Cooling tower evaporation

Definition

The portion of recirculating water that evaporates in the tower to reject heat, fixed by the heat load and unavoidable.

Each pound that evaporates removes roughly 1,000 BTU per pound of latent heat, so a given heat load requires a corresponding evaporation rate. Evaporation is the first key idea of the tower mass balance and cannot be reduced without reducing the load. It can be estimated either from the heat load (E equals Q divided by hfg) or from recirculation rate and range with an evaporation factor.

Related concepts

Evaporation factor · Latent Heat of Vaporization · Range (cooling tower)

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Part of The Blueprint of Water · 🛠️ operations