MODELLING AND SIMULATION OF A MULTIPLE EFFECT EVAPORATOR FOR DESALINATION PROCESS

Abstract

Multiple effect evaporation in thermal desalination process has become an ever increasing popular and various researchers have found this to be a .less energy intensive process as compared to its counterparts. The current thesis has dealt with detailed modeling of the MEE process which avoids the complications and excessive assumptions as proposed by previous literatures. The model involves thermodynamic,* non-equilibrium losses and boiling point elevation factor. The proposed model has been solved using a standard programming language and the results are found to be far more accurate than the previous results when tallied with industrial design specifications. Further the effect of parameters are also studied for determination of condenser pressure, cooling water requirement, rejected brine salinity, temperature variations across each effect. It is also found that this process gives a better thermal performance ratio as compared to the model proposed by Dessoukey et al (2003). This study is followed by the determination of the optimized operating, time for the plant at which the largest separation process takes place (accounting for the scaling effects inside the evaporators). Further keeping in mind about the problems encountered while the discharge of the product; a separate design for the vacuum producing equipment has also been proposed.