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Energy
EnergyProcedia
Procedia158 (2019) 000–000
00 (2017) 885–891
www.elsevier.com/locate/procedia
www.elsevier.com/locate/procedia

10th International Conference on Applied Energy (ICAE2018), 22-25 August 2018, Hong Kong,
China
10th International Conference on Applied Energy (ICAE2018), 22-25 August 2018, Hong Kong,
Thermodynamic Analysis of
The 15th International a Solar
China onPowered
Symposium Adsorption
District Heating and CoolingCooling
and Desalination System
Assessing theAnalysis
Thermodynamic feasibility
of aofSolar
usingPowered
the heat Adsorption
demand-outdoor
Cooling
temperature functionand
forRahul
a long-term district heat demand forecast
a a,
Raj , V. Baiju
Desalination System *
a
Department of Mechanical Engineering, TKM College of Engineering, Kollam-691005
a,b,c
I. Andrić *, A. Pinaa, P.Rahul a a
FerrãoRaj
, J.,Fournier b c
V. Baijua,.,*B. Lacarrière , O. Le Corre
c

a
IN+ Center for Innovation,
a Technology
Department and Policy Engineering,
of Mechanical Research - Instituto Superior
TKM College of Técnico, Av. Rovisco
Engineering, Pais 1, 1049-001 Lisbon, Portugal
Kollam-691005
b
Veolia Recherche & Innovation, 291 Avenue Dreyfous Daniel, 78520 Limay, France
c
Abstract Département Systèmes Énergétiques et Environnement - IMT Atlantique, 4 rue Alfred Kastler, 44300 Nantes, France

