Advanced Multiple Effect Distillation Processes for

Nuclear Desalination
Per F. Peterson
Nuclear Engineering Department,
University of California, Berkeley

Haihua Zhao
Idaho National Laboratory

American Nuclear Society Winter Meeting

Albuquerque, NM
November 7th, 2006

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Overview
Introduction to desalination and Multiple
Effect Distillation (MED)
The Advanced MED system for coupling to
closed gas Brayton cycles
Economic analysis
Conclusions

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Where is desalination needed?

UNEP Water Availability Projection for 2025

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Major desalination technologies

There are four different types of desalination plants in existence:

multi-stage flash (MSF),

multi-effect distillation (MED),
multi-effect vapor compression (MEV), and
reverse osmosis (RO).

Currently, a very large desalination plant is 240,000 m3/day (the

capacity of Taweelah A1); to compare, in 2002 water
consumption by the City of San Diego (population 1,256,000) was
800,000 m3/day.
The waste heat from a nuclear power station the same size as the
nearby 2,329 MW(e) San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station,
could potentially provide a quarter of San Diegos current water
supply if it used a closed Brayton cycle for power conversion
with GOR = 2.5.
2.5

0.5( 4800MWt )( 3600sec/hr )(24hr/day)

(2.4MJ/kg)(1000kg/m3 )

= 220,000m3 /day
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Schematic of a conventional MED system, using steam

as a heat source, with four effects stages
Effect 1

Effect 2

Effect 3

Steam
(~105C)

Effect 4

Heat Rejection
Condenser

Seawater
(~15C)

Boiler
Condensate
(~105C)
Brine

Seawater
Condensed
Freshwater

Some basic concepts for MED:

Number of effects
GOR: gain output ratio
Top brine temperature: LT-MED (<90C) and HT-MED (>90C)
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Combining MED with closed gas cycles - AMED

Closed gas Brayton cycles reject heat across a range of
temperatures
Can use this energy without affecting power cycle efficiency
Two desalination cases considered
LT-MED system with TBT about 70C
HT-MED system with TBT about 120C (small efficiency penalty)
Intermediate
Effect 1 Effect 2
cooling
loop supply
(~70C)
Boiler

Brine

Effect 3

Effect 4

Heat Rejection
Condenser

Seawater
(~15C)
Intermediate
cooling
loop return
(~25C)

Seawater
Condensed
Freshwater

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Combining MED with closed gas cycles - AMED

To achieve the same GOR AMED requires roughly twice as many
effects as MED. As shown in the following figure, for the same GOR
and Top Brine Temperature (TBT) the larger number of effects
results in smaller temperature differences across the heat
exchangers, and as a consequence the AMED system will also
require approximately 80% more heat exchanger surface area (a
measure of capital cost) to provide the same GOR.
AMED (n=4, GOR=~2.0)

Tin = Tc1

Tin = Tc1

Tc2

Ts1

Tc3

Ts2
Ts3

Ts4

Intermediate
Tc4 Coolant
Tc5

Ts1
Tout = Tc6

Brine

Conventional MED (n=2, GOR=~2.0)

Steam
Condensate

Brine
Ts2

Condensate
Tseawater

Seawater

Position in heat exchangers

T seawater

Seawater

Position in heat exchangers

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MED using plate-type heat exchangers

Alfa-Laval MED desalination unit using plate

type heat exchangers

Alfa-Laval titanium stamped

plates for MED desalination

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AMED using plate-type heat exchangers

Compact, high surface density, reduced vacuum
vessel size; therefore, potential lower cost
Effect 1

Effect 2

Effect 3

Condenser/Cooler
Intermediate
cooling
loop return
(~25C)
Seawater
(~15C)
Vacuum
Seawater

Intermediate
cooling
loop supply
(~70C)

Brine
Condensed
Freshwater

Schematic diagram of flow inside a plate-type AMED system

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AMED using plate-type heat exchangers

Coolant

Evaporation

Condensation

Schematic gasket configurations for AMED with plate-type heat exchangers

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Economic analysis of coupling closed gas cycles with

AMED (Multiple reheat AHTR case)
The cost of water (COW) from a MED desalination
plant:
Varies significantly with design, size, location, brine water type
and other factors.
For a modern large MED desalination plant, $0.70 per m3
water production can be achieved.
The COW includes water plant installation, thermal energy
cost, capital cost, maintenance cost, electricity cost, and others.
For a MED plant, the electricity cost in COW is only 1% and
can be ignored.
For a tower type MED, the water plant cost is about 37% and
the thermal energy cost is 27% .
For an AMED plant coupling with a closed gas cycle, the
thermal energy cost can be zero if the system is optimized.
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Economic Analysis
As a first-order approximation,
the MED water plant capital
cost can be assumed
proportional to the total heat
transfer area.
A function relating relative
specific heat transfer area with
the number of effects and TBT
can be obtained through
multivariate regression [1].
With the increase of the
number of effects, more specific
heat transfer area is needed for
one effect.
With higher TBT, less specific
heat transfer area is needed for
one effect.

