Extending effectiveness to efficiency: Comparing energy and environmental assessment methods for a wet cooling tower

Improving the environmental performance and energy efficiency of cooling towers requires systematic evaluation. However, methodological challenges emerge when applying typical assessment methods to towers. Hence, this paper compares methods, analyzes their strengths weaknesses, proposes adaptions for evaluating As a case study, we applied five assessing wet system high-performance data center in Stuttgart. These are material flow analysis (MFA), life cycle inventory, (LCA), exergy analysis, (LCEA). The comparison highlights that LCA provides most comprehensive evaluation systems by considering several impact dimensions. In tower, however, electricity water consumption cause more than 97% impacts all considered categories. Therefore, MFA containing flows suffices many cases. Using is controversially debated because destruction part technical principle and, therefore, difficult interpret. LCEA appears inappropriate construction disposal barely affect balance associated with transiting exergy. method demonstrates need further development, such as dynamic extensions or definition needs depend on specific application.