Energy efficiency analysis of novel combined open absorption multifunctional heat pump and FlashME desalination system with a compressed air dryer

Abstract

Energy intensive thermal desalination and compressed air-drying processes coupled with low grade heat recovery units can significantly contribute to carbon and energy footprint reduction. In this paper, a novel combined system based on an open absorption multifunctional heat pump and FlashME desalination system with a compressed air dryer is proposed to recover the latent heat from flue gas and efficiently utilize it to drive the desalination process for seawater treatment and supply the compressed dry air. The energy performance of the combined system is analyzed under the effect of various key operational parameters by simulating the validated process model. The results of energy analysis indicate that the novel system can recover the latent waste heat from flue gas with an efficiency of 83.02 % and supply the compressed dry air at low humidity of 1.41 g/kg by operating at a thermal COP of 1.95. Furthermore, the system can efficiently utilize the recovered low-grade heat to produce freshwater at a recovery rate of 23.14 %. The findings of the critical performance analysis show that the drying, and latent heat recovery performance of the coupled system is dependent mainly on the inlet parameters of the spray solution and the flue gas humidity. However, the water recovery of FlashME is totally dependent on heat capacity and the regeneration pressure such that the performance ratio increases from 1.51 to 4.03 by operating with hot seawater of 60–80 °C, when the regeneration pressure is raised up to 53.48 kPa. Moreover, the coupled system configured in parallel double stage can lower 11.43–37.78 % regeneration load along with 54.24 % improvement in distillate productivity when the operating pressure is raised up to 800 kPa and the rise in airflow rate in dryer can decrease the 10.41–52.45 % regeneration load on external heat source.