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Energy Conversion and Management 56 (2012) 192–198

Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect

Energy Conversion and Management

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/enconman

Feasibility study of a new two-stage low temperature desalination process

Veera Gnaneswar Gude a,⇑, Nagamany Nirmalakhandan b, Shuguang Deng c, Anand Maganti d
a
Civil Engineering Department, Oregon Institute of Technology, 3201 Campus Drive, Klamath Falls, OR 97601, USA
b
Civil Engineering Department, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM, USA
c
Chemical Engineering Department, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM, USA
d
Department of Transportation, 703 B Street, Marysville, CA, USA

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This paper presents the preliminary field test data of a two-stage low temperature phase-change desali-
Received 18 September 2011 nation process. The process under development operates at low temperatures and low pressures gener-
Received in revised form 29 November 2011 ated by local barometric head. A two-stage configuration of this process was developed and tested at a
Accepted 30 November 2011
field site in the Puget Sound bay area of the State of Washington. The field test results proved that the
two-stage desalination process has potential for standalone small to large scale applications in water
and energy scarce rural areas with specific energy consumption of 1500 kJ/kg of freshwater. Economical
Keywords:
analysis conducted on the desalination system results in desalination costs around $3/m3 using a cheap
Low temperature desalination
Energy recovery
waste heat source purchased at $0.5/GJ. Since, most small scale domestic desalination systems are
Multi-stage operation designed in combination with a renewable energy source; when this desalination system is powered
Low grade heat source by a low grade flat plate solar collector heat source, the desalination costs are less than $7/m3 which falls
Solar collectors in acceptable range for small scale desalination systems of similar capacity.
Waste heat Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction generation cycles, they require minimum source temperatures in

Desalination technologies regardless of the principle of opera-
tion whether thermal or membrane based, have adopted strategies
over the past few decades to reduce the energy consumption per
volume of freshwater produced. These strategies include energy
recovery and recycling within the process components, enhanced
water recovery, and process hybridization [1]. These strategies have
enabled thermal desalination technologies to operate with a spe-
cific energy consumption in the range of 10–25 kW h/m3 (multi-
stage flash distillation – MSF, multi-effect distillation – MED and
mechanical vapor compression – MVC) and membrane technolo-
gies between 3 and 8 kW h/m3 (reverse osmosis – RO with and
without recovery and Electrodialysis Reversal – ED-R) [2]. Although
these results seem very encouraging, considering present global en-
ergy scenario and mounting freshwater demands due to dwindling
water resources, energy component for the desalination technolo-
gies still poses a major challenge for long term sustainability of
these technologies. As the price of prime energy increases with de-
mand, utilizing low grade heat sources or process waste heat seems
to be an attractive alternative to power thermal desalination tech-
nologies. While mature technologies such as MSF and MED which
cover 44% and 42% of the worldwide capacity, have the potential
to use the reject heat sources such as reject steam from power
⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 530 751 6061.
E-mail address: gudevg@gmail.com (V.G. Gude).
the range of 80–120 °C and operate at large scale production capac-
ities for economic feasibility [3]. It has almost become unimagin-
able to construct standalone thermal desalination plants for this
reason, except by merging with power generation. Yet, there are
many other processes such as domestic air-conditioning systems,
diesel generators and process cooling water streams that release
waste heat in the temperature range of 50–80 °C. Developing new
thermal desalination technologies which utilize these waste heat
sources can be a sustainable alternative since the energy compo-
nent of the desalination process is provided without causing any
environmental harm and without using any more precious energy
and water resources.
The first low temperature desalination process was solar still
and another one was humidification–dehumidification process.
Several studies reported improvements and modifications on these
low temperature processes [4–10]. Low temperature desalination
at reduced pressures using low grade heat sources such as process
waste heat were also reported previously [11–13]. Low tempera-
ture evaporation of saline water using process waste heat from nu-
clear plants was studied previously [14]. Feasibility of utilizing low
grade heat source from a salinity gradient solar pond was also re-
ported [15]. Low temperature streams with a temperature of only
8 °C above the ambient seawater temperature can be utilized for
desalination [16]. Recently, a low temperature thermal desalina-
tion (LTTD) unit was developed by the National Institute of Ocean
Technology, India which exploits the temperature differences

