Desalination 249 (2009) 635–646

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Desalination
j o u r n a l h o m e p a g e : w w w. e l s ev i e r. c o m / l o c a t e / d e s a l

Theoretical analysis of a single-stage and two-stage solar driven flash desalination

system based on passive vacuum generation
Shalabh C. Maroo a,⁎, D. Yogi Goswami b
a
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA
b
CERC, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33620, USA

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: An innovative solar driven flash desalination system is proposed. The system uses the natural forces of
Accepted 13 December 2008 gravity and atmospheric pressure to create a vacuum. Single-stage and two-stage concepts have been
Available online 8 October 2009 outlined. The main components include evaporator(s), condenser(s), collection tanks, heat source and
seawater circulation pump. Partial heat recovery is attained by first passing the feedwater through the
Keywords: condenser(s), followed by the heat source. Additional distillate output is obtained in the second stage of the
Solar
two-stage system without any extra heat addition, since the high temperature brine from the first stage is
Desalination
Passive
passed and flashed in the second stage.
Vacuum Theoretical analysis of the single-stage and two-stage concepts is done for the system when coupled with
Flash constant temperature heat source and solar collector. When coupled with a solar collector of 1 m2 area, a
Single-stage single-stage system produces 5.54 kg of water in 7.83 h, while the two-stage system produces 8.66 kg in
Two-stage 7.7 h. The performance ratios obtained, including the efficiency of solar collectors, are 0.48 and 0.75 for a
single-stage and two-stage system respectively, or 0.748 and 1.350 if only the useful heat collected by the
solar collector is considered.
© 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction water scarcity. The conventional desalination technologies include

Global resources of freshwater are becoming scarce and unevenly
distributed with increasing population. The world population is
growing approximately at a rate of 1.2% annually resulting in a net
addition of about 77 million people every year. The population is
expected to increase to around 8.9 billion by 2050 [1]. The earth's
water supply is about 1370 million km3 out of which nearly 3%
constitutes freshwater. Nearly 29 million km3 of freshwater is frozen
in the form of glaciers and ice. Ground water, lakes and rivers together
constitute just a little over 8 million km3 of freshwater. The critical
water level to satisfy basic human needs is estimated to be 1000 m3/
capita annually. It is projected that by 2050 about 1.7 billion people in
39 countries will fall below this level [2]. Thus, a logical solution to this
crisis is to produce freshwater from the available resource of earth's
saline water via desalination.
According to the World Health Organization, the permissible limit
of salinity in water is 500 ppm (parts per million) for potable water,
and for special cases up to 1000 ppm of total dissolved salts. Most of
the water available has salinity up to 10,000 ppm and seawater
normally has salinity in the range of 35,000–45,000 ppm. Desalination
has evolved over the past few decades as a promising solution to
⁎ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: Shalabh@ufl.edu (S.C. Maroo).
multi-stage flash (MSF), multi-effect distillation (MED), reverse
osmosis (RO), electrodialysis (ED), vapor compression (VC) process
and freezing.
Desalination is an energy intensive process. With the total
installed capacity expected to increase drastically in the coming
decades, the energy consumption for desalination will continue to rise
and hence the amount of conventional hydrocarbon fuels required
will substantially go up. In terms of oil consumption, it is estimated
that about 203 million tons of oil per year is required to produce
22 million m3 per day of desalinated water [3]. With conventional
hydrocarbon fuel shortages being inevitable unless radical changes
occur in the demand or in the supply of non-conventional hydro-
carbons [4], the energy–water link cannot be overlooked. In addition,
the usage of fossil fuels continues to pollute the environment and adds
to the cause of global warming. Thus, a feasible and promising
solution is the use of renewable energy resources for desalination.
Desalination using solar energy is increasingly becoming an
attractive option. Indirect collection systems can be seen as a
combination of two systems, a collector to convert solar energy and
the actual desalination plant to which the collected energy is supplied.
Zejli et al. [5] designed a combination of a MED system with an open
cycle adsorptive heat pump using internal heat recovery. The heat
transfer fluid flowing through tubes in the adsorbent beds is heated
up by a parabolic trough collector. Theoretical modeling was done,
and variation of energy consumption and performance ratio (PR) with

