Gained Output Ratio or GOR is a measure of how much thermal energy is

consumed in a desalination process.

The simplest definition is as follows;

How many kilograms of distilled water are produced per kilogram of steam
consumed?

Typically the value of GOR ranges from 1 to 10 kg/kg.

Lower values are typical of applications where there is a high availability of
low value thermal energy.
Higher values, even up to 18, have been associated with situations where
local energy values are very high, when the local value or need for water is
high or a combination of both.

GOR should be considered at the design stage of a desalination system when

the quantity and economic value of energy and water can be used to compare
the capital and operating costs of units with different GORs. Typically higher
GOR systems cost more but consume less energy and therefore have lower
operating costs (at least the energy component of operating cost is lower).

Some other considerations;

For multiple effect (ME) systems the GOR is directly related to the number of
effects Since: GOR= 0.8 n.
More effects directly increases GOR and

For systems using thermo-compressors the GOR is also impacted by the

pressure of the steam. Higher pressure steam will recycle more process
vapour within the ME part of the process thereby improving the GOR and
reducing external enthalpy requirements.

Please note that ME process efficiency and system cost tends to increase
when Top Brine Temperature (TBT) is increased since more effects can be
accomodated within the overall operational temperature difference.
Conversely this condition leads to increased overall pressure difference
reducing the effectiveness of adding a thermocompressor. Thus when ME
and thermocompressors are merged the resulting mix of temperature and
pressure driven systems leads to complex design optimization.

D/ For multi-stage flash (MSF) systems the GOR is indirectly related to the
number of flash stages. Typically for cross tube MSF the number of stages
will be approximately 2.5 to 3 times the GOR value. For long tube this is
typically 3.5 to 4.0 times the GOR value. This is because the incremental cost
of adding a stage to the long tube configuration (during the design phase) is
lower than for the cross tube design.

E/ When more than one steam pressure will be utilized, or when the
desalination system will be integrated with another thermal cycle, it may be
more practical to consider how much water is produced per unit of energy
consumed. This is often referred to as Economy or Performance Ratio; see
below

ECONOMY or Performance Ratio

The most common version of Performance Ratio was developed from the US
Customary Units version of GOR; lb of water per lb of steam. It is not
uncommon to assume each pound of steam has an average enthalpy of 1000
British Thermal Units (BTU), hence;

Performance Ratio = lb of water produced per 1000 BTU of heat consumed.

The metric version has been adopted by industry to be

Performance Ratio = kg of water produced per 2326 kJ of heat consumed.

It is still important for all parties, client, vendor and engineer, to agree on
which water and steam streams are considered in the calculation. It is often
most expedient to ignore steam consumed for vacuum systems.
Care must be taken to ensure condensate which is not returned is properly
accounted for in heat and mass balances.