1. Title, Journal and Authors

Title: An exergy approach to efficiency evaluation of desalination

 

Journal: Applied physics letters

Authors: Kim Choon Ng,¹ Muhammad Wakil Shahzad,¹ Hyuk Soo Son,¹ and Osman A. Hamed²

¹Division of Biological and Environmental Science and Engineering, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia

²Department of Technology and Research Institute, Saline Water Conversion Corporation, Jubial 35514-3717, Saudi Arabia

 

2. Summary

Kim Choon Ng et. al. conducted comparison of efficiency of desalination process based on an exergy approach. To do so, they calculated consumption of primary energy for desalination plants. The universal performance ratio (UPR) and thermodynamic limit were also employed to compare process efficiency. Process efficiency for existing desalination is 15% of the ideal thermodynamic limits. 30% of limit or 0.3 m³/kwh_pe are needed to accomplish sustainable desalination in the future. They suggested multi-effect distillation method with the adsorption desalination (MED-AD) process as a promising process. 25 to 30% of the ideal thermodynamic limits can be achieved by using hybrid MED-AD process.

 

3. Originality & Creativity

 - Systematic comparison for the efficiency of desalination process was conducted.

 

4. Application to research

 - Minimization of energy consumption is main issue in desalination process. By establishing the comparison methods for energy comparison, sustainable desalination process can be developed.

 

5. Contact

Seung Ji Lim (Integrated Ph.D. program)

Environmental Systems Engineering Lab.

School of Earth Sciences and Environmental Engineering

Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology

1 Oryong-dong Buk-gu Gwangju, 500-712, Korea

 Phone : +82-10-7935-8845

E-mail : fblsj90@gist.ac.kr