Dry Cooling Tower

WHY DRY COOLING TOWER

Primarily

used due to usage of cooling tower in

sites where water is not abundant.

Make-up

water may not be available at times.

A cooling

tower is required for cold water

circulation in industries where water must not be
contaminated(ex. Food Industry etc.)

Also

because evaporative cooling contaminates

water and turbine blowdown(intentional removal
of water) might become a serious issue then.

Direct Cooling System

Dry cooling towers remove heat from the circulating fluid

through heat transfer by conduction to the air being circulated
past the heat exchange tubes.

There is no contact between circulating steam and ambient air

as it flows through enclosed tubes.

Because the heat transfer is done primarily due to the

conduction of heat through metal-to-air interface, hence heat
transfer is generally poor.

To overcome this the tubes are generally finned to have larger

area for heat transfer.

The theoretical lowest temperature that this system can achieve

is the dry-bulb temperature of the air.

Direct Cooling Systems can also be identified as Air Cooled Heat

Exchanger.

Typically air cooled exchangers consist of a finned tube bundle

with rectangular box Headers on both end of the tubes.

Header is the part where the water flows from the pipes to the
tube.

Cooling air is provided by one or more fans.

Usually air blows upwards through a horizontal tube bundle.

The fans can be either forced or induced draft depending on

whether the air is pushed or pulled through the tube bundle.

The space between the fans and the tube bundle is enclosed by
a plenum chamber which directs the air. The whole assembly is
usually mounted on legs or a pipe rack.

Indirect System

The process of cooling the steam is indirect as in:

Steam from turbine exhaust is fed to the spraying

condenser which sprays a jet of cold water (explained in
coming points).

The steam is condensed and there is sufficient reduction

in the temperature due to sensible heat loss.

Half of the somewhat cooler water is fed to the boiler

again and the rest of the water is fed to the dry cooling
system which is similar to direct cooling system now the
water from the cooling coils through means of a
circulating pump.

The cooling system further reduces the temperature of

water.

The cold water is then supplied to a hydraulic turbine.

The hydraulic turbine is used for energy recovery and

provides power to circulating pump.

The water from the hydraulic turbine exhaust is fed to the

nozzles of spray condenser.

The cycle continues.