Integration of thermal desalination methods with membrane-based oxy-combustion power cycles

Abstract

A large number of resources are dedicated to seawater desalination and will only grow as worldwide water scarcity increases. Seawater desalination methods, in particular thermal desalination methods, are highly energy intensive and are associated with CO2-emitting electricity production. The purpose of this article is to investigate the integration of thermal desalination methods with carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) electricity production in order to implement emissions-free thermal desalination facilities. Specifically, the advanced zero emissions plant (AZEP) oxy-combustion concept is utilized for integration in this study. The performance of several bottoming cycle integrations coupled to multi-effect distillation (MED) with and without thermal vapor compression (TVC) is estimated in order to evaluate the thermodynamic and economic feasibility of such power and water emissions-free plants. It is found that AZEP plants could utilize industry-standard dual-purpose technology and produce water near typical power-to-water ratios as compared to dual-purpose plants without CCS.