Modeling analysis on solar steam generator employed in multi-effect distillation (MED) system

doi:10.1007/s11708-019-0608-0

Front. Energy

2019, Vol. 13

Issue (1) : 193-203 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11708-019-0608-0

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Modeling analysis on solar steam generator employed in multi-effect distillation (MED) system

Zhaorui ZHAO¹(

), Bao YANG³, Ziwen XING²

¹. Department of Energy and Power Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China; Center for Environmental Energy Engineering (CEEE), Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA
². Department of Energy and Power Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China
³. Center for Environmental Energy Engineering (CEEE), Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA

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Abstract

Recently the porous bilayer wood solar collectors have drawn increasing attention because of their potential application in solar desalination. In this paper, a thermodynamic model has been developed to analyze the performance of the wood solar collector. A modeling analysis has also been conducted to assess the performance and operating conditions of the multiple effect desalination (MED) system integrated with the porous wood solar collector. Specifically, the effects of operating parameters, such as the motive steam temperature, seawater flow rate, input solar energy and number of effects on the energy consumption for each ton of distilled water produced have been investigated in the MED desalination system combined with the bilayer wood solar steam generator. It is found that, under a given operating condition, there exists an optimum steam generation temperature of around 145°C in the wood solar collector, so that the specific power consumption in the MED system reaches a minimum value of 24.88 kWh/t. The average temperature difference is significantly affected by the solar heating capacity. With the solar capacity increasing from 50 kW to 230 kW, the average temperature difference increases from 1.88°C to 6.27°C. This parametric simulation study will help the design of efficient bilayer wood solar steam generator as well as the MED desalination system.

Keywords solar energy steam generating multi-effect desalination

Corresponding Author(s): Zhaorui ZHAO

Online First Date: 14 January 2019 Issue Date: 20 March 2019

Cite this article:

Zhaorui ZHAO,Bao YANG,Ziwen XING. Modeling analysis on solar steam generator employed in multi-effect distillation (MED) system[J]. Front. Energy, 2019, 13(1): 193-203.

URL:

https://academic.hep.com.cn/fie/EN/10.1007/s11708-019-0608-0
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fie/EN/Y2019/V13/I1/193

Fig.1 Schematic of the bilayer wood solar collector for steam generation

Fig.2 Schematic of a solar steam generator with the bilayer wood collector under direct solar heating

Fig.3 Microcosmic operation of the bilayer wood solar steam generation

Fig.4 Schematic diagram of a multi-effect desalination (MED) process combined with a steam ejector (The steam ejector compresses the low-pressure vapor from the last effect back to the first effect. The motive steam of the ejector is produced by the proposed bilayer wood steam generator.)

Tab.1 Geometric and operating parameters

Fig.5 Simulation flowchart for the MED desalination system

Fig.6 Influence of brine flow rate on system performance

Fig.7 Optimal number of effects and specific energy consumption as a function of solar steam temperature

Fig.8 Influence of input solar energy

Fig.9 Temperature difference between effects and salinity in each effect

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