Abstract
To date, two-thirds of the world's crude oil reservoirs need desalination treatment to remove the salt content of crude oil. Ensuring the quality of produced crude oil shows the critical need for desalting units. But, these plants are one of the high-energy consuming processes, especially in the indirect-fired heaters. In this concern, exergy analysis investigated the thermodynamic efficiency of the plant's equipment. Aspen Hysys, and Matlab software are used for simulating and calculating the integrated system based on solar flat plate collectors. Based on exergy analysis, the most inefficient equipment are the skimmer tank, and dual indirect fired heaters by 680, 262 and 216 kW, respectively. Regarding the high rate of exergy destruction in the indirect fired heaters, implementing solar flat plate collectors as alternative equipment that is economically affordable was considered. The desalination unit has significant potential for using solar flat plate collectors, as determined by key solar characteristics such as temperature, clearness index, and daylight length. Mathematical modeling shows that maximum solar irradiation was attained at altitude angle (31°). The economical optimal area was assessed based on the life cycle saving cost parameter. After obtaining the optimal area, it was found that using 52000 m2 of solar flat plate can supply a proper substitute for inefficient heaters. A comprehensive economic analysis of this proposed plan is based on effective indicators, such as purchase side costs, maintenance costs, and fuel inflation rate. The economic results show that the investment cost will be reimbursed 14 years after start-up. This optimum area can reduce CO2 emission of heaters up to 83 %.
Published Version
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