Integration of Membrane Distillation Systems with Various Refrigeration Systems

A tremendous amount of energy is consumed in air-conditioning and water desalination systems in many hot and arid countries, especially Saudi Arabia. The integration of desalination systems with the cooling systems was proven in the literature to be economically feasible since waste heat is recovered from the cooling system to help in driving the desalination system. Refrigeration systems could be vapor-compression refrigerators (VCR), vapor-absorption refrigerators (VAR with single-, double-, and triple-effect), and vapor-adsorption refrigerators (VAD). Different desalination systems could be integrated with refrigeration systems. However, this project will primarily focus on the membrane distillation (MD) technique. For example, double and triple VAR (or VAD) could be integrated with MD since MD needs cooling and heating processes to be obtained from the refrigeration system. Different arrangements of MD could be combined to different refrigeration cycles to enhance water production and minimize the process's cost.