Autonomous modular element of an evaportaive heat exchanger

Abstract

Autonomous modular element (10) of an evaporative heat exchanger for cooling a heat transfer fluid, comprising at least one pipe bundle (16) in which the heat transfer fluid flows, at least one system (23) for spraying the cooling fluid and a plurality of interconnectors (30) which are provided with valves and / or physical connection systems, so that the autonomous modular element (10) is configured to be used either as an autonomous evaporative heat exchanger or, connected to other autonomous modular elements, to be able to create a multi-module evaporative heat exchanger (20) capable of varying its cooling capacity in a versatile manner.

Description

[0001] “AUTONOMOUS MODULAR ELEMENT OF AN EVAPORTAIVE HEAT EXCHANGER”

[0002] FIELD OF THE INVENTION

[0003] The present invention concerns an autonomous modular element of an evaporative heat exchanger, for example an evaporative tower, and an evaporative heat exchanger comprising one or more autonomous modular elements.

[0004] The modular element and evaporative heat exchanger can be used to cool a process fluid, for example water from an industrial process, or any single-phase (liquid) or two-phase (insoluble mixture, phase-change systems, condensing systems) fluid, preferably closed cycle. The modular element and the evaporative heat exchanger can also be used as an alternative to adiabatic dry coolers or suchlike.

[0005] By way of a non-limiting example, the following description will refer to an evaporative tower.

[0006] BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0007] Industrial plants often produce heat that has to be disposed of to allow the process to operate optimally. Consider, for example, electric or endothermic motors, mechanical drives, chemical processes, endogenous loads inside environments (cells at a lower temperature than atmospheric temperature) and more. If the heat cannot be advantageously recovered because, for example, it is of low quality (low thermal level) or because of a lack of users, it has to be disposed of to allow for a proper and stable operation of the process. These plants are therefore equipped with fluid cooling systems (for example water, or water to which emulsifiers, antioxidants or other low-viscosity fluids or synthetic or natural coolants in a state of saturated vapor or superheated vapor in condensation phase, are added), which through heat exchangers allow to transfer the heat generated by the plant process to the external environment (air, water, soil). The fluid used for this transfer (hereafter referred to as “heat transfer fluid”) is conveyed toward the chosen cooling plant.

[0008] Among the various plants usable to cool these heat transfer fluids are evaporative towers, or evaporation towers, or cooling towers. These plants can be open circuit (in which the heat transfer fluid is in contact with the cooling fluid) or closed circuit (in which the heat transfer fluid flows in closed channelings, which are cooled by means of various methods by a cooling fluid; this approach allows to avoid contamination of the heat transfer fluid by the external atmosphere). The present invention concerns closed circuit evaporative towers.

[0009] Evaporative towers mostly exploit the latent heat of evaporation of the cooling fluid (usually water) to decrease the temperature of the heat transfer fluid and / or change its phase from gas to liquid (in the case of heat transfer fluids) in condensation. In more detail, in these plants the coolant (or cooling fluid, generally water), at ambient temperature, is brought into contact with a channeling inside which the heat transfer fluid flows, which generally has temperatures varying between 60 and 40 °C, by means of spraying systems similar to showers disposed above the channelings which, by gravity, abundantly flood the hot pipe bundles below. The water thus heated evaporates, subtracting heat (both as sensible heat and also, to a much greater extent, as latent heat of evaporation) from the heat transfer fluid present inside the channelings. The heat transfer fluid is then recirculated toward the plant of origin to restart the cycle.

[0010] The channelings are generally organized into pipe bundles, with typically coilshaped geometrical arrangements, or in any case disposed so as to form a pack of pipes having typically parallelepiped shapes, or suchlike, with even considerable spaces between one pipe and the other to allow the water to percolate through the pack.

[0011] The cooling water thus evaporated is expelled from the system in the form of water vapor, and dispersed into the atmosphere, and can therefore no longer be reused. To improve the efficiency of the heat extraction, this steam is extracted by means of special fans, driven by electric motors (forced ventilation systems), which draw ambient air from outside the tower and convey it inside it, and then expel it again toward the outside, saturated with steam of the cooling fluid (typically water vapor). The higher the extraction flow, the more effective the subtraction of heat from the heat transfer fluid, since the extracted air accelerates the evaporation of the cooling water (and thus the acquisition of latent heat by the water molecules at the expense of the surrounding environment, which is cooled more effectively).

[0012] To quantify the heat exchange in an evaporative tower, ambient temperature at the so-called wet-bulb level is used as a reference, that is, measured in the presence of water on the thermometer bulb (which is thus affected by the cooling caused by the evaporation of the water); this situation is exactly what occurs in an evaporative tower on the external surface of the channeling that contains the fluid to be cooled. The wet-bulb temperature is on average lower than the so-called dry-bulb temperature, that is, the ambient temperature in the absence of water condensation, by about 6-8 °C. If necessary, an evaporative tower is therefore able to cool the heat transfer fluid (the one contained in the channelings) to a temperature even lower than ambient temperature (dry-bulb). From this cooling mechanism it follows that the more the air in which the device is operated is humid, the lower the cooling capacity of the device will be, since high environmental humidity leads to a lower evaporation rate of the cooling water, that is, a lower quantity of latent heat removed from the environment.

[0013] To speed up the cooling, current evaporative towers use large volumes of water, which is sprayed onto the aforementioned channelings packed excessively with respect to the amount of water actually evaporated following contact with the hot channeling. The sprayed and non-evaporated water then ends up, by gravity, in collection tanks located below the pipe bundles in which the heat transfer fluid flows. These tanks are generally very large, because, as mentioned, the amount of cooling water significantly exceeds the amount actually evaporated, and are exposed to the outside atmosphere. The water collected in the tanks has to then necessarily be recirculated to limit its consumption: however, direct contact with air and the outdoor environment degrades its quality due to the presence of dust, pollen, leaves, insects, and debris in general. The use of filters and the periodic total flushing of the water are therefore necessary to avoid the blockage of the hydraulic circuits, and consequently the malfunction or interruption of the spraying of the cooling water, or the early fouling of the exchanger. Last but not least, from both a technical as well as financial point of view, is the fact that current devices are sized so as to have a defined and constant cooling power (net of changing environmental conditions, or of changing humidity and atmospheric temperature). In other words, each current evaporative tower is built having a precise and fixed cooling power, not modifiable except by altering the structure of the machine, with consequent economic, production and time commitments. This leads to the disadvantage that, when there are conditions of increased or decreased demand for cooling power by the utility, these towers continue to work constantly, that is, very far from the best efficiency point required, thus leading to insufficient cooling performances or further waste of cooling water.