Adsorption desalination is an attractive and potentially competitive method of desalination among the conventional thermal
desalination
Abstract methods due to its ability to produce both freshwater and cooling effect. This desalination cum refrigeration system
Abstract
uses a low-grade heat from the solar collector to generate water vapor from the adsorber. The system employs a combined flash
evaporation desalination
Adsorption and thermal iscompression
an attractivetoand produce potable
potentially water andmethod
competitive cooling.of Indesalination
this paper,among
the operating and performance
the conventional thermal
District heating
parameters
desalination an networks
ofmethods due toare
adsorption its commonly
desalination
ability addressed
system
to produce has infreshwater
bothbeen thestudied.
literature
The
and asanalysis
one of
cooling the most
is based
effect. effective
on solutions
the energy
This desalination cum for decreasing
conservation
refrigeration the
principle
system
greenhouse
applied
uses to all gas
a low-grade emissions
processes of the
heat from from the building
thetheoretical
solar cycle.sector.
collector toThe Thesewatersystems
Dubinin-Astakhov
generate require
vapor model
from high investments
is adsorber.
the used Thewhich
to describe are returnedacharacteristics
the adsorption
system employs through theflash
combined heat
of
sales.
the Due and
evaporation to the
adsorbent-adsorbate changed
thermal pair climate conditions
(silica gel-water).
compression to produce andpotable
The building
cycle renovation
iswater
analyzed policies,
using
and cooling. heatpaper,
demand
theInperformance
this theinoperating
the future
parameters suchandcould decrease,
asperformance
fresh water
prolonging
production,
parameters of the
energyinvestment
consumption
an adsorption return period.
per kg of system
desalination water produced
has beenand coefficient
studied. of performance.
The analysis is based on the energy conservation principle
The main
applied scope
to all of thisof
processes paper is to assesscycle.
the theoretical the feasibility of using the heat
The Dubinin-Astakhov demand
model – outdoor
is used temperature
to describe functioncharacteristics
the adsorption for heat demandof
© 2019 The
forecast. TheAuthors.
districtPublished
ofpair byCooling;
Alvalade, Elsevier
located Ltd.
inenergy;
Lisbon (Portugal), was using
used theas aperformance
case study. parameters
The districtsuchis consisted
Keywords:
the Adsorption;
adsorbent-adsorbate Desalination;
(silica Solar
gel-water). Silica
The cycle gel
is analyzed as fresh of 665
water
This is an open
buildings that access inarticle
both under
varyconsumption the CC period
construction BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
and typology. Three weather scenarios (low, medium, high) and three district
production,
Peer-review energy perthe
kgscientific
of water committee
produced and coefficient ofThe
performance.
renovation under
scenariosresponsibility
were developedof (shallow, intermediate, of ICAE2018
deep). To– estimate10th the
International Conference
error, obtained on Applied
heat demand Energy.
values were
compared
1. with
Introduction
Keywords: results from a dynamic heat demand
Adsorption; Desalination; Cooling; Solar energy; Silica gelmodel, previously developed and validated by the authors.
The results showed that when only weather change is considered, the margin of error could be acceptable for some applications
(the error in annual demand was lower than 20% for all weather scenarios considered). However, after introducing renovation
The freshwater shortage is the second largest environmental problem in the world. Freshwater is vital for human
scenarios,
1. the error value increased up to 59.5% (depending on the weather and renovation scenarios combination considered).
Introduction
consumption
The value of as wellcoefficient
slope as economic development
increased on averageofwithin
a country. Of all
the range of available
3.8% up towater 8% peron decade,
earth, 97% that is salt watertoand
corresponds the
only
decrease in the number of heating hours of 22-139h during the heating season (depending on the combination such
2-3% is the fresh water. It is recognized that the water shortage is caused by two major factors as rapid
of weather and
The freshwater
increase
renovationpopulation shortage
scenarios and highiswater
considered).
theOnsecond largest environmental
consumption
the other hand,by industrial
function
problem
sector.
intercept Theinpractical
increased
the world. Freshwater
solution
for 7.8-12.7% pertodecade
solveis the
vitalglobal
for human
(depending water
on the
consumption as
coupled scenarios).
shortage well
is to develop as economic
Theavalues development
suggestedtechnology
cost-effective of
could be used a country.
for toconverting Of all
modify thethe available
function water
parameters
sea water on earth,
for the
to potable 97% is
scenarios
water. salt
alsowater
Theyconsidered,mustandand
be
only 2-3%
improve theisaccuracy
environmentally the friendly.
fresh water.
of heat It is estimations.
demand
Desalination recognized that theofwater
is the process shortage
separation is caused
of excess saltsbyand
twoother
major factorsfrom
minerals such saline
as rapid
or
increase
brackish.population and high water consumption
The thermally-activated by industrial
desalination systems sector.
include theThe practical solution
well-known to solve
Multi-Stage the Multi-Effect
Flash, global water
© 2017 The
shortage is toAuthors.
develop Published by Elseviertechnology
a cost-effective Ltd. for converting the sea water to potable water. They also must be
Peer-review underfriendly.
environmentally responsibility of the Scientific
Desalination is the Committee
process of ofseparation
The 15th International Symposium
of excess salts on District
and other minerals Heating and or
from saline
Cooling. The thermally-activated desalination systems include the well-known Multi-Stage Flash, Multi-Effect
brackish.
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +0-000-000-0000 ; fax: +0-000-000-0000 .
Keywords: Heat demand;
E-mail address: Forecast; Climate change
[email protected]

1876-6102 Copyright
* Corresponding © 2018
author. Tel.:Elsevier Ltd. All rights
+0-000-000-0000 reserved.
; fax: +0-000-000-0000 .
Selection
E-mailand peer-review
address: under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 10th International Conference on Applied Energy (ICAE2018).
[email protected]
1876-6102 © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Peer-review
1876-6102 under responsibility
Copyright of theLtd.
© 2018 Elsevier Scientific Committee
All rights reserved.of The 15th International Symposium on District Heating and Cooling.
1876-6102 © 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 10th International Conference on Applied Energy (ICAE2018).
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of ICAE2018 – The 10th International Conference on Applied Energy.
10.1016/j.egypro.2019.01.226
886 Rahul Raj et al. / Energy Procedia 158 (2019) 885–891
2 Author name / Energy Procedia 00 (2018) 000–000

