Ain Shams Engineering Journal (2014) xxx, xxx–xxx

Ain Shams University

Ain Shams Engineering Journal

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MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

Optimum numerical approach of a MSF desalination

plant to be supplied by a new specific 650 MW power
plant located on the Red Sea in Egypt
O.A. Kotb *

Hydraulics Research Institute, Egypt

Received 21 October 2013; revised 20 August 2014; accepted 4 September 2014

KEYWORDS Abstract Nowadays, desalination of salt water is considered as an important industrial process. In
Design; many regions of the world, the multi-stage flash (MSF) water desalination technique has an essen-
Dual-purpose power plant; tial contribution in the production of freshwater. In this study, a (MSF) model is used to design a
Mathematical model; MSF desalination system and, the feasibility of using the MSF desalination process in proximity of
MSF desalination a 650 MW power plant is investigated. This power plant can provide 385.03 kg/s superheated steam
from low pressure (LP) section of heat recovery steam generator (HRSG) for thermal desalting sys-
tem. Three modules were tested with different numbers of heat rejection sections. The optimum
design was 25 stages in the heat recovery section and 3 stages in heat rejection section. The designed
MSF system with gained output ratio (GOR) of 8.76 has 28 flashing stages and can produce
2229 kg/s of freshwater. The expected performance characteristics of the designed MSF desalina-
tion plant are determined.
 2014 Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Ain Shams University.

1. Introduction essential issue. In this regard, desalination of salt water has

become a necessary industrial activity across the world. Now-
In spite of having the Nile River in Egypt, it suffers shortage of adays, most of the Middle East countries use the multi-stage
freshwater due to the many raised problems especially increas- flash (MSF) desalination procedure to produce drinking water.
ing population, so the demand for potable water has been In Egypt, MSF desalination method has recently become an
increasing significantly. Thus, using economically admissible important subject of research for producing water.
methods to produce drinking water is considered as a highly Nowadays, thermal desalination processes are popular
techniques for producing drinking water in the Middle East
countries. Thermal desalination is based on distillation process
* Tel.: +20 1009030493.
through which brackish water or seawater is converted to
E-mail address: [email protected].
potable water to be used in domestic and industrial activities.
Peer review under responsibility of Ain Shams University.
Thermal desalination system can be constructed in proximity
of a power plant.
Then, the thermal energy for distillation would be provided
Production and hosting by Elsevier by steam coming from turbine or heat recovery steam
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.asej.2014.09.001
2090-4479  2014 Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Ain Shams University.

Please cite this article in press as: Kotb OA, Optimum numerical approach of a MSF desalination plant to be supplied by a new specific 650 MW power plant located on
the Red Sea in Egypt, Ain Shams Eng J (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.asej.2014.09.001
2 O.A. Kotb

Nomenclature

A stage area, m2 TBT top brine temperature, C

Ai heat transfer area based on inner tube diameter, Tc condensation temperature, C
m2 Tcw sea water temperature, C
Ao heat transfer area based on outer tube diameter, Tr temperature of recycle flow inside the condenser
m2 tubes, C
Ab heat transfer area of brine heater, m2 Ur overall heat transfer coefficient in recovery sec-
Cp specific heat at constant pressure, kJ/kg C tion, W/m2 C
Cd orifice discharge coefficient Uj overall heat transfer coefficient in rejection sec-
Md distillate, MIGD tion, W/m2 C
di tube inside diameter, m Ub overall heat transfer coefficient at brine heater,
do tube outside diameter, m W/m2 C
g gravitational acceleration, m/s2 Vm maximum allowable vapor release velocity, m/s
Hd height of the demister, m W width of stage, m
HG height of the gate in the flashing chamber, m q density, kg/m3
k thermal conductivity, kW/m C k latent heat of evaporation, kJ/kg
Kh height constant of demister / vapor mass flux, kg/h m2
L length of stage, m
(LMTD)r logarithmic mean temperature difference, C Subscripts
l length of tube, m b brine
M flow rate, kg/s i stage number
P pressure, bar L liquid
X salinity, ppm R recycle
SL shell load, ton/m h S steam
T temperature, C v vapor

generator (HRSG) sections of the power plant [1,2]. Vapor rejection section. Each stage usually contains as in Fig. 2 brine
compression (VC), multi-effect distillation (MED) and multi- orifice, condenser/pre-heater tubes, water boxes, distillate tray,
stage flash distillation (MSF) are some conventional thermal venting line, demister and partition walls [10,11]. In the brine
desalination methods in which the MSF desalination system heater (heat input section), the preheated brine is heated
is more common than the other systems [3,4]. Sixty five percent to reach the maximum allowable brine temperature. The
of the world’s desalination plants use MSF desalination tech- brine heater operates as a shell and tube heat exchanger.
nology and more than 80 percent of seawater desalination in Furthermore, a deaerator is connected to stage 28 for prepara-
Gulf countries is performed by MSF desalination technique tion of the make-up flow. The flash chamber shell and the
[5,6]. Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, United Arab Emirates and Saudi brine heater shell are fabricated from stainless steel, while
Arabia are the Middle East countries that considerably use the condenser tubes in the chambers and the tubes of the brine
MSF desalination technique [2,7–9]. heater are made of Cu–Ni 70–30 because it can withstand
The fact that there are some power plants are going to be temperatures higher than 80 C. Its Thermal Conductivity is
built or have been built on the Red Sea, make it highly valu- 29 · 103 kW/m C. The system is provided with three vacuum
able to design and construct some thermal desalination plants pumps. Two of them are considered to operate in heat recov-
in this area. ery section and the third one operates in heat rejection section
The focus of this study to introduce an efficient MSF desa- and deaerator unit.
lination plant in Suez city supplied by a 650 MW power plant
that provides just 385.03 kg/s steam, with respect to the allow- 2.2. Design of the system
able salinity of blow down (79,800 ppm). Thus, practical corre-
lations are defined to design the MSF desalination system and
Usually, the MSF process modeling includes mass and energy
then operating parameters are determined.
balance, heat transfer equations, physical property correla-
tions and the temperature losses due to boiling point variation.
2. Methodology
The system design methodology is presented at this section
[11].
2.1. Process description The seawater temperature, the difference in the temperature
of inlet and outlet recycle streams of the condensers and the
The schematic diagram of the MSF process with brine recircu- temperature difference between the inlet and outlet brine
lation is shown in Fig. 1. The process contains 28 flashing streams in flashing chambers are considered to be 28 C,
stages which have similar layout. Stages 1–25 comprise heat 3.786 C and 3.786 C, respectively. The top brine temperature
recovery section and stages 26–28 are considered as the heat (TBT) and the blow down temperature are assumed to be

Please cite this article in press as: Kotb OA, Optimum numerical approach of a MSF desalination plant to be supplied by a new specific 650 MW power plant located on
the Red Sea in Egypt, Ain Shams Eng J (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.asej.2014.09.001
Optimum numerical approach of a MSF desalination plant 3

Figure 1 Multistage flash desalination with brine circulation (MSF).

Demister Tube Bundle Cp ¼ ½A þ BT þ CT2 þ DT3   103 ð6Þ

where T is temperature (C) and coefficients values are:
A ¼ 4206:8  6:6197ðXÞ þ 1:2288  102 ðX2 Þ ð7Þ
Air Baffle 2 4 2
Vent line B ¼ 1:1262 þ 5:4178  10 ðXÞ  2:2719  10 ðX Þ ð8Þ
2 4 6 2
C ¼ 1:2026  10  5:3566  10 ðXÞ þ 1:8906  10 ðX Þ ð9Þ
Distillate Duct D ¼ 6:87774107 þ1:517106 ðXÞ4:4268109 ðX2 Þ ð10Þ
Outlet Distillate Inlet Distillate where X, is the water salinity (g/kg).
Distillate Tray The amount of flashing vapor formed in each stage
obtained by conservation of energy within the stage, where
Outlet Brine Inlet Brine the latent heat consumed by the flashing vapor is set equal
to the decrease in the brine sensible heat.
Flashed off Vapor Submerged Orifice
Where y is the specific ratio of sensible heat and kav is the
Brine Pool average latent heat calculated at the average temperature.

