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Thermal desalination : structural optimization and integration in clean power and water

A large number of resources are dedicated to
seawater desalination and will only grow as world-wide water
scarcity increases. In arid areas with high temperature and
salinity seawater, thermal desalination and power plants
(dual-purpose/co-generation plants) are often employed for the
production of power and water. In other areas, reverse osmosis is
commonly employed. However, both technologies are inherently
challenged with economic and performance issues. Seawater
desalination methods, in particular thermal desalination methods,
are highly energy intensive and are associated with CO2-emitting
electricity production. This thesis is presented with three
chapters, each of which is self-contained, but have a unifying goal
of improving industrial-scale thermal desalination and its
integration with power production or other technologies. The first
chapter presents a critical review of hybrid desalination systems
for cogeneration of power and water. Hybrid desalination, i.e.,
employing both thermal and mechanical desalination methods, is a
response to the issues associated with existing seawater
desalination technologies and has been increasingly utilized over
thermal desalination plants alone. An overview of thermal
desalination, seawater reverse osmosis, and co-generation of power
and water is presented, specifically with regards to the motivation
for utilizing hybrid plants, e.g., process limitations and areas of
potential improvement. In addition, a review of the considerations
for design and economics of hybrid desalination plants is
presented, e.g., existing system configurations, thermo-economic
analyses, and improvements of seawater pretreatment are discussed.
Finally, studies for the optimization of hybrid desalination
systems are reviewed. Specifically, the use of objective functions,
continuous optimization methods, and optimal hardware
configurations are discussed with respect to the key considerations
of hybrid desalination plants. The purpose of the second chapter is
to investigate the integration of thermal desalination methods with
carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) electricity production in
order to implement emissions-free thermal desalination facilities.
Specifically, the Advanced Zero Emissions Plant (AZEP)
oxy-combustion concept is utilized for integration in this study.
The performance of several bottoming cycle integrations coupled to
multi-effect distillation (MED) with and without thermal vapor
compression (TVC) is estimated in order to evaluate the
thermodynamic and economic feasibility of such emissions-free power
and water plants. It is found that AZEP plants could utilize
industry-standard dual-purpose technology and produce water near
power-to-water ratios typical of dual-purpose plants without CCS.
Finally, the structural optimization of thermal desalination is
investigated. Many configurations of thermal desalination
technologies exist, each with trade-offs in operational performance
and required economic investment. Further, the optimization of
hybrid or dual-purpose desalination is…