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Efficiency of a Combined Desalination and Power System Utilising a Two-Phase Flow

Multi-Stream Heat Exchanger

Alireza Hosseini Araghi 1, Mehdi Khiadani1, Kamel Hooman2, Gordon Lucas1

1
School of Engineering, Edith Cowan University, Joondalup, WA, Australia
2
School of Mechanical and Mining Engineering, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD,

Australia

Address correspondence to Dr. Mehdi Khiadani, School of Engineering (B.23), Edith Cowan

University, 270 Joondalup Drive, Joondalup 6027, WA, Australia. E-mail:

m.khiadani@ecu.edu.au

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study is to simplify the process of Discharge Thermal Energy Combined

Desalination with Power System by integrating the two existing heat exchangers (condensers)

into a new multi-stream one. This system is a heat recovery unit, which is used to cogenerate

water and power. Two shell & tube condensers operate in a closed power cycle and a

desalination system for cooling an ammonia mixture as a working fluid and condensing a pure

vapor respectively. Here, a two-phase flow multi-stream condenser is utilized instead of the two

low exergy efficiency shell & tube condensers. The results proved that the proposed technique

leads to improve its exergy efficiency by 15%. The performance of the proposed condenser was

analyzed by applying parametric optimization.

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INTRODUCTION

There is an interest to utilize alternative energy for running thermal desalination plants so that

overall fossil fuel usage can be reduced, which will have environmental benefits [1, 2]. Uehara

developed a hybrid cycle, which converted ocean thermal energy as a low temperature energy

source to desalinate saline water [3]. Other low temperature processes for cogenerating water and

power have been introduced by different researchers [4-8]. One of the novel steam recovery

systems is Discharge Thermal Energy Combined Desalination (DTECD) and Power Cycle,

which cogenerates potable water and power by utilizing the Rankine Cycle with an ammonia

mixture as working fluid [4, 5].

On the other hand, the compact multi-stream heat exchanger is a pioneering technology, which

can exchange heat with small temperature differences between the streams in low temperature

processes. Applying this technology leads significantly improves the overall thermal efficiency

and reduces the heat exchanger surface area in a compact installation space [9]. Based on the

pinch analysis, synthesis of a multi-stream heat exchanger network has been investigated in the

articles [10, 11]. Also, it is found that the compact heat exchanger can be designed as an

individual heat recovery system [12-14]. The phase change properties of the ammonia refrigerant

and designing an isothermal two-phase flow multi-stream heat exchanger are available in some

literatures [15-18]. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of utilizing a compact multi-

stream condenser on the heat recovery DTECD and power cycle. Furthermore, an exergy

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analysis and parametric optimization will be performed to determine the performance and

optimum operating range of the proposed condenser.

PROCESS DESCRIPTION

DTECD is a steam recovery system, which is proposed to couple with the

Razi Petrochemical Company (RPC) to cogenerate water and power. RPC produces ammonia

and urea and its waste low pressure steam is recovered by DTECD system. Besides, the required

ammonia mixtures as working fluid and refrigerant are supplied by RPC. This technology

utilizes waste low pressure steam (134 C and 300 kPa) as a heat source, and two ammonia-

water mixture as the working fluid (70% wt.) and refrigerant (80% wt.) in the closed power and

open water cycles, respectively [4, 19]. Turbine (TB-100), flash separator (FS-100), and diffuser

(DIF-100) are utilized in the closed power cycle and a gas-liquid ejector (EJ-100) is used in the

open water cycle for generating vacuum inside the vacuum desalinator (VD-100). (Figure 1)

illustrates the differences between the proposed system with the previous DTECD and Power

Cycle. In the new system the two previous condensers (CO-101 and CO-102) in both cycles were

replaced by one compact multi-stream heat exchanger (HXMS-100) and ammonia mixture used

as refrigerant instead of the cooling water in the (CO-102).

METHODOLOGY AND EQUATIONS

Aspen/Hysys V.8.0 is used for modeling the proposed complex multi-stream condenser and

simulating it in the DTECD heat recovery system. As DTECD is a new system, the feasibility of

process and validity of the streams have been evaluated by using the process simulator. The

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Extended-Non-Random-Two-Liquid (ENRTL) is selected as the equation of estate, because all

streams are electrolyte, e.g. saline water and ammonia-water mixtures. Other default settings of

the software for sizing the multi-stream heat exchanger are remained unchanged. (Figure 2)

illustrates the summary of the applied methodology.