Desalination, and solar distillation. These methods employ thermal energy to evaporate water vapor from the salt
solution. On the other hand, the membrane systems utilize semipermeable membrane to separate the water molecules
from the salt solution and they comprise the reverse osmosis and the electrodialysis. All existing desalination
methods have limitations such as high energy consumption, high maintenance, and corrosion. Therefore, there is a
need for low energy consumption desalination system with low running cost. One such solution that can meet the
mentioned objective is adsorption desalination.
Adsorption desalination is an emerging thermally-driven method that has been proven to be energy efficient and
environmentally friendly. It employs the physisorption process for uptake of water vapor on the surface of the
adsorbents such as silica gel, zeolite. The cold production is achieved by adsorption triggered evaporation and the
potable water is produced by desorption triggered condensation process. Competitive advantages of the adsorption
desalination cycles over the conventional methods are, namely, (a) it’s ability to produce cooling along with the
potable water, (b) no moving parts rendering low maintenance costs, (c) low fouling rate in the evaporator due to
lower evaporation temperature, (d) environmental-friendly as almost no chemicals are used, and (e) can be driven by
low temperature heat sources. Adsorption based desalination has increasing attention in these recent years in the
literature. Wang et al. conducted some experiments on four-bed adsorption desalination plant [1]. Specific water
production measured by controlling the various parameters. The optimum specific water production found to be 4.7
kg per kilogram of silica gel. It has been observed that the Specific water production is sensitive to both cooling and
chilled water temperatures. Thu et al. analyzed the performance of an adsorption desalination system in two-bed and
four-bed operational mode [2]. Thu et al. studied the performance of an Adsorption desalination system with internal
heat recovery between condenser and evaporator [3]. Ng et al. investigated the performance of a waste heat-driven 4-
bed adsorption cycle which produces both cooling and potable water cycle both numerically and experimentally [4].
It has been reported that the specific daily water production and the Specific cooling power of the Adsorption
desalination cycle can be achieved up to 8 m3 and 51.6 TR per ton of silica gel per day while optimized for potable
water production. There is other researchers have studied multistage adsorption desalination systems [5, 6].
The current work presents the thermodynamic model of all processes of the theoretical adsorption desalination
cycle. The aim of this study is to investigate the influence of various operating parameters on the performance of the
system.

Nomenclature

Symbols Subscripts
C Specific heat capacity (kJ/kg K) ads Adsorption
COP Coefficient of performance bed Adsorbent bed
E Characteristic energy (kJ/mol) cond Condenser
n D-A constant des Desorption
h Enthalpy (kJ/kg) ev Evaporator
∆H Isosteric heat of adsorption/desorption (kJ/kg) fg Vaporization
m Mass (kg) max Maximum
P Pressure (kPa) min Minimum
Ps Saturation Pressure (kPa) sw Sea water
T Temperature (K) w Water
R Universal gas constant (kJ/mol K) wall Metallic wall
X Concentration ratio (kg/kg)
X0 Maximum adsorbed amount (kg/kg)
 Rahul Raj et al. / Energy Procedia 158 (2019) 885–891 887
Author name / Energy Procedia 00 (2018) 000–000 3

2. The adsorption desalination system

The schematic diagram of an adsorption desalination system is shown in Fig. 1. Firstly the saline or brackish
water is charged into the evaporator. In the evaporator, the water is flash evaporated at the low pressure. The chilled
water is circulated in the evaporator to maintain the evaporation process and it can be used for cooling purposes.
When the valve between the adsorbent bed and the evaporator is opened, water evaporates and travels from the
evaporator into adsorbent bed where it is adsorbed by the silica gel. During adsorption process, the heat of
adsorption is removed by the cooling water circulating in adsorbent bed heat exchangers. The adsorption continues
until the silica gel saturated with water vapor and closing the valve between the adsorbent bed and evaporator. The
saturated silica gel is regenerated using hot water coming from the solar collector and this process is known as
desorption process. The valve between the adsorbent bed and condenser is in open position, the hot water drives off
the regenerated water vapor to the condenser. In the condenser, the heat of condensation is rejected into cooling
water circulating through the condenser and the condensate is collected as pure water. Then the desalinated water is
collected in the collection tank. Theoretically, adsorption desalination cycle consists of four processes, as shown in
Fig. 2.

