Optimization of multi-pressure himidification-dehumidification desalination using thermal vapor compression and hybridization

• Main Authors: Mistry, Karan Hemant (Contributor), Govindan, Prakash Narayan (Contributor), Mitsos, Alexander (Contributor), Lienhard, John H. (Contributor)
• Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering (Contributor)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and Indian Society for Heat and Mass Transfer, 2012-06-27T19:04:35Z.
• Subjects: Article
• Online Access: Get fulltext

Conference site: http://www.ishmt2011.iitm.ac.in/
Humidification-dehumidification (HD or HDH) desalination, and specifically HD driven by a thermal vapor compressor (TVC), is a thermal desalination method that has the potential to produce potable water efficiently in order to address the growing demand for water. This article presents a numerical study and optimization of two HD-TVC cycle configurations in order to determine the best achievable thermal performance. Through the use of nonlinear programming, it is found that the simplest configuration of HD-TVC has performance comparable to a traditional single-stage, single-pressure HD cycle (GOR 0.8-2.0), while the hybridized HD-TVC cycle with reverse osmosis (RO) has thermal performance that is competitive with existing large scale desalination systems (GOR 11.8-28.3).
Center for Clean Water and Clean Energy at MIT and KFUPM
Numerica Technology
King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals