Application of Dry Cooling Towers with Adiabatic Cooling

Dry Cooling Towers with Adiabatic Cooling is a hybrid cooling system that combines dry cooling (sensible heat exchange) and adiabatic pre-cooling (evaporative cooling), aiming at balancing the cooling efficiency, water-saving performance and environmental adaptability. The core logic is: under high temperature or high load conditions, the temperature of the air entering the dry cooler is lowered through the adiabatic cooling section, and then the sensible heat exchange is carried out through the dry cooling section, thus compensating for the lack of efficiency of traditional dry cooling towers in high temperature environments, and at the same time saving water significantly compared to wet cooling towers.

Applications include:

1. Thermal power plants (air-cooled units)

Background: Traditional air-cooled units (purely dry-cooled) in summer high temperature, the turbine exhaust pressure increases, power generation efficiency decreases (for every 1 ℃ ambient temperature increase, the efficiency decreases by about 0.3%), and the wet-cooled units consume a great deal of water (thousands of tons of water per day per megawatt of installed power).

Advantages of adiabatic dry cooling:

In summer high temperature, through adiabatic pre-cooling, the air temperature will be lowered by 8-12℃, so that the exhaust vapor pressure will be lowered by 0.5-1.5 kPa, and the efficiency of power generation will be increased by 1%-3%;

The water consumption is only 15%-20% of that of wet-cooled units, which is suitable for coal power bases where water resources are tight, but the temperature in summer is high.

2. Data Center Cooling

Background: Data centers (especially high-density server rooms) need to be cooled stably throughout the year. Traditional air conditioners or dry coolers need to start and stop the compressor frequently in high summer temperatures (high energy consumption), and wet cooling systems are prone to condensation or corrosion of equipment.

Advantages of adiabatic dry cooling:

Adiabatic pre-cooling in summer reduces the temperature of the incoming air, reduces the temperature difference between the dry cooler and the coolant of the server, and reduces the power consumption of the fan (energy saving of 20%-30%);

Low humidity environment reduces the risk of condensation in the server room.

3. Industrial Process Cooling (e.g. Chemical Industry, Metallurgy)

Background: Chemical reactors, metallurgical furnaces and other equipment need to cool high-temperature process media (e.g. thermal oil, cooling water), and some regions (e.g. coal chemical industry parks) have stringent requirements for water conservation.

Advantages of adiabatic dry cooling:

Adapt to the high temperature of the process medium (80-150 ℃), efficient heat dissipation through the combination of “pre-cooling + dry cooling”;

Avoid the pollution of the circulating water of the wet cooling tower (no need to deal with the high salt wastewater), reducing environmental costs;

In winter, you can turn off the adiabatic section and only run in dry cooling mode, reducing maintenance (e.g., anti-freezing).

4. Solar thermal power plants

Background: Solar thermal power plants store heat through molten salt or heat transfer oil, and need to cool turbine exhaust when generating electricity, and are mostly built in light-rich but arid areas (e.g. deserts).

Advantages of adiabatic dry cooling:

During the high temperature season (summer temperature in desert area can be over 40℃), adiabatic pre-cooling can effectively reduce the air temperature, ensure the cooling efficiency of molten salt / thermal conductive oil, and maintain the stability of power generation;

Extremely low water consumption (only 5%-10% of wet cooling), which is suitable for water resource constraints in the desert area.