Co-current flow, cross flow and counter-current flow are the main three configurations of the

plate heat exchanger [20]. A counter flow multi-stream condenser with a 60 Chevron plate type

was selected for the case study. (Figure 3) shows the schematic view of the temperature

distribution model within the proposed four passes multi-stream condenser.

The required thermo-hydraulic equations, surface calculation [21-24] for designing the two-

stream single-phase compact heat exchanger were investigated and summarized as below.

The basic heat transfer equation for two-stream heat exchanger is obtained by Eq. (1) to (3).

(1)

Where,

( )
(2)

(3)

The hydraulic diameter and cross section surface can be calculated from Eq. (4) and Eq. (5).

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(4)

(5)

The pressure drop across the core of a compact heat exchanger is shown by Eq. (6).

(6)

The temperature changes from single-phase to two-phase along the plate exchanger zones and

the integrated model of the proposed multi-stream heat exchanger are shown in (Figure 4).

These equations, dimensionless Nusselt number, friction factor, boiling and condensation heat

transfer coefficient should be correlated for designing the two-phase multi-stream heat exchanger.

The required equations for two-phase flow multi-stream heat exchanger were extracted from the

literatures [15-18]. Governing equations of isothermal two-phase flow plate heat exchanger are

determined from Eq. (7) to (14).

The heat balance of the condenser is obtained from the summation of the sensible heat transfer

and the latent heat, as described in Eq. (7).

(7)

The total heat exchanger surface area is evaluated by:

(8)

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The overall heat transfer equation and heat balance of the single-phase zone are calculated as:

(9)

(10)

For the boiling zone, the heat balance is found from Eq. (11) and (12)

(11)

Where,

( ) ( )
( )
(12)
( )

The two-phase heat transfer coefficient can be expressed as:

(13)

The pressure drop of the refrigerant side is obtained by:

(14)

If the refrigerant enters the condenser at saturation state, the vapor quality is obtained by:

(15)

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Hf,sat and Hg,sat are the enthalpies of the liquid and vapor, respectively. In this study, refrigerant

enters in the sub-cooled conditions. When the refrigerant enters the condenser in sub-cooled

conditions, the vapor quality is determined by:

(16)

The general term of vapor quality is evaluated by:

(17)

The exergy term presents the maximum workability of a system and it is an appropriate approach

to analyze the performance of a thermal system such as proposed here. Subsequently, the exergy

flow Eq. (18) can be decomposed to thermo-mechanical and chemical exergy equations [25].

[( - )- ( - ) ( - )] (18)

The entropy of components in an ideal solution can be obtained by Eq. (19).

- (19)

The governing exergy equations in this study are extracted from reference books [26, 27]. The

entropy changes between two states for incompressible and compressible flows are calculated

from Eq. (20) and Eq. (21), respectively.

(20)

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(21)

Exergy destruction of each component can be derived from the exergy balance Eq. (22).

(22)

The exergy efficiency of a system is obtained from Eq. (23).

(23)

THERMO-HYDRAULIC MODELING RESULTS

Table1 presents the evaluated stream properties such as mass flow rate, temperature, pressure,

enthalpy and entropy of the primary DTECD system. The net power generation and pure water

production rate are 4.56 MW and 66 ton/h, respectively. The total exergy efficiency of the heat

recovery system is about 50%. The stream properties of the proposed multi-stream condenser are

reported in Table 2.The simulation results show that both the power generation and water

production rate do not change significantly and remain constant after replacing the two shell &

tube condensers with the proposed multi-stream one. However, the cooling water consumption

rate reduces significantly by 70%, only using small amount of the ammonia-water mixture (80%

wt.) as a refrigerant.

Table 3 presents the specifications of the old shell & tube condensers (CO-101 and CO-102) and

the new one (HXMS-100).

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As shown in (Figure 5a), increase of the refrigerant temperature enhances the heat performance

of the condenser. This can be attributed to increase of overall heat transfer coefficient for a fixed

surface area inside the plate exchanger. Furthermore, the vapor fraction of the ammonia will be

increased in the refrigerant mixture.

Also, it can be concluded that the heat performance of the condenser increases while the pressure

of the refrigerant flow is increasing without any phase change. When the refrigerant pressure

passes from the gas to liquid phase conditions then it leads to sudden reduction of the heat

performance too (see Figure 5b).

