPM. The unit was ran for 10 minutes for the float valve
to correctly adjust the level in the load tank before run the experiment. After 10 minutes, the
unit was set with the water flow rate at 2.0 LPM, the air flow rate was at the maximum level,
cooling load at 1.0 kW. The unit was left to stabilize before the reading was taken. After three
minutes, the reading for temperature from T1-T6, orifice differential pressure (DP1), water
flow rate (FT1), heat power (Q1) and Pressure drop across packing (DP2) were recorded by
taken their average value. The experiment were continue with another set of orifice pressure
drop values which is 75%, 50%, 25% of the maximum value without changing the water flow
rate and cooling loads.

2.0 Objectives

 To investigate the effect of air velocity on wet bulb approach.

 To investigate the effect of air velocity on pressure drop through the packing.

3
 UNIVERSITI KUALA LUMPUR
MALAYSIAN INSTITUTE OF CHEMICAL BIOENGINEERING
TECHNOLOGY
LABORATORY REPORT COVER PAGE

3.0 Introduction

The laboratory cooling tower is a cooling tower unit from a commercial air conditioning system
used to study the principles of cooling tower operation. It is used in conjunction with a
residential size water heater to simulate a cooling tower used to provide cool water to an
industrial process. In the case of the laboratory unit, the industrial process load is provided by
the water heater. The laboratory cooling tower allows for complete control of the speed of the
fan used in cooling the warm return water and the pump used to return the cooled water to the
water heater. When warm liquid is brought into contact with saturated gas or air, part of the
liquid evaporates and the liquid temperature drops. This principle is used in the operations of
cooling towers. In the cooling towers the temperature of the recirculated water used for
condensers and heat exchangers in chemical plants, is brought down by cooling using air
humidification process. Cooling towers are the cheapest way to cool large quantities of water.
In the cooling tower when the water is distributed over a packing of a certain height through
which the air passes up wards causing evaporation and hence cooling of the water stream. This
packing would be able to make the surface of air or water contact area as large as possible. Hot
water sprayed onto the top of the tower trickles down through packing or wooden slats,
evaporating as it goes. Air is passed through the packing by forced-draft or induced draft fans
or it is drawn by natural convection.

4
 UNIVERSITI KUALA LUMPUR
MALAYSIAN INSTITUTE OF CHEMICAL BIOENGINEERING
TECHNOLOGY
LABORATORY REPORT COVER PAGE

Theory

The theory behind the operation of the cooling tower is the First Law of Thermodynamics,
which is the conservation of energy. In simpler terms, the energy that enters the system must
exit the system; energy can neither be created nor destroyed, just transformed from one form
to another(Hood, 2005). When a component is transferred from a gas phase to solution in a
liquid phase, the latent heat associated with the condensation is evolved. In the operations
where mass transfer proceeds by equimolar counter diffusion, as in distillation or in operations
where latent heat effect are small, as in liquid –liquid extraction, gas absorption in dilute
solutions, and leaching, heat transfer is of minor importance as a rate controlling mechanism.
In others, particularly where there is a net transfer of mass from gas phase to condensed phase
or vice versa, the heat transfer rate is important. In these cases, heat transfer significantly limits
the rate at which mass can be transferred. Of those operations where both heat transfer and
mass transfer affect the rate, humidification and dehumidification involve two components and
two phases. The liquid phase, most often water, is single component, and the gas phase consists
of a non-condensable gas, usually air, in which some vapor from the liquid phase is present.

