Multi-Stage Flash
Encyclopedia
Multi-stage flash distillation (MSF) is a water desalination process that distills
sea water by flashing a portion of the water into steam in multiple stages of what are essentially countercurrent heat exchanger
s. Multi-stage flash distillation plants produce 64% of all desalinated water in the world , although a different type of desalinators, reverse osmosis
plants, are more numerous.
and a condensate
collector. The sequence has a cold end and a hot end while intermediate stages have intermediate temperatures. The stages have different pressure
s corresponding to the boiling point
s of water at the stage temperatures. After the hot end there is a container called the brine
heater.
When the plant is operating in steady state
, feed water at the cold inlet temperature flows, or is pumped, through the heat exchangers in the stages and warms up. When it reaches the brine heater it already has nearly the maximum temperature. In the heater, an amount of additional heat is added. After the heater, the water flows through valve
s back into the stages which have ever lower pressure and temperature. As it flows back through the stages the water is now called brine, to distinguish it from the inlet water. In each stage, as the brine enters, its temperature is above the boiling point at the pressure of the stage, and a small fraction of the brine water boils ("flashes") to steam thereby reducing the temperature until an equilibrium is reached. The resulting steam is a little hotter than the feed water in the heat exchanger. The steam cools and condenses
against the heat exchanger tubes, thereby heating the feed water as described earlier.
The total evaporation in all the stages is up to approx. 15% of the water flowing through the system, depending on the range of temperatures used. With increasing temperature there are growing difficulties of scale formation and corrosion. 120 °C appears to be a maximum, although scale avoidance may require temperatures below 70 °C.
The feed water carries away the latent heat
of the condensed steam, maintaining the low temperature of the stage. The pressure in the chamber remains constant as equal amounts of steam is formed when new warm brine enters the stage and steam is removed as it condenses on the tubes of the heat exchanger. The equilibrium is stable, because if at some point more vapor forms, the pressure increases and that reduces evaporation and increases condensation.
In the final stage the brine and the condensate has a temperature near the inlet temperature. Then the brine and condensate are pumped out from the low pressure in the stage to the ambient pressure. The brine and condensate still carry a small amount of heat that is lost from the system when they are discharged. The heat that was added in the heater makes up for this loss.
The heat added in the brine heater usually comes in the form of hot steam from an industrial process co-located with the desalination plant. The steam is allowed to condense against tubes carrying the brine (similar to the stages).
The energy that makes possible the evaporation is all present in the brine as it leaves the heater. The reason for letting the evaporation happen in multiple stages rather than a single stage at the lowest pressure and temperature, is that in a single stage, the feed water would only warm to an intermediate temperature between the inlet temperature and the heater, while much of the steam would not condense and the stage would not maintain the lowest pressure and temperature.
Such plants can operate at 23-27kWh/m3 (appr. 90MJ/m3) of distilled water.
Because the colder salt water entering the process counterflows
with the saline waste water/distilled water, relatively little heat energy leaves in the outflow - most of the heat is picked up by the colder saline water flowing toward the heater and the energy is recycled.
In addition, MSF distillation plants, especially large ones, are often paired with power plants in a cogeneration
configuration. Waste heat from the power plant is used to heat the seawater, providing cooling for the power plant at the same time. This reduces the energy
needed by one-half to two-thirds, which drastically alters the economics of the plant, since energy is by far the largest operating cost of MSF plants. Reverse osmosis, MSF distillation's main competitor, requires more pretreatment of the seawater and more maintenance, as well as energy in the form of work (electricity, mechanical power) as opposed to cheaper low-grade waste heat.
Distillation
Distillation is a method of separating mixtures based on differences in volatilities of components in a boiling liquid mixture. Distillation is a unit operation, or a physical separation process, and not a chemical reaction....
sea water by flashing a portion of the water into steam in multiple stages of what are essentially countercurrent heat exchanger
Countercurrent exchange
Countercurrent exchange is a mechanism occurring in nature and mimicked in industry and engineering, in which there is a crossover of some property, usually heat or some component, between two flowing bodies flowing in opposite directions to each other. The flowing bodies can be liquids, gases, or...
s. Multi-stage flash distillation plants produce 64% of all desalinated water in the world , although a different type of desalinators, reverse osmosis
Reverse osmosis
Reverse osmosis is a membrane technical filtration method that removes many types of large molecules and ions from solutions by applying pressure to the solution when it is on one side of a selective membrane. The result is that the solute is retained on the pressurized side of the membrane and...
plants, are more numerous.
Principle
The plant has a series of spaces called stages, each containing a heat exchangerHeat exchanger
A heat exchanger is a piece of equipment built for efficient heat transfer from one medium to another. The media may be separated by a solid wall, so that they never mix, or they may be in direct contact...
and a condensate
Condensate
Condensate may refer to:* The liquid phase produced by the condensation of steam or any other gas* The product of a chemical condensation reaction, other than water* Natural gas condensate, in the natural gas industry- Quantum physics :...
collector. The sequence has a cold end and a hot end while intermediate stages have intermediate temperatures. The stages have different pressure
Pressure
Pressure is the force per unit area applied in a direction perpendicular to the surface of an object. Gauge pressure is the pressure relative to the local atmospheric or ambient pressure.- Definition :...
s corresponding to the boiling point
Boiling point
The boiling point of an element or a substance is the temperature at which the vapor pressure of the liquid equals the environmental pressure surrounding the liquid....
s of water at the stage temperatures. After the hot end there is a container called the brine
Brine
Brine is water, saturated or nearly saturated with salt .Brine is used to preserve vegetables, fruit, fish, and meat, in a process known as brining . Brine is also commonly used to age Halloumi and Feta cheeses, or for pickling foodstuffs, as a means of preserving them...
heater.