Figure 2 MSF flashing stage, H. El-Dessouky [10,11]. y ¼ Cp DT=kav ð11Þ

The total summation of the distillate formed in all stages,
146 C and 40 C, respectively. The power plant can just pro- Md is given by:
vide 385.03 kg/s superheated steam from low pressure (LP)
Md ¼ Mr ð1  ð1  yÞn Þ ð12Þ
section of 5.83 bar and steam temperature of 156 C.
DTst ¼ ðT0  Tn Þ=n ð1Þ where n is the number of stages.
The salt concentration in the recycle stream, Xr is obtained
where (DTst) is the temperature drop in each effect, (T0) is the by performing salt balance on the loop shown in Fig. 1. This
top brine temperature and (Tn) is the blow down temperature balance is
Determine average latent heat (kav) at average temperature
Xr ¼ ðXf Mf þ ðMr  Md ÞXb  Mb Xb Þ=Mr ð13Þ
(Tav) where:
Tav ¼ ðT0 þ Tn Þ=2 ð2Þ
2.3. Determination of the cooling water flow rate, Mcw
Determine the output ratio (GOR) where:
This flow rate is obtained from an overall energy balance
GOR ¼ ðnDTst Þks =ðDTst þ DTloss þ TTDc nÞkav ð3Þ around the desalination plant, Fig. 1. The intake seawater tem-
GOR ¼ Md =Ms ð4Þ perature, Tcw is used as the reference temperature in the energy
balance. This gives
where Md is desalinated water and Ms is the amount of steam
in kg/s. Mcw ¼ ðMs ks  Mf Cp ðTn  Tcw ÞÞ=ðCp ðTn  Tcw ÞÞ ð14Þ
By using heat balance for the brine heater the amount of
the recycled brine water (Mr) can be determined as follow: 2.4. Brine heater heat transfer area, Ab
Ms ks ¼ Mr DTCp ð5Þ
The motive steam provides the brine heater with the necessary
The pressure values inside the vaporization chambers are energy to increase the feed seawater temperature from T1 to
equal to the saturation vapor pressure. the top brine temperature, To. This requires calculation of
The specific heat of seawater at constant pressure depends on the motive steam flow, which is obtained from the brine heater
temperature and water salinity, and is defined as in Eq. (6) [12]: energy balance.

Please cite this article in press as: Kotb OA, Optimum numerical approach of a MSF desalination plant to be supplied by a new specific 650 MW power plant located on
the Red Sea in Egypt, Ain Shams Eng J (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.asej.2014.09.001
4 O.A. Kotb

