Publication Date
2020
School
School of Engineering and Computational Sciences
Major
Engineering: Mechanical
Keywords
flue gas injection, outlet water temperature, fill profile, water profile
Disciplines
Mechanical Engineering
Recommended Citation
Stapleton, John, "Investigating the Effects of Flue Gas Injection, Hot Water Distribution, and Fill Distribution on Natural Draft Wet Cooling Tower Performance" (2020). Senior Honors Theses. 996.
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/honors/996
Abstract
Natural draft wet cooling towers (NDWCT) are a common method of heat removal in powerplants. This study employs a numerical cooling tower model developed by Eldredge, Benton & Hodgson (1997) to examine whether utilizing nonuniform water, fill profiles, and flue gas injection can improve NDWCT efficiency. The results show that each of these variables can be optimized to lower outlet water temperature. Within the range tested for each parameter, the water profile had the most significant effect on outlet water temperature, followed by the flue gas temperature and then the fill profile. The optimum parameter combination reduced the predicted outlet water temperature by 0.5 °C which corresponds to annual fuel savings of up to 55 million dollars and 1.83 million metric tons of carbon dioxide for fossil plants in the United States.