EXERGY ANALYSIS RESULTS

Based on the exergy analysis, the exergy destructions of the shell & tube heat exchangers such as

evaporator and condensers are higher comparing with the other components in the primary

DTECD system (see Figure 6). The main reason of the high irreversibilities in the heat

exchangers is due to large gap between the inlet and outlet temperatures (hot and cold streams).

It is found that the exergy efficiency of the heat transfer unit increases by utilizing the multi-

stream heat exchanger. This improvement is because of decreasing the temperature gap between

the hot and cold streams in the heat exchanger. The comparison between the exergy efficiencies

of the conventional condensers (CO-101 and CO-102) with the new integrated one (HXMS-100)

is shown in (Figure 7).

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PARAMETRIC ANALYSIS RESULTS

Parametric analysis was performed to find how the key parameters such as refrigerant

concentration, flow rate, temperature affect the performance of the multi-stream condenser.

The results show that increase of refrigerant concentration out of its operating range leads to

temperature cross phenomena. Operating concentration range of the refrigerant mixture is

determined between 60 to 80% wt. of ammonia. However, enriched ammonia refrigerant leads to

a reduction in its required flow rate for cooling the system as shown in (Figure 8).

The proposed multi-stream exchanger operates with a lower pressure drop and refrigerant flow

rate. The effects of refrigerant temperature and cooling seawater temperature on the required

amount of the refrigerant flow rate are shown in (Figure 9). It is found that the minimum

operating flow rate of the refrigerant is achieved by setting both temperatures at their minimum

points.

CONCLUSIONS

In this study, utilizing a multi-stream condenser instead of two conventional shell & tube

condensers in the DTECD heat recovery system was proposed. The result proved that this

condenser leads improves the exergy efficiency more than 15% and decrease the consumption of

cooling water about 70%. Utilizing enriched ammonia refrigerant needs less flow rate.

Operating the process with the minimum available temperatures of the refrigerant and cooling

seawater leads to less consumption of the refrigerant.

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Nomenclature

A area (m2)

Ac cross section area (m2)

BRN brine

Cp

CND condensate

CO condenser (shell & tube)

dh hydraulic diameter (m)

DIF diffuser

DTECD discharge thermal energy combined desalination

EV Evaporator

f friction factor

F correction factor (this factor for counter flow is equal to 1)

FDW feed water

FRW fresh water

FS flash separator

exegy flow (kJ)

EJ ejector

h heat transfer coefficient of hot side (kJ/m2 C)

H specific enthalpy (kJ/kg)

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Hfg specific latent heat (kJ/kg)

HXMS heat exchanger multi-stream

k thermal conductivity (W/m K)

L exchanger length (m)

LPS low pressure steam

m mass (kg)

mass flow rate (kg/h)

MV motive water

P pressure (kPa)

P100-P102 power of pump

PU pump

heat rate (kJ)

Ru universal gas constant (kJ/kgmol K)

REF refrigerant

REJ rejection

St Stanton number

SW seawater

TB turbine

U overall heat transfer coefficient (kJ/m2 C h)

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V volume (m3)

VAC vacuum

VAP vapor

VD vacuum drum

work (kJ)

WF working fluid

WT working power of turbine

x mole fraction

X vapour quality

Greek Symbols

chemical potential (kJ/kgmol)

exegetic efficiency, %

thickness (m)

density (kg/m3)

Subscripts

0 dead state or initial condition

C cold stream

d destruction

f carrier fluid

g gas

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H hot stream

i inlet

j number of element

o outlet

LM log mean

r refrigerant

sat saturation

sp single-phase

sub sub-cooled

tp two-phase

vapor

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REFERENCES

[1] Eltawil, M.A., Zhengming, Z., Yuan, L., A review of renewable energy technologies

integrated with desalination systems. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, vol. 13, no.9,

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[2] Gude, V.G., Nirmalakhandan, N., Deng, S., Renewable and sustainable approaches for

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[5] Hosseini Araghi, A., Khiadani, M., Hooman, K., Lucas, G., Optimised exergy efficiency

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[6] Hosseini Araghi, A., Khiadani, M., Hooman, K., A novel vacuum discharge thermal

energy combined desalination and power generation system utilizing R290/R600a,

Energy, vol. 98, pp. 215-224, 2016.

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[7] Kronenberg, G., Lokiec, F., Low-temperature distillation processes in single-and dual-

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of plate-and-frame heat exchangers for efficient heat recovery in process industries,

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pp. 1293-1313, 2005.