The pressure value inside the brine heater and the vapor Tvn ¼ Tn  BPEn  NEAn  DTdn ð27Þ
saturation temperature are 5.837 bar and 156 C, respectively. where BPE is the boiling point elevation in the last stage,
The brine heater area is given by:
BPEn ¼ Xn ðB þ ðXn ÞðCÞÞ103 ð28Þ
Ab ¼ Ms ks =ðUb ðLMTDÞb Þ ð15Þ
2 5 2 3
B ¼ ð6:71 þ 6:34  10 ðTn Þ þ 9:74  10 ðTn Þ Þ  10 ð29Þ
where LMTD is the logarithmic mean temperature difference
and is given by: C ¼ ð22:238 þ 9:59  103 ðTn Þ þ 9:42  105 ðTn Þ2 Þ108 ð30Þ
ðLMTDÞb ¼ ððTs  To Þ  ðTs  T1 ÞÞ= lnððTs  To Þ=ðTs  T1 ÞÞ ð16Þ The non-equilibrium allowance is then calculated using the
correlation (31), temperature drop in the demister (DTd1) is
The overall heat transfer coefficient Ub is obtained from Eq.
assumed negligible in comparison with the values of BPEn,
(17) as follow.
NEAn
Ub ¼ 1:7194 þ 3:2063  103 Ts þ 1:5971  105 T2s 6
NEAn ¼ ð0:9784ÞTn1 ð15:7378ÞHn1 ð1:3777ÞVb10 ð31Þ
7
þ 1:9918  10 T3s ð17Þ
The gate height and the height of the brine pool in the last
stage are assumed equal to those in the previous stage. The
2.5. The condenser area in the heat recovery section, Ar gate height in the stage n  1, GHn1, is calculated from
equation:
Ar is determined for the first stage. Determination of this value GHn1 ¼ Mrn1 ð2qDP1 Þ0:5 =ðCd WÞ ð32Þ
requires calculations of the vapor condensation temperature,
Tv1, the logarithmic mean temperature difference (LMTD)r, Aj ¼ ðMf þ Mcw ÞCp ðTjn  Tcw Þ=Uj ðLMTDÞj ð33Þ
and the overall heat transfer coefficient, Ur. The vapor temper-
ature is given by Eq. (18). where
Tv1 ¼ T1  BPE1  NEA1  DTd1 ð18Þ Uj ¼ 1:7194 þ 3:2063  103 Tvn þ 1:5971  105 T2vn
where BPE is the boiling point elevation in the first stage and is þ 1:9918  107 T3vn ð34Þ
given by:
and
BPE1 ¼ Xr ðB þ ðXr ÞðCÞÞ103 ð19Þ
ðLMTDÞj ¼ ððTvn  Tjn Þ  ðTvn  Tcw ÞÞ= lnððTvn  Tjn Þ=ðTvn  Tcw ÞÞ
where
ð35Þ
B ¼ ð6:71 þ 6:34  102 ðT1 Þ þ 9:74  105 ðT1 Þ2 Þ  103 ð20Þ
The mentioned mathematical models can be used to design
C ¼ ð22:238 þ 9:59  103 ðT1 Þ þ 9:42  105 ðT1 Þ2 Þ108 ð21Þ a new MSF desalination plant. According to these models, the
And NEA, is the non-equilibrium allowance, the tempera- effect of different operating parameters on performance of the
ture drop in the demister (DTd1) is assumed negligible in com- plant can be investigated.
parison with the values of BPE1, NEA1 is given by:
2.7. Studying the effect of different numbers of heat rejection
6
NEA1 ¼ ð0:9784ÞTo ð15:7378ÞH1 ð1:3777ÞVb10 ð22Þ stages on the power plant performance

The gate height in the first stage, GH1, is calculated from Three modules of 28 stages distillation power plant were
Eq. (23): tested, the first of 26 heat recovery section and 2 stages for
GH1 ¼ Mr ð2qDP1 Þ0:5 =ðCd WÞ ð23Þ rejection section. The second one involves 3 stages for rejection
section, and the last one has 4 stages for the rejection section
The corresponding brine pool height (H1) is obtained by using Eqs. (1)–(5), (7)–(13), (15)–(35). The following table
simply adding 0.2 m to the value of GH1. shows the effect of number of stages in heat rejection section
on the power plant performance and the optimum design of
Vb at the first stage is:
the system.
Vb = Mr/W
Table 1 reveals that increasing the number of rejection
Also; Ar ¼ Mr Cp ðTr1  Tr2 Þ=Ur ðLMTDÞr ð24Þ stages will decrease the heat transfer area of the brine heater,
where heat rejection section, and heat recovery section, decrease the
gain output ratio, and decrease the brine salinity. It also clears
Ur ¼ 1:7194 þ 3:2063  103 Tv1 þ 1:5971  105 T2v1 þ 1:9918  107 Tv1 ð25Þ that the produced freshwater will decrease by 19.4% from 2 to
3 stages while it decreases by 49.02% from 2 to 4 stages, on the
and other side the Brine salinity decreases by 9.98% from 2 to 3
stages and it decreases by 23.25% from 2 to 4 stages. Aj Rejec-
ðLMTDÞr ¼ ððTv1  Tr1 Þ  ðTv1  Tr2 ÞÞ=lnððTv1  Tr1 Þ=ðTv1  Tr2 ÞÞ ð26Þ
tion section heat transfer area is decreased dramatically from 2
to 3 stages by 50.99% and from 2 to 4 stages by 68.5%. Ar
2.6. The condenser area in the heat rejection section, Aj Recovery section heat transfer area is decreased dramatically
from 2 to 3 stages by 72.32% and from 2 to 4 stages by
It is determined for the last stage. Determination of this value 89.34%. The most important parameter affects the design of
requires calculations of the vapor condensation temperature, plant is the produced freshwater, the analysis shows that the
Tvn. decrease in the freshwater in the 3 stages is more less than in

