Applied Energy 91 (2012) 466474

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Applied Energy
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Low temperature desalination using solar collectors augmented by thermal energy storage
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 Civil Engineering Department, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM 88003, USA c Chemical Engineering Department, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM 88003, USA d Department of Transportation, 703 B Street, Marysville, CA, USA
b

a r t i c l e

i n f o

a b s t r a c t
A low temperature desalination process capable of producing 100 L/d freshwater was designed to utilize solar energy harvested from at plate solar collectors. Since solar insolation is intermittent, a thermal energy storage system was incorporated to run the desalination process round the clock. The requirements for solar collector area as well as thermal energy storage volume were estimated based on the variations in solar insolation. Results from this theoretical study conrm that thermal energy storage is a useful component of the system for conserving thermal energy to meet the energy demand when direct solar energy resource is not available. Thermodynamic advantages of the low temperature desalination using thermal energy storage, as well as energy and environmental emissions payback period of the system powered by at plate solar collectors are presented. It has been determined that a solar collector area of 18 m2 with a thermal energy storage volume of 3 m3 is adequate to produce 100 L/d of freshwater round the clock considering uctuations in the weather conditions. An economic analysis on the desalination system with thermal energy storage is also presented. 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Article history: Received 10 April 2011 Received in revised form 15 September 2011 Accepted 12 October 2011 Available online 9 November 2011 Keywords: Low temperature desalination Renewable energy Solar collectors Thermal energy storage Energy and carbon dioxide emissions

1. Introduction Desalination using solar energy is an ancient method of producing freshwater. Evidence of Greek sailors, in the 15th century, using solar distillation equipment to convert the seawater into freshwater has been reported [1]. Solar energy is a self-renewable resource which can be easily captured and harvested as thermal energy for many benecial uses. However, the concern with the solar energy is that it is intermittent in nature and its intensity depends on the hour of the day and local weather conditions. One of the solutions to utilize uctuating solar energy on a continuous basis is to incorporate thermal energy storage (TES) system [2]. Energy accumulation, storage and supply are the key elements of thermal energy storage concept which result in better economics, resource management and lower environmental emissions of a variable energy source powered desalination system. TES helps manage the energy resource when supply and demand are mismatched. Three types of TES systems are in commercial use; (1) sensible heat storage, (2) latent heat storage, and (3) thermo chemical storage systems [3]. The most widely used TES is the sensible heat storage system which stores energy by changing the temperature of the storage medium which is either water, air, rock beds,
Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 541 885 1903.
E-mail address: gudevg@gmail.com (V.G. Gude). 0306-2619/$ - see front matter 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.apenergy.2011.10.018

or sand [4]. Water is cheap, chemically stable and has a higher heat capacity compared to many other uids such as oils, air or rock beds. The amount of energy stored by a sensible heat storage system is proportional to the difference between the storage input and output temperatures, the mass of the storage medium and the mediums heat capacity [5]. The energy stored in the TES system can be used for variety of applications depending on the temperature of the medium; for example, TES temperatures in the range of 6080 C are suitable energy sources for low temperature desalination and TES temperatures in the range of 100400 C are suitable for power generation, as well as cooling and other industrial process applications [69]. The energy input can be provided by solar collectors, parabolic trough collectors and process waste heat releases. In this research, a new low temperature desalination process has been developed to utilize low grade heat sources such as waste heat releases, solar or geothermal energy sources. Since, the process operates at lower temperatures, energy losses and hence energy requirements for desalination are reduced. As this process utilizes renewable energy and waste heat releases, it does not directly contribute to any greenhouse gas emissions, and can be considered a sustainable process. The objective of the present work is to design a continuous ow low temperature desalination system operated by a thermal energy storage tank powered by a solar collector system. In a previous study, we have reported the use of a

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Nomenclature A C c E Ex h F I m M Q P S U v q t T area (m2) concentration (%) specic heat (kJ/kg K) amount of energy supplied (kJ) exergy (kJ/h) latent heat, heat source (kJ/kg) heat removal factor (dimensionless) (%) solar insolation (kJ/h m2) mass of water (kg) cumulative freshwater (kg) energy or useful energy (kJ/h) pressure (Pa) entropy (kJ/K) heat loss/transfer coefcient (kJ/h m2 K) volume of the saline water or storage tank (m3) evaporation energy (kJ/h) time (h, s) temperature (K)

q g
W

density (kg/m3) energy efciency (%) exergy efciency (%)

Special characters am experimental coefcient (kg K0.5/m2 Pa s) f concentration factor ()

