Views: 1 Author: Site Editor Publish Time: 2025-08-07 Origin: Site
Steam turbine power plants operate on the Rankine cycle:
Fuel (coal, uranium, etc.) heats water in a boiler to produce high-pressure, high-temperature steam (e.g., 500–600°C, 150–300 bar).
This steam drives the steam turbine, which spins a generator to produce electricity.
After passing through the turbine, the steam exits as low-pressure, low-temperature exhaust (e.g., 40–60°C, 0.05–0.1 bar) and must be condensed back into water to reuse in the boiler, completing the cycle.
Dry coolers enable this condensation using ambient air instead of water, making them indispensable in water-scarce regions (e.g., deserts, arid plains) where wet cooling (reliant on water evaporation) is impractical.
In steam turbine power plants (e.g., coal-fired, nuclear, or biomass plants), dry coolers (also called dry cooling systems) serve as critical heat rejection equipment, replacing water-intensive wet cooling towers to condense low-pressure steam exiting the steam turbine. Their design is tailored to the unique demands of steam cycles, where efficient condensation of turbine exhaust steam directly impacts plant efficiency and water usage.
