A new combined power and desalination system driven by low grade heat for concentrated brine

A new combined power and desalination system is proposed. This system is driven by low grade heat sources such as solar energy, geothermal or waste heat. This system combines a supercritical organic Rankine cycle (SORC), an ejector and a multi-effect distillation (MED) desalination system, which could be used for seawater or concentrated brine such as frac flowback water produced during natural gas mining. A theoretical model is presented and partially validated based on experimental results from the literature. The thermal performance of the proposed system is analyzed using the model and a parametric sensitivity analysis is carried out to quantify the performance of this combined power and water system. The combined system has an overall exergy efficiency close to 40% for salt concentration of 35 g/kg using a low temperature heat source at 150 °C The proposed system could treat concentrated brine up to 55 g/kg salt concentration with no additional energy input except heat supplied to the power cycle.

► A combination of a Supercritical organic Rankine cycle, ejector and a multi-effect distillation system is proposed. ► System uses low grade heat sources to desalinate seawater or concentrated brine. ► Parametric analysis of the combined power and desalination system. ► The proposed system can desalinate concentrated brine without external electricity input.