**Advantages and Innovations of Composite Air Cooling Technology in Power Plants**

In the power industry, air cooling technology has always been a research hotspot. Especially in areas with scarce water resources, the advantages of air cooling technology are particularly prominent. With continuous technological progress, composite air cooling technology for power plants has emerged, combining the advantages of traditional air cooling technology and new cooling technologies, providing new solutions for efficient, energy-saving, and environmentally friendly operation of power plants. This article will delve into the advantages and innovations of composite air cooling technology in power plants.

I. Power Plant Composite Air Cooling Technology Overview

Composite air cooling technology in power plants is an efficient cooling system that combines direct air cooling and evaporative condensers. The direct air cooling system uses ambient air for natural cooling but is greatly affected by environmental temperature; during high summer temperatures, heat dissipation efficiency decreases, unit back pressure rises, and power generation efficiency drops. The evaporative condenser uses water film evaporation to remove heat, enhancing heat exchange effectiveness and is not affected by ambient dry-bulb temperature, making it especially suitable for high-temperature summer periods. Composite air cooling technology organically combines these two, complementing each other's advantages to achieve efficient operation throughout the year.

II. Power Plant Composite Air Cooling Technological Advantages

1. **High Efficiency and Energy Saving**

Composite air cooling technology significantly improves heat dissipation efficiency by optimizing the coordinated operation of air cooling and evaporative condensers. During high summer temperatures, the evaporative condenser activates to quickly reduce unit back pressure, ensuring power generation efficiency. Data shows that power plants using composite air cooling technology can reduce the design back pressure in summer from 35kPa to a lower level, significantly increasing power output. Meanwhile, the circulating water volume of the evaporative condenser is only one-third that of traditional water cooling systems, highlighting its water-saving advantage.

2. **Economic and Environmentally Friendly**

Composite Air Cooling The technology not only improves power generation efficiency but also reduces operating costs. Due to the small circulating water volume of the evaporative condenser, water consumption and wastewater discharge are reduced, making it more environmentally friendly. Additionally, the equipment of composite air cooling technology adopts modular and serial designs, facilitating installation, shortening construction periods, and lowering construction costs. During operation, the system is simple, consumes little electricity, and has low operating costs.

3. **Safe and Reliable**

Composite air cooling technology effectively avoids water corrosion and fouling issues of traditional spray systems by optimizing air supply, vacuum, and cleaning systems. In winter, by adjusting the proportion of antifreeze butterfly valves and counterflow units, the antifreeze performance improves by more than 30% compared to single air cooling, ensuring safe and stable operation of the power plant.

III. Power Plant Composite Air Cooling Technological Innovations

1. **Dual-System Coordinated Operation**

The core of composite air cooling technology lies in the coordinated operation of two systems. The direct air cooling system handles daily heat dissipation, while the evaporative condenser serves as a supplementary solution for peak cooling in summer. This design retains the water-saving advantage of direct air cooling while overcoming its drawback of being affected by environmental temperature, achieving efficient operation throughout the year.

2. **Modular Design**

The equipment of composite air cooling technology adopts a modular design, facilitating installation, maintenance, and upgrades. Modular design not only improves equipment flexibility but also reduces construction costs and time. Furthermore, modular design allows customization according to the actual needs of the power plant, enhancing system adaptability and efficiency.

3. **Intelligent Control**

Composite air cooling technology incorporates intelligent control technology to achieve precise control and optimized operation of the system. By real-time monitoring of environmental temperature, unit back pressure, and other parameters, the intelligent control system can automatically adjust the start and stop of the evaporative condenser, as well as regulate air supply and circulating water volume, ensuring the system always operates at an optimal state.

IV. Application Prospects of Composite Air Cooling Technology in Power Plants

With the country's increasing emphasis on energy saving, emission reduction, and environmental protection, composite air cooling technology in power plants has broad application prospects. Especially in areas with scarce water resources and high environmental temperatures, composite air cooling technology will demonstrate greater advantages. In the future, with continuous technological progress and further cost reduction, composite air cooling technology is expected to be promoted and applied in more power plants.

In summary, composite air cooling technology in power plants provides new solutions for efficient operation with its advantages of high efficiency and energy saving, economic and environmental friendliness, safety and reliability, and intelligent control. With ongoing technological development and expanding application scope, composite air cooling technology will play an increasingly important role in the power industry.