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[14] Picn-Nez, M., Martnez-Rodrguez, G., Lopez-Robles, J.L., Alternative design

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[17] Sterner, D., Sunden, B., Performance of plate heat exchangers for evaporation of

ammonia, Heat Transfer Engineering, vol. 27 no. 5, pp. 45-55, 2006.

[18] Tboas, F., Valls, M., Bourouis, M., Coronas, A., Flow boiling heat transfer of

ammonia/water mixture in a plate heat exchanger, Int. J. Refrigeration, vol. 33, no. 4, pp.

695-705, 2010.

[19] IIES, Energy Assessment of National Petrochemical Plants (Current and Optimum

Conditions): Energy Demand Sector of IIES, 1st edition, Iran, Hezare ye Sevom Andishe

Publishing Co, 2012.

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State-of-the-Art Review, Heat Transfer Engineering, vol. 33, no. 4-5, pp. 284-300, 2012.

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[21] Picon-Nunez, M., Polley, G.T., Medina-Flores, M., Thermal design of multi-stream heat

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[22] Polley, G.T., Abu-Khader, M.M., Compensating for end effects in plate-and-frame heat

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Inc, New Jersey, 2003.

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heat exchanger networks, Heat Transfer Engineering, vol. 22, no. 6, pp. 3-11, 2001.

[25] Tsatsaronis, G., Thermoeconomic analysis and optimization of energy systems, Progress

in energy and combustion science, vol. 19, no. 3, pp. 227-257, 1993.

[26] Bejan, A., Entropy generation minimization: the method of thermodynamic optimization

of finite-size systems and finite-time processes, CRC Press, Boca Roton, FL,1995.

[27] Dincer, I., Rosen, M.A., Exergy: energy, environment and sustainable development, 2nd

edition, Oxford, UK, Elsevier Ltd, 2012.

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Table 1 Stream properties of the primary DTECD system (Refer to Figure 1)

stream m T P H S

(ton/h) (kPa) (kJ/kg)

LPS 90 134 300 13,246 2.43

CND 90 49 260 15,765 8.73

WF1 195 39.5 3,500 7,446 10.23

WF2 195 130 3,460 6,283 6.90

WF3 46 130 3,460 15,423 7.79

WF4 149 130 3,460 3,448 6.63

WF5 149 90 1,500 3,564 6.58

WF6 195 96 1,500 6,372 6.86

WF7 195 39 1,460 7,450 10.24

SW1 5,000 33 300 15,438 8.95

SW2 1,200 33 300 15,439 8.62

SW3 1,200 75 260 15,264 8.41

FDW 1,290 73 300 15,664 8.43

BRN 1,224 44 9 15,787 8.80

VAP 66 44 9 13,390 1.24

FRW 66 44 9 15,787 8.80

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SW4 3,600 33 300 15,832 8.95

REJ 3,600 46 260 15,788 8.80

MV0 60 33 101.3 15,832 8.95

MV1 60 33.1 1,000 15,831 8.94

MV2 60 33.1 108 15,831 8.94

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Table 2 Stream properties of the proposed multi-stream condenser (Refer to Figure 1)

WF6 SW1 VAP REF1 WF7 SW2 FRW REF2

Temperature (C) 96.4 33.02 29 20 38.2 46 29 25

Pressure (kPa) 1,500 300 4 1,000 1,475 275 4 975

Mass Flow (ton/h) 195 2000 62 103 195 2,000 62 103

Molar Enthalpy
110,332 285,217 285,525 85,264 128,988 284,241 285,525 85,088
(kJ/kgmole)

Molar Entropy
119 161 162 65 177 158 162 64
(kJ/kgmole C)

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Table 3 Specifications of the old and new condensers

HXMS-100 CO-101 CO-102

Duty (kJ/h) 210,677,874.20 211,490,182.18 158,601,107.06

UA (kJ/C h) 44,932,039.81 19,917,454.38 60,021,618.53

Min. Approach (C) 0.20 4.34 0.19

TLM (C) 4.69 10.62 2.64

Hot Pinch Temp. (C) 38.62 37.36 43.79

Cold Pinch Temp. (C) 38.42 33.02 43.59

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Figure 1 Schematic process flows of utilizing a multi-stream exchanger in the DTECD and

Power Cycle (abbreviations are given in the Nomenclature)

