A novel two-stage evaporative cooling tower for dry ambient air conditions is described along with initial performance analysis results. A heat recovery system is utilized between the cooling tower discharge and intake to pre-cool warm and dry entering air to reduce its wet bulb temperature, dropping the theoretical cold water temperature limit to the ambient dew point. For given ambient conditions, performance can be engineered through a combination of cooling tower component sizing and heat recovery effectiveness. Initial performance modeling predicts potential cold water temperatures well below ambient wet bulb. When operated to duplicate conventional cooling tower output for a given application, fan power savings of more than 50% can be achieved along with water consumption savings of more than 30%. If the enhanced cooling tower is operated as an evaporative chiller to displace refrigeration equipment, cooling energy savings can range from 50% to more than 75%.
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