The present paper determined the water recovery potential of a scaled crossflow cooling tower, where finned thermosyphons were used to drive heat from the hot, moist air flowing through the cooling tower toward the ambient. This process, which uses the tower’s outer environment as a heat sink, partially condenses the water vapor present in the flowing air, creating an entirely passive water recovery system, hence reducing the water expenditure, a known problem in cooling towers. To mimic real operational conditions as closely as possible, the tests were carried out outdoors with the thermosyphon-assisted cooling tower subjected to real atmospheric conditions. In addition to the tests, an analytical model, which was based on the tower’s operational and atmospheric conditions, was also implemented, with the objective of estimating the water recovery potential of the thermosyphon-assisted cooling tower. The theoretical model suggests a water recovery rate potential above 50%, whereas the nonoptimized setup had recovered, on average, 4% of the water vapor present in the moist air flowing through the tower.

本文确定了规模化横流式冷却塔的水回收潜力，在该塔中，翅片式热虹吸管用于将热量从流过冷却塔的潮湿湿空气带向周围环境。该过程将塔的外部环境用作散热器，该过程会部分冷凝流动的空气中存在的水蒸气，从而形成完全被动的水回收系统，从而减少水的消耗，这是冷却塔中的一个已知问题。为了尽可能地模拟真实的运行条件，在室外使用热虹吸辅助冷却塔在真实的大气条件下进行了测试。除了测试之外，还基于塔的运行和大气条件实施了分析模型，目的是估算热虹吸辅助冷却塔的水回收潜力。理论模型表明，水回收率潜力超过50％，而未优化的装置平均回收了流经塔的潮湿空气中存在的4％的水蒸气。