PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS OF A VACUUM DESALINATION SYSTEM

A new desalination system has been proposed and designed for converting sea water into fresh water utilizing the waste heat of internal combustion engines. The desalination process is based on the evaporation of sea water under a very low pressure (vacuum). The low pressure is achieved by using the suction side of a co mpressor rather than a commonly used vacuum pump. The evaporated water is then condensed to obtain fresh water. The effects of operational variables such as evaporator temperature, condenser temperature, vacuum pressure, and flow rate of both evaporator and condenser on the yield of fresh water are experimentally investigated. It is found that decreasing the vacuum pressure causes a significant increase in the yield of fresh water. It is also found that decreasing the condenser temperature, or increasing the evaporator temperature both lead to an increase in the yield of fresh water. Moreover, increasing the condenser flow rate tends to increase the yield of fresh water. The same trend is attained by increasing the evaporator flow rate.