International Journal of Environmental Protection and Policy

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A Comprehensive Micro-Thermal Analysis of Thermal Desalination Plants for Improving their Efficiency

Received: 26 August 2014    Accepted: 02 September 2014    Published: 31 March 2015
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Abstract

The second law efficiency is a main tool for evaluating the irreversibility through a system. Models have been applied for multistage flash (MSF) and mechanical vapor compression (MVC) distillation for evaluating the entropy generation at each component in the process. The minimum work of separation (which is the work consider to extract a unit of pure water from a saline feed water) is considered through the study, the entropy generated due to irreversibility plus that of the in-equilibrium of the discharge brine and its mixing with the seawater are important during the calculation of the minimum separation work, its value for MSF is 0.729 kWh/m3. Exergy is a useful concept in the analysis of systems involving both thermal and mechanical energies. The thermal performance of distillers is assessed based on the first and second laws of thermodynamics. This study focused on the analysis of the energy and exergy of MSF and MVC units. The exergy losses due to irreversibility for the subsystems of the units are evaluated, the specific exergy losses of the MSF unit is at the range of 63 kJ/kg. The exergy destruction in heat recovery and heat rejection sections, brine heater and all the other systems are calculated, these values are 61, 17, 10, and 12% respectively. The study showed that, the second law efficiencies of the MSF unit is around 4 % and for the MVC is around 7%, so these law efficiencies clarify that there are many ways to improve the plant performance by reducing the highest exergy destruction through these systems.

DOI 10.11648/j.ijepp.s.2014020601.13
Published in International Journal of Environmental Protection and Policy (Volume 2, Issue 6-1, December 2014)

This article belongs to the Special Issue Energy, Environmental and Climate Policy

Page(s) 16-25
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Multistage Flash Distillation, Exergy, Second Law Efficiency, Separation Work, MVC

References
[1] S. Kazadi, Y. Hong, C. Chau, A. Chaudhary, A. Chaudhary, J. Park, J. Liu, M. Kim, D. Kim, S. Kim Desalination Powered By Entropy
[2] Yunus Cerci, Yunus Cengel, Byard Wood, Nafiz Kahraman, and E. Sinan Karakas Desalination and Water Purification Research and Development Program, 2003
[3] K. S. Spiegler, Y. M. El-Sayed the energetic of desalination processes, Desalination 134 (2001) 109 - 128
[4] Fuad N. Alasfour, Hassan K. Abdulrahim, the effect of stage temperature drop on MVC thermal performance, Desalination 265 (2011) 213-221
[5] Water desalination technologies in the ESCAWA member countries, United Nations, New York, 2001
[6] Huseyin Yapici, Nesrin Kayatas, Nafiz Kahraman and Gamze Basturk, Numerical study on local entropy generation in compressible flow through a suddenly expanding pipe, Entropy 2005, 7, 38-67
[7] Narmine H. Aly, Adel K. El-Fiqi, Mechanical vapor compression desalination systems-a case study, Desalination 158 (2003) 143-150
[8] Devin L Shaffer, Laura H Arias Chavez, Moshe Ben-Sasson, Santiago Romero-Vargas Castrillon, Ngai Yin Yip, and Menachem Elimelech, Desalination and reuse of high salinity shale gas produced water: Drivers, Technologies, and Future Directions, Environmental Science & Technology, 2013
[9] Goran Wall and Mei Gong, on exergetics, Economics, and Desalination, http://www.exergy.se/
[10] K Ghana Sundari, Veerabhadra Ponnaganti and T Michael N Kumar, Exergy analysis of a low temperature thermal desalination system, Int. J. Mech. Engineering and Robotics Research, vol. 2, No. 1, January 2013
[11] Kamal Mohammedi, Anissa Talamali, Youcef Smaili, Imane Saadoun, Aomar Ait-Aider, Environmental impact of seawater desalination plants: case study in Algeria, American Journal of Environmental Protection, 2013; 2 (6):141-148
[12] Mostafa H. Sharqawy, John H. Lienhard V and Syed M. Zubair, Thermophysical properties of seawater: A review of existing correlations and data, Desalination and water treatment, 16 (2010) 354-380
[13] Anwar Binamer, Second law and sensitivity analysis of large ME-TVC desalination units, Desalination and water treatment, (2013) 1-12
[14] Osman A. Hamed, Mohammad AK Al-Sofi, Monazir Imam, Ghulam M. Mustafa, Khalid Ba-Mardouf and Hamad Al-Washmi, thermal performance of multistage flash distillation plants in Saudi Arabia, presented in International desalination association world congress on desalination and water reuse, “ the value of water in the 21st century,” San Diego, USA, 29 August -3 sept. 1999
[15] O.A. Hamed, A. M. Zamamiri, S. Aly and N. Lior, thermal performance and exergy analysis of a thermal vapor compression desalination, Energy Conversion Mgmt Vol. 37, No. 4, pp. 379-387, 1996
[16] Karan H. Mistry and John H. Lienhard, Generalized least energy of separation for desalination and other chemical separation process, Entropy 2013, 15, 2046-2080
[17] J. M. Veza, Mechanical vapor compression desalination plants-A case study, Desalination, 101 (1995) 1-10
[18] Nafey A. S., Fath, H.E.S., Analysis of a new design of multi-stage flash-mechanical vapor compression desalination processes, desalination 204 (2007) 482-500
Author Information
  • Atomic Energy Authority, Nuclear Research Center, Reactor Department, Cairo, Egypt

