Second law analysis of reverse osmosis desalination plants: An alternative design using pressure retarded osmosis

Mostafa H. Sharqawy; Syed M. Zubair; John H. Lienhard

doi:10.1016/j.energy.2011.08.056

Second law analysis of reverse osmosis desalination plants: An alternative design using pressure retarded osmosis

Mostafa H. Sharqawy, Syed M. Zubair, John H. Lienhard^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

182 Scopus citations

Abstract

A second law analysis of a reverse osmosis desalination plant is carried out using reliable seawater exergy formulation instead of a common model in literature that represents seawater as an ideal mixture of liquid water and solid sodium chloride. The analysis is performed using reverse osmosis desalination plant data and compared with results previously published using the ideal mixture model. It is demonstrated that the previous model has serious shortcomings, particularly with regard to calculation of the seawater flow exergy, the minimum work of separation, and the second law efficiency. The most up-to-date thermodynamic properties of seawater, as needed to conduct an exergy analysis, are given as correlations in this paper. From this new analysis, it is found that the studied reverse osmosis desalination plant has very low second law efficiency (<2%) even when using the available energy recovery systems. Therefore, an energy recovery system is proposed using the (PRO) pressure retarded osmotic method. The proposed alternative design has a second law efficiency of 20%, and the input power is reduced by 38% relative to original reverse osmosis system.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	6617-6626
Number of pages	10
Journal	Energy
Volume	36
Issue number	11
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2011.08.056
State	Published - Nov 2011

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The authors would like to thank King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, for funding the research reported in this paper through the Center for Clean Water and Clean Energy at MIT and KFUPM.

Keywords

Desalination
Energy recovery device
Exergy analysis
Pressure retarded osmosis
Reverse osmosis
Seawater

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Civil and Structural Engineering
Modeling and Simulation
Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment
Building and Construction
Fuel Technology
Energy Engineering and Power Technology
Pollution
Mechanical Engineering
General Energy
Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law
Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering
Electrical and Electronic Engineering

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1016/j.energy.2011.08.056

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title = "Second law analysis of reverse osmosis desalination plants: An alternative design using pressure retarded osmosis",

abstract = "A second law analysis of a reverse osmosis desalination plant is carried out using reliable seawater exergy formulation instead of a common model in literature that represents seawater as an ideal mixture of liquid water and solid sodium chloride. The analysis is performed using reverse osmosis desalination plant data and compared with results previously published using the ideal mixture model. It is demonstrated that the previous model has serious shortcomings, particularly with regard to calculation of the seawater flow exergy, the minimum work of separation, and the second law efficiency. The most up-to-date thermodynamic properties of seawater, as needed to conduct an exergy analysis, are given as correlations in this paper. From this new analysis, it is found that the studied reverse osmosis desalination plant has very low second law efficiency (<2\%) even when using the available energy recovery systems. Therefore, an energy recovery system is proposed using the (PRO) pressure retarded osmotic method. The proposed alternative design has a second law efficiency of 20\%, and the input power is reduced by 38\% relative to original reverse osmosis system.",

keywords = "Desalination, Energy recovery device, Exergy analysis, Pressure retarded osmosis, Reverse osmosis, Seawater",

author = "Sharqawy, \{Mostafa H.\} and Zubair, \{Syed M.\} and Lienhard, \{John H.\}",

note = "Funding Information: The authors would like to thank King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, for funding the research reported in this paper through the Center for Clean Water and Clean Energy at MIT and KFUPM. ",

year = "2011",

month = nov,

doi = "10.1016/j.energy.2011.08.056",

language = "English",

volume = "36",

pages = "6617--6626",

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T2 - An alternative design using pressure retarded osmosis

AU - Sharqawy, Mostafa H.

AU - Zubair, Syed M.

AU - Lienhard, John H.

N1 - Funding Information: The authors would like to thank King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, for funding the research reported in this paper through the Center for Clean Water and Clean Energy at MIT and KFUPM.

PY - 2011/11

Y1 - 2011/11

N2 - A second law analysis of a reverse osmosis desalination plant is carried out using reliable seawater exergy formulation instead of a common model in literature that represents seawater as an ideal mixture of liquid water and solid sodium chloride. The analysis is performed using reverse osmosis desalination plant data and compared with results previously published using the ideal mixture model. It is demonstrated that the previous model has serious shortcomings, particularly with regard to calculation of the seawater flow exergy, the minimum work of separation, and the second law efficiency. The most up-to-date thermodynamic properties of seawater, as needed to conduct an exergy analysis, are given as correlations in this paper. From this new analysis, it is found that the studied reverse osmosis desalination plant has very low second law efficiency (<2%) even when using the available energy recovery systems. Therefore, an energy recovery system is proposed using the (PRO) pressure retarded osmotic method. The proposed alternative design has a second law efficiency of 20%, and the input power is reduced by 38% relative to original reverse osmosis system.

AB - A second law analysis of a reverse osmosis desalination plant is carried out using reliable seawater exergy formulation instead of a common model in literature that represents seawater as an ideal mixture of liquid water and solid sodium chloride. The analysis is performed using reverse osmosis desalination plant data and compared with results previously published using the ideal mixture model. It is demonstrated that the previous model has serious shortcomings, particularly with regard to calculation of the seawater flow exergy, the minimum work of separation, and the second law efficiency. The most up-to-date thermodynamic properties of seawater, as needed to conduct an exergy analysis, are given as correlations in this paper. From this new analysis, it is found that the studied reverse osmosis desalination plant has very low second law efficiency (<2%) even when using the available energy recovery systems. Therefore, an energy recovery system is proposed using the (PRO) pressure retarded osmotic method. The proposed alternative design has a second law efficiency of 20%, and the input power is reduced by 38% relative to original reverse osmosis system.

KW - Desalination

KW - Energy recovery device

KW - Exergy analysis

KW - Pressure retarded osmosis

KW - Reverse osmosis

KW - Seawater

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DO - 10.1016/j.energy.2011.08.056

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:80655148930

SN - 0360-5442

VL - 36

SP - 6617

EP - 6626

JO - Energy

JF - Energy

IS - 11

ER -

Second law analysis of reverse osmosis desalination plants: An alternative design using pressure retarded osmosis

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

UN SDGs

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