Please cite this article in press as: Kotb OA, Optimum numerical approach of a MSF desalination plant to be supplied by a new specific 650 MW power plant located on
the Red Sea in Egypt, Ain Shams Eng J (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.asej.2014.09.001
Optimum numerical approach of a MSF desalination plant 5

Table 1 Effect of different numbers of heat rejection stages on the power plant performance.
No. of stages Ab brine Ar recovery Aj rejection Md Mr recycle Xb brine (GOR)
heater section heat section heat distilled brine water salinity gain
transfer area transfer area transfer area water (kg/ (kg/s) (ppm) output
(m2) (m2) (m2) s) ratio
2 stages in 21396.54 54819.73 26777.28 2765.844 16831.16 88648 10.87
rejection and
26 in rec. sec.
3 stages in 19200.92 15169.22 13123.75 2229.201 13452 79800 8.76
rejection and
25 in rec. sec.
4 stages in 17497.15 5845.574 8427.853 1410.015 8411.13 68040 5.54
rejection and
24 in rec. sec.

SL ¼ 457:2 þ 53:43Md ð37Þ

Table 2 Assumed parameters to design the MSF desalination
plant. The length of the MSF flashing stage (L) is determined
Parameter Value
from distilled water (Md), steam density (qsteam), maximum
allowable vapor release velocity (Vm) and the stage width (W).
Sea water temperature, C 28 The maximum allowable release velocity varies through the
Steam temperature (Ts), C 156
different stages and should not exceed 10 m/s in the last stage
Top brine temperature (To), C 146
Steam latent heat (ks)(at P = 5.83 bar, Ts = 156), kJ/kg 2091
of the rejection section [7]. In this study, the maximum release
Vapor velocity in last stage, m/s 7.8 velocities for the first and last stages are considered 1 and
Number of stages (25 for recovery sec. and 28 7.8 m/s, respectively. The length of the stage is obtained by
3 for rejection sec) Eq. (38):
L ¼ Md =Vm qsteam W ð38Þ
Obtaining the width and length of the stages, the area of the
the 4 stages, while the difference in the decreasing in the rejec- flash chamber and vapor mass flux can be determined from
tion and recovery area is not very large between 3 and 4 stages, Eqs. (39) and (40):
so the decrease in the freshwater in the 4 stages is big and not
accepted in comparison with the decrease in the rejection and A¼WL ð39Þ
recovery area (saving cost). Finally, to get a good performance
of the plant, the module of 3 stages in rejection section is pre- Ms
/2 ¼ ð40Þ
ferred. It gives accepted freshwater and less rejection and A
recovery areas (more saving cost).
Hd ¼ 0:1776e0:0054kh ð41Þ
2.8. Determination of the stage width 3:281/v
kh ¼ qffiffiffiffi ð42Þ
qv qqvI  1
The stage width of the MSF system (w) can be determined by
using Eq. (36). The brine shell load (SL) is the flashing brine Stage height is the summation of the brine depth, height
flow rate per unit width of the flash chamber. This design between brine level and demister, demister height and the
parameter (shell load) affects both the width of the stage and height above demister. The brine depth in each flashing cham-
the non-equilibrium losses in the stage. In this study, it is ber is adjusted to seal the orifice. The orifice controls bubble
assumed that the entire produced vapor condenses to water. formation and vapor release rate by controlling the brine flow
Mr rate. The brine depth is always higher than the gate height
W¼ ð36Þ
SL (HG) by about 0.1–0.2 m. Optimum height between brine sur-

Table 3 Specifications of MSF desalination plant.

Specification Heat rejection section Heat recovery section Brine heater
Number of stages 3 25 –
Number of tubes 26,286 30383.52 24,037
Tube length, m 5 5 8
Tube outside diameter, m 0.0318 0.0318 0.0318
Tube inside diameter, m 0.0293 0.0293 0.0293
Stage width, m 9.3 9.3 –

