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

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.