Simulation and Economic Research of Circulating Cooling Water Waste Heat and Water Resource Recovery System

Industrial circulating cooling water contains a large amount of low-quality energy, which is lost to the environment through cooling towers. It is of great significance and potential to recover the waste heat to improve energy-saving effects and economic efficiency. However, the effect of common water harvesting and energy saving devices is not significant. Heat pumps have been shown to be effective in improving low-quality heat energy in energy conversion systems, although there are not many applications of heat pump scenarios in engineering practice. Based on this, a recovery solution of circulating cooling water waste heat and water resource using lithium bromide absorption heat pump has been put forward. The energy-saving performance of the recovery system was simulated and analyzed using Aspen Plus V10.0 (Bedford, MA, USA) to explore the effects of the parameters of the working medium in evaporators, condensers, absorbers, generators, heat exchangers, etc., and the modelling results indicated that the evaporation pressure and temperature have a great influence on the system COP (coefficient of performance) and can raise the thermal economy of the system. The heat from driving steam and heating capacity both increased with the increase in generating temperature, while the increase in temperature difference between evaporation and condensation inhibits the COP of heat pump systems. Furthermore, economic analyses and comparisons of the recovery solutions were conducted and the recovery solution of circulating cooling water waste heat with heat pump had the best economic performance due to the annual income from the recovery of waste heat and water resource. The static payback period results indicate that the recovery solution from circulating cooling water waste heat with a heat pump has better economic performance than the scenario with a cooling tower. The waste heat recovery solution with a heat pump can improve the thermal economy of the system and has a great guiding significance for engineering practice.