Subscripts 1 TES temperature 2 evaporation chamber temperature a ambient c collector Comb combined DES desalination EC evaporation chamber i,in inlet, supply e evaporation, electrical l,ls,L latent, losses, load r,R recycle, ratio s, sc saline water, supply, surface, solar, collectors, TES t total TES thermal energy storage th thermal

thermal energy storage system to run the low temperature desalination system round the clock by storing the reject heat from the condenser of a domestic air-conditioning system [10,11]. Thermodynamic advantages of low temperature desalination and experimental validation of utilizing direct solar energy, low grade heat source and photovoltaic energy have also been reported previously [1215]. Here, we present thermodynamic advantages of low temperature thermal storage (see Appendix A) and evaluate the need of a TES for the solar collector system considering variations in daily solar insolation patterns and passing cloud effects. Energy and emissions payback time periods for the solar collectors are also discussed. In addition, an economic analysis of the solar powered desalination system augmented by thermal energy storage is presented.

2. Description of the low temperature desalination system The premise of the proposed approach can be explained by considering two barometric columns at ambient temperature, one with freshwater and another with feed water. The barometric columns contain the head equivalent to the local atmospheric pressure creating a vacuum in the headspace. Due to the natural vacuum generated by this process, the head space of these two columns will be occupied by the vapors of the respective uids at their respective vapor pressures. If the two head spaces are connected to each other, water vapor will distill spontaneously from the freshwater column into the feed water column because, the vapor pressure of freshwater is slightly higher than that of feed water at ambient temperature. However, if the temperature of the feed water column is maintained slightly higher than that of the fresh water column to raise the vapor pressure on the feed water side above that of the fresh water side, water vapor from the feed water column will distill into the fresh water column (see Fig. 1). A temperature differential of about 1020 C is adequate to overcome the vapor pressure differential to drive the desalination process (Fig. 1). Such low temperature differentials can be achieved using low grade heat sources such as solar energy, waste process heat and thermal energy storage systems.

A schematic arrangement of the low temperature desalination system based on the above principles is shown in Fig. 2. Components of this unit include an evaporation chamber (EC), a natural draft condenser; two heat exchangers, and three barometric columns. These three columns serve as the saline water column; the brine withdrawal column; and the desalinated water column; each with its own holding tank, SWT, BT, and DWT, respectively. The EC is installed atop the three columns at a height of about 10 m above the ground level to create a vacuum naturally in the headspaces of the feed, withdrawal, and desalinated water columns. This conguration drives the desalination process without any mechanical pumping once in operation except for the initial start-up of the process [16,17]. The saline water enters the evaporation unit through a tube-in-tube heat exchanger (1, 2). The temperature of the head space of the feed water column is maintained slightly higher than that of the desalinated water column. Since the head spaces are at near-vacuum level pressures, a temperature differential of 10 C is adequate to evaporate water from the feed water side and condense in the distilled water side (35). In this

Fig. 1. Vapor pressures of fresh and saline waters at low temperatures.

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heat sources to the TES as discussed in the previous section and is written as:

Q EC ms cs T s T EC

where ms, cs, and Ts, are the mass ow rate, specic heat and temperature of the water from the TES and TEC is temperature of the saline water in the evaporation chamber.

Desalination efficiency is defined as g where hLT 3:146 2:36T 273

MhLT

RQ EC Dt

5 6

Evaporation rate as a function of pressure and temperature [18]:

" m3 AEC k fC EC

pT EC T EC 2730:5

pT 5 T 5 2730:5

# 7

where pT exp63:02 7139:6=T 273 6:2558 InT 273 102 Pa 8

Fig. 2. Low temperature desalination system driven by solar collectors.

The above equations are solved using Extend (ImagineThat Inc.) simulation software. Details of heat transfer relations for evaporation chamber and condensation surface, and heat losses by convection and radiation are presented elsewhere [11,19]. 2.2. Solar collectors and thermal energy storage (TES) Flat plate solar collectors supplying low grade heat in the range of 6080 C can be used to drive the proposed desalination system during sunlight hours (Fig. 2). The sensible heat stored in the TES can provide the heat source to the evaporation chamber during non-sunlight hours. Heat balance across the solar panel can be written as [20]:

manner, saline water can be desalinated at about 4050 C, which is in contrast to the 6080 C range in traditional solar stills and other distillation processes. This conguration enables brine to be withdrawn continuously from the EC through HE1 preheating the saline water feed entering the EC (6, 7). Further, by maintaining constant levels of inow and outow rates in SWT, BT and DWT, the system can function without any energy input for uid transfer within the desalination system. The heat input to EC is provided by thermal energy storage (TES) tank through a heat exchanger HE2 which in turn is fed by a solar collector system. Mechanical pumping is necessary to transfer the uids between the solar collector and TES tank and between the TES tank and desalination system. 2.1. Modeling of the low temperature desalination system Mass and heat balances around the evaporation chamber (EC) yield the following coupled differential equations, where the subscripts refer to the state points shown in Fig. 2. The variables are dened in the Nomenclature. Thermodynamic benets of low temperature desalination with thermal energy storage are presented in Appendix A. Mass balance on volume of water in EC:

dmcTSC F R AC saIS U L T SC T a Q s dt

where Qs is the solar energy harvested by the solar collectors and stored in the TES tank and is given as:

Q s mR cR T SC T S

10

where mR and cR are the mass ow rate of the collector uid and TSC is the temperature of the water exiting the solar collector and TS is the temperature of TES tank. The energy balance on the TES can be written as [21]:

d mcTS Q S Q EC Q ls dt

11

d qV m2 m6 m3 dt
Mass balance on solute in EC:

where ms is the total mass of water in the TES, cs and Ts are as dened earlier; QS is the solar energy supplied by solar collectors and Qls energy losses from the TES. 3. Results and discussion Results obtained from the modeling studies are presented in this section. A discussion is presented on the need of thermal energy storage based on the theoretical results followed by the discussion of the energy and emissions pay back periods for domestic solar collector system. 3.1. Performance of the low temperature desalination system Temperature proles of the desalination system driven by solar collectors are shown in Fig. 3a for both evaporation and solar collector areas of 1 m2.The TES temperatures reach a maximum value

d qVCEC m2 C 2 m6 C 6 dt
Energy balance for volume of water in EC:

d qVC p TEC Q EC mcp T2 mcp T6 m3 hLT Q l dt

where QEC is the rate of energy input (load on the TES) to the EC and Ql is the rate of energy loss from the EC. m1, m2, m3 refer to saline water ow streams, m4 and m5 refer to water vapor and freshwater, and m6 and m7 refer to ow rates of brine solution in the system at the process points respectively. The energy input, QEC, to the evaporation chamber can be supplied by solar collectors, photovoltaic thermal collectors, geothermal water sources and process waste

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Fig. 3. Low temperature desalination system driven by solar collector; (a) temperature proles, (b) energy utilization, (c) daily production rates, and (d) desalination efciency.

of 57 C during sunlight hours and evaporation temperatures reach a maximum of 45 C. The maximum ambient temperature during this test period was 34 C. The energy supplied from the TES and the energy utilized for evaporation are shown in Fig. 3b. From the hourly freshwater production rates and cumulative product shown in Fig. 3c, it can be deduced that a daily product of 6.5 7 L can be produced for 1 m2 evaporator and 1 m2 solar collector areas. These results are comparable to a previous study by AlKharabsheh and Goswami [17]. This output is more than two fold of a typical solar still [22]. In another study, a solar still was incorporated with PV/T hybrid collectors which produced about 7.9 L/d for 4 m2 collector area. The system, however, suffers from variations in daily solar insolation as thermal energy storage unit is not provided [23]. The evaporation efciency of this proposed process ranged between 60% and 90%, most of the time in the range of 7590% as shown in Fig. 3d while the exergy efciency of the desalination ranged between 50% and 70%. The TES volume used in this simulation was 0.1 m3. Excluding thermal energy storage system, a solar collector area of 15 m2 is sufcient on a typical summer day to produce about 105 L/d of freshwater. For the same desalination capacity, the hourly and daily freshwater production rates with

inclusion of a thermal energy storage unit are shown in Fig. 4. Solar collector area and TES volumes required for this application are 18 m2 and 3 m3 respectively. As it can be seen from Fig. 4, freshwater production rates for this case approach steady state only after 72 h of operation. The freshwater production rate was lower during initial hours as some of the energy supplied from the solar collectors is utilized to increase the sensible heat of the total volume of the water medium in TES. Stabilized freshwater production rate for this conguration was 104 L/d. 3.2. Use of thermal energy storage system The need for thermal energy storage tank was evaluated through simulations considering different TES volumes. Fig. 5 shows TES performance for two different volumes (1 m3 and 6 m3) over 168 h (7 days). TES temperatures uctuate in response to the daily solar insolation and ambient temperatures in both cases. TES temperatures for a volume of 1 m3 respond quickly to changes in the solar insolation and ambient temperatures with considerably low sensible heat available for desalination during non-sunlight hours. Temperatures during sunlight hours reach as

Fig. 4. Low temperature desalination system driven by solar collectors (TES volume: 3 m3, solar collector area: 18 m2).

Fig. 5. TES performance over 7 days (168 h).

