Desalination 235 (2009) 340351

A simulation model and parametric study of MEDTVC process

R.K. Kamalia*, A. Abbassia, S.A. Sadough Vaninia
Mechanical Engineering Department, Amir Kabir University of Technology,
Hafez Ave., P.O. Box 15875-4413, Tehran, Iran
Tel. +98 (21) 64543409; Fax +98 (21) 66419736; email: kouhikamali@aut.ac.ir
a

Received 4 January 2007; accepted revised 28 January 2008

Abstract
The present work summarizes the MEDTVC (multi effect desalination with thermal vapor compression)
technique associated with the state of the art of modern desalination. In addition, a computer simulation model for
all types of evaporation processes is presented. This program provides engineers with cost-effective tools for
designing, developing and optimizing thermal desalination plants. It is the objective of this article to develop a
mathematical model which would predict the influence of all factors on heat transfer coefficients, temperature and
pressure, total capacity and performance ratio of the system under design and operating conditions. The transient
nature of temperature during the seasons is modeled by ordinary differential equations based on mass and energy
balance. Heat exchangers and thermo-compressor are designed based on the results of mass and energy balance.
The validated model is further used to test the effect of variations in certain parameters in the process in order to
investigate their influence on the total capacity of the plant. By means of parametric study, the computer simulation
tool developed will help designers to achieve the best setting for the desalination process to minimize energy
consumption. The comparison between the simulation results and experimental data well proves the program validity.
Keywords: Desalination; Multi-effect; Thermal vapor compression; Parametric study; Optimization

1. Introduction
The need for high quality water has significantly increased during the second half of the last
century. It has been a complex task to develop an
effective process without actual testing which
usually requires costly test procedures. The desalination industry is very important for several
*Corresponding author.

countries and zones around the world, especially

the countries around the Persian Gulf, such as Iran.
Expansion in desalination industry is associated
with reduction in power consumption. Today, thermal desalination processes account for more than
65% of the production capacity of the desalination industry [1].
The authors very strongly believe that thermal desalination processes, especially multi-effect desalination (MED), is one of the best meth-

0011-9164/09/$ See front matter 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved
doi:10.1016/j.desal.2008.01.019

R.K. Kamali et al. / Desalination 235 (2009) 340351

ods for desalting seawater to achieve very low

conductivity which is very useful in power plants.
For this reason, a general computer code for MED
type of desalination has been developed and is
currently used by a number of Iranian companies.
El-Dessouky and Ettouney [2], Jernqvist et al. [3]
and Ettouney [4] developed a simulation code for
the MED system with shell and tube evaporators.
The present work deals with both shell and tube
and plate type evaporators and in addition, thermocompressor and ejectors are designed too.
2. Mathematical modeling
A schematic of the MEDTVC system is
shown in Fig. 1. The system consists of several
evaporators, a condenser, and a thermo-compressor. In each effect, two phase flow inside the
evaporators is modeled by mathematical equations
to account the pressure drop and flow specifications [57].

Fig. 1. Schematic of the MEDTVC system.

341

In mathematical modeling, at first mass and

energy balance equations were been developed
for the system and then heat exchangers, thermocompressor and ejectors were designed based on
the results of mass and energy balance.
2.1. Mass and energy balance
2.1.1. First effect mass and energy balance
As shown in Fig. 2, the mass and energy balance for thr first effect is as follows:
B1

F1  D1

(1)

D0

S  Dr

(2)

X B B1

X F1 F

D0 u Ls

F1 u C p TF , X F  u T1  TF 

 D1 u L1

(3)

(4)

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R.K. Kamali et al. / Desalination 235 (2009) 340351

The total desired product can be considered as

follows:
D

(8)

i 1

2.1.3. Mass and energy balance for the condenser

As shown in Fig. 3, part of vapor generated in
the last effect is passed through condenser and is
condensed by seawater intake to the system. In
this process, seawater which is used as feed water
of effects is preheated. The extra seawater which
is passed inside the condenser should be rejected.
The mass and energy balance for the condenser
can be calculated as follows:
Fig. 2. Effect as a control volume.

The heat capacitance was estimated as a function of temperature and salinity and defined as
[8].