0196-8904/$ - see front matter Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.enconman.2011.11.026
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V.G. Gude et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 56 (2012) 192–198
Nomenclature
A surface area, area of evaporation chamber (m2)
cp specific heat (kJ/kg K)
hL(T) latent heat at temperature T (kJ/kg)
I solar insolation (kJ/h m2)
LMTD log mean temperature difference
m mass flow rate (kg/h)
M total daily mass of distillate (kg)
Q heat flow rate, energy stored (kJ/h)
T temperature (°C)
U heat transfer coefficient (kW/m2 °C)
Greek symbols
k latent heat
available in surface level and deep sea level temperatures to
achieve flash distillation under vacuum. The specific energy con-
sumption for 1 m3 of freshwater is 8 kW h with production costs
around 0.65/$/m3 [17,18]. In another study, use of ambient energy
harvested by low cost building roof materials was reported by Virk
et al. A roof area of 26 m2 delivered a constant energy flow of
10 kW to produce 0.32 m3 of freshwater in a day [19]. In all these
processes, the low temperature evaporation was accomplished at
near-vacuum conditions in the evaporators by applying mechani-
cal energy through vacuum pumps.
The low temperature desalination system under development
in this study uses low grade renewable or process waste heat
sources to provide for freshwater needs. The working principle of
this process is to create a natural vacuum within the evaporation
and condensing chambers, thus causing freshwater evaporation
at low temperatures and near-vacuum pressures [20]. Al-Kharab-
sheh and Midilli have presented few theoretical analyses and lim-
ited experimental validations of mathematical models [21–23].
Later, this process was studied on a continuous flow basis using di-
rect solar energy, photovoltaic energy, grid energy and low grade
heat sources [24–26]. Technical possibility of combining the low
temperature desalination process with the waste heat source from
a domestic air-conditioning system was studied through theoreti-
cal simulations to produce 108 L per day of [26]. In this study, we
have evaluated the performance of the two-stage operation of the
low temperature desalination process using a low grade heat
source. Economic analysis of the proposed process and other feasi-
ble process configurations for better energy utilization and recov-
ery are presented.
2. Development of the two-stage low temperature desalination
system
2.1. Description of low temperature desalination system
The physical principle behind generation of natural vacuum and
operation of the low temperature desalination system was de-
scribed in our previous studies [25,26]. A schematic arrangement
of the two-stage low temperature desalination system based on
the natural gravity and barometric head principles is shown in
Fig. 1. Components of the desalination system include two evapo-
ration chambers (EC #1 & 2), two horizontal tube condensers (in-
side tube vapor condensation), one heat exchanger (EC #1), and
three barometric columns for each stage. These three columns
serve as the saline water column; the brine withdrawal column;
and the freshwater column, each with its own holding tank, SWT,
BT, and FWT, respectively.
193
Subscripts
a ambient
b1, b2 brine tank 1 and 2
c condenser
e, EC evaporation chamber
f1, f2 freshwater tank 1and 2
h heat source, heat exchanger
i in
l, l1,l2 heat losses from stages 1 and 2
o out
p pressure
s saline water
S1, S2 saline water tank 1 and 2
w water, withdrawal
The Evaporation chambers are installed atop the three columns
for each stage at a height of about 10 m above the ground level to
create vacuum pressures naturally in the headspaces of the feed,
withdrawal, and desalinated water columns. This configuration
drives the desalination process without any mechanical pumping
once in operation except for the initial start-up of the process
[23,24]. The saline water enters the evaporation unit through the
saline water columns S1 and S2 and the concentrated brine is re-
moved from the evaporation chambers through columns B1 and
B2 to maintain constant salt concentration in the evaporation
chambers. A low grade heat source (domestic hot water boiler of
10 kW capacity) is supplied through the heat exchanger in evapo-
ration chamber #1. As the freshwater evaporates and condenses on
the condensing surface and brine withdrawn from the evaporation
chambers, an equal amount of saline water will replenish the sal-
ine water evaporation levels. Further, by maintaining constant lev-
els of inflow and outflow rates in SWT, BT and FWT, the system can
function without any energy input for fluid transfer within the
desalination system. The heat input to the evaporation chamber
can be provided by low grade heat sources such as process waste
heat, solar ponds, solar collector systems, geothermal waters and
nuclear reactor waste heat streams.
The system shown in Fig. 1 operates on a principle similar to a
multi-effect boiling desalination process. Water vapors generated
in the evaporation chamber #1 are allowed to pass through a bun-
dle of condenser tubes arranged in the second evaporation cham-
ber to recycle the latent heat associated with the water vapor to
cause evaporation in the next chamber. The process shown in
Fig. 1 recycles latent heat in a two-stage low temperature desalina-
tion configuration. A water-cooled final condenser is used to con-
dense and collect the freshwater from evaporation chamber #2.
The latent heat associated with water vapor can be recycled in as
many stages as possible depending on the heat source tempera-
tures. The final condenser can be used as a pre-heater to the evap-
oration chamber #1 to supply feed saline water at an elevated
temperature to reduce the process energy requirements. Alterna-
tively, a tub-in-tube heat exchanger can be arranged to recover
the heat from concentrated brine flow using incoming saline water
in both the stages.
2.2. Theoretical analysis of the two-stage configuration
Steady-state mass and energy balances can be written as fol-
lows for the two-stage operation of the low temperature desalina-
tion process [27]. The variables are defined in the nomenclature.
Stage I:
Mass balance on the saline water:
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194 V.G. Gude et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 56 (2012) 192–198

Fig. 1. Schematic of two-stage low temperature desalination process.

ms1 ¼ mf 1 þ mb1 ð1Þ 3. Experimental studies

Energy balance on the evaporator:
3.1. Benefits of low temperature desalination
Q i ¼ ms1 C ps1 ðT EC1  T s1 Þ þ mf 1 kf 1 þ Q l1 ð2Þ
Benefits of low temperature desalination can be listed as fol-
lows: higher thermodynamic efficiency, shorter start up periods,
where Qi is the heat energy supplied through the heat exchanger
lower specific energy consumption, lower scaling rates, and low
and can be quantified as:
capital costs. Experimental results obtained in a single stage low
temperature desalination process operation are summarized in
Q i ¼ mh C ph ðT hi  T ho Þ ð3Þ
Fig. 2. Fig. 2a shows the temperature profile of the low temperature
Stage II: desalination system over 24 h period powered by a low grade heat
Mass balance on the saline water: source of 60 °C. Fig. 2b shows the specific energy requirements for
freshwater production at evaporation temperatures in the range
ms2 ¼ mf 2 þ mb2 ð4Þ
45–60 °C. The specific energy requirements increase with evapora-
Energy balance on the evaporator: tion temperatures due to higher sensible heat requirements and
higher heat losses to the ambient which result in lower desalina-
mf 1 kf 1 ¼ ms2 C ps2 ðT EC2  T s2 Þ þ mf 2 kf 2 þ Q l2 ð5Þ
tion efficiencies as shown in Fig. 2c. The start-up periods also in-
Heat transfer rate in the first effect can be written as follows: crease significantly with increase in evaporation temperatures
mh C ph ðT hi  T ho Þ ¼ U h Ah ðLMTDÞh ð6Þ (Fig. 2d). Freshwater production rates reach steady state operation
in 150 min for evaporation temperature of 45 °C whereas it takes
Heat transfer rate in the second effect can be written as follows: 300 min for steady state operation at 60 °C. Although, these results
mf 1 kf 1 ¼ U c1 Ac1 ðLMTDÞc1 ð7Þ depend on the experimental conditions applied in each study, the
trend is justified and can be applied to any small to large scale
Heat transfer area of the condensing/evaporating tubes in stage applications.
II can be calculated as:
mf 1 kf 1 3.2. Performance of two-stage low temperature desalination
Ae ¼ ð8Þ
U c1 ðLMTDÞc1
Two-stage operation of the low temperature desalination was
Water condenser energy balance: performed at a facility in the State of Washington with feed water
mf 2 kf 2 ¼ mc2 C pc2 ðT f 2  T c2 Þ ¼ U c2 Ac2 ðLMTDÞc2 ð9Þ from the Puget Sound bay area. The seawater temperatures ranged
between 15 and 20 °C with salinity of 26,000 ppm. The evaporation
Heat transfer area of the final water condenser in stage II can be chambers were filled with seawater initially to create vacuum con-
calculated from: ditions naturally in the head spaces by allowing saline water to
drain through the barometric columns and collect in the saline
mf 2 kf 2 water tank. Site glasses and side level gauges were arranged to
Ac ¼ ð10Þ
U c2 ðLMTDÞc2 view the level of the seawater in the evaporation chambers. Once
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V.G. Gude et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 56 (2012) 192–198 195