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high as 6568 C and fall down to as low as 3035 C during nonsunlight hours. TES temperatures for a TES volume of 6 m3 respond slowly to the daily solar insolation and ambient temperatures increasing the sensible heat of the bulk of the water in the tank. For this tank volume, the TES water temperature during non-sunlight hours was around 4548 C which is still an adequate heat source for evaporation during non-sunlight hours enabling 24 h operation. The maximum and minimum TES temperatures are shown in Fig. 6 for different TES volumes in the range 16 m3. From Fig. 6, it can be observed that as the TES volume increases the heat source available for non-sunlight hour operation increases. Relationship between solar collector areas in connection with the TES volumes is presented in Fig. 7. It is obvious that, for xed freshwater production rate of 100 L/d, the solar collector area requirement is higher for higher TES volumes because sensible heat losses to the ambient from the TES tank are to be provided by the same solar collector area. Therefore, the collector area required for 1 m3 TES volume is 15 m2 which is increased by 25% and 40% for TES volumes of 3 m3 and 6 m3 respectively. Hourly and daily freshwater production rates for a xed solar collector area (15 m2) over 21 days of operation are shown in Fig. 8. At the end of 7 days of operation, the average daily freshwater production for TES volume of 1 m3 remained at 100 L/d and for TES volume 6 m3 at 68 L/d. It should be noted that the average freshwater production rates continue to increase for the TES volume of 6 m3 and reach 86 L/d at the end of 21 days of operation. From these simulations, the maximum TES temperatures for TES volume 1 m3 remained at 68 C whereas for TES volume 6 m3 the temperatures increased from 53.8 C to 54.5 C at the end of 21 days of operation. This indicates that the energy stored in the TES is available for longer periods of time enabling continuous and stable freshwater production rates. Therefore, to determine the optimum solar collector areas, long term performance of the TES needs to be considered. The conguration with no or small TES volumes will suffer from the variations in daily solar insolation and ambient temperatures. High TES volume may initially result in lower freshwater production rates but with continued operation, productivity will be increased. For small TES volumes freshwater production rates cease during non-sunlight hours leaving the unit idle for 3350% of the day. If high storage volume of TES is a constraint, freshwater has to be stored in water tank for rest of the day, cloudy and rainy day needs as well. Continuous operation allows for downsizing the desalination unit and reduces the equipment cost. Batch operation requires large evaporation area and equipment with higher costs. Continuous process mode is easily adaptable to other low grade waste heat sources and can be scaled to large applications to provide freshwater for small rural communities.

Fig. 7. TES volume effect on solar collector area and freshwater production rate.

Fig. 8. TES volume effect on daily production rates and cumulative product over 21 days.

3.3. Effect of solar energy variation on thermal energy storage and desalination system The effect of passing clouds on different TES volumes was investigated. One cloudy day per week was considered over 3 weeks. The freshwater production rate is lower than 50% for the system without thermal energy storage unit. As can be seen from Fig. 9; the average daily production over 21 days of operation decreases from 100 L/d to 92 L/d (a reduction of 8%) for TES volume of 1 m3 with a solar collector area of 15 m2. For the same collector area, the reduction in average daily production over 21 days is from 93 to 87 (a reduction of 6.5%) and 8681 L/d (a reduction of 5.8%) for TES volumes of 3 m3 and 6 m3 respectively. Considering the performance on the cloudy days alone, the reduction in the daily product amount was 10063, 9367, and 8675 L/d which are 37%, 28% and 13% reductions as shown in Fig. 9. The hourly freshwater production rates decreased from 7.5 to 4.6, 5.13.5, and 4.5 3.5 L/h for TES volumes 1, 3 and 6 m3 respectively, the smallest variation being observed for TES tank with volume of 6 m3. Similar comparison for different TES volumes with a solar collector area of

Fig. 6. Effect of TES volume on TES and EC temperature proles.