[0014] Heat exchange systems such as evaporative towers or suchlike are described for example in US2019 / 072332A1, US2011 / 100593A1, KR100931272B1 and US 11504814B2.

[0015] The main problems of known evaporative towers, currently unresolved, are summarized as follows:

[0016] 1) fixed sizing of the plants for a specific cooling power, with no modularity: once the cooling apparatus has been constructed, it will always operate at the same cooling power, without being able to adapt to variations in the demand for cooling power by the utility served. This means that the plant cannot cope with increased demand for cooling, or to decrease its performance if it this not required (a situation in which, in practice, there is a waste of cooling water, resulting in economic and environmental costs);

[0017] 2) extremely high water use when compared to the amount of water actually evaporated, and in the order of thousands of liters / hour, even for relatively small units and even in the presence of effective water recirculation systems;

[0018] 3) the use of large quantities of cooling water, much of which remains in the liquid state, requires the construction of large collection tanks at the base of the towers. The water contained in these tanks, exposed to the external atmosphere, although recirculated in the cooling system, is not always in motion, on the contrary it is often stagnant. This body of water acts as a very favorable place both for the reproduction of mosquitoes, with the problems this entails, even related to health (we remind that many diseases are carried by mosquitoes, such as malaria, dengue fever and others), and also for the growth and spread of microorganisms also carriable by the microscopic droplets of water expelled from the fans, such as Legionella for example, the epidemics of which are known to be promoted precisely by the presence of evaporative towers;

[0019] 4) as climate change advances, resulting in drought phenomena, and in general in regions characterized by water scarcity, such as those in the Middle East for example, the high consumption of cooling water (generally taken from groundwater, rivers or lakes) represents both an environmental and also an economic problem;

[0020] 5) the large masses of water necessary for cooling have to be continuously recirculated when the apparatus is in operation, leading to high electrical consumption associated with the recirculation pumps;

[0021] 6) the forced ventilation systems used to convey the high volumes of air needed to increase the cooling water’s evaporation rate require high electrical consumption. In fact, the geometry of the heat exchange pack of a traditional evaporative tower, characterized by numerous rows of coils exposed to the flow of cooling air, creates considerable fluid dynamic pressure losses in the air flow; others are added to these, deriving from the action of the percolating water, which moves by gravity in the opposite direction (from top to bottom) to the flow of cooling air. These considerable fluid dynamic pressure losses are currently compensated through the suction of considerable volumes of air operated by the forced ventilation systems, with a consequent increase in energy consumption;

[0022] 7) the presence of dust, debris, leaves and other solid bodies that accumulate at the bottom of the collection tanks, exposed to the external atmosphere, requires frequent, and often expensive, maintenance interventions to prevent any blockages and malfunctions of the cooling water hydraulic recirculation circuit;

[0023] 8) the large volumes of cooling water used, and the poor specific efficiency of current evaporative towers lead to having plants of rather large sizes, with the consequent costs in terms of materials to be used and infrastructure (collection tanks, basements, support structures) to be made, as well as the physical impossibility of locating these plants in places where the space available is limited;

[0024] 9) the variability of the environmental conditions to which the atmosphere is subjected during the year (but also during the course of a single day) creates great difficulty in predicting the performance of the plant, which is therefore very often operated with an excess of cooling water to prevent incurring into sub-optimal performances, with all the resulting diseconomies.

[0025] There is therefore the need to perfect an autonomous modular element of an evaporative heat exchanger that can overcome at least one of the stated disadvantages of the state of the art.

[0026] In particular, one purpose of the present invention is to provide an autonomous modular element of an evaporative heat exchanger that allows for a high operational flexibility of the plant, both in terms of proportions between the various components of the plant - for example cooling water channelings or ejectors - and also of entire machine sections, thus allowing for high operating economies and an overall increase in the efficiency and effectiveness of the plants.

[0027] A further purpose of the present invention is to provide an autonomous modular element of an evaporative heat exchanger that guarantees very high cooling efficiency, both in terms of very low cooling water consumption and also high capacity to lower the temperatures of the heat transfer fluid. In fact, the innovative structure of the present invention, by reducing the fluid dynamic pressure losses of the air inside the plant, allows to achieve significantly higher air speeds than those normally observed in traditional towers, with consequent increases in the convective exchange of the cooling water’s evaporation process. The effectiveness of the heat exchange between channelings containing the heat transfer fluid and the cooling fluid is further increased by another measure adopted by the present invention, namely, the reduction in the size of the water droplets (cooling fluid) to diameters that allow them, once they have absorbed the heat coming from the channelings that contain the hot heat transfer fluid, to evaporate very rapidly, thus removing heat from the system, in the form of latent heat, at very high rates. Please note that these working modes of the system lead the cooling efficiency of the plant to be advantageously unconstrained from the temperature and relative humidity conditions of the external environment.

[0028] A further purpose of the present invention is to provide an autonomous modular element of an evaporative heat exchanger that allows for a thorough control of the amount of cooling water used, by means of advanced sensoring and process implementation techniques, aimed at depositing only the amount of cooling water strictly necessary for temperature reduction on the channelings to be cooled. This type of control, rarely or not at all implemented in current evaporative towers, allows for both considerable savings in the amount of cooling water used and also a decrease in the time required to achieve the cooling of the heat transfer fluid, resulting in economic and logistic-productive advantages.

[0029] A further purpose of the present invention is to provide an autonomous modular element of an evaporative heat exchanger that allows for a drastic reduction in the volume of the collection tanks disposed at the lower part of the exchanger (by at least 70% in volume), achieving, in the most favorable and optimized cases of the devices, a complete elimination of such tanks.

[0030] A further purpose of the present invention is to provide an autonomous modular element of an evaporative heat exchanger that allows for a reduction in the electrical consumption of the plant, through the drastic reduction of the cooling water used, reducing or eliminating the need for recirculation.

[0031] A further purpose of the present invention is to provide an autonomous modular element of an evaporative heat exchanger that allows for a substantial reduction in the volume of the heat exchange plant as a whole, thanks to the innovative measures disclosed above.

[0032] A further purpose of the present invention is to provide an evaporative heat exchanger that is efficient and comprises one or more autonomous modular elements.

[0033] The Applicant has devised, tested and embodied the present invention to overcome the shortcomings of the state of the art and to obtain these and other purposes and advantages.

[0034] SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0035] The present invention is set forth and characterized in the independent claims. The dependent claims describe other characteristics of the present invention or variants to the main inventive idea.

