Thermodynamic losses in multi-effect distillation process

Abstract

The multi-effect distillation (MED) is one of desalination technologies. It is also applied in chemical engineering and other industries for evaporation, distillation, crystallization, etc. In a large multi-effect distillation plant, some tiny thermodynamic losses might have a great influence to the performance and design parameters. For the detailed analysis and design of a MED desalination plant, a series of experiments were carried out. The thermodynamic losses in a MED desalination plant is analyzed as an example to show its effect on the performance and structure parameters. The thermodynamics losses have a cumulative effect. With the increase of effect number and the concentration ratio, the thermodynamic losses shall be a dominant factor for the operation performance of a MED plant.