What are the advantages of air cooler compared with water cooler?

Air cooler is a kind of heat exchange equipment widely used in petrochemical production plant. In the traditional industrial cooling system, water as the ideal cooling medium, has been widely used for a long time, but with the lack of water resources and energy and the strengthening of environmental awareness, the traditional water cooler has been seriously challenged. So which is better than the air cooler and the water cooler?

Advantages of air cooler compared with water cooler:

1, the air cooler has no thermal pollution and chemical pollution to the environment, especially for water shortage areas, and water cooling is more serious environmental pollution;

2, air cooler air cooling system maintenance costs are low, generally only 20 to 30% of the water cooling system;

3, the choice of air cooler is not restricted, and water cooling, especially in some larger factories, should have sufficient water;

4, the air is less corrosive, does not need scaling and cleaning, long service life, relatively corrosive water, need to be timely treatment to prevent scaling and dirt deposition;

5, the pressure drop of air is only 10-20 mm, the operating cost is low, the circulating water pressure head is high, and the water cooling energy consumption is relatively high;

6, after the air cooler fan power supply is blocked, there is 30%-40% natural cooling ability, and once the water cooler power supply is blocked, it must be completely discontinued.

At the same time, compared with the air cooler, the water cooler also has its relative advantages:

1, the water cooler can generally cool the process fluid to 2-6 ° C lower than the air, the circulating water can be cooled to close to the ambient wet bulb temperature (usually can reach the wet bulb temperature +4 ° C, lower than the ambient temperature 2-6 ° C), and the air cooler because of pure convection heat transfer, taking into account the end difference, generally can only cool the process fluid to the ambient temperature +2 ° C;

2, the water cooler is not sensitive to changes in ambient temperature, air cooling will be affected by atmospheric temperature, and even wind, rain, sunlight and seasonal changes will affect the effect of air cooling;

3, the water cooler can be set between other equipment, air cooling can not be close to large obstacles;

4, the water cooler structure is compact, cooling area is smaller than the air cooler;

5, water cooling noise is low, air cooling noise is high;

6, water cooling energy consumption is low, air cooling energy consumption is relatively high.

Source: Chemical industry Talk