Fig. 2. Summary of benefits for low temperature phase-change desalination process.

the vacuum was created and the flow rates were adjusted between
the brine and saline water pipelines, heat source medium was cir-
culated through the heat exchanger in the first evaporator. The
evaporator design was essentially a submerged horizontal tube
type evaporator. A serpentine type heat exchanger was designed
for evaporation chamber #1 to supply the heat source as well as
to provide the evaporation surface area. The vapors generated from
evaporation chamber #1 are allowed to pass through the sub-
merged tube bundle arranged horizontally at an inclination to
achieve condensation of vapors as well as to provide heat source
to the evaporation chamber #2. Water vapor generated due to
evaporation in the second stage was allowed to pass through a
water cooled condenser.
The detailed design parameters for the two-stage desalination
system are given in Table 1. The heat source temperatures tested
were in the range of 50–70 °C. Process parameters such as flow
rates, pressures and temperatures were measured and collected
through a PLC program controller. Temperature profiles of the
two-stage low temperature desalination system with a heat source
Table 1
Experimental design specifications for the low temperature desalination unit.
Parameter Stage
#1
Evaporation chamber diameter (m) 0.6
Condenser shell diameter (m)
Condenser tube diameter (m) 0.0254
Evaporator heat transfer area (m2) 1.5
Length of the evaporators (m) 1 1
Thermal conductivity of the heat exchanger/condenser 0.0163
tubes (kW/m °C)
Intake salt water temperature (°C) 17
Feed water salinity (ppm) 26,000
temperature of 65 °C are shown in Fig. 3a. Saline water tempera-
tures in the first evaporation chamber varied between 55 and
58 °C and the corresponding water vapor temperatures varied be-
tween 54.5 and 57 °C due to boiling point elevation difference. As it
can be seen from Fig 3a, the saline water quickly reached steady-
state operating temperatures within 2 h from the start-up. The sal-
ine water temperatures in the second evaporation chamber also
rose along with the first stage and reached steady-state operation
in around 5 h. The saline water and corresponding water vapor
temperatures varied between 45–47 °C and 44–46 °C as shown in
Fig. 3a. Fig. 3b shows the operating pressures for both the evapora-
tion chambers. The pressures in the evaporation chambers were
0.12 and 0.1 atmospheres in evaporation chamber #1 and #2
respectively. Once natural vacuum was created in the evaporation
chambers, the near-vacuum operating pressures were naturally
maintained within the system due to the barometric head columns
and due to continuous supply and withdrawal of the fluids from
the evaporation chambers. However, a vacuum pump was neces-
sary to release the accumulated non-condensable gases from the
evaporation chambers to maintain the evaporation rates. The vac-
uum pump was only used for less than 15 min daily during the
process operation. Quantity of the heat source supplied to the
evaporation chamber #1 and heat source temperature profiles
are presented in Fig. 3c. The inlet and outlet temperatures of the
Stage heat source were 64 °C and 60 °C respectively in the serpentine
#2
heat exchanger. A heat source flow rate of 35 L/min was used in
0.6 this set of experiments. The heat transfer rate from the heat source
0.2
0.0125
flow was between 7 and 9 kW which was calculated from Eq. (3).
1.5 Freshwater production rates from evaporation chambers #1 and
#2 are shown in Fig. 3d. The average freshwater production rate
0.0163 for the first stage was 0.189 L/min while the average production
rate from stage 2 was 0.16 L/min. The specific energy consumption
for this two-stage process was 1500 kJ/kg. High quality freshwater
was produced with TDS (Total Dissolved Solids) less than 20 ppm.
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196 V.G. Gude et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 56 (2012) 192–198

Fig. 3. Performance profiles for two-stage low temperature desalination process.