[0036] In accordance with the above purposes, an autonomous modular element according to the present invention of an evaporative heat exchanger for cooling a process fluid comprises at least one pipe bundle in which the process fluid (heat transfer fluid) flows, a system for spraying the cooling fluid (operating by means of nebulization or atomization systems, or other systems that allow to produce droplets of cooling fluid with diameters such as to optimize / minimize the droplet’s surface to volume ratio) on the pipe bundle, and a plurality of interconnectors provided with valves or joints, or other types of connections, so that the autonomous modular element is configured to be connected to other autonomous modular elements in order to be able to vary, in a versatile manner, the cooling capacity of the resulting evaporative heat exchanger, or to be operated as a single, stand-alone evaporative heat exchanger. The pipe bundle substantially takes the form of a hollow solid or meta-solid, the term meta-solid being understood as a portion of space at least partly delimited by the compact surfaces constituted by at least part of the pipe bundle.

[0037] The pipe bundle consists of several channelings placed in contact with each other, or interspersed with spacers made of insulating material, so as to define, internally and / or externally to the pipe bundle, an empty space for the passage of air, and thus define compact internal and external surfaces configured to create an efficient chimney effect along the empty space.

[0038] The channelings of the heat transfer fluid are advantageously disposed in the space in such a way as to be in contact with each other, without leaving appreciable spaces between contiguous channelings, with the contact surfaces parallel to the longitudinal axis of the channelings, which in turn is disposed horizontally, generating with this arrangement compact surfaces having thicknesses preferably equal to the diameter of a single channeling, the term “compact” indicating surfaces characterized by the absence of macroscopically appreciable spaces between one channeling and those contiguous thereto. The channelings have a generic section, this term indicating the possibility of having, in addition to a circular section, also an elliptical, pseudo-elliptical, rectangular, square or other section that can be advantageously used and that the person of skill in the art can develop. These compact surfaces in turn act as lateral surfaces of the hollow solids or meta-solids, and are wetted by the cooling water. The pipe bundles organized into hollow solids or meta-solids include open zones at their base and at their top so as to generate, when the heat transfer fluid to be cooled and / or condensed (therefore having a temperature higher than ambient temperature) passes through the channelings, a natural convective flow (“chimney effect”) capable of conveying the air entering from the base toward the top of the pipe bundle; this “chimney effect” has the effect of increasing the air flow (convection motion) that comes into contact with the compact surfaces onto which the cooling water is sprayed. The convection motion through the volume delimited by the compact surfaces that constitute the lateral surfaces of the hollow pipe bundles can in any case be enhanced by resorting (as occurs with current evaporative towers in which, however, there is no evidence of a chimney effect being generated, such as the one described here) to auxiliary ventilation systems, preferably positioned above with respect to the aperture in the upper part of the hollow pipe bundles. These auxiliary ventilation systems, if used in the context of the present invention, are integrated into the system for the automatic management of all the components of the autonomous modular elements, in order to maximize their efficiency and minimize their electrical consumption.

[0039] The evaporative towers disclosed in documents US2019 / 072332A1, US2011 / 100593A1, KR100931272B1 have structures with pipes spaced apart from each other, so as to make the air pass horizontally from the outside toward the center of the unit (US2019 / 072332A1), or horizontally through the entire unit (KR100931272B1), or again horizontally / vertically from the bottom toward the top of the unit (US2011 / 100593A1). The evaporative towers disclosed in documents US2019 / 072332 A 1 , US2011 / 100593 Al , KR100931272B 1 do not have channelings located in contact with each other so as to define, internally and / or externally to the pipe bundle, an empty space for the passage of air, and do not define compact internal and external surfaces configured to create an efficient chimney effect along such an empty space.

[0040] According to another aspect of the invention, the autonomous modular element includes at least one local and automated data acquisition and processing system that records and processes environmental parameters, such as for example ambient temperature and humidity, and other operating parameters, such as heat transfer fluid pressure and temperature, or speed and direction of the ejected cooling fluid, or intensity, flow and direction of the air that passes through the hollow solids due to the chimney effect and / or forced convection with other means, and others, and uses them to optimize the operations of the autonomous modular element.

[0041] According to another aspect of the invention, the autonomous modular element is provided with at least one temperature and / or pressure sensor and / or at least one flow sensor which are associated with the channelings, preferably at the rate of at least one temperature and / or pressure sensor and at least one flow sensor for every five channelings, more preferably at the rate of at least one temperature and / or pressure sensor and at least one flow sensor for every two channelings, even more preferably at the rate of at least one temperature and / or pressure sensor and at least one flow sensor for each channeling, the sensors being connected to a data acquisition and processing system. According to another aspect of the invention, the channelings are subjected externally to physical or chemical treatments such as to allow for the best possible wettability by a cooling fluid that is deposited or sprayed on the channelings (thereby further increasing the heat exchange between the channeling and the cooling fluid), or internally to physical or chemical treatments such as to allow the best possible wettability by the fluid to be cooled that flows inside them (thereby further increasing the heat exchange between the channeling and the heat transfer fluid), or such as to allow the best possible fluid repellency by the fluid to be cooled that flows inside them (thereby decreasing the pressure loss caused by the friction between the heat transfer fluid molecules and the channeling), or such as to generate an intermediate wettability that satisfies the ratio of wettability to nonwettability of the internal surface of the channelings considered optimal.

[0042] According to another aspect of the invention, the cooling fluid spraying system is provided with one or more nozzles characterized by being able to project a jet of cooling fluid with high directionality toward the channelings, the jet of the cooling fluid consisting of liquid fluid (preferably water) or aeriform fluid (preferably air), or, more preferably, by a mixture of liquid and aeriform fluid. When the cooling fluid comprises at least one liquid, the liquid used at exit from the nozzle consists of droplets of such sizes as to allow for a rapid evaporation thereof, preferably having a diameter of less than 500 pm, and more preferably a diameter of less than 250 pm, and the jet being projected toward the channelings in such a way that the cooling fluid is ejected onto a limited number of vertically contiguous channelings, preferably no more than five contiguous channelings, more preferably no more than three vertically contiguous channelings, even more preferably onto one or two vertically contiguous channelings, the cooling fluid projection system being actuated automatically by means of the local data acquisition and processing system, capable of being able to control the projection devices in terms of individual ejectors, groups of ejectors operating on the same hollow solid, groups of ejectors operating on different hollow solids, and all possible configurations of the ejectors, including for example those that comprise ejectors mounted on fixed or mobile frames, even rotating and / or horizontally pivoting, whether inside the hollow meta-solids or outside them. In addition, the ducts and / or spraying systems and / or ejectors are provided with at least one pressure sensor and / or at least one flow sensor and / or at least one temperature sensor which are associated with the ducts and / or spraying systems and / or ejectors, preferably at the rate of at least one pressure sensor and / or at least one flow sensor and / or at least one temperature sensor for every five ducts and / or spraying systems and / or ejectors, more preferably at the rate of at least one pressure sensor and / or at least one flow sensor and / or at least one temperature sensor for every two ducts and / or spraying systems and / or ejectors, even more preferably at the rate of at least one pressure sensor and / or at least one flow sensor and / or at least one temperature sensor for each individual duct and / or spraying system and / or ejector, the sensors being connected to a data acquisition and processing system.