5
 UNIVERSITI KUALA LUMPUR
MALAYSIAN INSTITUTE OF CHEMICAL BIOENGINEERING
TECHNOLOGY
LABORATORY REPORT COVER PAGE

4.0 Data and Result

Table A

Description Unit Air Flow

100% 75% 50% 25%

Packing density m-1 110 110 110 110

Air inlet dry bulb, T1 ℃ 17.00 20.41 20.33 20.30

Air inlet wet bulb, T2 ℃ 22.0 21.33 20.77 20.75

Air outlet dry bulb, T3 ℃ 25.10 28.70 29.60 30.63

Air outlet wet bulb, T4 ℃ 24.60 27.00 27.77 29.53

Water inlet temperature, T5 ℃ 29.80 33.77 34.13 34.97

Water outlet temperature, T6 ℃ 27.72 27.72 29.13 30.6

Orifice differential, DP1 Pa 61 47 29.67 15

Water flow rate, FT1 LPM 2.0 2.0 2.0 2.0

Heater power, Q1 Watt 1000 1000 1000 1000

Pressure drop across packing, Pa 31 16 12 7

DP2

6
 UNIVERSITI KUALA LUMPUR
MALAYSIAN INSTITUTE OF CHEMICAL BIOENGINEERING
TECHNOLOGY
LABORATORY REPORT COVER PAGE

Table B

Description Air Flow

100% 75% 50% 25%

Nominal velocity of air 0.3533 0.3144 0.2489 0.1789

(m/s)

Approach to wet bulb (K) 5.72 6.39 8.36 9.85

Pressure (mm H2O) 3.1611 1.6315 1.2236 0.7138

7
 UNIVERSITI KUALA LUMPUR
MALAYSIAN INSTITUTE OF CHEMICAL BIOENGINEERING
TECHNOLOGY
LABORATORY REPORT COVER PAGE

5.0 Discussion

Graph of Wet Bulb Approach, K and Packing Pressure Drops,

mmH2O against Nominal Velocity of Air, m/s
12 9.85
Packing Pressure Drops, mmH20 or

10 8.36
6.39
Approach of Wet Bulb, K

8 5.72
6
3.1611
4
1.2236 1.6315
2 0.7138
0
0.1789 0.2489 0.3144 0.3533
Nominal Air Velocity, m/s

Approach to wet bulb (K) Pressure drop across packing, DP2

Figure 1: Graph of relationship between wet bulb approach and packing pressure drop
against nominal air velocity.

A cooling tower is a specialized heat exchanger in which air and water are brought directly
into contact with each other in order to reduce the temperature of water. When warm liquid is
brought into contact with unsaturated gas, part of the liquid evaporates and the liquid
temperature drops. For the experiment, the objectives are to investigate the effect of air velocity
on wet bulb approach and pressure drop through the packing. The effect of air velocity on the
parameter is based on four different air flows; 100%, 75%, 50% and 25% as shown in Table
A. The value of air inlet dry bulb (T1), air inlet wet bulb (T2), air outlet dry bulb (T3), air outlet
wet bulb (T4), water inlet temperature (T5), water outlet temperature (T6), the reading for
orifice differential (DP1) and pressure drop across packing (DP2) are recorded. Based on Table
A, the reading of T1 slightly increases and then decrease without consistent is because the
cooling tower may lose its efficiency throughout the experiment. As the water flow rate is not
constant during the experiment, the temperature might be not correct from T1 to T6. Besides,
after solving the calculation, Table B is filled with the calculated data. From the table, the
nominal velocity of air of orifice pressure drop at 100%, 75%, 50% and 25% are 3.1611,
1.6315, 1.2236 and 0.7138 m/s respectively. It is observed that the nominal air velocity
decreases along with decreasing pressure drop. Theoretically, if the experiment were run under