The freshwater quality did not change with changes in any of the increases the heat transfer rates significantly. This enables the
process parameters such as heat source temperature. A small dif- process to operate at higher heat transfer efficiencies. The issue
ference in freshwater production rate was observed with change of scaling is minimal in the evaporation temperature range of the
in withdrawal rates as some sensible heat was carried out by the process since the problem scalants such as CaSO4 do not readily
withdrawing fluid. The measured heat transfer rate coefficients form under evaporation temperatures of 80 °C [29]. Falling film
for the heat exchanger and condensers 1 and 2 in the two stages and flash type designs have lower scaling issues than the sub-
were calculated as 1310 w/m2 °C, 1630 w/m2 °C and 1840 w/ merged type. Pre-treatment of the feed water is recommended to
m2 °C respectively for this set of experiments. As the heat source avoid fouling issues due to biological growth on the evaporative
temperature increased the freshwater production rate also in- and condensing heat transfer surface areas.
creased. The first and second stages energy efficiencies were 90% Further, the process can be modified to operate in a multi-effect
and 86% respectively. This difference was due to some of the heat flash low temperature desalination configuration principle under
recovered from the first stage was utilized to rise the sensible heat natural vacuum. A schematic of the multi-effect flash process is
of the water in the second stage.
Although low temperature evaporation requires large heat
transfer areas (25% more heat transfer area at 60 °C than at
100 °C) due to limited available thermal gradients, it allows for
use of low cost heat transfer materials such as aluminum and nick-
el cost alloys [28,29]. The cost of waste heat is much lower com-
pared to high quality waste heat and often the waste heat
sources are freely available. In addition, even if high grade heat
source is available, multi-effect operation may not be feasible for
all domestic applications due to the high capital cost and large foot
print requirements.

3.3. Possible energy recovery configurations

The process in this study was designed to operate in two stages.

However, more stages can be included with increased heat transfer
area for higher freshwater production rates. The design in this
study was a submerged-tube evaporator type in which the heat
transfer rate as well as boiling rate may be affected by the presence
saline water convection currents and continuous rise of vapor bub-
bles over the heat transfer tube bundle. A revision of the design is Fig. 4. Multi-stage, vertical type low temperature desalination process
to consider a flash type or falling film type evaporator which configuration.
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V.G. Gude et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 56 (2012) 192–198 197

shown in Fig. 4. To reduce the footprint of the process, the stages Total annual costs can be calculated including the capital, operat-
can be arranged in a vertical order with higher evaporation tem- ing, replacement, energy and chemical costs as shown below [27]:
perature chambers positioned at a lower level than the lower evap-
oration temperature chambers since near-vacuum pressures are Atotal ¼ Afixed þ Areplacement þ AO&M þ Aenergy þ Achemical ð12Þ
created at the top level. The feed saline water enters the top evap- Unit product cost can be calculated from:
oration chamber after recovering the heat from the brine stream
and the final condenser. The feed water passes from one stage to Atotal
the other by gravity before it is withdrawn at the bottom. This pro- Aunit ¼ ð13Þ
ðf  MÞ  365
cess operates exactly in an opposite working principle of MSF pro-
cess where the operating pressures and temperatures decrease where a is the amortization factor, n is the life time of the plant, i is
progressively along the stages. Additionally for small scale domes- the annual interest rate (%), f is the plant availability and M is the
tic low temperature desalination systems, it is feasible to design quantity of produced water (kg). Energy costs include both thermal
air-cooled condensers to reduce pumping requirements for cooling and mechanical energy required for heating in the evaporation
water. Freshwater evaporated in the evaporation chamber can be chamber and pumping the fluids in the process. Pumping calcula-
allowed to pass through the finned type air-cooled condenser [26]. tions include the mechanical energy consumption for the high vac-
uum pump to release the non-condensable gases from the
4. Economic analysis evaporation chambers and the heat source and cooling medium cir-
culation. For thermal energy cost calculations two types of heat
Economic analysis was conducted on the two-stage desalina- sources were considered: (1) cheap waste heat source purchased
tion process for a freshwater production capacity of 0.5 m3/d. De- at $0.5/GJ; and (2) flat plate solar collector area of 45 m2 with a
tails of the cost parameters and calculation details are provided freshwater production capacity of 6 L/m2 d [32]. As shown in Table
in Table 2. Desalination costs are determined based on the assump- 2, the capital cost for the desalination process with a cheap waste
tion that the investment is financed at an annual interest rate of 5% heat source is $5350/m3 d, a value comparable to a recent study
over the lifetime of 25 years for the desalination system [30,31]. ($5435/m3 d) for small scale reverse osmosis systems [33]. How-
The following equations can be used to calculate unit cost of the ever, the cost of the unit increased to $11,000/m3 d
desalinated water produced from the two-stage low temperature (45 m2 @ $120/m2) when the heat source is provided by solar col-
desalination system. lectors. Since solar thermal collectors supply energy only during
Amortization factor can be calculated from the following sunlight hours, a thermal energy storage unit is required to store
equation: thermal energy when the supply is high [34]. This additional energy
ið1 þ iÞn is recovered from the TES to utilize in the desalination unit during
a¼ ð11Þ non-sunlight hours. Additional cost due to inclusion of thermal en-
ð1 þ iÞn  1
ergy storage unit, pumps and fittings is estimated at around $1500.
Thus, total cost of the desalination unit using solar thermal collec-
tors as heat sources is $12,500. Unit desalinated water costs for both
Table 2
cases are $3/m3 and $6.7/m3 respectively. Table 3a provides a gen-
Desalination cost analysis for the proposed process. eral comparison with conventional thermal desalination processes
in terms of thermal and mechanical energy requirements and their
Process unit # Units Unit cost ($) Cost ($)
specific cost range [2]. Very small desalination plants (<20 m3/d),
Evaporation chambers 2 750 1500 irrespective of thermal or membrane processes, are usually pow-
Heat exchanger 1 500 500
Condensers 2 750 1500
ered by renewable energy sources such as solar or photovoltaic col-
Centrifugal pumps 2 200 400 lectors or wind turbines. The production costs of these systems are
Vacuum pump 1 300 300 reported in the range of $1.5–18/m3 [35]. The desalination costs for
Storage tanks 6 150 900 this process fall in this acceptable range of production costs. A spe-
Valves and fittings – – 250
Total capital costs 5350
Process using waste heat
Operation and maintenance costs 10% Of capital amortization Table 3b
Replacement costs 10% Of capital amortization Desalination cost comparison with other desalination processes.
Waste heat cost GJ 0.5
Electricity cost kW h 0.1 Process Capacity (m3/d) Cost ($/m3)
Process using solar collectors Solar still 0.5–1 12–12.50
Operation and maintenance costs 10% Of capital amortization Multi effect distillation (MED, solar) 85 7–10
Replacement costs 10% Of capital amortization PV-reverse osmosis 1 12.05–15.60
Thermal storage tank (TES) 1 1000 1000 Membrane distillation (solar) <1 13–18
Pump between collectors and TES 1 300 300 PV-thermal desalination (single stage) <1 12.9
Valves and fittings – – 200 Low temperature desalination 0.5 3–7

