Steady-State Analysis of Four Effects Evaporation

Desalination Process using Thermal Solar Energy

Mohamed Ghazi1*, Mustapha Faqir1, Mohamed Mada2 Abdellatif Ben Abdellah3,
Elhachmi Essadiqi1 Research Laboratory of Thermodynamic Engineering Research Team,
Water and environmental team, Renewable Energy and solid fuels Innovation and Management of
and Advanced Materials laboratory Ecole Mohammadia d’Ingénieurs Industrial Systems -FST
International University of Rabat Sale, Morocco Rabat, Morocco Abdelmalek Essaâdi University
ghazimohamed.emi@gmail.com Tangier, Morocco

modeling of a pilot scale MED unit for seawater desalination.

The system uses hot water as thermal energy source for the
Abstract—This paper presents a methodology and design of a MED unit; this water is heated by solar vacuum tubes
pilot scale desalination unit combined with solar energy and collectors.
using four multiple effect (MED) with a vertical falling film type.
The pilot plant unit operates with a hot water provided by a solar
The paper presents the basics that are used for evaporators
field of solar vacuum tubes and used as heating medium for the design and optimization of a such system.
first effect and hot utility for the heat exchangers. This pilot unit
was designed for a production capacity of 7m3/d of fresh water
II. PROCESS DESCRIPTION
obtained from evaporation of 25% of seawater inside the four The pilot scale unit of MED was designed for 7 m3 fresh
effects. The modeling equations are given at steady-state water production per day. It will be installed at Mohammadia
conditions and based on mass and heat balances, heat transfer city (Morocco) and will be using thermal solar energy. The
equations, thermodynamic and physical properties of each system consists of four effect evaporators and condenser
stream. MATLAB programming is used for resolution of the
connected with a solar power plant. A process flow sheet for
algorithm. The impact of important factors such as the diameter
of tubes, the heating medium temperature and top brine the pilot unit of MED desalination system is shown in “Fig.
temperature on the performance ratio, heat transfer coefficients 1”.The global desalination system was composed of three
and heat transfer area in each effect has been studied. The interconnected component in addition to a process control
results show that for a range of outside tube diameter between 20 unit that are listed below:
and 40mm and various tube length (L= 3, 3.5, and 4.0m) the heat  The MED plant;
transfer coefficient of the first effect increases as the diameter  Solar collector field (vacuum tube solar panels);
decreases and also when the length increases or number of tubes
 Heat recovery system;
decreases, however, the heat transfer coefficient in the other
effects (2, 3, and 4) shows an opposite behavior. From this  Process control.
analysis, several suggestions and criteria for vertical falling film The MED plant consists of four evaporators; they are
evaporators design and optimization could be done. numbered one to four from the left to right, the vapor flow
concurrently in the direction of the falling pressure, a
condenser, and heat exchangers. The parallel feed
configuration is adopted for this pilot because it is the most
I. INTRODUCTION economical. It is efficient when the feed seawater is nearly
Fresh water is the most important elements for human life. Its saturated to begin boiling inside the effect [1]. The system
shortage has become one of the serious problems in many operates with hot water as heating medium that is heated as it
countries in MENA region like Morocco, especially in arid circulates through the solar collector panels and provides the
and semi-arid areas. The exploitation of renewable energy as a pilot unit with the required thermal energy.
heat source for fresh water production by desalination is a In all effects, evaporation, under vacuum, of 25% of feed
promising way to deal with water scarcity and protection of seawater takes place inside each vertical tubes falling film
environment by employing clean energy. In this context, and evaporator type, the solar collector system consists of a
for the first time in Morocco, we are proposing seawater number of solar vacuum tube panels.
desalination pilot scale unit using multi-effect distillation
(MED) process combined with thermal solar energy as a heat III. PROCESS MODELING
source. The principal benefits of such system will be
associated with the environment protection, low maintenance Modeling of the MED process that has been carried out was
and its accessibility to small communities. based on material and energy balances, heat transfer
Literature review showed that there are very limited published equations, and thermodynamic relations. The model includes
papers that studied the case of seawater desalination by multi simplifying assumptions cited bellow. Iterative algorithm is
effect distillation (MED) assisted by hot water heated by solar used to determine the system characteristics.
panels. This paper is focusing on the design, analysis and

