Estudo experimental de um condensador evaporativo

Abstract

The industrial sector plays a crucial role in the economy, accounting for a significant share of electricity consumption in Brazil. With the growing concern for sustainability, industries seek more efficient and environmentally friendly solutions, facing challenges to optimize processes and reduce environmental impacts. Evaporative condensers emerge as a technology capable of improving energy efficiency and reducing the operational costs of industrial refrigeration systems. In this context, the main objective of this work was to develop an evaporative condenser from the modification of a split-type air conditioner and conduct experiments to collect essential data such as system operating temperatures, water flow rate, rejected heat, and effectiveness. This process included the 3D design of components, the construction of the evaporative condenser, its instrumentation, and a thermodynamic analysis to calculate the heat rejected and the system effectiveness. The results showed that, in the configuration without water spraying, the average rejected heat was 8.78 kW. In the experiments with water spraying, due to experimental limitations, it was not possible to establish a direct relationship between the heat rejection rate and effectiveness as a function of water flow rate; however, an average increase in effectiveness to 95.07% was observed, compared to 38.74% in the dry condition. These results demonstrate that modifying an air-cooled condenser into an evaporative condenser can significantly increase the thermal effectiveness of the system.