Myth and reality of the hybrid desalination process

Abstract

The paper discusses some misconceptions that have contributed to the continued use of thermal desalination processes and promotion of the hybrid desalination process for new plants being built or considered at Middle East locations. The misconceptions are examined both on the basis of fundamental thermodynamic principles and in terms of practical engineering parameters. The analysis shows that there is no economic or performance advantage in the installation of greenfield hybrid power/thermal desalination/ seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) plants in preference to power/SWRO plants, because the latter would produce water more cheaply under all conditions and at all fuel costs, and would provide more operational flexibility than the former. The paper identifies situations where the hybrid desalination process can be fully justified: in existing power/desalination plants, where aging boilers and multistage flash (MSF) units need to be repaired or replaced, through retrofitting and repowering. In such situations, abandonment of the MSF process would result in a reduction in the power output of the plant. The paper refers to previous work which showed that the repowering of a typical existing power/desalination station with refurbishment/replacement of the MSF units, together with the addition of SWRO units, would result in a several-fold increase in the water and power output and a dramatic improvement in the fuel efficiency, without any additions to the existing seawater intake system. The paper emphasizes the importance of test stations/demonstration plants at existing power/desalination stations in the Middle East in order to obtain data and make improvements in the technology of higher temperature SWRO, with the feed obtained from the cooling water returning from the power plant condenser and the thermal desalination plant. The paper shows that the potential benefits would easily justify the investment in research and development required to validate this concept.