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of an adsorption desalination system

3. Mathematical Modeling

The following assumptions are made in this modeling:

• Heat loses from the adsorbent bed, evaporator, condenser are neglected.
• Temperature difference for heat transfer is 5ºC.
• The specific heat capacities of water, adsorbent, metallic wall are constant.
The Dubinin-Astakhov adsorption equilibrium model is used to describe the adsorption phenomena [4]. In this
model, the water uptake by the silica gel (X) at a temperature (T) and pressure (P) can be estimated by the Equation:

  RT  P 
n

X = X 0 exp−  ln s    (1)
  E  p  

The total heating requirement of the cycle is the sum of heat added in processes 1 to 2 and 2 to 3,
888
4 Rahul
Author Raj/ Energy
name et al. / Energy Procedia
Procedia 158000–000
00 (2018) (2019) 885–891

Fig. 2. Adsorption Desalination Cycle

Qheating = Q1-2 + Q2-3 (2)

1-2
Q is the total sensible heat input during this process 1-2,
Q1-2= Qwall1-2+Qbed1-2+Qwater1-2 (3)
Where Qwall1-2, Qbed1-2, Qwater1-2 are the sensible heats of the metallic wall, adsorbent, adsorbate respectively.
These are given by the following equations:
T2

∫
Qwall1-2 = mwall Cwall dT
T1
(4)

T2

∫
Qbed1-2 = mbed Cbed dT
T1
(5)

T2

T1
∫
Qwater1-2 = mbed X max C water dT (6)

The total input heat, Q2-3 in this process 2-3 is the sum of the sensible heats and the heat of desorption (Qdes).

Q2-3= Qwall2-3+Qbed2-3+Qwater2-3+Qdes (7)

T3
Qwall2-3 =
∫m
T2
wall C wall dT (8)

T3

T2
∫
Qbed2-3 = mbed Cbed dT (9)

T3

∫
Qwater2-3 = mbed XC water dT
T2
(10)

T3
∂X
∫
Qdes = − mbed ∆H
T2
∂T
dT (11)

The –ve sign is due to decrease in concentration with increase in temperature.

The mass of fresh water generated in a cycle is given by:
mwater= mbed ( X max − X min ) (12)
 Rahul Raj et al. / Energy Procedia 158 (2019) 885–891 889
Author name / Energy Procedia 00 (2018) 000–000 5

Table 1. Values of parameters used in the simulation program.

Parameters Value Parameters Value
X0 .592 (kg/kg of silica gel) mwall 12 (kg)
E 3.105 (kJ/mole) ∆H 2800 (kJ/kg)
n 1.1 Cwall 0.510 (kJ/kg)
R 8.314 (J/mol. K) Cbed 0.92 (kJ/kg)
mbed 10 (kg) Cwater 4.18 (kJ/kg)

Energy required per kilogram of water produced is given by:

Q
Ew = heating (13)
mwater
The cold production takes place in the evaporator is given by:
Qev = mbed ( X max − X min )h fg (14)
sw

The condensation heat rejected in the condenser is given by:

Qcond = mbed ( X max − X min )h fg (15)
w

Coefficient of Performance,
COP =
Qev (16)
Q + Q 2−3
1− 2

Among the most commonly available silica gel, Type RD silica gel is used. The unknown values in Dubinin-
Astakhov equation for type RD silica gel are availiable in literature [5]. The values of parameters used are given in
Table 1. The mathematical modeling equations of the adsorption desalination cycle are solved using MATLAB
2017.