Please cite this article in press as: Kotb OA, Optimum numerical approach of a MSF desalination plant to be supplied by a new specific 650 MW power plant located on
the Red Sea in Egypt, Ain Shams Eng J (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.asej.2014.09.001
6 O.A. Kotb

face and demister must be selected to keep the chamber at its

Table 4 Length of the stages.
minimum height. The demister height (Hd) depends on the
Stage number Stage length steam density and steam mass flux by a correlation as height
1 4.822671 constant (Kh). The demister height can be obtained by the
2 4.169306 empirical Eq. (41) [13]. The height above the demister includes
3 3.767307 the condenser diameter and space between demister and con-
4 3.799965 denser. Condenser diameter depends on the number of tubes
5 3.590814 fixing on support plates.
6 3.430727
Where Cd is the orifice discharge coefficient and can be in
7 3.39948
the range of 0.4–0.6. In this study, Cd is assumed 0.5. The unit
8 3.409335
9 3.485966 of pressure difference between consecutive stages (DP) is
10 3.611044 Pascal.
11 3.796369 All the tubes in chamber condensers are made of Cu–Ni 70–
12 3.955831 30, with inside and outside diameters of 0.0293 and 0.0318 m.
13 4.292084
14 4.537441 3. Results discussion
15 4.882962
16 5.248358
17 5.711358 The performance characteristics of the MSF desalination plant
18 6.186849 were predicted using the pre-mentioned design model in the
19 6.846974 Methodology, and results are discussed in this part. To calcu-
20 7.505385 late the mathematical equations, the values of some parame-
21 8.25278 ters are assumed and given by Table 2. Since this study was
22 9.664366 performed with the aim of designing a MSF desalination plant
23 10.66972 appropriate for Suez, the salinity of seawater was considered
24 11.4858
the same as the salinity of Red Sea water (41,000 ppm).
25 14.00554
26 15.51932
Table 3 presents some of the manufacturing characteristics
27 18.22627 of the designed MSF desalination plant. According to the
28 21.34118 accomplished calculations, the width of the stages in each sec-
tion is almost constant while the lengths of the stages are dif-
ferent. Table 4 gives calculated length value of flashing stages.

Table 5 Values of gate height, brine depth and demister height.

Stage number Gate height (m) Brine depth (m) Demister height (m)
1 0.143173 0.343173 0.177607
2 0.130677 0.330677 0.177608
3 0.121936 0.321936 0.177608
4 0.114676 0.314676 0.177608
5 0.108864 0.308864 0.177609
6 0.104099 0.304099 0.177609
7 0.100115 0.300115 0.177609
8 0.096658 0.296658 0.177609
9 0.093734 0.293734 0.177608
10 0.091101 0.291101 0.177608
11 0.088873 0.288873 0.177607
12 0.086825 0.286825 0.177607
13 0.085005 0.285005 0.177606
14 0.083382 0.283382 0.177606
15 0.082009 0.282009 0.177606
16 0.08059 0.28059 0.177605
17 0.079333 0.279333 0.177605
18 0.078233 0.278233 0.177604
19 0.077241 0.277241 0.177604
20 0.076285 0.276285 0.177603
21 0.075435 0.275435 0.177603
22 0.074497 0.274497 0.177603
23 0.073788 0.273788 0.177602
24 0.073096 0.273096 0.177602
25 0.072369 0.272369 0.177602
26 0.071692 0.271692 0.177602
27 0.071075 0.271075 0.177601
28 0.070436 0.270436 0.177601

Please cite this article in press as: Kotb OA, Optimum numerical approach of a MSF desalination plant to be supplied by a new specific 650 MW power plant located on
the Red Sea in Egypt, Ain Shams Eng J (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.asej.2014.09.001
Optimum numerical approach of a MSF desalination plant 7

Table 6 Temperature values (C) for the different streams within the chambers.
Stage Temperature of intake Temperature of effluent Temperature of Temperature of
number recycle brine recycle brine intake brine effluent brine
1 130.864 134.65 146 142.214
2 127.078 130.864 142.214 138.428
3 123.292 127.078 138.428 134.642
4 119.506 123.292 134.642 130.856
5 115.72 119.506 130.856 127.07
6 111.934 115.72 127.07 123.284
7 108.148 111.934 123.284 119.498
8 104.362 108.148 119.498 115.712
9 100.576 104.362 115.712 111.926
10 96.79 100.576 111.926 108.14
11 93.004 96.79 108.14 104.354
12 89.218 93.004 104.354 100.568
13 85.432 89.218 100.568 96.782
14 81.646 85.432 96.782 92.996
15 77.86 81.646 92.996 89.21
16 74.074 77.86 89.21 85.424
17 70.288 74.074 85.424 81.638
18 66.502 70.288 81.638 77.852
19 62.716 66.502 77.852 74.066
20 58.93 62.716 74.066 70.28
21 55.144 58.93 70.28 66.494
22 51.358 55.144 66.494 62.708
23 47.572 51.358 62.708 58.922
24 43.786 47.572 58.922 55.136
25 40 43.786 55.136 51.35
26 36 40 51.35 47.564
27 32 36 47.564 43.778
28 28 32 43.778 40