[0043] The invention also concerns a multi-module evaporative tower comprising one or more autonomous modular elements as defined above.

[0044] According to a further aspect of the invention, the multi-module evaporative tower comprises at least one central data acquisition and processing system, configured to gather and process the data coming from the local data acquisition and processing systems of the autonomous modular elements, and to coordinate all the components of the elements in order to obtain the optimum operation of the multi-module evaporative tower.

[0045] The multi-module evaporative tower according to the present invention is advantageously of a modular design, in terms of both individual components (for example individual channelings or groups thereof, individual ejectors or groups thereof) and also of actual machine sections, complete with all components, including parts such as sensors or others, so as to allow for a rapid adaptation of the plant as a whole to changed working conditions (for example in the case of scheduled or extraordinary maintenance of auxiliary plants, or work peaks, or changed climatic conditions). The modularity can be realized both in terms of physical connection and disconnection (for example by means of rapid attachments, bayonet attachments or suchlike) and also of mechanical / hydraulic / electronic connection (for example, by being able to activate or deactivate machine sections by means of appropriate software controls, possibly even remotely, which drive valves or diaphragms) of the autonomous modular elements; it can also be achieved by activating / deactivating the ejection systems present within the hollow meta-solids so that the flow rate of the cooling fluid ejected can be conveniently reduced / increased in order to be able to vary the thermal power actually exchanged.

[0046] Advantageously, the measures and innovations aimed at creating the autonomous modular element of an evaporative tower described above allow, compared to current evaporative towers, for both a lower cooling fluid consumption, and also for a higher cooling and / or condensation rate of the heat transfer fluid, and also for a lower energy consumption of the plant as a whole, and also for a lower volume of the apparatus as a whole, thereby resolving, in whole or in part, many of the problems of current evaporative towers.

[0047] In documents US2019 / 072332A1, US2011 / 100593A1, KR100931272B1 the water is sprayed from top to bottom - as is the practice in the state of the art of evaporative towers - in such an amount as to be able to wet the entire height of the pipe bundle; there is therefore no provision for a controlled distribution of the water on the pipes or, even less, for the creation of particular droplet diameters to facilitate evaporation.

[0048] The systems disclosed in US2019 / 072332A1, US2011 / 100593 Al, KR100931272B1 cannot function without the presence of a tub, or tank, or collector for collecting and recovering the water percolated through the pipe bundle. The water is therefore always recirculated to allow for a lower consumption of cooling water. In the present solution, the presence of a compact surface, the cylindrical or pseudo-cylindrical shape disposed vertically with respect to the horizontal plane, the configuration of the air flow to completely lap all wet surfaces, the spraying mode with droplets with a diameter such as to allow for an easy and, usually, complete evaporation, lead to the lack of percolation and recirculation of the water. In fact, no recirculation systems are provided.

[0049] The data acquisition and control system, used to command the water distribution valves between the two heat exchangers and the actuators of the external air inlet opening / closing deflectors, cited in US2011 / 100593A1, are required because the two distinct heat exchangers are present in the same unit. It is therefore necessary to control the flow rates of cooling fluid and air to be sent to the two heat exchangers on the basis of the external air conditions. Instead, the present solution uses the data detected from the external environment and from the various probes present inside the unit to control and optimize the operation of the heat transfer fluid flow rate, the cooling fluid flow rate, the air flow rates and all the machine operating parameters. This is important in order to gain control of the evaporation and non-percolation process.

[0050] In documents US2019 / 072332A1, US2011 / 100593A1, KR100931272B1 the presumed modularity is achieved simply by placing two identical but distinct units side by side horizontally (US2019 / 072332A1), or by placing two identical but distinct units overlapping vertically (KR100931272B1). In practice, the two units can in any case operate independently, since they are, in fact, complete single units positioned in proximity to each other so as to share, for example, inlets and outlets for the heat transfer fluid. The modularity of the present solution provides the creation of a single evaporative tower consisting of modular elements integrated with each other so as to: no longer be able to distinguish the base modules from each other; not be able to operate the base modules completely independently of each other; create previously not existing and / or operating shared machine parts.

[0051] Document US 11504814B2, cited in relation to the use of surface treatments in evaporative towers, actually refers to the surface treatment for brazing an aluminum fin coated with an Al-Si alloy on a steel pipe. The presence of the silicon coating increases the wettability between fin and pipe during the melt brazing process. Moreover, the exchanger is not applied in an evaporative tower. Instead, in the present solution we refer to the wettability inside the channelings and / or outside the channelings, in order to optimize their performance. This element is closely linked to the need to finely control the exchange process in the various sections of the pipe bundle in order to obtain the lowest use of cooling fluid, the lowest electricity consumption, and non-percolation.

[0052] DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0053] These and other aspects, characteristics and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of some embodiments, given as a non-restrictive example with reference to the attached drawings wherein:

[0054] - fig. 1 is a schematic representation of an autonomous modular element according to the present invention;

[0055] - fig. la illustrates how the autonomous modular element can consist of / be physically connected / disconnected to / from other autonomous modular elements by means of connectors, not shown for graphic simplicity; - fig. lb illustrates how the autonomous modular element can consist of / be connected / disconnected to / from other autonomous modular elements by means of valves and actuators, not shown for graphic simplicity;

[0056] - fig. 2 is a schematic, perspective and exploded view of a possible configuration of an autonomous modular element for an evaporative tower according to the present invention;

[0057] - fig. 3 is a plan view of a possible configuration with two autonomous modular elements of the evaporative tower plant interconnected with each other;

[0058] - fig. 4 is a possible configuration of a plurality of modular elements, connected to each other and provided with hollow elements.

[0059] We must clarify that the phraseology and terminology used in the present description, as well as the figures in the attached drawings also in relation as to how described, have the sole function of better illustrating and explaining the present invention, their purpose being to provide a non-limiting example of the invention itself, since the scope of protection is defined by the claims.

[0060] To facilitate comprehension, the same reference numbers have been used, where possible, to identify identical common elements in the drawings. It is understood that elements and characteristics of one embodiment can be conveniently combined or incorporated into other embodiments without further clarifications.

[0061] DESCRIPTION OF SOME EMBODIMENTS

[0062] We will now refer in detail to the possible embodiments of the invention, of which one or more examples are shown in the attached drawings, by way of a nonlimiting illustration. The phraseology and terminology used here is also for the purposes of providing non-limiting examples.

