Abstract
A new desalination method was proposed in this work, utilizing low-grade waste heat from the power plant, allowing co-generation of fresh water with electricity. The desalination system analysed in this study makes use of simple concepts, such as Torricelli vacuum, flash evaporation and siphon effect, to reduce the overall operating power consumption of the plant. An experimental plant has been built and tested in an existing thermal power plant at Chennai, India. The plant utilized the warm saline reject water from the power plant condenser to feed the evaporator without using a separate feed water pump. The amount of freshwater produced by this plant is nearly 1/200 times of the sea water supplied for the available temperature gradient of 8.7°C. It is a low-cost system when compared with conventional desalination technologies, with energy consumption per unit volume estimated at 2.62 kWh/m3 of fresh water generated. It operates at low temperatures, low pressure conditions and produces fresh water of excellent quality. The successful operation of the plant has provided valuable experience and information related to the behaviour of the proposed desalination system.
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