Relative specific heat transfer area per

effect as the function of number of effects
and TBT (142C for HT-MED and 86C for
LT-MED).

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1) Narmine H. Aly, Adel K. El-Fiqi, Thermal Performance of Seawater Desalination Systems, Desalination 158 (2003) 127-142.

Net revenues per day for a combined 1200 MWe power and AMED
desalination plant for a water price of $0.29/m3
LT-MED: 6% net revenue increase with 95,000 m3/day water
HT-MED: 4% net revenue increase with 140,000 m3/day water

Net revenues per day, US$

Low water price, $0.29 per cubic meter

4.0E+05
3.9E+05
3.8E+05
3.7E+05
3.6E+05
3.5E+05
3.4E+05
3.3E+05
3.2E+05
3.1E+05
3.0E+05

HT-MED
LT-MED
Electricity only

10

11

12

Number of effects

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Net revenues per day for a combined 1200 MWe power and AMED
desalination plant for a water price of $0.5/m3
LT-MED:13% net revenue increases with 110,000 m3/day water
HT-MED:14% net revenue increases with 150,000 m3/day water

Net revenues per day, US$

Middle water price, $0.5 per cubic meter

4.0E+05
3.9E+05
3.8E+05
3.7E+05
3.6E+05
3.5E+05
3.4E+05
3.3E+05
3.2E+05
3.1E+05
3.0E+05

HT-MED
LT-MED
Electricity only

10

11

12

Number of effects

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Net revenues per day for a combined 1200 MWe power and AMED
desalination plant for a water price of $0.7/m3
LT-MED:21% net revenue increases with 120,000 m3/day water
HT-MED:24% net revenue increases with 170,000 m3/day water

Net revenues per day, US$

High water price, $0.7 per cubic meter

4.0E+05
3.9E+05
3.8E+05
3.7E+05
3.6E+05
3.5E+05
3.4E+05
3.3E+05
3.2E+05
3.1E+05
3.0E+05

HT-MED
LT-MED
Electricity only

9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

Number of effects

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Conclusions
By using an advanced multi-effect distillation (AMED) system,
the waste heat from closed gas Brayton cycles could be fully
utilized to desalinate brackish water and seawater without
affecting the power cycle thermal efficiency.
For higher water prices, the net revenues from a combined
electricity and LT-AMED plant, could be as much as 20%
greater than the production of electricity alone, without affecting
the electricity efficiency.
Even at relatively low water prices, where the optimal GOR is
relatively small, with an AMED system HTR power stations
would still generate large quantities of desalinated water (90,000
m3/day for a 1200 MW(t) station).

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Back-up

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Closed gas Brayton cycles

Closed gas Brayton cycles have an advantage over steam Rankine power cycles because
closed Brayton cycles reject heat at substantially greater average temperature.
In contrast to a conventional steam system, the cooling water from a closed Brayton
cycle intermediate loop delivers heat across a range of temperatures.
For a turbine inlet temperature of 900C, the net thermal efficiency is 54% for the
configuration with one compression and intercooling for each reheat and expansion
stage. The helium outlet and inlet temperatures in the coolers are 35C/142C.
With two stages of compression and intercooling for each reheat and expansion stage,
the net thermal efficiency is 56%. The intercooler helium inlet temperature for this case
is 86C.
HP

MP

LP

R
T

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Economic Analysis
If we assume $0.70/m3 COW for a regular MED plant with 14
effects and 105C TBT, the specific water cost except for thermal
energy for an AMED system can be estimated by the following
equation:
(ne + 1) 2
TBT


co (ne , TBT ) = cw (1
re
ri )+ cw  ri 
p
n

0
.
5

1
.
8

,


e
K
K
(14 + 1) 2
273
.
15
+
105



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Economic Analysis
The GOR for a modern large MED plant is directly related to the number
of effects and weakly related with TBT. For conventional MED the GOR is
a function of the number of effects. The water production rate can then be
calculated as:
0.5n gor  Q  (1
 )
Qw (n gor , )=
kg
h fg  1000 3
m

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Economic Analysis
The net daily desalination revenues from combined AMED and
electricity production can be calculated from the following
equation:

E w (ne , , TBT , v w ) = Qw (n gor , ) day  (v w
co (ne , TBT ))

Assuming that the electricity price is $0.04 per kWh and the
generation cost is $0.03 per kWh, the net electricity earnings per
day from a large MCGC power cycle can be calculated by:

Ee ( ) =

Q   day
 (0.04
0.03)
kW  hr

The total earning per day for a combined power and MED
desalination plant then is

E (ne ,
, TBT , v w ) = E w (ne ,
, TBT , v w )+ Ee (
)

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