Thermodynamic cycles of adsorption desalination system

The potential to use waste heat to co-generate cooling and fresh water from saline water using adsorption on silica is attracting increasing attention. A variety of different thermodynamic cycles of such an adsorption desalination (AD) system arise as the temperature of the saline water evaporator is varied relative to temperature of the water used to cool the adsorbent as it adsorbs the evaporated water. In this paper, all these possible thermodynamic cycles are enumerated and analysed to determine their relative performances in terms of specific energy consumption and fresh water productivity.

► Thermodynamic cycles of adsorption desalination (AD) system have been identified all possible evaporator temperature scenarios.
► Temperature of evaporator determines the cycle.
► Higher evaporator temperature leads to higher water production if no cooling is required.