Table 7 Calculated pressure and brine salinity for all flashing Table 8 Values of some of the calculated performance
stages. parameters.
Stage number Pressure (bar) Brine salinity (ppm) Parameter Value
1 3.6367 67,000 Distillate capacity, ton/d 192602.88
2 3.25 67444.91 GOR 8.76
3 2.923 67891.61 Intake seawater flow rate, kg/s 6109.24
4 2.60937 68340.16 Blow down flow rate, kg/s 2271
5 2.32353 68790.63 Recycle brine flow rate, kg/s 13452
6 2.066313 69243.08 Make-up flow rate, kg/s 4500
7 1.834 696975.8 Rejected coolant flow rate, kg/s (Mcw + Mf) 10609.24
8 1.62483 70154.18 Distillate flow rate, kg/s 2229.48
9 1.433 70612.94 Steam flow rate to brine heater, kg/s 254.5
10 1.26 71073.93 Steam temperature to brine heater, C 156
11 1.10849 71537.2 Steam flow rate to deaerator, kg/s 130.53
12 0.96875 72002.78 Steam temperature to deaerator, C 275.9
13 0.84375 72470.75 Blow down concentration, ppm 79800
14 0.732 72941.14 Heat transfer area for heat rejection section, m2 13123.23
15 0.64368 73413.99 Heat transfer area for heat recovery section, m2 15169.22
16 0.5479 73889.35 Heat transfer area for brine heater, m2 19200.92
17 0.4689 74367.25
18 0.40 74847.74
19 0.3443 75330.84
20 0.29 75816.58
21 0.25 76304.99 The table shows that the stage length is decreasing initially
22 0.20 76796.09 and then increasing, this referred to the steam density which
23 0.1742 77289.9 decreased with decreasing the pressure at the first 7 stages with
24 0.15 77786.44
high percentage, after that it decreased with low percentage.
25 0.1217 78285.72
26 0.10 78787.75
As mentioned earlier, total height of each chamber is
27 0.08174 79292.53 divided into four segments. The results of calculated gate
28 0.067274 79800.06 height, brine depth and demister height are presented in
Table 5. The distance between brine level and demister and

Please cite this article in press as: Kotb OA, Optimum numerical approach of a MSF desalination plant to be supplied by a new specific 650 MW power plant located on
the Red Sea in Egypt, Ain Shams Eng J (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.asej.2014.09.001
8 O.A. Kotb

