University of Engineering and

Technology Lahore
PROCESS HEAT TRANSFER LAB
ChE-209L
Instructor: Aamir Abbas

Cooling Tower
Outlines
❖Theoretical concepts
❖Equipment details
❖Experiments

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Cooling tower (Introduction)
❖Use of water in industries
❖Re-use and saving of water
❖What is cooling tower?
❖Simultaneous heat and mass transfer unit used to cool
water, how?
❖Why do we need cooling tower?
❖Why does not open pond cooling of water?

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Types of cooling towers (Natural draft vs Mechanical
draft and Cross flow vs counter flow cooling towers)

Please go through following links…

https://www.sugarprocesstech.com/cooling-tower-basics/ (Mandatory to read)

https://www.coolingtowerproducts.com/blog/how-cooling-towers-work-diagram-pictures-
2015.htm (Just for info...)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ab6Jb9noHU0 (Cross flow vs counter flow cooling towers)

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Cooling mechanism
❖Through heat transfer

❖Through mass transfer

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Concept of dry and wet bulb temperature
❖ Dry bulb temperature

❖ Wet bulb temperature

❖ Humidity

❖ Relative humidity

❖ Effect of humidity on evaporation

❖ Effect of ambient temperature on humidity

❖ Humidity chart
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Videos links (Similar equipment and experiments)
Cooling tower introduction (Please watch these in order)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzEHoMvzErY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZWMZ9cQYvI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWJCWDpY9is
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2Y1rneuWoM
Industrial cooling tower
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooWOaMpEcPo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dl2OqJNsYys
Cooling tower experiment
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTCzsoWk7Wo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THBYbl9WWXs 7
Summary/Conclusion
❖Cooling towers

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University of Engineering and
Technology Lahore
INDUSTRIAL STOICHIOMETRY-I
ChE-101
Instructor: Aamir Abbas

Humidity and Saturation

Outlines

❖Basic definitions related to humidity

❖Humidity chart

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 Sensible and Latent Heat
❖Sensible heat is the amount of heat that must be transferred to change (raise or lower) the
temperature of a substance. This is the heat involved when there is no phase change.

❖For example heat added to raise the temperature of water from 25 ºC to 100 ºC at 1 atm
pressure.

❖Latent heat is the amount of heat involved during phase change of a substance at constant
temperature and pressure.

❖E.g. Heat added to vaporize the water at 100 ºC and 1 atm is called latent heat of
vaporization.

❖Similarly heat removed to condense the water vapors to liquids is called latent heat of
condensation.
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 Humidity or moisture content
❖Humidity (Absolute or specific humidity) is the mass of water vapor per unit mass of
bone-dry air. This is kg H2O(v)/kg DA. It is also called moisture content.

❖For example, if the absolute humidity is 0.0150 kg H2O/kg DA, then for every
kilogram of dry air there is 0.015 kg of water vapor, for a total of 1.015 kg.

❖Some texts use moles of water vapor per mole of dry air as the humidity.

❖Normally, the amount of water present in the air is measured in terms of partial
pressure, but not in terms of weight.

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Relative Humidity
❖It is measured relative to partial pressure at saturation.

RH = (pH2O / p*H2O)100 [In your text equation is written as this one]

❖For example, Temperature is 25 ºC and the relative humidity is 60% mean

that with both the pH2O and the p*H2O being measured at 25 ºC.

❖Zero percent relative saturation means no vapor in the gas.

❖What does 100% relative saturation mean? It means that the partial pressure
of the vapor(water) in the gas(air) is the same as the vapor pressure of the
vapor at saturated condition.
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Humid volume
❖Therefore, amount of water vapor in moist air varies from zero in dry
air to a maximum, depending on the pressure and temperature, when
the mixture is saturated.

❖The humid volume is the volume occupied by 1 kg of dry air plus the
water vapor that accompanies it.

❖For example if absolute humidity is 0.0150 kg H2O/kg DA, humid

volume will be volume of 1 kg air and 0.015 kg water present in it.

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 Dry bulb and wet bulb temperature
❖Dry-bulb temperature (TDB): This is the ambient air temperature as measured by a
thermometer, thermocouple, or other conventional temperature-measuring
instrument.

❖Wet-bulb temperature (TWB) is the adiabatic saturation temperature measured using

wet bulb. In this case bulb of thermometer, over which air is passed, is covered in
water-soaked cloth or cotton.

❖The wet-bulb temperature of humid air depends on both the

dry-bulb temperature and the moisture content of the air.

If the air is saturated (100% relative humidity), no water

evaporates, and dry bulb and wet bulb temp are equal. 15
 Dew point and bubble point
❖For mixtures, there is a not a fix boiling or condensation temperatures due
to difference in the boiling or condensation point of each component. E.g.
water (B.T. 100 ºC), benzene (80 ºC) and toluene (110 ºC) mixture.

❖Dew Point: Temperature at which first vapor (in a mixture) is condensed is

called dew point.

❖Bubble point: Temperature at which first vapor is formed from liquid mixture.

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 Humidity chart or psychrometric chart
❖The humidity chart, more formally known as the psychrometric chart, relates
the various parameters involved in making combined material and energy
balances for moist air.

The term moist air refers to a mixture of

dry air and water vapor in which the dry
air is treated as if it were a pure
component.

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 Applications of the Humidity Chart
❖Quite a few industrial processes exist for which you can involve
the properties found on a humidity chart, including
1. Drying: Dry air enters and moist air leaves the process.
2. Humidification: Liquid water is vaporized into moist air.
3. Combustion: Moist air enters a process and additional water is
added to the moist air from the combustion products.
4. Air conditioning: Moist air is cooled.
5. Condensation: Moist air is cooled to the saturation temperature

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 Problem:
Using given humidity chart, find
moisture contents, % relative
humidity, specific volume and
enthalpy at 25 ºC dry bulb and
20 ºC wet bulb temperature.

Solution:
For given temps look for
intersection point on chart.

Moisture contents = 13 g H2O/g air

% RH = 67%
Specific volume = 0.86 m3/kg
Enthalpy = 57 kJ/kg

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Summary
❖Terms related to humidity
❖Humidity chart

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