Cooling Water Circulation

Cooling
System

Once Closed
through System

Cooling Cooling
Spray Pond
Pond Tower

Wet Cooling Dry Cooling

Tower Tower
Once Through
 In Once Through system- Water is taken
from natural body of water such as lake,
river or ocean and discharge back to the
source.
 Adv- The most efficient means of heat
rejection.
 It uses the lowest temperature heat sink
available to the power plant.
 The back pressure of turbine can be
maintained to be 0.07bar
 Dis Adv- It cannot be used where sufficient
cooling water source is not available.
Closed loop
 Cooling water leaving the condenser is
being cooled by cooling tower, spray
ponds, cooling lakes and again supplied to
the condenser.
 Cooling tower- wet or dry type.
 Dry- Inefficient, but used in desert
 Spray pond

• Hot water from the condenser sprayed through the

nozzles over a pond of large area.

• Cooling effect is due to evaporation from the surface of

water when comes in contact with air.
• Evaporation rate Depends on the air velocity flowing over
the water spray.
Cooling Pond
 It is the simplest cooling water device
used to cooling the hot circulating water
coming from the condenser.
 It consist of large shallow pools into
which hot water is allowed to come in
contact with the atmospheric air.
Advantages of cooling pond and
spray pond over once through
 Eliminates environmental damage associated with withdrawing water
directly from natural water bodies

 Avoids thermal pollution and alteration to the marine ecosystem

caused by the discharge of hot water into the sea, rivers, lakes or other
natural water sources.

 Eliminates biofouling, reducing maintenance costs and increasing heat

transfer efficiency.

 Allows locating the facilities far from natural water sources.

 Can use any type of water (freshwater, seawater, or others).


◦ Disadvantages- large area is required
◦ high spray losses due to evaporation.
◦ No control over temperature of
cooled water.
◦ Low cooling efficiency
Classification of cooling
tower

By principle of heat rejection.

• Wet cooling tower Induced draught type
• Mechanical draught
Forced draught type
• Natural draught

• Dry Cooling tower

 COOLING TOWER
Semi-enclosed device for evaporative cooling of water
by contact with air
Cooling towers vary in size from small roof-top units to
very large hyperboloid structures
Heat rejection of water takes place by the following
mechanism
addition of sensible heat to the air
evaporation of water.
addition of sensible heat to the natural body of
water.
Wet Cooling Tower Basics
• Cooling towers are the hot water distribution systems that showers or
sprays the water evenly over a lattice of closely set horizontal slates or bars
called fills.

• The fills are provided inside the Wooden, steel or concrete structure for
uniform distribution and better atomization of water in the tower.

• The hot water coming out from the condenser is fed to the tower on the
top and allowed to tickle in form of thin drops.

• The air flows from bottom of the tower or perpendicular to the direction
of water flow and then exhausts to the atmosphere after effective cooling.

• To prevent the escape of water particles with air, draft eliminators are
provided at the top of the tower.
PERFORMANCE PARAMETER OF COOLING TOWER

 RANGE
 This is the difference
between the cooling tower
water inlet and outlet
temperature.
Tcw1  Tcw2

 A high CT Range means Range and Approach of co

that the cooling tower has

been able to reduce the
water temperature
effectively, and is thus
performing well
APPROACH
 This is the difference between the cooling
tower outlet cold water temperature and
ambient wet bulb temperature.
Tcw2  Twbt
 Although, both range and approach
should be monitored, the `Approach’ is a
better indicator of cooling tower
performance.
EFFECTIVENESS
 This is the ratio between the range and
the ideal range (in percentage), i.e.
difference between cooling water inlet
temperature and ambient wet bulb
temperature, or in other words it is
= Range / (Range + Approach).
 Cooling efficiency

actual cooling Tcw1  Tcw2


Maximum cooling Tcw1  Twbt
Dry Cooling Tower
 The circulating water is passed through
the finned tube over which cold air
passes.
 Heat rejection is through the gain in
sensible heat of air.
 It can be either direct or indirect.
 It can be of mechanical or natural draft
type.
Advantages
 Used where sufficient cooling water is not
available.(The plant may be set up near the
fuel resource availability or load distribution
center).
 Expansion of the plant can be done though
available water is limited.
 They are less expensive to maintain(do not
require chemical additives or periodic
cleaning).
 Less environment pollution compared to the
wet and once through.
Disadvantages
 Not efficient as evaporative cooling.
 Higher back pressure of turbine
 Less expansion in the turbine hence low
power developed.
 Less efficiency.
Use
Very much successful in small industrial
process cooling plant, HVAC.
Direct Dry Cooling Tower
 Turbine exhaust is admitted to a steam
header through large duct to minimize
pressure drop.
 The steam gets condensed when passes
through the finned tubes in the
downward direction and comes in
contact with cooled air.
 Air flows either by natural draft or forced
draft fan.
 The condensate flows by gravity and is
pumped back to the feed water system.
INDIRECT Dry cooling tower.

Indirect cooling tower with surface condenser.

 First uses a surface condenser.
 The circulating water leaving it goes
through finned tubing cooled by
atmospheric air in the tower.
 Air cooling is by natural draft.
 Two heat exchanger are there in serise.
 First one between steam and air
 Second one between water and air.
Disadvantages

 Back pressure of turbine is high

 Condenser pressure is about 0.17 to
0.27bar compared to 0.07bar in once
through.
 Hence efficiency is less.
Indirect Dry Cooling Tower

Indirect dry cooling with open condenser

Working
 Steam from the turbine enters to the spray
condenser.
 Part of the hot water enters to the finned
tube water cooling tower(both forced or
natural type).
 After cooling the water in the tower the
cooling water is again supplied to the
condenser.
 Other part of the hot water from the
condenser is fed to the boiler after addition
of makeup water.
Disadvantages
 The ratio of circulation water to feed
water is large.

Advantages
 It is the most efficient, economical,
feasible dry cooling tower.
Working
 This uses ammonia as one of the working
fluid in condenser.
 The condenser et evaporated and the heat
exchange takes place between steam and
ammonia.
 Ammonia gets evaporated in the condenser
and steam gets cooled to liquid.
 Then the ammonia gas condenses in the dry
tower rejecting latent heat of condensation
to the air.
Advantages
 The heat transfer coefficient is higher in
the boiling and condensation heat transfer
compared to single phase heat transfer.
 Temperature difference between the
ammonia and steam is less.
 Hence smaller size and power required
condenser is required.
 Evaporative Cooling Tower and Heat
Dry Cooling Tower
Exchanger

Huge loss of water due to evaporation, drift, spray loss

No water consumption.
and blow down.

No preparation is required for atmospheric air is Water is scarce. Bringing water to site is expensive.
available in plenty. Water has to be treated before use.

Scale formation is unavoidable. Frequent cleaning is

No scale formation. No cleaning of Heat Exchanger. required leading to high down time and expensive
labour.

Maintenance is required on a day to day basis. V belts,

No moving parts except fan and motors - negligible
bearings blocks, Pump couplings, Sprinkler nozzles has
maintenance.
to be cleaned.

Water exposed to dust and dirt will be contaminated.

No mixing of dust, dirt, fly ash or living organisms with
Fungus formation and living organisms will foul heat
process water.
exchanger which require cleaning.

No restriction on plant location. Water source decides the location of large plants.

No corrosions due to air. Steel parts in contact with water are corroded.