0011-9164/$ – see front matter © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.desal.2008.12.055
636 S.C. Maroo, D.Y. Goswami / Desalination 249 (2009) 635–646

the number of effects is shown. PR is defined as the ratio of water

Nomenclature
produced to the required heat input. Hawaj and Darwish [6] coupled
MED with a solar pond. A similar system studied by Tabor [7]
A area of cross-section (m2)
optimizes the size of the pond and the number of effects used, taking
BPE boiling point elevation (°C)
into account the large variation of pond heat output between summer
Cps specific heat of seawater (J/kg K)
and winter. Garcia-Rodriguez and Gomez-Camacho [8] studied a solar
Cpv specific heat of vapor (J/kg K)
parabolic trough collector field coupled to a conventional MSF plant
Cpw specific heat of water (J/kg K)
and concluded that use of solar energy could compete with a
D diameter (m)
conventional energy supply in MSF distillation processes in some
g gravitational acceleration constant
climatic conditions. Lu et al. [9] did an experimental study of a small
h enthalpy (J/kg), Heat transfer coefficient (W/m2 K)
multi-effect, multi-stage flash distillation (MEMS) unit and a brine
hfg latent heat of vaporatization of water (J/kg)
concentration and recovery system (BCRS) coupled with a solar pond
I solar insolation intensity (W/m2)
which aimed at reaching zero-discharge desalination. Hawlader et al.
k thermal conductivity (W/m K)
[10] accomplished an experimental study of a single-effect solar
M mass (kg)
assisted heat pump desalination system incorporating both flash and
Ṁ mass flow rate (kg/s)
distillation techniques. Joseph et al. [11] did an experimental study of
Nu Nusselt number
a single-stage flash desalination system working on flat plate solar
n number of moles
collectors and obtained a maximum distillate yield of 8.5 l/d with
P system pressure (Pa)
collector area of 2 m2. Farwati [12] concluded from an experimental
PR performance ratio
study that the yield from a MSF desalination system coupled with a
Pr Prandtl number
compound parabolic collector is better than when coupled with a flat
Q̇ heat transfer rate between condenser and cooling
plate collector. Thomson and Infield [13] studied a photovoltaic-
seawater (W)
powered seawater reverse osmosis desalination system experimen-
R universal gas constant
tally and their system showed substantial cost reduction to other PV–
Re Reynolds number
RO systems. Another similar experimental study by Laborde et al. [14]
T temperature (°C)
assisted by mathematical modeling outlined different parameters
Δt differential time element (s)
needed to be optimized with regard to power needs and energy
U overall heat transfer coefficient (W/m2 K)
consumption. Amara et al. [15] optimized the principal operating
X salt concentration (g/kg)
parameters in an eight-stage air solar collector heating–humidifying
desalination system. Dai et al. [16] studied a humidification–
dehumidification desalination system using flat plate collectors and
Superscripts
validated their mathematical model with experiments. A similar
t, t + Δt Value of the parameter at this time instant
numerical analysis done by Fath and Ghazy [17] showed that the
dehumidifier effectiveness has an insignificant influence on system
productivity.
Greek symbols Most of the conventional desalination systems can be classified as
η efficiency a combination of complex units with large output yields (MED, MSF
μ dynamic viscosity (Pa s) plants) or simple systems with low output yields (solar stills). In order
ν kinematic viscosity (m2/s) to increase the freshwater output, electrical equipments like vacuum
ρ density (kg/m3) pumps are added to the systems. This increases the energy
requirement as well as demands more maintenance. The proposed
concept in this paper moves towards the idea of decentralized–small
Subscripts scale desalination systems which requires only one water pump for
a ambient the whole unit and also produces attractive freshwater yield.
b brine
cs condenser surface
c,in condenser inlet 2. Proposed desalination system
c,out condenser outlet
d distillate In the proposed flash desalination system, an innovative passive
ev evaporator water column gravity based method is used for the production of vacuum. The
i inner concept was proposed by Sharma and Goswami [18]. A standing
l liquid column of water is allowed to drop generating very low pressures in
o outer the headspace created. Conventional desalination systems require the
ps distillate column use of vacuum pumps or steam ejectors to attain the same purpose.
s surface Based on this concept, a desalination system was investigated by Al-
sat saturation Kharabsheh and Goswami [19] which incorporated surface evapora-
sc solar collector tion in the vacuum chamber. Simulated performance of that system
sc,in solar collector inlet matched well with the experimental results. However, the evaporator
sc,out solar collector outlet size for a practical output in such a system is large. Further, with
sw seawater change in pressure in the evaporator, the water level fluctuation is
u useful large which poses difficulty in heat addition. The system proposed
