Performance enhancement of MSF desalination by recovering stage heat from distillate water using internal heat exchanger

Abstract

The paper presents an attempt to enhance unit performance of an existing 1274 m3/h Multi Stage Flash (MSF) desalination plant through sensible heat recovery from hot distillate water at the MSF stages to warm up the make-up seawater using internal heat exchange. The extraction of the distillate from stages could increase water production by 2% and reduces steam consumption by 5%. In addition, a reduction of seawater feed flow which also results in a drop of pump power consumption were observed. Environmentally, the modification could decrease CO2 emissions by 2300 tonnes annually.