[0063] With reference to the attached drawings, see in particular figs. 1, la, lb, fig. 2, an autonomous modular element 10 of a multi-module evaporative heat exchanger, for example, an evaporative tower 20 for cooling a process fluid, comprises at least one pipe bundle 16 in which the heat transfer fluid flows, a system 23 for spraying the cooling fluid and a plurality of interconnectors 30, so that the autonomous modular element 10 can be configured to be used as an evaporative tower consisting of the autonomous modular element 10 only, or it can be connected to other autonomous modular elements so as to be able to vary the cooling capacity of the resulting multi-module evaporative tower 20 in a versatile manner. The pipe bundle 16 therefore defines a three-dimensional shape of a hollow solid (or metasolid) and consists of several channelings 24 located in close contact with each other to form compact surfaces 22, the compact surfaces 22 being disposed so as to define an empty space C useful for the passage of air, in particular cooling air, or air for the expulsion of the evaporated cooling fluid. In particular, this compactness prevents the passage of air, for example horizontal, between the channelings, and therefore from the outside toward the inside of the modular element 10, or vice versa. The hollow meta-solid is understood as a pseudo- cylindrical shape of the hollow meta-solid, or as parts thereof. The surfaces 22 can be located in contact with each other or interspersed with spacers made of thermally insulating material.

[0064] The compact surfaces 22 are configured to create an efficient chimney effect, with an air flow CE entering from the bottom (external environment) of the pipe bundle 16 and exiting upward.

[0065] The pipe bundle 16 comprises an inlet end 17 and an outlet end 18 of the heat transfer fluid. The inlet end 17 is located for example at the upper end of the pipe bundle 16 and the output end 18 is located on the lower part, the opposite could however be the case, or the inlet and outlet ends could be positioned in other points of the pipe bundle. Connection elements 29, shown in fig. 4, are substantially positioned in the inlet ends 17 and outlet ends 18. The cooling air CE flows from the lower to the upper aperture of the hollow meta-solid.

[0066] The spraying system 23 is configured to distribute a cooling fluid on the surfaces 22 of the channelings 24, in particular water, air or a mixture of both. Fig. la shows how the autonomous modular element 10 can physically consist of / be connected / disconnected to / from other autonomous modular elements 10 by means of connectors or interconnectors 30, not shown for graphic simplicity, so as to form multi-module evaporative towers 20.

[0067] Fig. lb shows how the autonomous modular element can consist of / be connected / disconnected to / from other autonomous modular elements by means of valves and actuators, not shown for graphic simplicity; the valves and actuators can be incorporated in the interconnectors 30, or be comprised in other points of the autonomous modular element 10, such as one of the connection elements 29 for example. The autonomous modular elements 10 that are physically present, but disconnected by means of the valves and actuators, are shown by way of example with a dashed line.

[0068] The interconnectors 30 can also include the connections between the cooling fluid spraying systems 23. The pipe circuits of the heat transfer fluid and the cooling fluid will be independent, but in the interconnectors the pipes can for example be included in a same flange, or be located at different points of the system.

[0069] The autonomous modular element 10 can comprise, by way of example, a containing body 11 that contains the pipe bundle 16 and which extends in a longitudinal direction L between a first end 12 and a second end 13 of the autonomous modular element. The containing body 11 has, in correspondence with the first end 12, or with the second end 13, at least one suction aperture 14 for drawing a beam of air from an environment external to the same containing body 11 and, in correspondence with the second end 13, or with the first end 12, at least one emission aperture 15 for emitting the beam of air toward the external environment so as to allow the same beam of air to propagate through the main volume, thus creating with this path a chimney effect CE for the air present inside the autonomous modular element. The autonomous modular element 10 in accordance with the invention comprises a pipe bundle 16 characterized by an extremely compact distribution of the channelings 24, which is totally different from the coil-shaped or packed tubes pipe bundles known in the state of the art, which are instead characterized by the presence of numerous spaces between pipe and pipe, necessary to allow the percolation of the cooling fluid.

[0070] In more detail, the compact distribution of the channelings 24 can be achieved by means of the following geometric arrangement:

[0071] (i) placing their longitudinal axes parallel to the horizontal plane;

[0072] (ii) disposing each individual channeling in contact with the next one, it being possible to place the longitudinal axes of the channelings in contact in vertical alignment, or in alignment along one or more inclined planes;

[0073] (iii) creating, with the arrangement described above, compact surfaces 22 (fig. 2 and fig. 4), this being understood that there is no appreciable empty space left between two channelings in contact; the channelings 24 that constitute the compact surfaces 22 can have a circular or elliptical or pseudo-elliptical or rectangular or square section, or any other section whatsoever that can be advantageously used and that the person of skill in the art can develop;

[0074] (iv) the compact surfaces 22 referred to in point iii) having a thickness corresponding to a single channeling and defining a portion of three-dimensional space having a spatial shape defined by the pipe bundle 16, preferably having the shape of a prism with a hexagonal, heptagonal or octagonal base, or even more preferably having a cylindrical or pseudo-cylindrical shape, and in any case preferably having a height greater than at least one of the sides of the base, or of the diameter of the base;

[0075] (v) the hollow pipe bundles 16 being geometrically organized in space so as to have at least one aperture at the base thereof and at least one aperture at the top thereof, thereby being identifiable as portions of space characterized by only the lateral compact surfaces 22;

[0076] (vi) the hollow pipe bundles 16 being geometrically organized in space in such a way that the flow of the heat transfer fluid occurring within the one or more channelings 24 creates a temperature gradient with higher temperature in the lower zone of the hollow solid and lower temperature in the upper zone of the hollow solid, thereby generating a chimney effect CE, that is, a convective motion of air entering from the at least one lower aperture of the hollow solid or meta-solid defined by the pipe bundle 16, and exiting from the at least one upper aperture of the pipe bundle 16 that is directed from the bottom upward by virtue of the temperature gradient existing between the upper part and the lower part of the hollow solid mentioned above; the pipe bundles 16 can also be possibly organized so as to generate at least one hollow meta-solid having the shape of a Venturi tube, in order to generate one or more accelerated air flows;

[0077] (vii) the pipe bundles 16 being made and organized in the form of autonomous modular elements 10 suitable to be connected or disconnected, both physically (by means of physical attachments and detachments) as well as hydraulically (by means of valves, taps or similar devices), to / from each other, in order to be able to vary, by means of both manual as well as automatic connections / disconnections, the cooling capacity of the multi-modular evaporative tower.

[0078] The compact surfaces 22 defined by the geometric arrangement of the channelings 24 prevent the passage of any matter whatsoever (for example water and / or air) between the inside and the outside of the empty space C that the channelings define.