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where freshwater supply is required round the clock, advantage of having a TES can be very signicant in energy conservation, energy, cost savings and environmental emission reductions. 3.5. Energy and environmental emissions payback period of solar collectors The prime energy consumption to produce a solar collector of area 1 m2 and the supporting frame is about 7 GJ excluding the storage tank which needs to be determined separately for each application [24,25]. The solar collector area in this study is 18 m2. The total energy consumption for the solar collectors production is 126 GJ. If the annual useful thermal energy harvested by the total solar collector area is 99 GJ (basis: 5.5 GJ/m2 year) which is used for desalination in this application. Considering the pumping energy required in the active solar collector system (between the solar collector system-TES and TES-Desalination system), the prime energy payback period of the solar collector system is under 2 years [24,25]. The global warming potential (GWP) of a solar collector of 1 m2 area is estimated to be around 721 kg eq. CO2. Annual CO2 eq. emission savings due to thermal energy generated by solar collectors is estimated as 407 kg eq. CO2 (basis: specic global warming factor of 0.0657 kg eq. CO2 per MJ of useful thermal energy). The CO2 emissions for the solar collectors production is around 13 tons. Therefore, the global warming potential of the solar collectors for the proposed system will be recovered in less than 2 years with the annual CO2 eq. emission savings of 7.326 tons [24]. This data supports the clean idea of utilizing renewable energy harvested by solar collectors for low temperature desalination. 3.6. Economic analysis of combined system with and without TES Economic analysis of the low temperature desalination system powered by a solar collector system was performed for two cases; (1) desalination unit with a TES tank, and (2) desalination unit without a TES tank. Cost requirements of the desalination system for the two cases are compared in Table 1 [26,27]. Desalination system costs are determined assuming that the investment is nanced at an annual interest rate of 5% over the lifetime of 20 years for the desalination system [28,29]. The following equations can be used to calculate the unit cost of the desalinated water produced from the desalination system with and without thermal energy storage tank. Amortization factor
i1i a 1in 1
n

Fig. 9. TES volume effect on daily production rates and cumulative product over 21 days with cloudy day effects.

18 m2 was done for 21 days of operation. Based on this analysis, cloudy day production increased for TES volume of 6 m3 from 75 L/d (15 m2 solar collector area) to 88 L/d (18 m2 solar collector area). The hourly production rates also higher for this conguration. As shown in Fig. 10, the solar collector area requirements based on 21 days operation are 6% and 13% only compared to 7 days operational performance analysis, 25% and 40% for TES volumes of 3 and 6 m3 respectively. 3.4. Summary The characteristic feature of thermal energy storage is to store the energy for longer periods and supply it when the heat source is limited or not available. The TES with volume 1 m3 was not able to accumulate the energy as the mass of the medium was smaller compared to the TES with volume 3 m3 or 6 m3. This condition could be even worse for a system without a thermal energy storage unit. Temperatures in the TES with lower volume will be higher with higher heat losses to the ambient. With large TES volumes, the available energy is higher during non-sunlight hours to continue the desalination round the clock. The economics of incorporating thermal energy storage has to be evaluated case-by-case basis. For large applications, for example, small rural communities or hospitals,

Annual capital and operating costs

Unit product cost

Atotal Afixed Areplacement AOM Aunit Atotal f M365

Fig. 10. TES volume effect on solar collector area and freshwater production rate over 21 days.

where a is the amortization factor, n is the life time of the plant, i is the annual interest rate (%), f is the plant availability and M is the quantity of produced water (kg). Based on the above analysis (interest rate: 5%, life time: 20 years and plant availability of 90%), the costs for the desalinated water are determined to be 1.4 /L or 14 $/m3 and 1.32 /L or 13.2 $/m3 respectively for desalination system with and without thermal energy storage tank system. When lifetime of the system is considered as 25 years, the costs for the desalinated water are determined as 1.17 /L or 11.7 $/m3 and 1.1 /L or 11.0 $/m3 respectively which are well accepted values for a small scale desalination system. Although, the desalinated water cost is slightly higher for the system with a TES, advantages of continuous, uninterrupted water supply regardless of weather conditions is a major benet for the system with TES tank.

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Table 1 Economic analysis of the low temperature desalination system with and without a TES tank. Item Evaporator Evaporator heat exchanger Condenser Tube-in-tube heat exchanger PVC pipes Pipe ttings Storage tanks Supporting structure Labor Solar collectors Description 1 m2 cross sectional area 1.27 cm copper tube, 10 m long 15 cm copper tube with ns 1.27 cm inside copper tube, 2.54 cm outside PVC tube PVC tube of 1.27 cm diameter and 30 m long Four, 40 L capacity 32 ft high structurea $100/m2 TES tank volumeb Water storage Pumps Estimated cost ($US) with TES 400 30 200 25 30 20 100 500 1800 800 0 300 5105 Description 2 m2 cross sectional area 1.27 cm copper tube, 20 m long 20 cm copper tube with ns 2.54 cm inside copper tube, 5.08 cm outside PVC tube PVC tube of 2.54 cm diameter and 30 m long Four, 40 L capacity 32 ft high structurea Estimated cost ($US) w/o TES 800 60 500 50 50 40 100 300 1500 0 100 200 4450

a b

Existing support structure. Installed storage cost is included.

Fig. A1. Low temperature sensible heat storage (TES) systems: (a) TES at 90 C; (b) TES at 60 C.

