Please read the abstract in the section 00front of this document / Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Microbiology and Plant Pathology / unrestricted

Cooling water systems are generally designed with a set of heat exchangers arranged in parallel. This arrangement results in higher cooling water flowrate and low cooling water return temperature thus reducing cooling tower efficiency. Previous research on cooling water systems has focused mainly on heat exchanger network thus excluding the interaction between heat exchanger network and the cooling towers. The studies completed on cooling water system in which the interaction between the cooling tower and the heat exchanger network was taken into consideration were limited to systems with single cooling tower. The main aim of this study was to develop a design methodology for synthesis and optimization of cooling water systems with multiple cooling towers. The design intends to debottleneck the cooling towers by reducing the circulating water flowrate. The study focuses mainly on cooling systems consisting of multiple cooling towers that supply a common set of heat exchangers. In this work the mathematical optimization technique was developed for optimization and synthesis of cooling water system. The heat exchanger network was synthesized using the mathematical optimization technique. This technique is based on superstructure in which all opportunities for cooling water reuse are explored. The cooling tower model was used to predict the thermal performance of the cooling towers while taking the thermal conditions of the associated heat exchanger network into account. The propose technique debotlleneck the cooling towers by decreasing the circulating water flowrate. This implies that a given set of cooling towers can manage an increased heat load. From the case studies, 22% decrease in circulating water flowrate was realized. The blowdown and makeup were also decreased by 7%. Furthermore, the cooling tower effectiveness was also improved by 4%. A decrease in the overall circulation water has an added benefit of decreasing the overall power consumption of the circulating pumps. There is also a potential for the reduction of makeup and blowdown water flowrate. / Dissertation (MEng)--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Chemical Engineering / unrestricted

Cooling water systems are used to remove excess heat from a chemical process to the atmosphere. The primary components of these systems are the cooling tower and the heat exchanger network. There is a strong interaction between these individual components, thus their performances are interrelated. Most published research in this area has focused mainly on optimization of the individual components i.e. optimization of heat exchanger network or optimization of the cooling towers. This approach does not optimize the cooling water system as a whole. Previous research work in which a holistic approach was used is limited to cooling water systems with single cooling water source. This work presents a technique for integrated optimization of complex cooling water systems. The system under consideration consists of multiple cooling towers each supplying a set of heat exchangers. A superstructural approach is employed to explore all possible combinations between the heat exchangers and the cooling towers. The cooling water reuse opportunities within the heat exchanger networks are also explored. A detailed mathematical model consisting of the cooling towers and the heat exchanger networks model is developed. Two practical scenarios are considered and the mathematical formulations for Case I and II yield nonlinear programing (NLP) and mixed integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) structure respectively. Although the reuse/recycle philosophy offers a good debottlenecking opportunity, the topology of the associated cooling water network is more complex, hence prone to higher pressure drop than the conventional parallel design. This is due to an increased network pressure drop associated with additional reuse/recycle streams. Therefore, it is essential to consider pressure drop during the synthesis of cooling water networks where the reuse/recycle philosophy is employed. The on-going research in this area is only limited to cooling water networks consisting of a single cooling water source. The common technique used is mathematical optimization using either superstructural or non superstructural approach. This work further presents a mathematical technique for pressure drop optimization in cooling water systems consisting of multiple cooling towers. The proposed technique is based on the Critical Path Algorithm and the superstructural approach. The Critical Path Algorithm is used to select the cooling water network with minimum pressure drop whilst the superstructural approach allows for cooling water reuse. The technique which was previously used in a cooling water network with single source is modified and applied in a cooling water network with multiple sources. The mathematical formulation is developed considering two cases. Both cases yield mixed integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) models. The cooling tower model is also used to predict the exit condition of the cooling tower given the inlet conditions from the cooling water network model. The results show up to 29% decrease in total circulating cooling water flowrate when the cooling water system is debottlenecked without considering pressure drop. Consequently, the overall cooling towers effectiveness was improved by up to 5%. When considering pressure drop the results showed up to 26% decrease in total circulating water flowrate. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / gm2013 / Chemical Engineering / unrestricted