Table 3a
General desalination energy and cost comparison with other desalination processes.

Process Stages Heat energy (MJ/m3) Mechanical energy (kWh/m3) Heat energy type Energy cost Water cost ($/m3)
Heat ($) Electric ($/kWh)
MSF 15–25 200–400 3–4 Fuel-fired 1.5–2a 0.1 <2
MED 10–15 150–300 2–3 Fuel-fired/waste heat 1–1.5a 0.1 0.75–1.5
This process 2 1500 <1 Waste heat 0.1–0.5b 0.1 3
a
$/ton steam.
b
$/GJ.
 Author's personal copy
198 V.G. Gude et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 56 (2012) 192–198
cific comparison of the desalination costs with other desalination
processes is shown in Table 3b [30,31].
5. Conclusions
A two-stage low temperature desalination process was devel-
oped and evaluated in this study. The proposed process utilizes
mechanical energy only for circulation of heat-transferring fluids
and reduces the consumption of prime electrical energy due to
the natural vacuum created and maintained in the system by nat-
ural gravity and barometric head. Experimental studies proved the
feasibility of the stand alone operation of the process in a double
stage configuration. In a double stage configuration, the specific
energy consumption of the process was 1500 kJ/kg (1500 MJ/m3)
of thermal energy and less than 3.6 kJ/kg (1 kW h/m3) of mechan-
ical energy. Although, thermal energy requirements seem quite
large, this can be provided by low grade heat sources that would
otherwise be wasted, thus resulting in a minimum energy cost.
Thermal energy requirements can be further reduced by incorpo-
rating multi-effect design and mechanical energy requirements
by utilizing air-cooled condensers. Economic analysis conducted
on the process with heat energy from a cheap waste heat source
and a solar powered heat source support the feasibility of the pro-
cess. This process is suitable for satisfying the in-house process
water requirements of coastal industries where low grade heat
sources are available, and for using the waste heat releases from
domestic air-conditioning systems in the arid regions where brack-
ish water sources are abundant. The two-stage low temperature
process developed in this study can be considered as a sustainable
process as it eliminates the atmospheric pollution caused by fossil
fuels.
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