Table A1 Thermodynamic performance of low temperature desalination using thermal energy storage. Unit TES tank A (90 C) Component TES DES Combined TES DES Combined Energy (%) 78.3 87.5 68.5 87.6 93.8 82.1 Exergy (%) 68.7 83 57.1 69.1 83 57.3 Entropy (kJ/K) 6 0.7 6.7 2.1 0.2 2.3

thermal energy storage has been studied theoretically. Thermodynamic advantage of a low temperature desalination system using thermal energy storage tank has been evaluated. 1. The study conrmed that thermal energy storage plays an important role in managing the variable energy resource to maintain the performance of the desalination system during non-sunlight hours and cloudy days. 2. Results show that a low temperature desalination system designed to produce 100 L/d of freshwater would require a solar collector area of 15 m2 with 1 m3 of TES volume or 18 m2 with 3 m3 of TES volume. This additional area of the solar collectors helps the TES to accumulate the excess energy which can be stored and supplied on a cloudy day or low solar insolation day.

TES tank B (60 C)

4. Conclusions Feasibility of round the clock operation of a low temperature desalination system powered by solar collectors with the use of

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3. The energy and environmental emissions payback period of the desalination system powered by solar collectors can be less than 2 years which very well supports the idea of utilizing the solar collectors for low temperature desalination. 4. Thermal energy storage can improve the economics of the combined system and reduce the environmental emissions. However, the economics of incorporating TES has to be evaluated case-by-case basis and the benets of having the TES can be very signicant in applications where freshwater production is required on a continuous basis.

Exin ms cs T 1 T 2 T 0 lnT 1 =T 2 Exout mk1 T 0 =T EC

A1:8 A1:9

Second law (exergy) efciency of the combined system can be found from:

wComb

Exout Exin Exin mh ch T h T 1 T 0 lnT h =T 1

A1:10 A1:11 A1:12

Exout mk1 T 0 =T EC

Appendix A A1. Thermodynamics of the low temperature desalination using TES The advantage of low temperature desalination can be illustrated using the First law efciency and the Second law efciency. The First law (energy) efciency of the TES can be expressed as:

gTES

Q out ms cs T 1 T 2 mh ch T h T 1 Q in

A1:1

where Qin is the energy supplied to the TES by a hot stream of mass ow rate mh, specic heat ch and inlet and outlet temperatures of Th and T1 respectively. Qout is the energy supplied by the TES to the desalination system with a mass ow rate ms, specic heat cs and inlet and outlet temperatures of T2 (evaporation temperature TEC) and T1 respectively. First law (energy) efciency of the desalination system (DES) can be found from:

gDES

mkT EC ms cs T 1 T 2

A1:2

where m is the mass of the freshwater produced, k is the latent heat of the freshwater at the evaporation temperature TEC which is same as T2. First law (energy) efciency of the combined system can be found from:

gComb

mkT EC mh ch T h T 1

A1:3

The Second law (exergy) efciency of the TES can be found from [30]:

wTES
where

Exout Exin

A1:4

Exin mh ch T h T 1 T 0 lnT h =T 1

A1:5

[Thermal exergy associated with the heat source ow stream can be written as: mh{(hh h1)To(sh s1)}. Substituting the following relations for hh and sh; the above expression can be obtained.hh = ho + ch (ThTo) and sh = so + ch ln(Th/To)] [3033] and

Exout ms cs T 1 T 2 T 0 lnT 1 =T 2

A1:6

where To is the ambient temperature which is taken as 293.15 K (20 C). Exin is the exergy supplied to the TES from the variable energy source, and Exout is the exergy delivered from the TES. Second law (exergy) efciency of the DES can be found from [30]:

wDES
where,

Exout Exin

A1:7

The application of the above equations in demonstrating the advantage of using low temperature thermal energy storage system (TES) for desalination is illustrated by considering two identical sensible heat storage tanks, A and B each of volume 1 m3 and at ambient temperature of 20 C. Assume that these TES tanks operate through a cycle of charging, storing, and discharging steps as shown in Fig. A1, each tank receiving 41,750 kJ of thermal energy over a cycle from an external heat source. Tank A is maintained at 90 C (by an external heat source owing at mh, and Th of 1000 kg/h and 100 C for 1 h) and B is maintained at 60 C (by an external heat source owing at mh, and Th of 1000 kg/h and 70 C for 1 h). Consider a case where this heat energy is stored for 12 h before it is put to use. Assuming a heat loss coefcient of 0.5 W/ m2 K and a surface area of 6 m2; the heat loss from the tank A is 9072 kJ and the heat loss from tank B is 5184 kJ (note: losses during charging and discharging are ignored). Due to the heat loss from the tanks, the TES temperatures at the end of 12 h storage are 87.8 C and 58.8 C for tanks A and B respectively. Now, after storage for12 h, the available energy in the two TES tanks A and B are 32,678 kJ and 36,566 kJ respectively; suppose this energy is used to heat the evaporation chambers ECs, in the low temperature desalination system to maintain the two evaporation chambers, X and Y at evaporation temperatures 80 C and 50 C respectively to produce freshwater (with ow rates of 335 and 332 kg/h respectively). Assuming that the available energy was supplied in a time period of 3 h, the heat loss from the ECs X and Y are 972 kJ and 486 kJ respectively, assuming a heat loss coefcient of 0.5 W/m2 K and a surface area of 3 m2. Freshwater produced from X and Y are 12.4 kg and 14.4 kg respectively (considering the minimum amount of energy required to increase the sensible heat from 20 C and the latent heat to evaporate freshwater in the ECs X and Y at 80 C and 50 C as 2563 and 2508 kJ/kg respectively). From the above analysis, it can be noted that the First law efciency of the combined TES-Desalination system is higher for the tank B (TES: 87.6%, DES: 93.8%, Combined: 82.1%) than for tank A (TES: 78.3%, DES: 87.5%, Combined: 68.5%; Table A1). However, the Second law efciency of the tank A (TES: 68.7%, DES: 83%, Combined: 57.1%) and tank B (TES: 69.1%, DES: 83%, Combined: 57.3%) are comparable because the availability in the TES tank A is higher due to higher storage temperature. It should be noted that the second law efciency for the desalination system is comparable in both cases because of negligible exergy destruction in the system. As a result, it can also be noted that the combined system exergy efciency is comparable or slightly higher for tank B than tank A. This analysis is based on once-through desalination process where the heat source is passed through the desalination process only once. If the exergetic value of the condensation energy is considered for further work, to cause evaporation in the next evaporation chamber as in the case of multi-effect conguration, the available energy (exergy) in the water vapor at higher condensation temperatures (TES tank A) will be higher and can be reused many times compared to the available energy (exergy) at lower condensation temperatures (TES tank B). This analysis has been performed only to provide an understanding that the low grade

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V.G. Gude et al. / Applied Energy 91 (2012) 466474 [3] Dincer I, Dost S. A perspective on thermal energy storage systems for solar energy applications. Int J Energy Res 1996;20:54757. [4] Kaygusuz K. The viability of thermal energy storage. Energy Resour 1999;21:74555. [5] Dincer I. On thermal energy storage systems and applications in buildings. Energy Build 2002;34:37788. [6] Herrmann U, Kearney DW. Survey of thermal energy storage for parabolic trough power plants. J Sol Energy Eng 2002;124:14552. [7] Kaushik ND, Bansal PK, Sodha MS. Partitioned solar pond collector/storage system. Appl Energy 1980;7:16990. [8] Cavallaro F. Fuzzy TOPSIS approach for assessing thermal-energy storage in concentrated solar power (CSP) systems. Appl Energy 2010;87(2):496503. [9] Hasnain SM, Alabbadi NM. Need for thermal-storage air-conditioning in Saudi Arabia. Appl Energy 2000;65(14):15364. [10] Gude VG, Khandan NN. Combined desalination and solar-assisted airconditioning system. Energy Convers Manage 2008;49:332630. [11] Gude VG, Khandan NN. Desalination using low-grade heat sources. ASCE J Energy Eng 2008;134(3):95101. [12] Gude VG, Khandan NN. Desalination at low temperatures and low pressures. Desalination 2009;244(13):23947. [13] Gude VG, Khandan NN, Deng S. Low temperature process to recover impaired waters. Desalination Water Treat 2010;20:28190. [14] Gude VG, Khandan NN. Sustainable desalination using solar energy. Energy Convers Manage 2010;51:224551. [15] Gude VG, Khandan NN, Deng S. Desalination using solar energy: towards sustainability. Energy 2011;36(1):7885. [16] Al-Kharabsheh S, Goswami DY. Experimental study of an innovative solar water desalination system utilizing a passive vacuum technique. Sol Energy 2003;75(5):395401. [17] Al-Kharabsheh S, Goswami DY. Analysis of an innovative water desalination system using low-grade solar heat. Desalination 2003;156:32332. [18] Bemporad GA. Basic hydrodynamic aspects of a solar energy based desalination process. Sol Energy 1995;54(2):12534. [19] Gude VG. Desalination using low grade heat sources. PhD dissertation, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM, USA, 2007. [20] Luis HA, Jorge EG. Simulation of an air-cooled solar-assisted absorption air conditioning system. J Sol Energy Eng 2002;124:27682. [21] Gadhamshetty V, Khandan NN, Myint M, Ricketts C. Improving air-cooled condenser performance. ASCE J Energy Eng 2006;132(2):818. [22] Al-Karaghouli AA, Alnaser WE. Performances of single and double basin solarstills. Appl Energy 2004;78(3):34754. [23] Gaur MK, Tiwari GN. Optimization of number of collectors for integrated PV/T hybrid active solar still. Appl Energy 2010;87:176372. [24] Ardente F, Beccali G, Cellura M, Brano V. Life cycle assessment of a solar thermal collector: sensitivity analysis, energy and environmental balances. Renew Energy 2005;30:10930. [25] Ardente F, Beccali G, Cellura M, Brano V. Life cycle assessment of a solar thermal collector. Renew Energy 2005;30:103154. [26] Al-Kharabsheh S. Theoretical and experimental analysis of water desalination system using low grade solar heat. PhD dissertation, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, 2003. [27] Hasnain SM. Review on sustainable thermal energy storage technologies, Part II: Cool thermal storage. Energy Convers Manage 1998;39(11):113953. [28] Banat F, Qiblawey H, Al-Nasser Q. Economic evaluation of a small RO unit powered by PV installed in the village of Hartha, Jordan. Desalination Water Treat 2009;3:16974. [29] Banat F, Jwaied N. Economic evaluation of desalination by small scale autonomous solar powered membrane distillation units. Desalination 2008;220:56673. [30] Wall G, Gong M. On exergetics, economics and desalination. Oxford: EOLSS Publishers; 2000. [31] Improving the thermodynamic and economic efciencies of desalination plants: minimum work required for desalination and case studies of four working plants desalination and water purication research and development program, nal report no. 78. US department of the interior bureau of reclamation; 2003. [32] Macedonio F, Curcio E, Drioli E. Integrated membrane systems for seawater desalination: energetic and exergetic analysis, economic evaluation, experimental study. Desalination 2007;203:26076. [33] Joseph J, Saravanan R, Renganarayanan S. Studies on a single-stage solar desalination system for domestic applications. Desalination 2005;173:7782. [34] Dincer I, Cengel YA. Energy, entropy and exergy concepts and their roles in thermal engineering. Entropy 2001;3(3):11649.