978-1-4673-7894-9/15/$31.00 ©2015 IEEE

 Taking into account an average system efficiency η, a solar
fraction SF, and the solar radiation Eg, the thermal power
provided by the solar system, Ps is calculated by [2]:
𝐴𝑝 𝐸𝑔
𝑃𝑠 = 𝜂 (1)
𝑆𝐹
The solar system efficiency η describes the ratio of the annual
amount of the solar energy converted into available heating
energy. The efficiency is given by:
𝐾1 ∆𝑇′ 𝐾2 (∆𝑇′)2
𝜂 = 𝜂0 − − (2)
𝐸𝑔 𝐸𝑔
Figure 1. Pilot unit of MED desalination system (without heat exchangers) Where, ηo is the optical efficiency of the solar collector glass.
In the steady state conditions, the heat balances for the water
MATLAB programming is used for implementation of the flowing through the solar plant is given by equation:
algorithm. The considered variables in this analysis are 𝑀𝑠 𝑐𝑝𝑤 (𝑇𝑜𝑠 − 𝑇𝑖𝑠 ) = 𝑃𝑠 − 𝑃𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑠1 (3)
diameter and length of tubes used in manufacturing of Ploss1 represent the heat that is transferred to the ambience
evaporators, top brine temperature T1, and heating medium through thermal conduction in the circuit system of the solar
temperature TS. The objective is to study the effect of these plant.
variables on the heat transfer coefficient of the effects,
performance ratio, and the pressure drop of hot water used as D. Evaporators and Condenser
heating medium inside the first effect. 1) Heat and Mass Balance Equations
A. Data a) First Effect Evaporator
The mass and heat balance equation:
The data used in the calculations and design are given
𝐹1 = 𝐵1 + 𝐷1 (4)
inTable1.
𝑆 𝐶𝑝1 (𝑇𝑠 − 𝑇𝑠1 ) = 𝐷1 𝐿1 + 𝑃𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑠,𝑒𝑣1 (5)
TABLE I: DESIGN DATA OF THE PLANT
1
𝐷1 = 𝑋𝑒𝑣 𝐹1 (6)
MED Design Data Solar system
Number of 4 Type of panel Vacuum tubes The heat transfer equation:
effects 𝑆 𝐶𝑝1 (𝑇𝑠 − 𝑇𝑠1 ) = 𝜂1 𝑈1 𝐴1 (𝐿𝑀𝑇𝐷)1 (7)
Produced fresh 7 m3/day K1 and K2 respectively 1,936 W/m2/K
water mass flow (Day=8houres) 0,006 W/m2/K2 The (LMTD)1 is defined as:
rate
Evaporation Optical efficiency η0 (TSout − TS )
rate (% of mass) 25 0,774
𝐿𝑀𝑇𝐷1 = ⁄ T1 − TSout (8)
800 W/m2 ln( )
Long tubes Solar radiation T1 − TS
Evaporator type falling film (Mohammadia city) (DNI)
evaporator
b) Effect i=2,3 and 4
Tubes material Stainless steel SF 60%
Tube diameters From 20 to 40 Absorber area per panel
Mass balance equation
mm (30 tube) 4,889 m2 𝐹𝒊 = 𝐵𝑖 + 𝐷𝑖 (9)
𝑖
Seawater 35 g/l External dimensions 2,170x2,250 m 𝐷𝑖 = 𝑋𝑒𝑣 𝐹𝑖 (10)
salinity The heat balance equation:
𝐷𝑖−1 𝐿𝑖−1 = 𝐷𝑖 𝐿𝑖 + 𝑃𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑠,𝑒𝑣𝑖 (15)
B. Assumptions 𝐷𝑖−1 𝐿𝑖−1 = 𝜂𝑖 𝑈𝑖 𝐴𝑖 ∆𝑇𝑖 (16)
For the multi effect evaporators and the last condenser the c) Condenser
following assumptions have been made: Heat balance equation:
 The produced fresh water is salt free, xd=0;
 Energy losses to the surroundings are negligible; 𝑉4 𝐿4 = (𝑀𝑐𝑤 + 𝑀𝑓 )𝐶𝑝 (𝑇𝑓 − 𝑇𝑓𝑖 ) + 𝑃𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑠,𝑐𝑜𝑛 (17)
 For each effect, feed seawater, rejected brine and The heat transfer equation:
distillate are at the saturation temperature; 𝑉4 𝐿4 = 𝜂𝑐𝑐𝑜𝑛 𝑈𝑐𝑜𝑛 𝐴𝑐𝑜𝑛 (𝐿𝑀𝐷𝑇)𝑐𝑜𝑛 (18)
 The solar irradiation is constant and the plant
operates at steady-state conditions. E. Heat transfer Correlations
 The physical properties of each stream are calculated The global heat transfer coefficient based on the outer surface
at its average temperature. of the tube is expressed by the following:
r
C. Solar Plant 1 1 ro ro ro ln( o⁄ri ) 1
= + R fi + + R fo + (19)
Starting from the absorber surface area of solar panels Ap . Uo hi ri ri kw ho
 TABLE II: HEAT TRANSFER CORRELATIONS