v vapor here uses a flash evaporator, which reduces the size of the system.
vs vapor space Heat input can be provided by a constant temperature waste-heat
v,eq vapor at equilibrium source or from a renewable source like a solar collector. This article
describes single-stage and two-stage systems. However, the concept
can be easily extended for multi-stage system design.
 S.C. Maroo, D.Y. Goswami / Desalination 249 (2009) 635–646
Fig. 1. Proposed single-stage flash desalination system.
2.1. Single-stage system
Referring to Fig. 1, the system consists of a flash chamber
(A), condenser (B), low grade heat source (C), feed water pump
(D), product water tank (E), and brine collection tank (F) arranged as
shown. The evaporator and condenser have to be located at a height of
10 m or more above the collection tanks, such as on roof tops of
buildings or on tall structures. Vacuum is created as follows: valves V1
and V2 are open while valves V3, V4, and V5 are closed. Water is
pumped into the system using the feed water pump until all the air
inside the system vented out through valve V2. When the system is
completely filled with water, the pump is turned off, and valves V1
and V2 are closed. Valves V4 and V5 are then opened causing the
water to drain down, creating a vacuum in the space above (i.e. in the
flash chamber and condenser). A water column of approximately
10 m is formed which is balanced by atmospheric pressure.
During operation, heated brine is pumped into the evaporator
where it flashes because of low pressure, thus producing vapor and a
higher concentration brine solution. The generated vapor passes
through the inner tube of the tube-in-tube condenser with feedwater
brine flowing in the annulus; this solves two purposes — a) vapor is
condensed to produce potable water, and b) feedwater brine gets pre-
heated. The pre-heated brine is heated further by using solar heat
from a collector. Other low grade heat sources can also be used. The
concentrated brine and the product water drain out of the system due
to gravity, and no pumps are required for these purposes. The levels in
the brine collection tank and the product water tank can be
maintained using float valves.
2.2. Two-stage system
For more effective utilization of the heat input, multi-stage
systems can be used that flash the brine at successively lower
pressures with effective heat recovery, increasing the production of
potable water. Fig. 2 shows the implementation of a two-stage flash
system. The two stages are arranged in a vertical stack as shown, with
the requirement that the second stage flash chamber (A2) and
condenser (B2) be located at a minimum height of 10 m or more over
the brine and freshwater reservoirs shown at the bottom. (Note that
these reservoirs could also be located below ground level while being
open to the atmosphere).
637
The method of creating the vacuum is similar to that for a single-
stage system. Vacuum in the two stages is created independently. The
two stages are only connected via valve V7 and the orifice. Valve V6 is
now similar to valve V2. Thus for the creation of vacuum, stage 2 is
filled up first with seawater followed by stage 1. Seawater from stage
1 is allowed to drain down before stage 2. This ensures that valve V7
remains closed. After vacuum is created in stage 1, valve V9 is closed
and it remains closed while the system is in operation. Hence
seawater after being flashed in A1 has to flow through valve V7 to A2.
The connecting pipe between A1 and F will become filled with
seawater when the system begins to operate (as shown in Fig. 2).
The initial pressure in both the stages will be the same (the vapor
pressure of water at its temperature). The system being ready for
operation, heated feedwater is flashed in A1 and the brine begins to
accumulate in A1. After a certain amount of brine has accumulated in
A1, valve V7 is opened. Due to the pressure difference in the two
stages, the accumulated brine in A1 flows into A2 and is further
flashed at a lower pressure. The flow rate of seawater from A1 to A2 is
controlled by the pressure in each stage and the connecting
arrangement.
3. Theoretical analysis
Mathematical modeling of the proposed desalination systems
includes the analysis of each component of the system. Mass and
solute conservation equations along with energy balance equations
are formulated.
3.1. Evaporator
Flash evaporation occurs when saline water is exposed to a sudden
pressure drop (the evaporator being under low pressure conditions)
below the saturation vapor pressure corresponding to the water's
temperature. To regain equilibrium, part of the saline water vaporizes
by drawing its latent heat of vaporization from the remaining liquid,
whose temperature drops towards the saturation temperature
corresponding to the lowered pressure.
Three flashing methods are commonly used to achieve flash
evaporation: pool liquid exposed to a sudden pressure drop in a
container, superheated liquid flowing in a low pressure open channel
(usually incorporated in a conventional MSF evaporator) and
638 S.C. Maroo, D.Y. Goswami / Desalination 249 (2009) 635–646

