CHAPTER 17 DIRECT-CONTACT TRANSFER: COOLING TOWERS Introduction, In all preceding chapters the hot and cold fluids were separated by impervious surfaces. In tubular equipment, the tube limits the intimscy of contact between the hot and cold fluids and also serves as.a surface upon which resistances aoctimulate as fouling and scale films, In order that a turbulent fluid in a tube may receive heat, par- ticles in the eddying fluid body must contact a warm film at the tube wall, take in heat by conduotion, and then mix with the eddying uid body. A similar process occurs on the shell side, and the net heat exchange may occur through as many as seven individual resistances. ‘One of the principal reasons for employing tubes is to prevent the contamination of the hot fuid by the cold fluid. When one of the Buida is a gas and the other a liquid, an impervious surface is often unneces- sary, since there may be no problem of mutual contamination, the gas and liquid being readily separable after mixing and exchanging heat. Fouling resistances are automatically eliminated by the ebsence of a sur~ face on which they ean collect and permit a direct-contact apparatus to operate indefinitely with uniform thermal performance. The greater intimacy of the direct contact generally permits the attainment of greater heat-transfer coefficients than are usual in tubular equipment. Perhaps the outstanding application of an apparatus operating with a direct contact between gas and a liquid is the cooling tower, Tt is usually boxlike redwood structure with redwood internals. Cooling towers are employed to contact hot water coming from process cooling systems with air for the purpose of cooling the water and allowing its reuse in a process: ‘The function of the wooden internals, or fil, is to increase the contact surface betwoen the air and the water. A cooling tower ordinarily reduces the fresh cooling-water requirement by about 98 per cent, although there is some mutual contamination caused by the auturation of the air with water vapor. "The prospective use for direot-contact equipment in other services requiring rapid rates of heat transfer is perhaps greater than for any other type of host-transfer apparatus, Although applied now almost excla- sively to the humidification of air or the oooting of water, the principles of direct-contact heat transfer may be applied to the cooling or heating of 08564 PROCESS HEAT TRANSFER other insoluble gases or liquids, ‘This is especially true inthe coating of gases over long temperature ranges. The jet condenser referred to in Chap. 14 is also an example of direct contact as applied to condensation in which a large heat losd may be condensed in an spparatus of small volume. A modification of the same principle might readily be applied to the condensation of organie vapors by a spray of water and partieu- larly to the problem of eondensing an oil vapor in the presence of a non- condensable gas. Future developments may well be anticipated for tho recovery of atomie energy in commercial fission processes, in jet pro- pulsion, and in gue-turbine eyeles. ‘This chapter treats the theory and Aevelops the principal caleulations applicable to direct-contact, eat transfer. Diffusion. If dry air at constant temperature is saturated by water at the same temperature in a diret-contact apparatus, the water vapor entering the air carries with it ite latent heat of vaporization. ‘The humidity of the sir-water-vapor mixture increases during saturation because the vapor pressure of water out of the liquid is greater than it is in the unsaturated air and vaporization is the result. When the vapor pressure of water in the air equals that of the iquig, the air is saturated and. vaporiaation ceases. ‘The temperature of tho water can be kept constant during ai saturation if heat is supplied to it to replace that lst from it to the gus a latent heat of vaporization. Clearly, then, the heat ‘transfer during the saturation of a ges with a liquid ean be made to pro- ceed without o temperature differenco, although such limitation is rarely encountered. It is seen, however, that there is « fundamental ifferoncesbetwoen this type of heat transfer and conduction, convection, or radiation, ‘When movement of material is promoted between two phases by & ‘vapor pressure (or concentration) difference, itis difusion and is charac- terized by the fact that material is transferred from ono phase to another cor betwoen both phases. ‘This behavior is called mast or material tranefer to set it apart from the ordinary concepts of heat transfer. While the phase-rule definitions apply to systems st equilibrium, if » phaso is not homogeneous, self-difusion may occur as the phase approaches homogeneity. For the condensation of a vapor in the presenee of a noncondensable tas it was expedient in Chap. 13 to introduce Colbur’s analogy between heat transfer and mase transfer. This in turn was compared with Reynold’s analogy between heat transfer and fluid friction as discussed in Chap, 3. The Reynold’s analogy holds more closely for heat transfer and fluid fection than do the Colburn and other analogies for heat trans- fer and mass transfer, Tn the condensation of a vapor from a noncon-DIRECT-CONTACT TRANSFER: COOLING TOWERS 505 densable gas an inert film near the tube wall retards the condensable vapor from reaching the condensate film at the tube wall. ‘The rate a ‘which the vapor passes through the inert film is a function of the pressure of the vapor in the gas body and in the condensate film adjoining the tube wall and follows the mechanism of diffusion. Several of the illustrative examples solved in this chapter can be under- stood without a thorough background in the theory of diffusion, but the advantages of good foundation are evident. ‘The elements of simple diffusion ate presented here in abbreviated form, drawing, wherever pos- sible, upon the similarity of diffusion to convection heat transfer. Exoel- lent treatments of the subject may be found in Sherwood! and Perry?, Diffusion Theory. Diffusion involves the passage of one fluid through another. Consider gas, such as sir, containing o small amount of avetono vapor which is soluble in water hile the sir may be considered insu 4" 321 ble in water, Suppose the air-acetone | 44 fe ic mninture is fed tora tomer whith has 0% nin, de, fresh water flowing continuously down its walls so that any acetone molecules which might bound into the water are removed by itfrom the gasbody. How fast will acetone molecules be removed from tho gas body? ‘An idealized picture of the problem is shown in Fig. 17.1. Tt may be assumed that a relatively slegnant air film forms at the liquid surface owing to the loss of momentum of the air molecules striking the liquid film and being dragged along by it. This is represented botiveen 1-1 and 22%. The liquid film may slso be considered relatively stagnant compared with the air body. This is the basis ofthe “‘two-film”” theory. Te may be conceded, because of the mutual solubility of acetone in water, that the rate at which acetone molecules ean pass through the liquid film is exovedingly great. ‘Thus the acetone molecules in the air film which arrive at the liquid film are depleted so rapidly by solution in the liquid film that the concentration of acetone molecules in the air film ia less than itis in the gas body. ‘This establishes pressure or concentration 1 Sherwood, T. K., “Absorption and Extraction,” McGraw-Hill Book Company, Ine, New York, 1997 "Perry, J. Ha “Chemical Engineer’ Handbook,” doi, Se. 8, pp. 529-889, A P Colburn aad R'E, Pigford, MeGraw-Hill Book Company. Tas, New York. 1980. Gorm y ro, 17.3, Fim theory showing peine ‘abut reictanex.