heat sources can also be both energy and exergy efcient if utilized in a thermodynamically stable process, in this case, low temperature desalination process. This analysis also reveals that even when the quality of the heat source is low (low temperature and hence availability) and the quantity is limited, low temperature desalination process can be both energy and exergy efcient resulting in lower energy and exergy losses and higher freshwater production rates. A2. Entropy generation To further analyze the operation of low temperature desalination system, entropy generation of the individual systems can be evaluated. In the above example, both the TES tanks involve heat losses to the environment during charging, storing and discharging periods and through the desalination process. To calculate the irreversibility of both the tanks A and B in the form of entropy generated, the following expression can be used [34].

DS Q =T

A1:13

where DS is the entropy change for each TES tank, Q is the amount of heat lost to the environment and T is the absolute temperature of the TES tank. The above expression can be written as DSTES = QTES/TTES (for TES: Source) and DSamb = Qamb/Tamb (for environment: Sink) respectively. Tank A involves heat loss of 9072 kJ from the source temperature of 90 C to the ambient at 20 C and Tank B involves heat loss of 5184 kJ from the source temperature of 60 C to the ambient at 20 C (ignoring the heat loss during charging and discharging and assuming average temperatures of the TES tanks during the storage period). The entropy generated in this process is: Tank A: Source: DSTES = QTES/TTES = 9072 kJ/363.15 K = 25 kJ/K. Sink: DSamb = Qamb/Tamb = 9072 kJ/293.15 K = +31 kJ/K. SGen = DStotal = DSTES + DSamb = (25 + 31) kJ/K = +6 kJ/K. Tank B: Source: DSTES = QTES/TTES = 5184 kJ/333.15 K = 15.6 kJ/K. Sink: DSamb = Qamb/Tamb = 5184 kJ/293.15 K = +17.7 kJ/K. SGen = DStotal = DSTES + DSamb = (15.6 + 17.7) kJ/K = +2.1 kJ/K.

The total entropy change for the heat transfer in the TES tank B is smaller than the TES tank A and it can be said that TES tank B is less irreversible. This is because the heat losses from Tank B are lower than from tank A and tank A is at higher temperature than tank B. Thus irreversibility in tank B is smaller than tank A. Similarly, the entropy generation for the desalination system and the combined system can be calculated (Table A1). References
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