Exergy transfer and parametric study of counter flow wet cooling towers

A thermodynamic analysis of the counter flow wet cooling tower (CWCT) is performed in this paper. Both energy and exergy formulations are developed and validated for the system. Four types of exergy transfer processes occurring inside the CWCT are investigated schematically. A parametric study is conducted under various operating conditions in order to investigate the effects of thermal efficiency and water-to-air ratio on the exergy performance of the CWCT. Unlike past studies, the transiting exergy contained in the inlet and outlet water is not considered. It is found that the exergy efficiency is always less than 25%. The exergy parameters including evaporation water loss, exergy efficiency, exergy input, internal and external exergy losses are very sensitive to the thermal efficiency when it is very close to 1.0 at lower water-to-air ratios.