Experimental determination of drift loss from a cooling tower with different drift eliminators using the chemical balance method

Abstract

The existence of cooling towers arises from the need to evacuate power to the environment from engines, refrigeration equipment and industrial processes. Water drift emitted from cooling towers is objectionable for several reasons, mainly due to human health hazards. It is common practice to fit drift eliminators to cooling towers in order to minimise water loss from the system. The presence of the drift eliminator mainly affects two aspects of cooling towers: their thermal performance and the amount of water drift loss. This paper experimentally studies the drift loss emissions from a cooling tower without drift eliminator and fitted with six different drift eliminators. Chemical Balance is the selected method and Australian Standard methodology is taken as a reference. Some modifications are proposed to reduce uncertainty by increasing the duration of the test and the number of water samples. Installation of a drift eliminator, even in the worst case, reduces the water drift level to less than half of the situation without the eliminator. The water drift losses obtained with the different drift eliminators installed at the pilot plant, from 0.0118% to 0.161%, are within the range generally reflected in the literature. Finally, a criterion for designing drift eliminators in order to optimise both the collection efficiency and the cooling tower's thermal performance is proposed. We accept all the conditions included in the journal web about transfer, copyright and originality.The manuscript material neither has been published in nor submitted to a journal previously.According to IJR's focus, research deals on condensation and air conditioning. Accent has been placed on experimental details. We hope the originals will fulfil all your requirements.We look forward to your reply. Yours sincerely, 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 Manuel Lucas AbstractThe existence of cooling towers arises from the need to evacuate power to the environment from engines, refrigeration equipment and industrial processes. Water drift emitted from cooling towers is objectionable for several reasons, mainly due to human health hazards. It is common practice to fit drift eliminators to cooling towers in order to minimise water loss from the system. The presence of the drift eliminator mainly affects two aspects of cooling towers: their thermal performance and the amount of water drift loss. This paper experimentally studies the drift loss emissions from a cooling tower without drift eliminator and fitted with six different drift eliminators.Chemical Balance is the selected method and Australian Standard methodology is taken as a reference. Some modifications are proposed to reduce uncertainty by increasing the duration of the test and the number of water samples. Installation of a drift eliminator, even in the worst ca...

Analisis Desain Proses Sistem Pendingin Pada Reaktor Riset Inovatif 50 Mw

“…Pendinginan disertai dengan hilangnya sebagian kecil percikan air (drift loss) dan penguapan yang ditransfer ke udara. Jumlah percikan air yang hilang ini dalam literatur pada umumnya pada rentang 0.0118% sampai 0.161% [12]. Menara pendingin dilengkapi dengan filler sebagai mediator antara udara dengan air hangat dari penukar panas.…”

Experimental and numerical evaluation of the performances of type‐C and three‐segment demisters used in cooling towers

“…[2] Although several techniques can be used to measure the amount and size distribution of droplets emitted, it is usually costly and time-consuming. [15][16][17] Thus, most of these experiments are implemented on simplified wet cooling towers, which results in a limited range of applicability. In contrast, computer-aided numerical study has emerged as a powerful tool to predict the performance of demisters and understanding of the underlying physical behaviour of multi-phase flow complexity.…”

An Instrument for Direct Measurement of Emissions: Cooling Tower Example

“…The interface between air and water results in some emission of liquid droplets, termed "spray drift." Drift emissions result in the release of aerosolized materials, which may result in undesirable consequences in terms of respirable particle emissions, mineral deposition in nearby areas, and biological concerns such as the spread of legionella (Golay et al, 1986;Lucas et al, 2012;Mouchtouri et al, 2010). The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) AP42 provides guidance on drift emissions based on measurements performed in the 1980s and 1990s.…”

“…Several methods rely on collection of spray drift residue using impingers or cyclone separators to provide an insight into overall drift mass flux by comparing measured mineral flux against tower water composition. Drift emissions have also been characterized using addition of tracer chemical markers to the recirculating water reservoir and monitoring the tracer over time (Campbell, 1969;Lucas et al, 2012). Such methods allow determination of total drift while avoiding the issue of differentiating tower emissions from ambient particles.…”