Df

Dn  Dr

(9)

Mc

Ft  R

(10)

Ft

(11)

i 1

2.1.2. Mass and energy balance for other effects

D f u Ln

The vapor generated in each effect was passed

through demisters and entered the next effect to
heat transfer to the feed seawater. Then condensed
water was produced. Therefore, mass and energy
balance for each effect can be considered as follows:

Latent heat is estimated as a function of temperature.

Bn

Mc u CpF u  TF  Tsw 

F  D 
i

(5)

i 1

 X Bn 1  X Fn  u Fn

Dn u X Bn

(6)

n 1

Dn 1 u Ln 1   Fi  Di  u CpB
i 1

(7)
u  Tn 1  Tn  Fn u CpF u Tn  TF   Dn u Ln

Fig. 3. Condenser as a control volume.

(12)

R.K. Kamali et al. / Desalination 235 (2009) 340351

343

It should be noted that the following assumptions are applied to solve these equations:
1) To achieve the optimum operating conditions,
the temperature difference between all units is
assumed to be equal [9].

'T

TS  TF
N 1

T1

TS  'T

Ti

Ti 1  'T

(13)
(14)
i

2 N

(15)

2) To avoid the sediment in each effect, the ratio

of the total feed per distilled water is set based
on Eq. (16) [10]:

F1
D1n

X B1
X B1  X F 1

(16)

2.2. Evaporators and condenser design

Evaporators are the main part of desalination
units. Therefore, it is very important to design
them as cost-effective and more efficient.
Two types of configurations applied in desalination plants are conventional shell and tube and
plate type evaporators. Plate type evaporators is
a new technology and they have a compact and
portable system.
2.2.1. Shell and tube evaporators
To design shell and tube evaporators, some
parameters should be calculated, such as tube size
(diameter and length), number of passes and number of tubes.
Fig. 4 illustrates the design algorithm which
was used to determine these parameters and finalize the evaporator design.
2.2.2. Plate type evaporators
For being compact, easy to clean, efficient and
more flexible, the gasket plate type heat exchangers are widely employed in desalination processes.

Fig. 4. Shell and tube evaporators design algorithm.

To design a plate type heat exchanger, some parameters have to be calculated number of
plates, plate size, chevron type, size of gap between the plates and so on. The design algorithm
for the plate type evaporator is illustrated in Fig. 5.
2.2.3. Shell and tube condenser
Part of vapor generated in the last effect is
passed through the condenser and condensed by
the seawater intake to the system inside the tubes.

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R.K. Kamali et al. / Desalination 235 (2009) 340351

2.3. Thermo-compressor and ejectors

Fig. 5. Plate type evaporators design algorithm.

The design algorithm for the condenser is illustrated in Fig. 6.

The condenser is usually shell and tube type
in the MED system which has the same design
algorithm as shell and tube evaporators in general,
but the effect of non-condensable gases on the
heat transfer coefficient should be considered as
resistance during the design algorithm, and, in
addition, the allowable pressure drop for seawater
as single phase liquid inside the tubes is considered
according the maximum allowable velocity inside
the tubes that is mentioned in TEMA standard.

Thermal desalination systems operate at pressures lower than the atmospheric pressure. Therefore, using vacuum devices in these systems is
unavoidable. Ejectors and thermo-compressors are
common thermal devices which can provide
vacuum required for these systems.
It should be noted that the thermo-compressor
is one kind of ejectors. The ejector is a pumping
device which uses jet action of a high pressure
and temperature primary motive steam to entrain
and accelerate a slower secondary steam (load).
Due to the simplicity of design and the absence
of motive parts, ejectors are very reliable, require
practically no maintenance and have a relatively
low installation cost. The ejectors are powered by
heat, which is low-grade energy and it is obviously less expensive to run than electrical or mechanical-related power. The steam required for the
jet ejector is commonly drawn from boilers. These
devices are used in vapor compression desalination systems as a heat pump. A thermo vapor compression desalination unit mainly comprises a
steam jet ejector, a single or multi effect evaporator, and a condenser. The thermo compressor is
used to compress the vapor from pressure Ps
(which is the vapor pressure leaving the last effect or condenser depending on the system design) to P1 (which is the vapor pressure entering
the first effect) by using an external source of
steam at a pressure Pe greater than the vapor pressure.
Two types of ejectors are usually used in the
systems. They are hogging ejector and NCG ejector. The first one provides the initial vacuum of
the system and the second one discharges noncondensable gases (NCG) from the system.
The ejector design can be classified into two
categories which are known as constant-area mixing ejector and constant-pressure mixing ejector.
In this case, the ejectors and thermo-compressor
were designed based on the constant-pressure
mixing ejector [11,12]. The thrmo-compressor and
ejectors design flowchart is shown in Fig. 7.

