This work presents an overlook on a new model that simulates the physical operation in steady-state of a Multi-Effect Distillation (MED) plant with Parallel-feed (P) configuration. This model includes the consumption of steam with steam ejectors, and its validation was done using data from a real MED industrial plant using a Thermal Vapor Compressor (TVC) operating in Italy, in the Sicilian city of Trapani. Results show that the MED model returns accurate predictions of the plant behavior, very useful for a first analysis on such type of investments. This MED model was also integrated into the System Advisor Model (SAM) developed by the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). Simulations with this new tool were run using the location of Trapani as case study for a Concentrating Solar Thermal Power (CSP) plant working in cogeneration with a low temperature MED-P plant versus other cooling options available for CSP plants (wet cooling, dry cooling and a once through Sea Water Cooling Circuit (SWCC)). These results were compared with the existing TVC-MED plant, and indicate that CSP+MED has the potential to be economically attractive.
Tonatiuh is an open source, freeware, Monte Carlo ray tracer suitable for CST applications, and is currently under further development to to increase and improve its functionalities. Work has recently been performed to implement the following functionalities: a flux distribution calculation utility; materials with incidence angle dependent optical properties; and the ability to import 3D geometries from CAD files. This paper provides a detailed account of these new functionalities, and the tests performed to establish their correct implementation in the new software version, Tonatiuh v 2.2.3.
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