Geothermal Water Cooling Systems in Tunisia - Design and Practice

Abstract

Southern Tunisia is better known for its direct use of geothermal water in agriculture and domestic ends. The temperature of the geothermal water exhausting from the boreholes is quite high for its use in irrigation purposes, water temperatures range from 45 to 70?C. This is the reason to use cooling towers, widely practiced all over the region. Inefficiencies in the cooling process of these towers are noticed that result in a low thermal efficiency of the heat-exchanger surfaces with insufficient ventilation, excessive consumption in energy, presence of layers of sediment, proliferation of algae, corrosion problems, and important steam and heat loss release in the atmosphere. Careful and accurate analyses of cooling tower designs are desirable to develop rationally the concept of an optimized cooling geothermal water system convenient for irrigation purposes in South Tunisia conditions.
In this paper we describe and identify the main different cooling systems designs used in the south of Tunisia and we investigate factors relevant to the implementation of geothermal water-cooling systems including economical consideration, technical and operational appropriateness