Reduction of water consumption for heating plant cooling with an indirect cooling system

Abstract

Abstract In order to combat drought, many industrial companies are taking austerity measures in their water management. They are driven not only by economic reasons but also by tightening legislation (Ministry of the Environment of the Czech Republic 2001), directly prohibiting the extraction of water from the environment when a drought is declared. The article deals with the case of a company that operates a heating plant for an industrial zone and the adjacent town. The water source is a river 2.5 km away. In the event of a drought, the company is affected by a ban on river-water extraction, which has a direct impact on the operation of the heating plant and the entire industrial zone, with the current heating-plant cooling system consuming up to 60% of the industrial water. Previous studies have shown the impossibility of installing a dry or hybrid cooling system in the area. A possible economical option is closed-loop cooling. Most of the cooling water is lost by evaporation, the rest by surface blowdown, neither of which occurs in a closed circuit. This paper deals with an alternative closed cooling system using a river and its design parameter calculation, including a comparison of the different options for pipe location and routing.