Current status and future directions of MED-TVC desalination technology

Abstract

Desalination has now become one of the major water treatment processes in several countries around the world where shortage of water is a serious problem. Energy consumption is a vital economic factor in selecting the type of desalination processes because current desalination processes require large amount of energy which is costly. Multi-effect desalination system with thermal vapor compression (MED-TVC) is particularly more attractive than other thermal desalination systems due to its low energy consumption. MED-TVC is characterized by high performance ratio, easier operation, low maintenance requirements and simple geometry. These attractive features make MED-TVC highly competitive to other well-established desalination techniques that include the reverse osmosis and multi-stage flash desalination. The primary goal of this paper is to present a preview of some aspects related with the theory of the technology, parametric study of the MED-TVC systems and its development. It will analyze the current and future aspects of the MED-TVC technology in view of latest installed plants.

Energy for desalination: A state-of-the-art review

“…Currently, the capacity of commercial MED-TVC plants ranges from 70,000 to 80,000 ton/d and the capacity of commercial MED-MVC plants is below 10,000 ton/d [88,89]. Integrating TVC with MED can also lead to reduced thermal energy consumption by utilizing part of the vapor coming from the last effect [90].…”

Energy Efficient Seawater Desalination: Strategies and Opportunities

“…MED‐TVC has been commercially installed and one of them is Yanbu Phase 2 expansion in Saudi Arabia with capacity ≈150 000 m 3 day −1 . [ 55 ] Many attempts have been made to improve the operation of MED‐TVC system through experimental and mathematical approaches. The exergy and exergoeconomic analysis carried out by Elsayed et al identified the component that experienced the highest entropy generation in the MED‐TVC.…”

“…In Marafiq plant, the integration of MED‐TVC with a gas‐steam combined power cycle produces 2750 MW of power and 800 000 m 3 day −1 of water. [ 55 ] The case study conducted by Ihm et al based on Yanbu Phase 3 and Ras Al‐Khair Phase1 power and desalination cogeneration plants in the Middle East indicated that, the fuel energy of thermal‐based desalination was greatly benefited from the high efficiency of combined cycle power plant due to a lowered steam value. [ 56 ] Utilization of oil refinery plants waste gases to power a MSF process has been demonstrated.…”

Correlations for estimating the specific capital cost of multi-effect distillation plants considering the main design trends and operating conditions

“…Table 4 shows the MED plants that have been used for validation purposes. Some main specifications are also provided for these plants [8,14,[33][34][35]. Focus is given on having a sample with large enough differences so that the conclusions are as solid as possible.…”