R.K. Kamali et al. / Desalination 235 (2009) 340351

345

Fig. 6. Shell and tube condenser design algorithm.

3. Simulation algorithm
Finally, the algorithm of the thermo-hydraulic
design of the MEDTVC system can be considered as shown in Fig. 8.
The program is modular in structure and includes

a number of modules for evaporators, condensers,

thermo-compressor, steam jet ejectors, etc.
Each module has its own mathematical model.
The program also includes a comprehensive database for the physical properties of seawater.
There is a library containing correlations for heat

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R.K. Kamali et al. / Desalination 235 (2009) 340351

Inputs: m P , Pp, K P , Tp, Ps, Ts, m s

Calculate nozzle throat and nozzle outlet diameters.

Determine number of required nozzles.

Set Mach number of the nozzle outlet equal to 3.5 and calculate
the nozzle outlet diameters, then determine the number of
required nozzle (usually 3)

Set the Mach number of secondary flow at the inlet of mixing

section equal to 1 and calculate the pressure and temperature of
both of streams, and determine the diameter of constant area
section.

By assuming "constant pressure mixing ", calculate the flow

condition before shock (Pressure, Mach number...)

Calculate flow condition after Mach number, and its condition at

the outlet of ejector,
By means of diameter of constant area, determine the lengths of
mixing section, constant area section and diffuser section

Fig. 7. Thermo-compressor and ejectors design algorithm.

transfer coefficients of different heat transfer surfaces and flow regime [1315].
4. Results and discussion
4.1. Simulation results
A sample system with a capacity of 1200 m3/d
fresh water is designed by the computer simula-

tion code. Table 1 shows the result of thermo hydraulic design of MED-TVC system with shell
and tube heat exchangers, also a verification between design data and actual data is done and
shown in this table, and Table 2 shows these results for MED-TVC system with plate type evaporators, unfortunately there isnt any available system in order to verify these data with them, but it

R.K. Kamali et al. / Desalination 235 (2009) 340351

347

Fig. 8. Thermohydraulic design algorithm.

Table 1
Design and actual data for MED system with shell and tube evaporator

Parameter

Design

Actual

Total distilled product, ton/d

Seawater temperature, C
Motive steam, ton/d
Motive steam temperature, C
Feed water temperature, C
Number of effects
Motive steam per entrained steam
Performance ratio
Number of tubes in each effect
Effects tube length, m
Effects tube diameter, cm
Number of condenser tubes
Condenser tube length, m
Condenser tube outer diameter, cm
Boiler pressure, barg
Boiler temperature, C
Throat nozzle diameter, cm
Nozzle outlet diameter, cm
Constant area diameter, cm
Shell diameter, m
Shell length, m

1200
35
178.2
62.5
44
4
1.12
6.73
2059
4.1
28.57
1481
3
19.05
12
188
2.3
13
43
3.2
16

1200
35
192
62.3
43.8
4
1.15
6.25
2228
4.1
28.57
1463
3
19.05
12
188
2.3
13
47
3.2
16

Deviation (%)

4
7
7

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R.K. Kamali et al. / Desalination 235 (2009) 340351

a compact and portable system, it is convenient

to use plate type evaporators.

Table 2
Design data for MED system with plate type evaporator
Parameter

Design

Total distillated product, ton/d

Seawater temperature, C
Motive steam, ton/d
Motive steam temperature, C
Feed temperature, C
Number of effects
Motive steam per entrained steam
Performance ratio
Number of plates in each effect
Plate length, m
Plate width, m
Gap between plates, cm
Number of condenser tube
Condenser tube length, m
Condenser tube outer diameter, mm
Throat nozzle diameter, cm
Nozzle outlet diameter, cm
Constant area diameter, cm
Shell diameter, m
Shell length, m

