A comprehensive energy efficiency assessment indicator and grading criteria for natural draft wet cooling towers

Jianhang Yu, Zhiguo Qu, Jianfei Zhang, Sanji Hu, Jialiang Song and Yongdong Chen

Energy, 2022, vol. 254, issue PB

Abstract: Energy efficiency evaluation of natural draft wet cooling towers (NDWCTs) is essential to the energy saving process. There is a lack of comprehensive methods that can evaluate and grade the NDWCTs energy efficiency quantitatively. In this study, a comprehensive energy efficiency assessment indicator (CEEAI) including thermal performance, water conservation, and electric saving aspects is proposed. The CEEAI is based on the analysis of NDWCTs mass and heat transfer mechanism. Total 48 actual test reports of the NDWCTs whose water flow rate changes from thousands to hundred thousand tons per hour for test period spans of 16 years, are collected as the database. The CEEAI is validated through statistical analysis and thermodynamics law. Based on the CEEAI and database, an energy-efficiency grading criteria is proposed, the NDWCTs are graded into high, middle and low energy efficiency. Therefore, the energy efficiency of one NDWCT can be clearly observed, which is beneficial for the common researchers to understand the energy efficiency level among all the NDWCTs. In addition, through comparing the CEEAI of different NDWCTs, the energy efficiency gap can be obtained, which provides the optimization guidelines and theoretical support for the improvement of the overall energy efficiency level for the NDWCTs.

Keywords: Natural draft wet cooling tower; Comprehensive energy efficiency assessment indicator; Energy saving; Quantitative analysis; Coincident matrix method (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:254:y:2022:i:pb:s0360544222012786

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2022.124375

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