8
 UNIVERSITI KUALA LUMPUR
MALAYSIAN INSTITUTE OF CHEMICAL BIOENGINEERING
TECHNOLOGY
LABORATORY REPORT COVER PAGE

adiabatic conditions, whereby no heat is transferred from the tower to its surroundings, with
adequate air flow, the temperature of exiting liquid reached at steady state would be equal to
the wet bulb temperature of incoming air. In this experiment, the result shows that the
difference in the temperature of exiting liquid and the wet bulb temperature of incoming air is
small. Therefore, the cooling tower is working optimally. Next, a graph of the relationship
between wet bulb approach and packing pressure drop against nominal air velocity has been
plotted as shown in Figure 1. The graph shows that the wet bulb approach decrease linearly
from 9.85 K to 5.72 K as the nominal air increases. This is due to increase of blower speed
which cause the increase of wet bulb approach. Then, the wet bulb tends to dry as the result of
the cooling process. Next, for the packing pressure drop, it increases linearly from 0.7138
mmH2O to 3.1611 mmH2O as the nominal air velocity increases. This is due to the increase
of fan or blower speed which cause more pressure drop in order to eliminate the temperature
of hot water to cool water. Furthermore, the wet bulb approach and packing pressure drop are
plotted on the same graph. The graph shows that both will cross each other at the highest
nominal air velocity. It is related to the theory which the wet bulb approach line should be
decreased and cross the intersection line of the packing pressure drop that is increasing.

9
 UNIVERSITI KUALA LUMPUR
MALAYSIAN INSTITUTE OF CHEMICAL BIOENGINEERING
TECHNOLOGY
LABORATORY REPORT COVER PAGE

6.0 Conclusion and Recommendation

From the experiment, it shows that the nominal air velocity decreases as the pressure
drop decreases. The result also shows that the difference in the temperature of exiting liquid
and the wet bulb temperature of incoming air is insignificant. Thus, we can conclude that the
cooling tower is working optimally. The graph shows that the wet bulb approach decrease
linearly with the increasing nominal air velocity. This may be due to the increase of the blower
speed and the drying of wet bulb due to cooling process. Also, from the graph plotted, it shows
a linear relationship between the packing pressure and nominal air velocity, where the packing
pressure increases as the nominal air velocity increases. As the nominal air velocity increases,
the wet bulb approach decreases while the packing pressure drops increase. Hence, at the
highest nominal air velocity, we can predicted that both graph of wet bulb approach against
nominal air velocity and packing pressure drops and nominal air velocity will intersect. As a
conclusion, the experiment was successful since all the objectives of this experiment were
achieved.

There are a few recommendations that may be considered in order to obtain a better
result. Firstly, it is recommended that students must analyse and read the laboratory manual
thoroughly before starting the experiment for a better understanding of the procedures of the
experiment being conducted. Student should familiar with all the components of the equipment
used so that experiment can be conducted smoothly. Next, it is sgtrongly recommended that
only distilled water or deionised water is used in this unit. This is necessary because the
impurities existing in the tap water may cause the depositing in the cover tower. Hence, this
may lead to error in the data obtained from the experiment. Also it is important to make sure
that no water is in the pressure tubing for an accurate differential pressure measurement. Last
but not least, students must always use an appropriate safety PPE when conducting the
experiment to minimize injuries when an accident occur.

10
 UNIVERSITI KUALA LUMPUR
MALAYSIAN INSTITUTE OF CHEMICAL BIOENGINEERING
TECHNOLOGY
LABORATORY REPORT COVER PAGE

7.0 References

1. Hood. (2005). Cooling Tower. Building for Energy Efficiency.

https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781107415324.004

2. McCabe, W., & Smith, J., Humidification Operation. In Unit Operations of Chemical
Engineering, McGraw-Hill, Boston, 2005, p628

3. C.J.Geankoplis, Transport Processes and Separation Process Principles.4th ed., Pearson

Education: Prantice Hall, 1997

4. How Cooling Towers Work (W/ Pictures, Diagrams, Principles), 2016, WebTechs.net,
[Online].

[Accessed 3rd March 2019] Available from World Wide Web:

http://www.coolingtowerproducts.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Working-
Principle-Of-Cooling-Tower-PDF.pdf

11
 UNIVERSITI KUALA LUMPUR
MALAYSIAN INSTITUTE OF CHEMICAL BIOENGINEERING
TECHNOLOGY
LABORATORY REPORT COVER PAGE

8.0 Appendices

Sample of Calculation

1. Calculate approach to wet bulb.

Approach to wet bulb = Outlet water temperature (T6) – Inlet air wet bulb
temperature (T2)