1200
35
177.7
188
44
4
1.12
6.75
168
1.822
1.242
1
1481
3
19.05
2.3
13
43
3.2
8

4.2. Parametric study

It is appropriate to consider the effect of parameters involved in the system. Performance ratio (PR) is the ratio of the amount of distillated
product to steam flow rate. It is the objective of
this program to predict these effects. The effectiveness of the number of effects and variation in
the inlet steam temperature in the first effect on
the performance ratio is shown in Figs. 9 and 10.
It is clear that by changing the number of effects the heat transfer area will change as well.
The effect of concentration factor (Xb/XF) on
the performance ratio at different number of effects is observed in Figs. 11 and 12.
It is clear that by changing the number of effects the heat transfer area will change as well.
The effect of the number of effects on the ratio of the motive steam per entrained steam is
shown in Fig. 13.
Finally, by the parametric study it was concluded that:
The performance ratio will increase with increasing the number of effects and the heat
transfer area.
The performance ratio will increase with decreasing the steam temperature through the first
effect.

is nice to note here that a new system is going to

be built based on plate type MED-TVC design
data which are shown in Table 2. It should be noted
that condenser is considered as a shell and tube
heat exchanger. According to these two systems
dimensions in these tables, it is obviously clear
that plate type evaporator is more compact than
shell and tube type, it is concluded that to achieve
9
8

PR

7
6
5
4
3
2
3

Number of Effects

Fig. 9. Variation of performance ratio with the number of effects.

10

11

12

R.K. Kamali et al. / Desalination 235 (2009) 340351

349

9
No=4

No=5
No=6

PR

No=7

No=8

No=9

4
3
2
40

45

50

55

60

65

70

75

Ts [ C]

Fig. 10. Variation of the performance ratio with the first effect steam temperature at different numbers of effects.

PR

8
7.5

No=4

No=5

6.5

No=6

No=7

5.5

No=8

No=9

4.5
4
3.5
3
0

0.5

1.5

2.5

3.5

Xb /XF [%]

Fig. 11. Variation of the performance ratio with the concentration factor at different numbers of effects.

The performance ratio will increase with increasing the concentration factor.
The ratio of the motive steam per entrained
steam will increase with increasing the number of effects and the heat transfer area.
5. Conclusions
The simulation model provides an effective
tool for engineers to design a MEDTVC system with any desired capacity.
The simulation model provides an effective

tool for engineers to evaluate the performance

ratio of the system.
The method of parametric study is an appropriate tool to estimate the optimum parameters.
Plate type evaporators make the system compact and portable rather than shell and tube
type.
Symbols
B
CP

Mass flow rate of brine blow down, m3/h

Capacity coefficient, kJ/kg C

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R.K. Kamali et al. / Desalination 235 (2009) 340351

M
m
P
PR
R
S
T
X
P

9
Xb/XF=1.3

8.5
8

Xb/XF=1.4
Xb/XF=1.5

7.5
7

Xb/XF=1.7
Xb/XF=2
Xb/XF=3

PR

6.5
6
5.5
5
4.5
4

Mass flow rate of sea water, m3/h

Mass flow rate
Steam pressure
Performance ratio
Mass flow rate of rejected water
Mass flow rate of the motive steam, m3/h
Temperature of the effect, C
Salt concentration, ppm
Nozzle efficiency

Subscripts and superscripts

3.5
3
3

10

11

Number of Effects

Fig. 12. Variation of the performance ratio with the number of effects at different concentration factors.

40
35

B
f
F
i
n
p
s
sw
T

Brine
Condenser product
Feed
Index
Number of effects
Primary steam
Motive steam
Seawater
Total

30
S/Dr

25

Acknowledgment

20
15
10
5
0
3

10

11

12

Number of Effects

Fig. 13. Motive steam per entrained steam vs. the number of effects.

D
D0
Dr
F
L

Mass flow rate of the distillate product,

m3/h
Mass flow rate of steam entering the first
effect, m3/h
Mass flow rate of the entrained steam,
m3/h
Mass flow rate of seawater feed to the
effects, m3/h
Latent heat, kJ/kg

This paper belongs to the Fan-Niro Company

(Tehran, Iran), so we appreciate their cooperation,
and, additionally, we thank Bonian-Daneshpajouhan Institute (Tehran, Iran) and our co-workers particularly Mrs. Mahmoudi, Mrs. Saadatmand
and Mrs. Alishiri.
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