Heat transfer mode Equation Correlation validity Reference

ℎ𝑖⁄ cµ −2⁄3 di G⁄ −0,2 µb 0,14

For Re > 10000
𝑐𝐺 = 0,023 ( ⁄k) ( µ) ( ⁄µw ) (20)

2 2
−
Di G⁄ ⁄3 1 + (L⁄d )
3
ℎ𝑖⁄ ( µ) − 125
Sensible heat transfer inside i
For 2000< Re <10000 [3]
cG = 0,116 ( (di G⁄
) 2 (21)
tubes µ) cµ µ −0,14
( ⁄k)3 ( b⁄µw)
( )
ℎ𝑖⁄ di G⁄ −2⁄3 cµ −2⁄3 L −1⁄ µb
cG = 1,86 ( µ ) ( ⁄k) ( ⁄d
i
) 3 ( ⁄µw ) 0,14
(22) For Re < 2000
28 <T<100 °C and
Boiling- Falling film ℎ0 = 0,014𝜌𝐿0,66 𝑘𝐿0,35 𝐶𝑃𝐿
0,65 −0,41 0,4
𝜇𝐿 𝛤 (23) [4]
1600<Re< 21000.
𝜌𝐿2 𝑔𝑛𝜋𝐷𝑖𝑛⁄ 1/3
Condensation inside vertical ℎ𝑖 = 0,925( 𝜇𝐿 𝑊𝐿 ) (24)
tubes
Laminar theory [5]

𝑅𝑓∗ = 0,101⁄𝑢1,33 𝑑 0,23 (25) Under steady-state

Fouling resistance [6]
conditions

F. Physical properties equations IV. COMPUTATIONAL ALGORITHM

1) The boiling point rise The algorithm developed for resolution of the equations
system given in Fig.2 is composed of three parts. The first part
The boiling point rise caused by the salinity (BPE) and the of the algorithm allows the calculation of the four effects; in
hydrostatic head: this case we assumed that the saturated steam is used as a
Ti = Tvi + (BPE)i + ∆Thi (26) heating Medium in the first effect. The second part is used for
first effect correction because hot water is used as heating
The boiling point rise caused by the salinity (BPE) can be medium instead of saturated steam. Finally, the third part deals
calculated according to the relationship provided by [7]. And with the condenser calculations.
the hydrostatic heat is negligible because the vertical tubes
falling film evaporator is used in this analysis.
2) Latent heat
The latent heat of evaporation of water can be expressed as a
function of temperature by the following expression
𝜆 = 2499,5698 − 2,204864𝑇 − 1,59610−3 𝑇 2 (27)

Where T is the saturation temperature in °C and l is the latent

heat in kJ/kg.
3) Heat capacity
The seawater specific heat at constant pressure is a function of
salt concentration and temperature and it is calculated
according to the expression provided by [8].
4) Vapor pressure of saturated water:
The vapor pressure of saturated water can be calculated using
the correlation above:
P = 10,17246 − 0,6167302T + 1,83224910−2 T 2
− 1,7737610−4 T 3 + 1,4706810−6 T 4 (28)
Where P is in kPa and T is in °C.

