Optimization of dual purpose plant for seawater desalination and electricity production

摘要

In order to reduce distillate production costs of a seawater desalination plant in the Gulf Cooperation Councils Countries (GCC), it is common use to connect the desalination plant to a power plant producing power in the form of electricity and process steam for the distiller evaporators as well as surplus electricity for the public grid. Provided that site and seawater characteristics are known and a decision regarding the fuel is made, then the issue moves towards the plant optimization. The aim of such an optimization can diverge as the case may be. The most important characteristics of such a plant which may appear as a result of the optimization work are the water/power ratio (w) and the Economy Ratio (ER) of the desalination-plant. The influences of the economical conditions and the plant configurations on these two characteristics are the major part of this study.