Experimental analysis of the performance of new alternative materials for cooling tower fill

•New alternative materials were tested as an filler of cooling tower.•The experimental results shown that the alternative fills could studied cool water up to 8 K.•The comparison of the numerical and experimental results show good agreement.•The use of these fillers did not imply in the increase of the power consumed in the cooling tower.•The Alternative fills present a good efficiency when compared with the industrial fill. Cooling towers are devices that are commonly used to dissipate the heat produced in power generation units, central air conditioners and industrial processes. The fill is an important part of the cooling tower, because it increases the contact between water and air, thereby improving both the heat and the mass transfer. In this study, an experimental analysis was conducted with a view to comparing the performance of fills of alternative materials such as coconut fiber, coconut husk and PET. The alternative fills were compared with each other and with the industrial fill, taking into the account the following parameters; the cooling, the approach and Effectiveness effect and also the head loss. The experimental data indicated that the alternative fills studied could cool water up to 8 K while commercial fill reached 10 K, under the same conditions. A theoretical study was made which found the Number of Transfer Units (NTU) for each fill tested. The NTU was used as the verification method for the experiments, and the results showed good agreement with each other. The results obtained also show that the fills consumed a similar amount of power and support the use of alternative fills for cooling towers. Therefore, it was proved that alternative fills are interesting as fill for cooling towers.