4E (ENERGY, EXERGY, ECONOMIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL) ANALYSIS OF THE NOVEL DESIGN OF WET COOLING TOWER

Dileep Kumar,Awais Junejo,Sajid Ali Bhanbhro,Muhammad Basi̇t,Tayaba Zehra

doi:10.18186/thermal.710981

Dileep Kumar, Awais Junejo + Show 3 more

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https://doi.org/10.18186/thermal.710981

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Abstract

This study aims to calculate the performance of the novel design of wet cooling tower (NDWCT) using first law (energy) and second law (exergy) of thermodynamics. Moreover, it determines the economic feasibility (cost savings and payback period) and sustainability of the NDWCT using the life-cycle cost (LCC) and environmental assessment method. An appropriate mathematical model is developed and simulated in Engineering Equation Solver to calculate water savings, performance and payback period of additional investment. The simulation results have a good agreement with the experimental outcomes (error 2.6%). Simulation results revealed that the NDWCT consumes 34.48% less water than the conventional wet cooling tower (WCT). The installation of heat exchanger improves the performance of WCT by 6% because the consumption of water to air ratio increases. Moreover, the exergy destruction in the NDWCT is 1.23 MW lower than the conventional WCT. Additionally, the heat exchanger costs k$30.7 to save an annual fuel cost of k$72 which could be recovered within a payback period of 0.37 years. Lastly, the environmental assessment proves that the NDWCT relinquishes the particulate matter emission by 0.042 g/s.

Highlights

In Pakistan, thermal power plants (TPP) produce around 65% of total electricity using fossil fuels and most of them are not working on their installed capacity
It conducts thermodynamic and economic analysis using energy, exergy, and life-cycle cost analysis to determine the decrease in make water consumption, effectiveness, exergy destruction and economic benefits of the proposed design
In this study, a thermal mathematical model is used to investigate the performance of conventional wet cooling tower (WCT) and novel design of wet cooling tower (NDWCT) in terms of first law and second law of thermodynamics

Summary

Introduction

In Pakistan, TPPs produce around 65% of total electricity using fossil fuels and most of them are not working on their installed capacity. He investigated that techno-economic optimization reduces the total energy cost of the plant from $98,520 to $84,708 over its expected lifetime [29] In another study, he estimated the performance of PEM fuel cell in terms of energy and exergy that was found 47.6% and 50.4%, respectively. Numerical analysis of cooling towers was examined using the energy, exergy, and techno-economic and simulation results compared with available experimental outcomes. This study aims to find NDWCT's (a) thermal performance of the NDWCT using thermodynamic analysis, (b) determine the economic feasibility using LCC analysis and (c) environmental friendliness using environmental assessment methods It develops an appropriate mathematical model using the experimental data available in [31]. An environmental assessment is conducted to investigate the reduction in particulate matter emission from NDWCT into the atmosphere

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Conclusion