[0079] The spraying system 23 comprises at least one duct 19 for supplying the spraying system 23 with the cooling fluid, and also comprises at least one nozzle 21 , preferably a plurality of nozzles 21 , each configured to emit a metered quantity of flow of cooling fluid H possibly, but not necessarily, transverse to the longitudinal direction L toward the surfaces 22. The duct 19 comprising at least one nozzle 21 allows to obtain a metered distribution of the flow of cooling fluid H toward the internal surfaces 22.

[0080] The metering of the quantity of cooling fluid is guaranteed in each autonomous modular element 10 thanks to the fact that each autonomous modular element 10 has the additional characteristic of being able to comprise temperature sensors 26 and also flow sensors 27 and also pressure sensors 36 at the rate of (ideally) at least one temperature sensor and / or at least one flow sensor and / or at least one pressure sensor for each channeling 24 and / or duct 19 and / or spraying system 23. The sensors 26, 27, 36 communicate with the local data acquisition and processing system 28 which processes the data thus obtained so as to optimize the operation of the autonomous modular element 10, for example by means of the actuation of valves or taps.

[0081] This local data acquisition and processing system 28 is therefore responsible for reading and processing the data coming from the sensors 26, 27, 36, and possibly also other data from other external sources, in order to drive systems for metering the cooling fluid so as to minimize its consumption and maximize its effectiveness for the purposes of cooling and / or condensing the heat transfer fluid. The local data acquisition and processing system 28 can also perform metering activities also in relation to the flow rate and speed of the heat transfer fluid. The local data acquisition and processing system 28 can receive and send signals indifferently via cabling or via wireless transmission. The local data acquisition and processing system 28 can be one, or split into multiple subsystems (not shown, for graphic clarity, in fig. 3, but the person of skill in the art will understand how this type of data acquisition and processing system can be divided into various sections, while maintaining its uniqueness and functionality). In this way, the autonomous modular element 10 is advantageously able to realize the evaporation of a very high fraction of the cooling fluid projected onto the pipe bundles 16 and, in addition to allowing for a high cooling efficiency, is able to optimally meter the used quantity of the cooling fluid and its ejection parameters, reaching the limit of the complete evaporation thereof upon contact with the pipe bundle 16 under optimal operating conditions of the device, thereby drastically reducing the percolation by gravity of the non-evaporated cooling fluid, since the latter is in fact almost completely or completely evaporated, and therefore drastically reducing the size of any collection and recirculation tanks located at the lower part thereof, even to the point, in optimal working conditions, preferred for this invention, of being able to eliminate the tanks completely, also decreasing the power and size of any electric fans 25 (even to the ideal point of eliminating them), and therefore the size of the autonomous element 10 and the electrical consumption (and associated maintenance costs) of the corresponding ventilation, filtration and recirculation apparatuses.

[0082] Additional spraying systems 23 can be located inside other pipe bundles 16, and additional ones can be located outside the pipe bundles 16. The spraying systems 23 can be of different types and sizes, and are preferably characterized by comprising nozzles 21 capable of generating droplets of such sizes as to allow a rapid evaporation of the cooling fluid, preferably droplets with a diameter of less than 500 pm, and more preferably droplets with a diameter of less than 250 pm. The jet is projected toward the channelings in such a way that the cooling fluid impacts a limited number of vertically contiguous channelings, preferably no more than five contiguous channelings, more preferably no more than three contiguous channelings, even more preferably one or two contiguous channelings. Using droplets of such sizes and with this spraying mode, the phenomenon of evaporation of the cooling fluid in contact with the channelings 24, which are hot due to the presence of the heat transfer fluid inside them, occurs rapidly, quickly removing heat from the channeling / heat transfer fluid system.

[0083] The local data acquisition and processing system 28 can acquire operating data from all the sensors present in the autonomous modular element 10 (such as cooling fluid pressure and / or flow rate, speed and direction of the ejected cooling fluid, intensity, flow and direction of the air passing through the pipe bundles 16, both by chimney effect and also by forced ventilation, flow rate and temperature of the heat transfer fluid inside the channelings 24, and other operating parameters that are obvious and reasonable to the people of skill in the art), as well as information coming from the surrounding environment (such as for example ambient temperature and pressure, atmospheric humidity, operating data of the machines that generate the heat transfer fluid). The local data acquisition and processing system 28 can acquire and process these parameters in real time (without prejudice to the minimum physiological delays due to the need to acquire and process data) and it can control the proportions of the cooling fluid in the entire spraying system 23, or groups of nozzles 21 operating in the individual spraying system 23, or even each individual nozzle 21, and all the possible configurations of nozzles that the person of skill in the art can reasonably imagine, optimizing the working point of the entire spraying system as a function of the environmental conditions and machine parameters. The local data acquisition and processing system 28 can also modify the feed parameters (for example flow rate or pressure) of the heat transfer fluid in the channelings 24, always with the aim of optimizing the working point of the autonomous modular element 10. This processing of the process parameters can be aimed at reducing to the minimum required the amount of cooling fluid ejected to achieve the maximum cooling of the heat transfer fluid, or at minimizing the time required to obtain the desired cooling and / or condensation of the heat transfer fluid under ambient working conditions, or at minimizing the energy required by the autonomous element 10 to obtain the cooling and / or condensation desired for the heat transfer fluid, or in any case to obtain, from the autonomous element 10, the characteristics desired by the user in terms of consumption of cooling fluid, time required for cooling, energy required for cooling or other operating characteristics of the autonomous element 10. The spraying systems 23 controlled by the local data acquisition and processing system 28 can then be mounted in fixed or mobile positions, possibly even rotating and / or horizontally pivoting, either inside or outside the pipe bundles 16. The person of skill in the art will understand that it is possible to connect all the spraying systems 23 of the autonomous modular element 10 to the local data acquisition and processing system 28 referred to them, and it is also possible, although less advantageous, to connect only a part thereof. The cooling fluid ejected from the spraying systems 23 can be any fluid whatsoever in the liquid or aeriform state, or a mixture thereof, preferably (but not limited to) water with respect to the liquid fluid and air with respect to the aeriform fluid, with the possibility of adjusting both components of the mixture by means of the local data acquisition and processing system 28. The autonomous modular element 10 can further comprise a forced ventilation system 25 configured to strengthen the propagation of the air flow along the main volume between the suction aperture 14 and the emission aperture 15, thus enhancing the chimney effect CE. Given the presence of the chimney effect CE and the reduced pressure loss generated by the peculiar geometric arrangement of the channelings 24, the possible ventilation system 25 will require less energy to remove the aeriform compared to another evaporative tower plant unable to generate the chimney effect and / or having the pipe bundles packed in a traditional manner, namely, not organized in such a way as to form hollow solids or meta-solids. Moreover, the possible ventilation system 25 is preferably integrated into the automated data acquisition and processing system 28 of the autonomous modular element 10, thereby leading to minimize the possible ventilation system’s 25 consumption of electrical energy and maximize its capacity to remove the aeriform.

