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Present and future energy aspects in VC, MED single and dual purpose desalination plants

1982; Elsevier BV; Volume: 40; Issue: 1-2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/s0011-9164(00)88667-1

1873-4464

Joanne Weinberg, U. Fisher,

Membrane-based Ion Separation Techniques

Abstract The specific energy consumption as well as investment for present Vapour Compression (VC) and Multi-Effect Distillation (MED) processes are demonstrated in this paper. Power consumption for coal dual-purpose stations is 6.5–7.4 kWh/m3, while for nuclear stations it goes down to 5.1–6.1 kWh/m3 Improvements in heat transfer and other future modifications may lead to even lower values, i.e., 5.5–6.4 kWh/m3 for coal and 4.4–5.4 kWh/m3 in case of nuclear dual-purpose stations. The cases of VC and single-purpose MED plants are discussed as well. Efficient VC units which use waste energy produce water with energy demand of 8 kWh/m3. The role that capital costs play in the evaluation of plant expenses is discussed too. It is shown that in plants where aluminium heat transfer tubes are installed, the fraction of energy used for aluminium production out of the total investment will remain stable, due to improvements in aluminium manufacturing processes. It is recommended to develop enhanced heat transfer surfaces with inexpensive additional modifications. It is worthwhile to check always the extension of a VC process and prefer it to MED single-purpose plants up to 2 mgd enterprises.