Solar seawater desalination has been gradually developing as one of the most promising desalination processes with renewable energy. In this paper, an indirect solar seawater desalination plant, based on a multi-effect distillation (MED) process and partially powered by a evacuated tube solar collector, was considered. In order to optimize the design parameters, a mathematical model of the plant was developed and a computer simulation program was constructed. A meteorological radiation model was used to estimate the hourly distribution of beam radiation as a function of time (day and hour), locality, and local weather (mainly visibility and humidity). The hourly distillate production of the plant during the daytime was simulated based on the solar radiation model. Analysis was performed as a function of the number of effects, concentration ratio (CR), and operating temperature. Results were presented as the effect on the parameters controlling the unit product cost, which include the specific heat consumption and the specific heat transfer area. Results indicate that the variation trend of the hourly distillate production of the plant during the daytime is almost corresponding to the solar radiation. The specific heat consumption decreases with the increasing of the number of effects, and the change is slowed down gradually. Also, the specific heat consumption rises with the increase of the operating temperature. The specific heat transfer area is strongly related to the number of effects and the operating temperature; it has a rapid growth by raising the number of effects or decreasing the operating temperature. The concentration ratio has a certain influence on both the specific heat consumption and the specific heat transfer area. The analysis performed is helpful not only for selecting the suitable design parameters to increase production, but also for prediction of the performance of existing plants over a wide range of possible operating conditions.
References
A M El-Nashar. 2001. The economic feasibility of small solar MED seawater desalination plants for remote arid areas. Desalination 134(1–3):173–86.
A. El-Nashar and M. Samad. 1998. The solar desalination plant in Abu Dhabi: 13 years performance and operation history. Renewable Energy 14:263–274.
B. Milow, E. Zarza. 1997. Advanced MED solar desalination plants. Configurations, costs, future-seven years of experience at the Plataforma Solar de Almeria (Spain). Desalination 108: 51–58.
H.T. El-Dessouky, I. Alatiqi, S. Bingulac, H.M. Ettouney. 1998. Steady-state analysis of the multiple effect evaporation desalination process.Chem. Eng. Technol 21:15±29.
K. Schwarzer, M. Eugenia, C. Faber and C. Muller. 2001. Solar thermal desalination system with heat recovery. Desalination 137:23–29.
Lourdes García-Rodríguez, Ana I. Palmero-Marrero, Carlos Gomez-Camacho. 2002. Comparison of solar thermal technologies for applications in seawater desalination . Desalination 142:135-142
Muhammad Tauha Ali, Hassan E.S. Fath, Peter R. Armstrong. 2011. A comprehensive techno-economical review of indirect solar desalination. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 15: 4187–4199.
M.A. Darwish, Faisal Al-Juwayhel, H. Abdulraheim. 2006. Multi-effect boiling systems from an energy viewpoint. Desalination 194: 22–39.
M Papapetrou, ES.Mohamed, D Manolakos, G Papadakis, VJ Subiela, B Penate. 2009. Operating RE/desalination units. Seawater Desalination 1:247–72
SA Kalogirou. 2005. Seawater desalination using renewable energy sources. Progress in Energy and Combustion Science 31:242–81.
W. Bingzhong, Z. Huaisong,Y. Zhiqiang. 1998. Solar radiation resource in China. Solar Energy 4:19.
Lourdes García-Rodríguez. 2003. Renewable energy applications in desalination: state of the art.. Solar energy 75:381–393.
Z. Hefei. 2004. Computer simulation and thermal utilization of solar energy, Xi'an: Northwest Industrial University press.
How to cite this article
Shen, S., Zhou, S., Liu, X. and Guo, Y. (2012). 'Simulation and Parametric Study of an Indirect Solar Seawater Desalination Plant'. SET Proceedings, 11(1), pp. 1584-1591. https://doi.org/10.65582/set.2012.163
