Principles of desalination

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Principles of desalination

Lior, N.

A review of the principles of the major desalination processes is presented, with emphasis on the energy required for the separation process. The types of energy, heat, mechanical, and electrical, used in these processes are described and the method for comparing them on a common basis is discussed, both from the first-law and second-law aspects. The way to determine the minimal separation energy for desalination is described, and typical values are presented. In real processes, the energy required is about 10 to 50 times higher than the minimal.Solar energy conversion to thermal energy at different temperature levels, and to mechanical work, is described, and values of typical conversion efficiencies are given. It appears that for seawater desalination, solar stills are approximately competitive with more advanced systems where the sun is used to generate higher temperature heat, po power, for use in an efficient distillation, freezing, RO, or ED plant. This would change to the advantage of the latter systems as their efficiencies and effectiveness increase.