Research on water saving performance of a new type of demisting cooler for cooling towers

•A new mist eliminator is developed to reduce the evaporation loss of cooling tower.•The specific water-saving characteristics are studied by surface response analysis.•The comprehensive thermal performance evaluation is defined.•The optimal mist eliminator is determined. During the operation of the cooling tower, a large amount of white mist will be generated due to drift, evaporation, and other reasons. The droplets condensed from white mist in winter are easy to freeze and adsorb at the outlet of the cooling tower, affecting the service life of the equipment and increasing operating costs. In order to reduce the mist, a new type of mist removal cooler was developed. The influence of the structure of the mist removal cooler (baffle spacing, cooling pipe diameter, and baffle vertical height) on resistance characteristics, droplet separation characteristics, and heat transfer characteristics was studied through numerical simulation and obtain surface regression equations related to all factors. The results showed that the mist removal cooler can effectively recover water vapor from wet air. The optimal structure of the demister cooler was determined to be a combination structure with a baffle plate placed on one side of the cooling tube, a plate spacing of 0.1 m, a pipe diameter of 0.03 m, and a vertical height of 0.1 m. This structure can separate 48.29% of droplets while recovering 18.62% of water vapor, with significant water-saving benefits. [Display omitted]