Fig. 2. Proposed two-stage desalination system.

superheated liquid jet ejected from a simple tubular nozzle or a Energy balance
circular orifice into a low pressure zone. Miyatake [20] experimentally " # " # " #
compared these methods with regard to the coefficient of flash Energy of feed Energy of vapor Energy of
= +
evaporation, and determined that this coefficient for the flashing saline water generated falling brine
liquid jet was 10 times more than that of superheated pool liquid or t t t
superheated flowing liquid. In the proposed desalination system, ⇒ Ṁsw htsw = Ṁv htv + Ṁb htb ð3Þ
flashing is achieved by ejecting the heated saline water into the t t
Tsw t
t Ṁsw ∫ t Cps dT
evaporator using an orifice. T
⇒ Ṁv = v
:
The evaporator is broken down into two control volumes; first one htfg
where the flashing process happens (near the orifice) and the other
being the brine collected in the evaporator and the water column. The Ideally the temperature attained by the vapor after flashing should
flashing efficiency is also taken into account (Fig. 3). be equal to the saturation temperature corresponding to the pressure
in the evaporator. But this depends on the amount of time given for the
Mass balance flashing process in the system, and since this time is finite, the actual
" # " # " # temperature of the vapor generated is higher than what it should
Mass flow rate of Mass flow rate of Mass flow rate ideally attain. Thus a flashing efficiency needs to be accounted for.
= +
feed saline water vapor generated of falling brine
t t t Flashing Efficiency :
⇒ Ṁsw = Ṁv + Ṁb :
Actual vapor generation rate
ð1Þ ηflash =
Maximum possible vapor generation rate
Salt balance t
Tsw
ð4Þ
t
t
Ṁ v;actual ∫ t Cps dT = htfg ðTvt Þ
t Tv
½Salt in feed saline water = ½Salt in falling brine ⇒ ηflash = = t :
Tsw
Ṁtv;max t
∫ t Cps dT = htfg ðTv;eq
t
Þ
t t t
⇒ Ṁsw Xsw = Ṁb Xbt T v;eq

t ! ð2Þ
Ṁsw Miyatake et al. [21] proposed the following empirical relationship
⇒Xbt = t t
t
Xsw :
Ṁsw − Ṁ v for flashing efficiency for aqueous NaCl solution, and also mentioned
that it only depends on the superheat:
n h  io−1
t t t
ηflash = 1− 1 + 1:5 Tsw −Tsat −3:0 : ð5Þ

3.2. Concentrated brine column

The height of the brine column depends only on the difference

between the pressure in the evaporator and the atmospheric pressure.
As the brine level in the brine tank is constant, the amount of brine
Fig. 3. Schematic of flashing process. rejected from the system will be the sum of the brine falling after
 S.C. Maroo, D.Y. Goswami / Desalination 249 (2009) 635–646 639

flashing and the brine water loss due to the pressure increase in the
evaporator. The temperature and salt gradients in the brine column
are neglected. The initial mass, salt concentration and temperature of
saline water in the column are known (Fig. 4).

