Feasibility study for reduce water evaporative loss in a power plant cooling tower by using air to Air heat exchanger with auxiliary Fan

Wet cooling tower is the largest consumer of water in the power plants. In this paper, a laboratory model of wet cooling tower with air to air heat exchanger was used to study reduction of water consumption. The experimental study was performed in order to design and simulate flow conditions in the cooling tower. The air to air heat exchanger makes contact of warm-wet air out of the cooling tower with relatively drier and cooler ambient air. As the warm-wet air from the tower is cooled through the exchanger by an auxiliary fan, water condenses out and is collected. The condensate conductivity has been in the range of 5 to 13% of the recirculating water. The result showed that in a laboratory model, water saving could be expected to about 35% of evaporation, depending on ambient air conditions.