1) Seawater dynamic viscosity and density

The dynamic viscosity and density of seawater are functions
of salt concentration and temperature and calculated in No
accordance with [8].
Yes
No

Yes
 It is obvious that when (Tos-Tis) decreases, the flow rate of
heating medium increases because the required thermal power
is maintained fixed.
2) First Effect Calculations
A steady-state analysis of MED pilot unit using four effects
and hot water as a heating medium from solar energy system
was performed using MATLAB programming. This model
includes the impact of the outside diameter d o, the length L of
tubes used for evaporators manufacturing, the top brine
temperature T1 and the heating medium temperature TS on the
design and performance of the system. In this paper only the
important parameters such as heat transfer coefficients for
evaporators are discussed.
It can be reported from “Table III” that for the first effect for
tube diameter do=2.54cm and for three different values of tube
length L (3, 3.5 and 4m) the overall heat transfer coefficient
No
increases when L increases due to the decrease of the number
Yes of tubes Nt1 shown in “Fig.6”. Therefore the overall flow area
of heating medium decreases and its velocity and Reynolds
number increase due to the specific mass flow rate increase as
given in “Fig.4”, thus the convective heat transfer inside tubes
increases as indicated in“Fig.5”. “Table III and IV” present
some design recommendations in terms of diameter, length of
tubes and shell for the first effect. All this results are obtained
for T1=74°C and TS=90°C.

TABLE III: NUMERICAL RESULTS FOR FIRST EFFECT WITH (do= 1” )

L (m) U1 A1 Re V Nt1
(kW/m2/K) (m2) (104) (m/s)
No
3 1.39 11.00 1.318 0.20 46
3.5 1.40 10.88 1.535 0.24 39
Yes 4 1.41 10.52 1.752 0.28 33

In addition, the impact of TS and T 1 variations on the system

Figure 2. Computational algorithm performance is studied; particular case for d o=2.54cm and
L=3.5m is presented When the overall heat transfer coefficient
V. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
increases the required heat transfer area decreases. However
1) Solar System “Fig.7 and 8” show that A1 and U1 have the same behavior
The required thermal heat is fixed and equal to the heat toward TS and T1 variations, this is because when TS
required to evaporate the feed seawater in the first effect, the increases and T1 decreases, the difference of temperature
calculation of the solar system is simple and requires the between hot and cold streams inside the first effect increases
application of equations (1), (2), and (3). The results show that and the mass flow rate of hot stream decreases. This decrease
the required total absorber area of solar panels is equal to 194 causes the decrease of specific mass flow rate Gv and U1 as
m2 to generate 142 kW of thermal power. The required flow shown in Fig.4 and 5. Also, in this case, the Log Mean
rate of heating medium Ms (hot water) depends on T os (outlet Temperature Difference DLMT increases strongly, and then,
temperature) and Tis (inlet temperature) as shown in Fig.3 the product U1*DLMT increases. As a final result the required
heat transfer area decreases when TS increases and T1
decreases.
TABLE IV: SHELL DIMENSIONS WITH (do= 1” (2.54 cm) )

Tube length L Number of Shell inside Shell

(m) tubes Nt1 diameter length Lsh
Dsh1 (m) (m)
3 46 0.43 3.6
3.5 39 0.40 4.2
4 33 0.38 4.8

Figure 3. Mass flow rate variation of heating

medium
Figure 4. specific mass flow rate Gv of heating Figure 5. Heat transfer coefficient vs Gv in the Figure 6. Number of tubes Nt1 vs length and
medium vs tube diameter and length for the 1st effect. 1st effect. diameter of tubes at the 1st effect

Figure 7. Heat trasfert coefficient vs top brine Figure 8. Heat trasfert area vs top brine Figure 9. Log mean temperature difference vs
temperature and Ts at the first effect temperature and Ts at the first effect top brine temperature and Ts at the first effect

