Parametric study of a multi-effect distillation plant with thermal vapor compression for its integration into a Rankine cycle power block

This paper presents a parametric study of a multi-effect distillation plantwith thermal vapor compression (MEDTVC)for the analysis of its coupling with a Rankine cycle power block. In particular, the effect of the motive andsuction steam pressures on the Gain Output Ratio (GOR), fresh water production, the specific heat transfer areaand other key variables in an MED-TVC unit has been analyzed. For this purpose, a mathematical model of theMED-TVC system has been firstly developed and validated against actual data from Trapani MED-TVC industrialplant [1]. Different motive steam pressures corresponding to the turbine steam extractions available at acommercial power block have been taken, and the suction pressure has been varied by locating thethermocompressor in different effects. It was found an optimum value of the reduction of the heat transferarea of the evaporators after the suction point such that minimizes the specific heat transfer area. Moreover,results showed that there is an optimum position of the thermocompressor that maximizes the GOR for everymotive steam pressure. The results of this work can be very useful to identify the best operation modes whena MED-TVC unit is integrated into a Rankine cycle power block. POST-PRINT version (Accepted manuscript). Cite this article as: B. Ortega-Delgado, P. Palenzuela, and D. C. Alarcón-Padilla,“Parametric study of a multi-effect distillation plant with thermal vapor compression for its integration into a Rankine cycle power block”, Desalination, vol. 394, pp. 18–29, 2016. DOI (Published version): https://doi.org/10.1016/j.desal.2016.04.020© 2016. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license