Utilizing Reversed Brayton Cycle for Enhanced Cooling Tower Technology

Abstract

This study demonstrates an enhanced cooling tower technology (ECTT) under which the ambient air is precooled and dehumidified to improve the cooling tower efficiency. The reverse Brayton cycle, comprising a compressor, an air cooler, an expander, and a heat and mass exchanger, is used to precondition the ambient air before entering the cooling tower. A plant-scale thermodynamic model is constructed for ECTT, and the system parameters are optimized through genetic algorithm based on the maximum power gained from the system, including the effects of reducing the makeup water for the cooling tower. Compared to conventional cooling towers, the ECTT achieved sub-wet bulb cooling of water, which is 9.5 °C below the wet bulb temperature of ambient air, reduces steam condensation temperature by 34%, and increases steam turbine power output by 4.3%. It also reduces evaporative losses in the cooling tower and reduces the makeup water by 36%. With cooling tower exhaust recirculated in a closed loop, makeup water requirements are further reduced with additional gains in power output.

Acknowledgments

The operational data for the 650 MW power plant from Worley Parsons Inc. is acknowledged.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by a grant from the National Energy Technology Laboratory (DE-FE0031833) through the Gas Technology Institute (GTI) as the prime contractor. This financial support is gratefully acknowledged.

Notes on contributors

Avijit Karmakar

Avijit Karmakar received his B.E. in Mechanical Engineering from Bengal Engineering and Science University in 2013, M.Tech from Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, in 2015, and Ph.D. from Illinois Institute of Technology in 2021. He currently works as a Post-Doctoral Research Associate at the Energy and Transport Sciences Laboratory of Purdue University. His research focuses on optimizing thermal system design and analytics through multiphysics simulations, including phase change materials, falling film heat exchangers, power plant system components, and energy storage systems.

Basile C. Salomon

Basile C. Salomon received his M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology in 2023 and a French Engineer Diploma – Master of Engineering in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from École Nationale Supérieure de Mécanique et d‘Aérotechnique (ISAE-ENSMA) in France. His research activities comprised modeling and optimizing cooling tower systems using physics-based and neural-network-based models.

Sumanta Acharya

Sumanta Acharya received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Minnesota and an undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (Kharagpur). He is currently a Professor of Mechanical, Materials, and Aerospace Engineering at the Illinois Institute of Technology and the Thermal Transport Program Director at the National Science Foundation (NSF). He also served as the NSF Program Director of the Thermal Transport Program from 2010 to 2014. His academic career before 2014 was at Louisiana State University (LSU), where he was the L. R. Daniel Professor and the Fritz & Francis Blumer Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering (ME). He was the founding Director (in 2003) of the Center for Turbine Innovation and Energy Research (TIER), which focused on energy generation and propulsion research. His research activities are centered around computational and experimental heat transfer, fluid mechanics, and combustion, with an application focus on gas turbines and heat exchangers. His scholarly contributions include mentoring nearly 85 post-doctoral researchers and graduate students, publishing nearly 200 refereed journal articles and book chapters, and over 230 refereed conference/proceedings papers.

Aleksandr Kozlov

Aleksandr Kozlov received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering in 1985 and Sc.D. in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering in 1995, both from Kazan State Technical University, Russia. He is currently a Senior Engineer at Gas Technology Institute Energy. He has over 35 years of basic and applied research and engineering experience in rocket engines, power generation, heat transfer, combustion, and cooling systems. He has authored over 150 publications, including four books.

Yaroslav Chudnovsky

Yaroslav Chudnovsky earned Ph.D. in Thermal Sciences (1990), M.S. in Cryogenic Engineering (1982), and B.S. in Mechanical Engineering (1980), all from Bauman Tech University. He is currently a Senior Technology Manager at the Industrial Efficiency and Decarbonization Office (IEDO). He has over 35 years of combined fundamental and applied research and engineering experience in heat transfer, fluid flow, advanced combustion, waste heat recovery, power generation, energy efficiency, and environmental technologies. Before joining the U.S. Department of Energy, he spent over 25 years in different capacities at Gas Technology Institute Energy, developing and delivering impactful, innovative solutions and transformational technologies for energy markets worldwide. He is an ASME Fellow, recipient of multiple professional awards, and author (co-author) of over 200 professional publications, including books, archival articles, conference proceedings, technical reports, and patents.