When the plant is operating in steady state
Steady state
A system in a steady state has numerous properties that are unchanging in time. This implies that for any property p of the system, the partial derivative with respect to time is zero:...
, feed water at the cold inlet temperature flows, or is pumped, through the heat exchangers in the stages and warms up. When it reaches the brine heater it already has nearly the maximum temperature. In the heater, an amount of additional heat is added. After the heater, the water flows through valve
Valve
A valve is a device that regulates, directs or controls the flow of a fluid by opening, closing, or partially obstructing various passageways. Valves are technically pipe fittings, but are usually discussed as a separate category...
s back into the stages which have ever lower pressure and temperature. As it flows back through the stages the water is now called brine, to distinguish it from the inlet water. In each stage, as the brine enters, its temperature is above the boiling point at the pressure of the stage, and a small fraction of the brine water boils ("flashes") to steam thereby reducing the temperature until an equilibrium is reached. The resulting steam is a little hotter than the feed water in the heat exchanger. The steam cools and condenses
Condensation
Condensation is the change of the physical state of matter from gaseous phase into liquid phase, and is the reverse of vaporization. When the transition happens from the gaseous phase into the solid phase directly, the change is called deposition....
against the heat exchanger tubes, thereby heating the feed water as described earlier.
The total evaporation in all the stages is up to approx. 15% of the water flowing through the system, depending on the range of temperatures used. With increasing temperature there are growing difficulties of scale formation and corrosion. 120 °C appears to be a maximum, although scale avoidance may require temperatures below 70 °C.
The feed water carries away the latent heat
Latent heat
Latent heat is the heat released or absorbed by a chemical substance or a thermodynamic system during a process that occurs without a change in temperature. A typical example is a change of state of matter, meaning a phase transition such as the melting of ice or the boiling of water. The term was...
of the condensed steam, maintaining the low temperature of the stage. The pressure in the chamber remains constant as equal amounts of steam is formed when new warm brine enters the stage and steam is removed as it condenses on the tubes of the heat exchanger. The equilibrium is stable, because if at some point more vapor forms, the pressure increases and that reduces evaporation and increases condensation.
In the final stage the brine and the condensate has a temperature near the inlet temperature. Then the brine and condensate are pumped out from the low pressure in the stage to the ambient pressure. The brine and condensate still carry a small amount of heat that is lost from the system when they are discharged. The heat that was added in the heater makes up for this loss.
The heat added in the brine heater usually comes in the form of hot steam from an industrial process co-located with the desalination plant. The steam is allowed to condense against tubes carrying the brine (similar to the stages).
The energy that makes possible the evaporation is all present in the brine as it leaves the heater. The reason for letting the evaporation happen in multiple stages rather than a single stage at the lowest pressure and temperature, is that in a single stage, the feed water would only warm to an intermediate temperature between the inlet temperature and the heater, while much of the steam would not condense and the stage would not maintain the lowest pressure and temperature.
Such plants can operate at 23-27kWh/m3 (appr. 90MJ/m3) of distilled water.
Because the colder salt water entering the process counterflows
Countercurrent exchange
Countercurrent exchange is a mechanism occurring in nature and mimicked in industry and engineering, in which there is a crossover of some property, usually heat or some component, between two flowing bodies flowing in opposite directions to each other. The flowing bodies can be liquids, gases, or...
with the saline waste water/distilled water, relatively little heat energy leaves in the outflow - most of the heat is picked up by the colder saline water flowing toward the heater and the energy is recycled.
In addition, MSF distillation plants, especially large ones, are often paired with power plants in a cogeneration
Cogeneration
Cogeneration is the use of a heat engine or a power station to simultaneously generate both electricity and useful heat....
configuration. Waste heat from the power plant is used to heat the seawater, providing cooling for the power plant at the same time. This reduces the energy
Energy
In physics, energy is an indirectly observed quantity. It is often understood as the ability a physical system has to do work on other physical systems...
needed by one-half to two-thirds, which drastically alters the economics of the plant, since energy is by far the largest operating cost of MSF plants. Reverse osmosis, MSF distillation's main competitor, requires more pretreatment of the seawater and more maintenance, as well as energy in the form of work (electricity, mechanical power) as opposed to cheaper low-grade waste heat.
See also
- Marine flash distillers
- Multiple-effect evaporation
- Reverse osmosisReverse osmosisReverse osmosis is a membrane technical filtration method that removes many types of large molecules and ions from solutions by applying pressure to the solution when it is on one side of a selective membrane. The result is that the solute is retained on the pressurized side of the membrane and...
- Reverse osmosis plantReverse osmosis plantA reverse osmosis plant is a manufacturing plant where the process of reverse osmosis takes place. An average modern reverse osmosis plant needs six kilowatt-hours of electricity to desalinate one cubic metre of water. The process also results in an amount of salty briny waste...
- Regenerative heat exchangerRegenerative heat exchangerA regenerative heat exchanger, or more commonly a regenerator, is a type of heat exchanger where the flow through the heat exchanger is cyclical and periodically changes direction. It is similar to a countercurrent heat exchanger. However, a regenerator mixes the two fluid flows while a...