Water Collection Trough System

A cost-effective, highly efficacious trough assembly for collecting and removing drops with minimal air-side pressure drops for use in evaporative heat exchangers or cooling towers. The innovation reduces water consumption and required fan power. The elimination of a rain zone reduces the required pumping power. The system can be used in both wet-cooling towers and evaporative air-cooled heat exchangers.

Water drops falling under the influence of gravity from the fill of a cooling tower or from a tube bundle of an evaporative heat exchanger system impinge on inclined capture plates of the trough assembly, each capture plate having an associated trough into which water is directed.As there is usually air flow in the opposite direction, some water may become directed towards the back of a capture plate. Each capture plate further includes a deflection plate extending from an upper region thereof capable of intercepting such droplets.The deflection plate prevents water from contacting the back of the capture plate, and the water is directed into an adjacent trough or capture plate.

The effectiveness of the technology was demonstrated at a test facility.

The technology is protected by the following patents:

1. European Patent Nr. EP3069094 in France, Germany, and the United Kingdom;
2. South African Patent Nr. 2016/03207;

Prof H.C.R. Reuter,Associate Professor, Department of Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering, Stellenbosch University

Prof D.G. Kröger, Emeritus Professor and Senior Researcher, Department of Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering, Stellenbosch University