device for cooling liquid and condensation of fundamental media by air

摘要

An installation for changing the temperature of fluid media has a gas-liquid contacting arrangement and an indirect heat-exchange arrangement. The gas-liquid contacting arrangement is made up of a chamber and a device inside the chamber through which liquid may flow to be converted into the form of a spray. A collecting vessel at the bottom of the chamber collects the liquid which passes through the spray device. The wall of the chamber is provided with openings for the admission of a gas into the chamber and louvers may be provided for regulating the flow of gas into the chamber. The indirect heat-exchange arrangement is made up of two portions which are located at a level above that of the spray device and which extend upwardly and outwardly from the vicinity of the wall of the chamber. Each of the heat-exchange portions is constituted by a plurality of parallel conduits provided with fins. Where the installation is used for cooling purposes, the heat-exchange portions may serve as condensers. The heat-exchange medium used for the heat-exchange portions is a gas. An inflow passage for this gas, as well as the gas which is to flow into the chamber, is provided below the heat-exchange portions and is in part defined by the wall of the chamber and either an end wall of the installation or the wall of an adjacent chamber. A ventilator arranged directly above the chamber produces a suction which draws gas through the chamber and by the heat-exchange portions, thereafter mixes the streams of gas and vents the gas to the atmosphere. The installation is particularly useful for the cooling of a liquid and the condensation of a vapor using air as a cooling medium. More than one contacting arrangement and heat-exchange arrangement may be provided. In such an event, adjacent heat-exchange portions may cooperate to define a heat exchanger of inverted V-shape. A ventilator is located above each chamber and at a level above the apex of the inverted V-shape heat exchanger. A particularly useful construction is obtained when such an inverted V-shape heat exchanger is located between each pair of gas-liquid contacting arrangements.