The global freshwater demand is continuously increasing. Nowadays several technologies are available for desalination processes and widely employed, but these processes consume a considerable amount of energy and involve almost high capital and operating costs. The possibility of coupling a small gas turbine combined heat and power system (GT CHP) with hybrid desalination plants (HDPs) has been assessed in this study. The proposed gas turbine power generation system is based on single stage radial machines and uncooled expansion. This approach, with a power system up to about 5 MWe, along with the simplicity of the design and the lower level of technologies with respect to the classical gas turbine configuration leads to reasonable installation costs of the power generating plant. However, the drawback is a lower electric efficiency, which is supposed to be compensated with the aid of an effective combined power and heat utilization system. Regarding the desalination technologies, a hybrid desalination technique can be considered as a method, which increases the overall efficiency of the desalination plant (DP). The hybrid technology is based on the use of two different desalination technologies, e.g. Reverse Osmosis (RO) and a thermal desalination process (Multi-Stage Flash, MSF or Multi-Effect Distillation, MED) which makes it possible to add the advantages of both methods. From the energy consumption point of view, the hybrid system is an ideal solution for efficiently using the overall gas turbine combined heat and power production capability. Some technical and economic indicators of the HDPs in conjunction with the proposed GT CHP energy conversion system are evaluated and compared with the main thermal and membrane desalination technologies. For each case, the amount of produced fresh water and the corresponding costs are computed and compared in order to demonstrate how the hybrid desalination technology associated to small Gas Turbine CHP systems overcomes the stand alone ones.
Feasibility of hybrid desalination plants coupled with small gas turbine CHP systems
D. Barsi;F. Satta;P. Zunino
2020-01-01
Abstract
The global freshwater demand is continuously increasing. Nowadays several technologies are available for desalination processes and widely employed, but these processes consume a considerable amount of energy and involve almost high capital and operating costs. The possibility of coupling a small gas turbine combined heat and power system (GT CHP) with hybrid desalination plants (HDPs) has been assessed in this study. The proposed gas turbine power generation system is based on single stage radial machines and uncooled expansion. This approach, with a power system up to about 5 MWe, along with the simplicity of the design and the lower level of technologies with respect to the classical gas turbine configuration leads to reasonable installation costs of the power generating plant. However, the drawback is a lower electric efficiency, which is supposed to be compensated with the aid of an effective combined power and heat utilization system. Regarding the desalination technologies, a hybrid desalination technique can be considered as a method, which increases the overall efficiency of the desalination plant (DP). The hybrid technology is based on the use of two different desalination technologies, e.g. Reverse Osmosis (RO) and a thermal desalination process (Multi-Stage Flash, MSF or Multi-Effect Distillation, MED) which makes it possible to add the advantages of both methods. From the energy consumption point of view, the hybrid system is an ideal solution for efficiently using the overall gas turbine combined heat and power production capability. Some technical and economic indicators of the HDPs in conjunction with the proposed GT CHP energy conversion system are evaluated and compared with the main thermal and membrane desalination technologies. For each case, the amount of produced fresh water and the corresponding costs are computed and compared in order to demonstrate how the hybrid desalination technology associated to small Gas Turbine CHP systems overcomes the stand alone ones.
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