[0084] Fig. 3 schematically shows (seen from above) a possible configuration of a multi-module evaporative tower 20. In this configuration, the flows of heat transfer fluid at inlet into the multi-module system 20 are identified with letter I, and those at outlet with letter O, “inlet” being understood as the end of the channeling 24 in which the fluid has a higher temperature and “outlet” as the end of the channeling 24 in which the fluid has a lower temperature. The multi-module evaporative tower 20 comprises one or more autonomous modular elements 10 (in this case, a plurality), that is, which can be easily connected and disconnected to / from other similar elements without thereby modifying the autonomous operation of the element or of those disconnected / connected.

[0085] The pipe bundles 16 described above, their characteristics of compactness of the surfaces 22 and presence of at least one suction aperture 14 at the base and at least one emission aperture 15 at the top being satisfied, can take different shapes. Preferably, these shapes will be chosen from regular polyhedra, more preferably from parallelepipeds, prisms with a pseudo-triangular, hexagonal or octagonal base, even more preferably cylinders or pseudo-cylinders, and in general any shape whatsoever suitable to achieve an optimal packing of the channelings 24 and their spraying with the cooling fluid. Regardless of the type of polyhedron considered, the pipe bundles 16 will preferably have a height greater than the side or the diameter of the base, always with the aim of generating the chimney effect CE. Solid shapes other than regular polyhedra will also be possible, having specific functions, such as for example the so-called “Venturi tube”, a shape consisting of two inverted truncated cones well known to the people of skill in the art, characterized by generating strong variations of fluid currents inside it, with the entry of the currents located at the open base of the pipe bundle 16 and the exit thereof located at the open top of the pipe bundle 16.

[0086] Finally, the autonomous modular element 10 also comprises at least two connection elements 29, one dedicated to the inlet of the heat transfer fluid into the channeling and one to its outlet, which in case of connection with a further autonomous modular element acts as an inlet channeling for the further element, see also fig. 4. Each connection element 29 can constitute a single body with the channeling 24 and can be equipped with at least one interconnector 30, in order to be easily connected to and disconnected from the channeling, that is, to activate or deactivate it, with respect to other possible autonomous modular elements present in the evaporative tower, or it can be equipped with suitable fittings in order to make the autonomous modular element 10 the terminal of the multi-module tower 20. The interconnector 30 can in turn be incorporated into the autonomous modular element 10, or it can be a stand-alone component, possibly connectable to the connection element 29.

[0087] The interconnectors 30 can take the form of physical separators, such as rapid snap-in fittings, tightening fittings, bayonet fittings, or other similar technical solutions, or flow switches / activators, such as valves or taps, either manual or automatic, or other technical solutions able to interrupt or allow the flow of the fluid to be cooled within the channeling 24. The connection elements 29 can connect channelings 24 operating on the same horizontal plane, or channelings operating on different horizontal planes, by means of suitable bends or further interconnectors 30.

[0088] Fig. 3 or fig. 4 schematically show a possible implementation of an evaporative tower 20 object of the present invention, characterized by having a modular approach, thanks to which the autonomous modular elements 10 can be connected to or disconnected from each other rapidly, depending on the heat disposal requirements, by means of (according to indicative and non-exhaustive examples of the possibilities inherent in this modular approach) the interconnectors 30. The person of skill in the art will understand how it is possible for the interconnectors 30 to be the same as each other, or different depending on the connection requirements; as examples, consider couplings between a male interconnector and a female interconnector, or how two connection elements 29 can be connected by means of a single interconnector 30.

[0089] Similarly, the interconnectors 30 can easily comprise valves or systems suitable to interrupt or open the flow of heat transfer fluid, in order to allow / deny / meter the path of the fluid in the channelings, and therefore the plant’s cooling power, without having to make physical changes in the plant itself. As the person of skill in the art will understand, these valves can be manual or automatic, or even partly manual and partly automatic. For the purposes of the present invention, it is preferable that the modularity of the plant is achieved by means of automated valve systems controlled by the local data acquisition and processing system 28. However, a modularity of the plant achieved by means of manual mechanical- hydraulic interconnectors that detach / attach the parts of the plant is also advantageous, compared to current fixed cooling capacity systems, and it is obviously possible to create plants that have autonomous modular elements 10 connectable / disconnectable both physically and also by means of valve systems. This modularity of the plant also extends, in addition to the possible combinations of various autonomous modular elements 10, to the possibility of inserting different quantities of different components of the autonomous modular element 10, such as, by way of a non-limiting example, a variable number of spraying systems 23 or temperature sensors 26 or flow sensors 27 or pressure sensors 36 or interconnectors 30.

[0090] Fig. 4 shows a possible configuration of a set of pipe bundles 16, which shows how the geometries employed for the channelings 24 identify pseudo-cylindrical pipe bundles 16 (identified by both the external as well as internal surfaces 22).

[0091] The present invention also describes how to advantageously use surface treatments of the channelings 24 aimed at increasing or decreasing the wettability of the surfaces of the channelings 24 by means of suitable physical treatments (by way of non-limiting examples, controlled abrasion, exposure to arc currents or ultraviolet radiation or plasma-generating systems can be cited) or chemical treatments (by way of non-limiting examples, oxidation, silanization, thiolation, acidic or basic treatments can be cited). These treatments, as known to the people of skill in the art, modify the chemical and physical nature of the surfaces to which they are applied, even considerably increasing or decreasing their wettability characteristics, that is, the capacity of a fluid to extend its interface with the surface modified materials once in contact with them. “Increased wettability” is understood as the phenomenon whereby a fixed volume of fluid placed in contact with a treated surface will tend to develop a larger interface area than the same volume of the same fluid placed in contact with the same surface, untreated; vice versa, “decreased wettability” is understood as the phenomenon whereby a fixed volume of fluid placed in contact with a treated surface will tend to develop a smaller interface area than the same volume of the same fluid placed in contact with the same surface, untreated. The person of skill in the art will therefore easily understand how the increase in the wettability of the surface of a channeling 24 operated by the cooling fluid ejected from the spraying systems 23 leads to a greater interface area between the cooling fluid and the surface, which in turn leads to a greater heat exchange, ft therefore appears as immediately advantageous for the efficiency of the evaporative tower 20 described here to treat the external surfaces of the channelings 24 so as to increase their wettability by the cooling fluid, and it is not known, to the best knowledge of the writers, that this measure has ever been adopted in the technology that belongs to evaporative towers.