I. 100%
(27.72+273.15) - (22.0+273.15)
= 5.72 K

II. 70%
(27.72+273.15) - (21.33+273.15)
= 6.39 K

III. 50%
(29.13+273.15) - (20.77+273.15)
= 8.36 K

IV. 25%
(30.6+273.15) - (20.75+273.15)
= 9.85 K

12
 UNIVERSITI KUALA LUMPUR
MALAYSIAN INSTITUTE OF CHEMICAL BIOENGINEERING
TECHNOLOGY
LABORATORY REPORT COVER PAGE

2. Specific volume of air at outlet in the humidity chart.

I. 100% = 0.8678 m3/ kg

II. 70% = 0.8927 m3/ kg

III. 50% = 0.8927 m3/ kg

IV. 25% = 0.8989 m3/ kg

3. Pressure (mm H2O)

I. 100% II. 75%

= 31 Pa × (0.10197 mm H2O / 1Pa) = 16 Pa × (0.10197 mm H2O / 1Pa)
= 3.1611 mm H2O = 1.6315 mm H2O

III. 50% IV. 25%

= 12 Pa × (0.10197 mm H2O / 1Pa) = 7 Pa × (0.10197 mm H2O / 1Pa)
= 1.2236 mm H2O = 0.7138 mm H2O

13
 UNIVERSITI KUALA LUMPUR
MALAYSIAN INSTITUTE OF CHEMICAL BIOENGINEERING
TECHNOLOGY
LABORATORY REPORT COVER PAGE

4. Air mass flowrate, ṁ = 0.0137(h/v)1/2

h: orifice differential in mm H2O
v: specific volume of air (m3/kg)

I. 100%
ṁ = 0.0137(6.2203 mm H2O/0.8678 m3/kg) ½
ṁ = 0.0367 kg/s

II. 75%
ṁ = 0.0137(4.7927 mm H2O/0.8927 m3/kg) ½
ṁ = 0.0317 kg/s

III. 50%
ṁ = 0.0137(3.0255 mm H2O/0.8927 m3/kg) ½
ṁ = 0.0252 kg/s

IV. 25%
ṁ = 0.0137(1.5296 mm H2O/0.8989 m3/kg) ½
ṁ = 0.0179 kg/s

14
 UNIVERSITI KUALA LUMPUR
MALAYSIAN INSTITUTE OF CHEMICAL BIOENGINEERING
TECHNOLOGY
LABORATORY REPORT COVER PAGE

5. Air volumetric flowrate, ύ = ṁv

I. 100% II. 75%

ύ = 0.0367 kg/s x 0.8678 m3/kg ύ = 0.0317 kg/s x 0.8927 m3/kg
̇ύ = 0.0318 m3/s ύ = 0.0283 m3/s

III. 50% IV. 25%

ύ = 0.0252 kg/s x 0.8927 m3/kg ύ = 0.0245 kg/s x 0.8834 m3/kg
ύ = 0.0224 m3/s ύ = 0.0161 m3/s

6. Nominal air velocity, V= ύ/A

*A is obtained by calculating the packing area

(0.15m x 0.6m = 0.09m2)

I. 100% II. 75%

V= 0.0318 m3/s / 0.09m2 V=0.0283 m3/s / 0.09m2
V= 0.3533 m/s V= 0.3144 m/s

III. 50% IV. 25%

V=0.0224 m3/s / 0.09m2 V= 0.0161 m3/s / 0.09m2
V=0.2489 m/s V=0.1789 m/s

15
 UNIVERSITI KUALA LUMPUR
MALAYSIAN INSTITUTE OF CHEMICAL BIOENGINEERING
TECHNOLOGY
LABORATORY REPORT COVER PAGE

Figure 2 : The Bench Top Cooling Tower (Model HE 152)

16