3) Effect 2, 3, 4 and the condenser

The second, the third and the fourth effects show similar
behavior towards the do and L variation and they have the
same heat transfer. But their behavior is very different from
the first effect. In this case when length of tubes increases, the
number of tubes needed for manufacturing of effect ‘2, 3and
4’ decreases, and then the specific flow rate of seawater
flowing as falling film outside tubes increase, thereby
increasing falling film thickness as indicated in “Fig.10”. As a
consequence, the heat transfer coefficient in the film is
decreased causing the decrease of the overall heat transfer
shown in“Fig.11”

Figure 11. Third effect heat transfer coefficient vs length and

diameter of tubes

Figure 10. 3rd effect falling film thickness of seawater flowing over Figure 12. Condensation heat transfer coefficient for third effect vs
tubes vs length and diameter length and diameter of tubes
Also when diameter of tubes increases, the film thickness temperature and lowest possible top brine temperature in order
increases but with very slight change as indicated in “Fig.10”. to decrease the heat transfer area of the first effect. The
On the inside of tubes the condensation heat transfer optimization of the pilot plant that was not studied yet is
coefficient given in “Fig.12” increases causing the overall heat recommended for future work.
transfer coefficient increase. In addition the overall heat The methodology of this study will be used for the MED pilot
transfer coefficient decreases slightly from effect two to the scale unit to optimize the system design and performance.
effect three and from effect three to effect four with about 3%, Also the same algorithm and methodology will be used for
and decreases from effect four to the last condenser with about falling film horizontal tubes evaporators. This analysis will be
28%. The table V and VI gives some design recommendations combined with energy integration using pinch analysis for
for the second, the third and the fourth effect, as well as for the heat recovery system optimization and minimization of heat
condenser: consumption.
TABLE V: NUMERICAL RESULTS FOR EFFECT 2, 3, 4 WITH (do= 1”1/4 (3.175cm) )
L Effect Ui Ai Nti D Acknowledgment
(m) (kW/m2/ (m2) shell i L The authors of this study acknowledge the financial support by
K) (m) shell “Moroccan Agency for Solar Energy IRESEN” of
(m) the “Seawater desalination using solar energy” project.
2 2.406
3 3 2.338 6.61 24 0.33 3.6
4 2.251 NOMENCLATURE AND SYMBOL
2 2.353 Ai Heat transfer area (m2) TS Heating medium temperature
3.5 3 2.282 6.76 21 0.31 4.2 (°C)
4 2.199 Bi Rejected brine mass flow for k Thermal conductivity
effect i (kg/s) (kW/mK)
2 2.307 Di Produced distillate mass flow Mf Total mass flow of feed
4 3 2.236 6.88 18 0.29 4.8 for effect i (kg/s) seawater (kg/s)
4 2.153 Fi Feed seawater mass flow for Mb Total mass flow of rejected
effect i (kg/s) brine (kg/s)
TABLE VI: NUMERICAL RESULTS FOR CONDENSER WITH (L=3METER ) do Outside tube diameter (m) Md Total mass flow of distillate
Diameter Number Uc Area Ac Cooling (kg/s)
(m) of tubes (kW/m2/K) (m2) water Dsh Shell inside diameter (m) Mcw Total mass flow of cooling
seawater (kg/s)
Mcw L Tube length (m) c Salt concentration (g/kg)
0.0254 33 1.600 8.00 λ, Li Latent heat of evaporation μ Dynamic viscosity (Pa.s)
(1”) 0.5032 (kj/kg)
0.0317 26 1.604 8.99 (kg/s) R Fouling thermal resistance ρ Density (kg/m3)
(m2K/kW)
(1”1/4)
U Overall heat transfer Γ Specific flow rate (kg/m/s)
coefficient (kW/m2K)
4) The performance ratioPR h Convective heat transfer T Temperature of effect (°C)
The performance ratio defined as coefficient (m2K/kW)
𝑇𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑑𝑢𝑐𝑒𝑑 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝑠ℎ 𝑤𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑥 𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑡 ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑒𝑣𝑎𝑝𝑜𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛
𝑃𝑅 =
𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑚𝑎𝑙 𝑝𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟 𝑖𝑛𝑝𝑢𝑡 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑓𝑖𝑟𝑠𝑡 𝑒𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑐𝑡
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