Economic Analysis Based on Energy and Water Consumptions between Air-Cooling and Water-Cooling

Cooling process is one of the most common processes in industries. There are two basic types of cooling systems, including air-cooling and water-cooling systems. Whichever is adopted, obviously energy and water consumptions should be needed. With the rapid development of social economy in China, energy-saving and emission-reduction, as well as process water conservation, become focus issues. Considering performance and economy of energy and water has reference value for reasonable choice of cooling type. In this paper, the cooling range from 95 oC to 35 oC is considered. For dry air cooler, spray type air cooler, evaporative air cooler, and open style circulating water cooling systems, energy and water consumptions are calculated and compared under different dry bulb temperature and relative humidity conditions. Besides, under different price radio of fresh water and industrial electricity, economic analysis is performed to determine the reasonable cooling type.