Engineering and economic evaluation of wet/dry cooling towers for water conservation

Potential use of dry cooling in support of advanced energy generation systems

“…This results in low water consumption while keeping the cooling towers at a more economical size than an all dry tower system. Hu (1976) has concluded that wet/dry cooling systems can provide a significant economic advantage over all dry while closely matching the dry tower conservation of water. Table 3 is a result of his study which exemplifies the economics of dry, wet, and wet/dry cooling.…”

“…It is anticipated that problems of water for energy production will emerge first in the Missouri, Ohio, and Upper Colorado regions where large coal and oil shale deposits are located. The consumptive use of water for agricultural and municipal growth has been taking place at a rate proportional to the rate of growth of population, while consumptive use for industrial and utility plant growth is exponential (Hu 1976). The U.S. Water Resources Council projects that by the year 2000 inadequate surface water supply is or will be severe in 17 subregions that are located mainly in the Midwest and Southwest.…”