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  • APA Style

    Adel K. El-Feky. (2015). A Comprehensive Micro-Thermal Analysis of Thermal Desalination Plants for Improving their Efficiency. International Journal of Environmental Protection and Policy, 2(6-1), 16-25. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijepp.s.2014020601.13

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    Adel K. El-Feky. A Comprehensive Micro-Thermal Analysis of Thermal Desalination Plants for Improving their Efficiency. Int. J. Environ. Prot. Policy 2015, 2(6-1), 16-25. doi: 10.11648/j.ijepp.s.2014020601.13

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    AMA Style

    Adel K. El-Feky. A Comprehensive Micro-Thermal Analysis of Thermal Desalination Plants for Improving their Efficiency. Int J Environ Prot Policy. 2015;2(6-1):16-25. doi: 10.11648/j.ijepp.s.2014020601.13

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ijepp.s.2014020601.13,
      author = {Adel K. El-Feky},
      title = {A Comprehensive Micro-Thermal Analysis of Thermal Desalination Plants for Improving their Efficiency},
      journal = {International Journal of Environmental Protection and Policy},
      volume = {2},
      number = {6-1},
      pages = {16-25},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ijepp.s.2014020601.13},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijepp.s.2014020601.13},
      eprint = {https://download.sciencepg.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijepp.s.2014020601.13},
      abstract = {The second law efficiency is a main tool for evaluating the irreversibility through a system. Models have been applied for multistage flash (MSF) and mechanical vapor compression (MVC) distillation for evaluating the entropy generation at each component in the process. The minimum work of separation (which is the work consider to extract a unit of pure water from a saline feed water) is considered through the study, the entropy generated due to irreversibility plus that of the in-equilibrium of the discharge brine and its mixing with the seawater are important during the calculation of the minimum separation work, its value for MSF is 0.729 kWh/m3. Exergy is a useful concept in the analysis of systems involving both thermal and mechanical energies. The thermal performance of distillers is assessed based on the first and second laws of thermodynamics. This study focused on the analysis of the energy and exergy of MSF and MVC units. The exergy losses due to irreversibility for the subsystems of the units are evaluated, the specific exergy losses of the MSF unit is at the range of 63 kJ/kg. The exergy destruction in heat recovery and heat rejection sections, brine heater and all the other systems are calculated, these values are 61, 17, 10, and 12% respectively. The study showed that, the second law efficiencies of the MSF unit is around 4 % and for the MVC is around 7%, so these law efficiencies clarify that there are many ways to improve the plant performance by reducing the highest exergy destruction through these systems.},
     year = {2015}
    }
    

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  • TY  - JOUR
    T1  - A Comprehensive Micro-Thermal Analysis of Thermal Desalination Plants for Improving their Efficiency
    AU  - Adel K. El-Feky
    Y1  - 2015/03/31
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    N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijepp.s.2014020601.13
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    JF  - International Journal of Environmental Protection and Policy
    JO  - International Journal of Environmental Protection and Policy
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    AB  - The second law efficiency is a main tool for evaluating the irreversibility through a system. Models have been applied for multistage flash (MSF) and mechanical vapor compression (MVC) distillation for evaluating the entropy generation at each component in the process. The minimum work of separation (which is the work consider to extract a unit of pure water from a saline feed water) is considered through the study, the entropy generated due to irreversibility plus that of the in-equilibrium of the discharge brine and its mixing with the seawater are important during the calculation of the minimum separation work, its value for MSF is 0.729 kWh/m3. Exergy is a useful concept in the analysis of systems involving both thermal and mechanical energies. The thermal performance of distillers is assessed based on the first and second laws of thermodynamics. This study focused on the analysis of the energy and exergy of MSF and MVC units. The exergy losses due to irreversibility for the subsystems of the units are evaluated, the specific exergy losses of the MSF unit is at the range of 63 kJ/kg. The exergy destruction in heat recovery and heat rejection sections, brine heater and all the other systems are calculated, these values are 61, 17, 10, and 12% respectively. The study showed that, the second law efficiencies of the MSF unit is around 4 % and for the MVC is around 7%, so these law efficiencies clarify that there are many ways to improve the plant performance by reducing the highest exergy destruction through these systems.
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