Performance analysis of a low-temperature waste heat-driven adsorption desalination prototype

This paper discusses the performance analysis of an advanced adsorption desalination (AD) cycle with an internal heat recovery between the condenser and the evaporator. The AD cycle employs the adsorption-desorption principles to convert sea or brackish water into high-grade potable water with total dissolved solids (TDS) less than 10 ppm (mg/L) utilizing low-temperature heat source. The salient features of the AD cycle are the utilization of low temperature waste heat (typically 55 °C to 85 °C) with the employment of an environment-friendly silica gel/water pair and the low maintenance as it has no major moving parts other than the pumps and valves. For improved performance of the AD pilot plant, the internal heat recovery scheme between the condenser and evaporator has been implemented with a run-about water circuit between them. The efficacy of the scheme is analyzed in terms of key performance indicators such as the specific daily water production (SDWP) and the performance ratio (PR). Extensive experiments were performed for assorted heat source temperatures ranging from 70 °C to 50 °C. From the experiments, the SDWP of the AD cycle with the proposed heat recovery scheme is found to be 15 m3 of water per ton of silica gel that is almost twice that of the yield obtained by a conventional AD cycle for the same operation conditions. Another important finding of AD desalination plant is that the advanced AD cycle could still be operational with an inlet heat source temperature of 50 °C and yet achieving a SDWP of 4.3 m3 - a feat that never seen by any heat-driven cycles.