Cooling water systems: Efficiency vis-à-vis environment

Abstract

Human beings use water for different purposes. Among the various uses, industrial use is by far the largest single class of use, especially so in developed countries. Among the various industries, power generation industry ranks as the largest user of water, where water is used mostly as a cooling fluid. A large 2,000 MWe direct cooled plant requires about four million cubic metres of water daily for cooling. This huge requirement is met from a suitable source such as river, lake or coastal sea and returned, fully or partially, depending on the type of the cooling water circuit. Therefore, it must be borne in mind that this water is not consumed in the process; it is simply abstracted and then returned to the source water body.