Issue with the outlet temperature of the methanol synthesis air cooler
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I have a question for everyone: in a combined air-cooling + water-cooling system, the temperature is generally designed to be 60 degrees after air cooling and 40 degrees after water cooling. In winter, there is a large surplus capacity in the air coolers; to save circulating water, is it feasible to use air cooling alone to reduce the temperature to 40 degrees (by turning off the circulating water for water cooling or setting it at a very low level)? What are the impacts? Thank you all.
This post was last edited by 51425572 on 2015-12-1 08:57. I agree with the opinion below; I only considered the temperature and forgot to take into account the heat load. After checking relevant design information, it turns out that air cooling accounts for over 90% of the total load. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- But doing this only reduces the consumption of your water cooler. I think it makes sense to stop the circulating water cooling tower and the circulating water pump as a whole; otherwise, the savings in consumption aren’t that significant.
In the air-cooled/liquid-cooled design, the load on the air cooler is generally much greater than that on the liquid cooler; the air cooler is used to cool gaseous methanol to induce phase change, while the liquid cooler is used to cool liquid methanol. In winter, the water cooler can be turned down as long as antifreeze is used to prevent the air cooler from over-cooling. The opinions from upstairs are also very useful for reference.
The air-cooling plus water-cooling approach could be modified to use both air cooling and water cooling; similar to evaporative cooling, it would allow for the suspension of water supply during winter