Temperature values for all the streams inside the vaporiza-

Table 9 Thermo-Physical Characteristics of the MSF Desa-
tion chambers are given by Table 6. As indicated, temperature
lination Plant.
variation for all streams between two consecutive stages is
Stage number Specific heat Latent heat of assumed to be 3.786 C.
capacity (kJ/kg C) vaporization water (kJ/kg) The design pressure of the shell as a function of saturation
1 3.928916 2144.16 temperature is processed and maintained by the vacuum sys-
2 3.918241 2155.6 tem along the stages. Table 7 shows the pressure variations
3 3.908165 2166.4 inside the stages. The first and the last stages have maximum
4 3.898661 2177 and minimum shell pressures with values of about 3.6367
5 3.889705 2188 and 0.067 bar abs., respectively. Table 7 presents the predicted
6 3.88127 2199.5
value of brine salinity in each stage, since the pressure
7 3.873331 2210
8 3.865859 2221
decreases, part of the brine water will evaporate and the water
9 3.858826 2229 salt concentration will increase consequently, so the maximum
10 3.852202 2241 brine salinity is obtained in the last stage (79,800 ppm).
11 3.845961 2250 The high brine salinity and the effluent temperature (40 C)
12 3.840073 2261.3 will make pollution in the sea which will affect the marine and
13 3.834508 2270.6 aquatic life, however, this can be treated by good design of the
14 3.829235 2274.2 outfall; many studies were conducted in this field [14–16].
15 3.824218 2289.44 Other calculated parameters of the MSF desalination plant
16 3.819436 2300 like different stream flow rates are illustrated in Table 8. As
17 3.814855 2309.6
shown, the steam flow rate is 254.5 kg/s while the total distil-
18 3.81044 2319.1
19 3.806159 2328.65
late capacity of the MSF system is 2229.48 kg/s, this distillate
20 3.80198 2338.3 quantity depends on the plant produced steam, its flow rate,
21 3.797869 2346 temperature and pressure (latent heat of vaporization water).
22 3.79379 2358 In addition, calculated heat transfer area for the three sections
23 3.789713 2365.88 of the MSF plant shows that the heat rejection section has less
24 3.7856 2373 heat transfer area compared to the other two sections. Also,
25 3.781415 2384.55 the heat transfer area of brine heater section is higher than
26 3.777127 2392 the heat recovery section.
27 3.772696 2402 Pursuant to the exhibited mathematical model, thermo-
28 3.768089 2411
physical properties of each stage were calculated and the
results are presented in Table 9. By increasing the number of
the space height above the demister are assumed to be 2 and stages, the temperature decreased and the brine salinity
2.5 m, respectively. Thus, stage height for heat recovery section increased. These variations lead to partial decrease of specific
and heat rejection section is considered 5.2 and 5.3 m, heat capacity. On the other hand, the latent heat of vaporiza-
respectively. tion is gradually raised by increasing the number of stages.

Figure 3 Multistage flash desalination with brine circulation (MSF).

Please cite this article in press as: Kotb OA, Optimum numerical approach of a MSF desalination plant to be supplied by a new specific 650 MW power plant located on
the Red Sea in Egypt, Ain Shams Eng J (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.asej.2014.09.001
Optimum numerical approach of a MSF desalination plant 9

4. Conclusion [8] Okelah MRS, Tag IA. Performance evaluation of a MSF

desalination plant in Qatar. Eng J Qatar Univ 1992;5:249–63.
[9] Wade NM. Distillation plant development and cost update.
A MSF desalination system is designed to be supplied by a Desalination 2001;136:3–12.
650 MW power plant providing only 385.03 kg/s steam. [10] El-Dessouky H, Ettouney H, Al-Juwayhel F, Al-Fulaij H.
66.1% of the total steam prepared by LP section of power Analysis of multistage flash desalination flashing chambers. Chem
plant is considered to be consumed in the MSF desalination Eng Res Des 2004;82(A8):967–78.
plant. The designed MSF desalination system has 28 flashing [11] Chapter 6 Multi-stage Flash Desalination. faculty.ksu.edu.sa/
chambers (3 chambers in heat rejection section and 25 cham- Almtaz/Documents/chE-413/Multi-stageFlashDesalination.pdf.
bers in heat recovery section module) with the same width [12] Shafaghat R, Shafaghat H, Ghanbari F, Rezaei PS, Espanani R.
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(22.3 m) and produces 192602.9 ton/d potable water. Height
specific 42 MW power plant located in Ira. World Acad Sci Eng
values of heat recovery section and heat rejection section are
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estimated to be 5.2 and 5.3 m, respectively Fig. 3. [13] Hamed OA, Ba-Mardouf K, Al-Washmi H, Al-Shail K, Abdullah
By operating this desalination system, the value of sea H, Al-Wadie A. Assessment of the major design features of
water salinity rises from 41,000 ppm to the maximum allow- SWCCMSF desalination plants. 4th SWCC acquired experience
able value of about 79,800 ppm. conference 2004.
[14] Danoun Rashad, Jones Ian SF, Mulhearn Phil. Desalination
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Hydraulics Research Institute since 2000. In
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Please cite this article in press as: Kotb OA, Optimum numerical approach of a MSF desalination plant to be supplied by a new specific 650 MW power plant located on
the Red Sea in Egypt, Ain Shams Eng J (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.asej.2014.09.001