[0092] The person of skill in the art will easily understand how wettability modifications can also be made on the internal surfaces of the channelings 24, for example (not limiting) increasing it. In this case, current science and technology teach that increased wettability increases the heat exchange between the heat transfer fluid and the material constituting the channeling 24. On the other hand, this increase in wettability entails an increase in friction between the molecules of the heat transfer fluid and the walls of the channeling, with the result of obtaining greater pressure losses with internal surfaces with high wettability, compared to those obtained with internal surfaces with low wettability, ft is therefore evident how through appropriate studies, not described here since they are beyond the purely technical scope, it is possible to determine an optimal wettability configuration for the internal surfaces of the channelings 24 so as to achieve the maximum heat exchange with the minimal increase in internal friction, and how it is therefore advantageous for the overall efficiency of the evaporative tower in question to engineer the internal surfaces of the channelings 24 so as to optimize their thermal exchange (wettability) / flow friction (non-wettability) ratio.

[0093] It is then apparent to any person of skill in the art that all of the above mentioned components of the autonomous modular element 10 of the evaporative tower, which also include the hardware and software elements of the local data acquisition and processing system 28, can be connected to and integrated with each other, in various combinations, in order to create a multi-module evaporative tower 20 plant with cooling and / or condensation capacity greater than that of each individual element, and having at the same time high operational flexibility since, as described above, each individual element can be easily and rapidly assembled to, connected to or disconnected from the plant, allowing the latter to adapt to the changing production and / or climate / environmental needs. Another advantage of this approach is that when several autonomous modular elements 10 are assembled it is possible to create additional meta-solids defining hollow spaces C without expenditure of additional material, simply by bringing the autonomous elements 10 side by side to each other so that some of their compact external surfaces 22 become the compact internal surfaces 22 of the new meta-solids that define respective additional hollow spaces C’ (fig. 4).

[0094] In one possible configuration of a multi-module evaporative tower 20 according to the present invention, the local data acquisition and processing systems 28 of the autonomous modular elements 10 that make up the multi-module evaporative tower 20 send their data to a central data acquisition and processing system 35 (fig. 3) that coordinates and drives the various local data acquisition and processing systems 28 in order to optimize the operation of the multi-module evaporative tower 20. Finally, it is obviously evident that the automatic data acquisition and processing systems 28 and 35 can use any type of automatic logic whatsoever to manage the aforementioned components of the autonomous modular elements 10 and of the multi-module evaporative tower 20, including therein automatic management methods such as (by way of non-exhaustive examples) machine learning, neural networks, artificial intelligence systems.

[0095] The intrinsically modular structure of the present invention, as well as its peculiar geometric constitution, and also the characteristic of automatic control of all the components of the autonomous modular elements 10 of the multi-module evaporative tower 20 object of the present invention patent application are in no way anticipated in the state of the art of the field. It is clear that the autonomous modular element 10 contains all the components that allow it to operate as a standalone evaporative tower, even in the absence of additional connected autonomous modular elements 10. It is also clear that modifications and / or additions of parts may be made to the autonomous modular element 10 for a multi-module evaporative tower 20 as described heretofore, without thereby departing from the field and scope of the present invention, as defined by the claims. It is also clear that, although the present invention has been described with reference to some specific examples, a person of skill in the art will be able to achieve other equivalent forms of autonomous modular element 10, which can then be organized into a multi-module evaporative tower 20, having the characteristics as set forth in the claims and hence all coming within the field of protection defined thereby.

[0096] In the following claims, the sole purpose of the references in brackets is to facilitate their reading and they must not be considered as restrictive factors with regard to the field of protection defined by the claims.

Claims

CLAIMS1. Autonomous modular element ( 10) of an evaporative heat exchanger for cooling and / or condensing a heat transfer fluid, comprising at least one pipe bundle (16) in which the heat transfer fluid flows, at least one system (23) for spraying the cooling fluid and a plurality of interconnectors (30) which are provided with valves and / or physical connection systems, so that said autonomous modular element (10) is configured to be used either as an autonomous evaporative heat exchanger or, connected to other autonomous modular elements, to be able to create a multimodule evaporative heat exchanger (20) capable of varying its cooling and / or condensing capacity in a versatile manner, characterized in that said pipe bundle (16) consists of several channelings (24) located in contact with each other or interspersed with spacers made of insulating material so that their longitudinal axes are parallel to each other and parallel to the horizontal plane, and in that said channelings (24) form compact surfaces (22), thus defining an empty space (C) inside said pipe bundle (16) inside which some zones of said compact surfaces (22) are hotter than others, determining with this architecture an efficient chimney effect (CE) thanks to which the air flows inside said empty space (C).

2. Autonomous modular element (10) as in claim 1, characterized in that it includes at least one local and automated data acquisition and processing system (28) that records and processes environmental parameters, machine operating parameters and other parameters, and uses them to optimize the operations of said autonomous modular element.

3. Autonomous modular element (10) as in any claim hereinbefore, characterized in that it is provided with at least one temperature sensor (26) and / or at least one flow sensor (27) and / or at least one pressure sensor (36) which are associated with said channelings (24) and / or with said cooling fluid spraying system (23), which sensors (26, 27, 36) communicate with a local data acquisition and processing system (28) which processes the data thus obtained in order to optimize the operation of the autonomous modular element (10).

4. Autonomous modular element (10) as in any claim hereinbefore, characterized in that on their exterior said channelings (24) are subjected to physical or chemical treatments such as to allow the best possible wettability by a cooling fluid that is deposited or sprayed on said channelings (24), or on their interior they aresubjected to physical or chemical treatments such as to allow the best possible wettability by the heat transfer fluid that flows inside them, or such as to allow the best possible fluid repellency by the heat transfer fluid that flows inside them, or such as to generate an intermediate wettability that satisfies the ratio of wettability to non-wettability of the internal surface of said channelings (24) considered optimal.

5. Autonomous modular element (10) as in any claim hereinbefore, characterized in that said spraying system (23) comprises one or more nozzles (21) characterized by generating drops of such sizes as to allow a rapid evaporation of the cooling fluid, preferably with a diameter of less than 500 pm, and more preferably drops with a diameter of less than 250 pm, said cooling fluid spraying system being actuated automatically by means of a data acquisition and processing system (28).

6. Multi-module evaporative heat exchanger (20), comprising one or more autonomous modular elements (10) as in any claim hereinbefore.

7. Multi-module evaporative heat exchanger (20) as in claim 6, characterized in that it comprises at least one central data acquisition and processing system (35), configured to gather and process the data coming from the local data acquisition and processing systems (28) of said autonomous modular elements (10) and to coordinate all the components of said elements in order to obtain the optimum operation of said multi-module evaporative heat exchanger (20).

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