4. Results and discussion

The effect of varying various operating temperatures on the water production is shown in Fig.3. The hot water
inlet temperature is varied between the range of 65ºC to 95ºC. The water production rate increases with increase in
hot water inlet temperature and gradually flat out at the higher temperatures. This increasing tendency of water
production with temperature is because of the increase in the desorbed amount of water from the adsorbent with the
increase in hot water temperature. The water production reaches maximum when adsorbed water completely

Fig. 3. Variation of water production with various operating temperatures

890 Rahul Raj et al. / Energy Procedia 158 (2019) 885–891
6 Author name / Energy Procedia 00 (2018) 000–000

removed from the adsorbent. At this stage, the adsorbate concentration is minimum in the adsorbent. It is clear from
the Fig.3 that there is water production even below the temperature of 70ºC. This makes solar energy as the best
option for the heat source in the adsorption desalination systems. Lowering the cooling water temperature increases
the water production. It can be seen that when the cooling water temperature reduced to 20˚C, the water production
increased by 2 times. When the condenser temperature increases the adsorbent bed pressure increases. The increase
in bed pressure reduces the desorbed amount from the bed, which reduces the water production

Fig. 4. Variation of energy required per kg of water produced water with various operating temperatures

Fig.4 shows the variation of energy required per kg of water produced with various operating temperatures. The
energy consumption per kg of water production firstly decreases up to a hot water temperature of 80˚C then
increases. The decreasing tendency is due to the increase of water production is more, while the total heating
requirement does not varying much in the range of 65˚C - 80˚C. Above 80˚C, the water production is low compared
with the heating requirement, which decreases the energy required per kg of water produced. The cooling water
temperature has a comparatively low significant effect on the energy consumption per kg of water production. The
energy consumption per kg of water production increases more rapidly with condenser temperature. It is because of
the heat input is very high, but the water production is low at the higher condenser temperatures.

Fig. 5. Variation of coefficient of performance with various operating temperatures

 Author name / Energy Procedia 00 (2018) 000–000 7
Rahul Raj et al. / Energy Procedia 158 (2019) 885–891 891

The dependence of the COP of the system on various operating temperatures is plotted in Fig.5. COP is
increasing rapidly with the hot water temperature and attains a maximum value at 85˚C then decreasing slowly. It is
because initially, the increase of refrigeration effect is more than the increase of heat input. After 80˚C the heat input
required is very high. The COP of the system increases with decreasing cooling water temperature. It is because of
the increased adsorbed amount of water vapor at low adsorbent temperature increases the refrigeration effect. The
cop the system decreases with increasing condenser temperature. It is because of the reduced desorbed amount at
higher condenser pressures reduces the refrigeration effect and the high heat input requirement.

5. Conclusion:

In this paper, the operating and performance parameters of an adsorption desalination system has been studied.
The thermodynamic cycle of the adsorption desalination system is analyzed under equilibrium conditions. The
thermodynamic analysis indicates that the system performance depends on the various operating temperatures. The
influence of hot water inlet temperature, cooling water temperature and condenser temperature on the water
production, energy required per kilogram of water production and cycle COP have been investigated. The obtained
results show that the hot water inlet temperature, cooling water temperature and condenser temperature have a huge
impact on the water production, energy consumption and COP of the system. The better performance of the system
can be obtained for low cooling water temperature, low condensation temperature, and high hot water inlet
temperature.

Acknowledgements

References

[1] Wang X, Ng K. Experimental investigation of an adsorption desalination plant using low-temperature waste heat. Applied Thermal
Engineering. 2005; 25(17-18):2780-2789.
[2] Thu K, Ng K, Saha B, Chakraborty A, Koyama S. Operational strategy of adsorption desalination systems. International Journal of Heat and
Mass Transfer. 2009; 52(7-8):1811-1816.
[3] Thu K, Saha B, Chakraborty A, Chun W, Ng K. Study on an advanced adsorption desalination cycle with evaporator–condenser heat
recovery circuit. International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer. 2011; 54(1-3):43-51.
[4] Ng K, Thu K, Saha B, Chakraborty A. Study on a waste heat-driven adsorption cooling cum desalination cycle. International Journal of
Refrigeration. 2012; 35(3):685-693.
[5] Ali S, Chakraborty A. Adsorption assisted double stage cooling and desalination employing silica gel + water and AQSOA-Z02 + water
systems. Energy Conversion and Management. 2016; 117:193-205.
[6] Mitra S, Thu K, Saha B, Srinivasan K, Dutta P. Modeling study of two-stage, multi-bed air cooled silica gel + water adsorption cooling cum
desalination system. Applied Thermal Engineering. 2017; 114:704-712.