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Process Model

No

Feasibility and
validity

Yes
Exergy analysis: Two-phase flow thermo-hydraulic simulation:
Exergy destructions and exergy efficiencies Multi-stream counter-flow heat exchanger

Parametric Optimization

Optimized model

Figure 2 Summarized view of the methodology algorithm

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Hot streams

H1 H2

C1 C2 C1 C2
Counter flow

H1 H2 Cold streams

Figure 3 Temperature distribution model of the counter-flow multi-stream heat exchanger

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(4a) (4b)

Tboiling H1
Single-Phase Zone Two-Phase Zone
Phase change
Tf,i
Tr,o Usp Phase change

x>1 x=1
Tsuperheat Utp Tf,o C1
H2 Phase change
xin<x<1 Tr,i

Asp Atp C2

Figure 4 A schematic views of temperature distribution of phase changes: (a) between

refrigerant single pass and lateral flow (b) integrated model of the proposed multi-stream heat

exchanger

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4.496E+07 0.85 (5a)

UA (kJ/C h)
4.494E+07
Vapor fraction

Ammonia vapor fraction (%)

4.492E+07

inlet refrigeration conditions

4.490E+07
UA (kJ/C h)

4.488E+07 0.80

4.486E+07

4.484E+07

4.482E+07
ammonia mixture (80% wt.) at 1000 kPa
4.480E+07 0.75
15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
Refrigerant Temperature (C)

4.60E+07 1.0 (5b)

4.58E+07 UA( kJ/C h)
Vapor fraction 0.9
4.56E+07
4.54E+07 0.8
4.52E+07 Ammonia vapor fraction (%)
0.7
4.50E+07
4.48E+07 0.6
UA (kJ/C hr)

4.46E+07
0.5
4.44E+07
4.42E+07 0.4
4.40E+07
0.3
4.38E+07
4.36E+07 0.2
4.34E+07 ammonia mixture (80% wt.) at
0.1
4.32E+07 20 C
4.30E+07 0.0
900 950 1,000 1,050 1,100
Refrigerant Presure (kPa)

Figure 5 Effects of the refrigerant properties such as temperature (5a) and pressure (5b) on the

vapor quality and heat performance

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5000
Exergy Destruction (kW)

4000

3000

2000

1000

0
EV100 TB100 CO101 CO102 PU100 PU101 PU102 EJ100

Figure 6 Components exergy destruction in the DTECD system

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90
80
Exergy Efficiency %

70
60
50
89.88
40 74.60 77.91
30
20
10
0
CO-101 CO-102 HXMS-100

Figure 7 Exergy efficiencies of the old and new condensers

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150

Inlet ammonia mixture temperature

140
Refrigeran flow rate (ton/h)

15 C

20 C
130
25 C

120

110
Minimum refrigerant flow

100
60 65 70 75 80

Ammonia concentration in refrigerant (%Wt.)

Figure 8 Effect of ammonia concentration on the refrigerant flow rate

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Flow (ton/h)

Figure 9 Effects of different temperatures on the refrigerant flow rate

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Alireza Hosseini Araghi is currently a PhD candidate of Mechanical

Engineering in the School of Engineering at Edith Cowan University, Australia.

He holds BSc degree in Chemical Engineering and MSc degree in Mechanical

Engineering. He has several years of experience in the field of unit operation, and energy saving

projects. Most of his research areas and publications are related to the energy conversion,

cogeneration, thermal desalination, heat performance and heat recovery systems.

Mehdi Khiadani is Associate Dean of Research at the School of Engineering,

Edith Cowan University, Australia. He has several years of experience in the

academic and consulting professions both in Australia and overseas. His industry

and research contributions include fluid mechanics, water resources, and thermo-

hydraulics and water treatment technologies.

Kamel Hooman is Associate Professor at the School of Mechanical and Mining

Engineering, University of Queensland, Australia. He also is the QGECE

Director (Queensland Geothermal Energy Centre of Excellence). His research

focuses on developing technologies to facilitate the use of renewable energy using theoretical,

numerical and experimental techniques. He works on heat exchangers, which are essential

technology for power generation and energy management.

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Gordon Lucas is Senior Lecturer of process engineering at the School of Engineering, Edith

Cowan University, Australia. He has several years of experiences in the minerals processing

industry working as a process engineer and research chemist. His research interests include the

linkage of renewable energy or waste heat energy for use in desalination systems.

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