Mass balance
" # " #
Change in pressure Change in mass of
∝ Fig. 5. Control volume of vapor space.
in the system water in the column
ð6Þ
t + Δt t Ae; p t + Δt t 3.3. Vapor space
⇒ Mev = Mev − ½P −P :
g
The vapor space comprises that of the whole system which is
Salt balance mainly the vapor space of the evaporator and of the condenser. The
temperature gradient is neglected in the vapor space. It is also
" # " # " #
Salt in the brine Salt in the brine Salt added due to assumed that the vapor is condensed at the saturation temperature,
= + and that sensible cooling is neglected. The heat of condensation is
column at time tþΔt column at time t falling brine in Δt
" # rejected to the condenser from the vapor space. The initial mass of
Salt in brine rejected vapor in the vapor space is equal to the volume of vapor space times
−
from the system in Δt ð7Þ the density of vapor at the ambient saline water temperature (Fig. 5).
t + Δt t + Δt t t t A t + Δt t t t t
⇒ Mev Xev = Mev Xev + Ṁ b Xbt Δt− ½P −P Xev + Ṁb Xev Δtg Mass balance
g
t + Δt t + Δt t
" # " # " # " #
Mev ðXev −Xev Þ t t t Mass of vapor Mass of vapor Mass of vapor Mass of vapor
⇒ = Ṁ b ðXb −Xev Þ: = + −
Δt at time t + Δt at time t added in Δt condensed in Δt
t + Δt t t t
Energy balance ⇒Mvs = Mvs + Ṁv Δt−Ṁd Δt
t + Δt t
" # " # " #
Mvs −Mvs t t
⇒ = Ṁv −Ṁd :
Energy of the brine Energy of the brine Energy added by Δt
= +
column at time t + Δt column at time t falling brine in Δt ð9Þ
" #
Energy of brine rejected
− Energy Balance
from the system in Δt
2 3 2 3
t A t + Δt t Energy of vapor Energy of vapor " #
t + Δt t + Δt t t t t t
⇒Mev hev = Mev hev + Ṁb htb Δt− ½P −P hev + Ṁb hev Δtg 6 7 6 7 Energy of vapor
g 4 in vapor space 5 = 4 in vapor space 5 +
+ Δt
added in Δt
t + Δt
Mev
Tt
∫Tevt
t
Cps dT at time t + Δt at time t
⇒
t Tt t
= Ṁ b ∫Tvt Cps dT: 2 3
ev
Energy of " #
Δt ev
Energy rejected
6 7
ð8Þ −4 condensed 5−
to condenser
water in Δt
ð10Þ
t + Δt t + Δt t t t t t
⇒ Mvs hvs = Mvs hvs + Ṁ v htv Δt− Ṁ d htd Δt−Q̇ Δt
t + Δt t + Δt t t
Mvs hvs −Mvs hvs t t t t t
⇒ = Ṁv hv −Ṁ d hd −Q̇
Δt
Here; Td = Tsat
t T t + Δt t
Mvs t t t t Tt t
⇒ ∫ tsat Cps dT = Ṁ d hfg − Q̇ + Ṁ v ∫ tv Cpv dT:
Δt T sat T sat

Also, the mass of vapor in the vapor space at any instant t can be
found out as:

t t t
Mvs = ðVolume of SpaceÞ ρv = ðVolume of SpaceÞ f ðTsat Þ: ð11Þ

3.4. Condenser

Fig. 4. Schematic of the concentrated brine column.
The vapor condenses to give the desired product after rejecting the
heat of condensation in the condenser. The condenser is water cooled in
order to obtain better heat removal rates. The heat of condensation pre-
heats the feed saline water passing through the condenser, thus recovering
heat in the system. The type of condenser used in the system is a horizontal
tube-in-tube type condenser, with vapor condensing in the inner tube and
the feed saline water (cooling water) flowing in the annulus.
In horizontal tubes at low vapor velocities, low condensation rates
and/or short tube lengths, which is the case here, liquid that
condenses on the upper portion of the inside tube wall tends to run
down the wall towards the bottom resulting in a stratified annular
640 S.C. Maroo, D.Y. Goswami / Desalination 249 (2009) 635–646

flow condition. For low vapor velocities (Re < 35,000) the condensa-
tion heat transfer coefficient is given by [22]
" #1 = 4
gρl ðρl −ρv Þk3l h′fg
hi = 0:555
μl ðTsat −Ts ÞD

where, the modified latent heat is h′fg = hfg + 38 Cp;l ðTsat −Ts Þ:
The heat transfer coefficient in the annulus will depend on the
nature of the flow, and hence on the volume flow rate of the cooling
saline water. Thus if the Reynolds number ReD = VswνDh < 2300 then
the flow is laminar, or else the flow is turbulent. The Nusselt number
for fully developed laminar flow in a circular tube annulus with one
surface insulated and the other at constant temperature can be
obtained from [22]. For turbulent flow, the Nusselt number can be
4/5 0.4
calculated from [22]: Nui = 0.023ReD Pr (for ReD > 2300). The outer
heat transfer coefficient ho can be obtained from the Nusselt number. Fig. 6. Control volume of the distillate column.
Overall heat transfer coefficient

hi ho using the natural forces of gravity and the atmospheric pressure,

t
U = : ð12Þ resulting in the formation of the saline water column. The height of
hi + ho
the water column is mainly dependent on the system pressure as the
The rate of heat transfer from the condensing vapors to the cooling atmospheric pressure can be treated as a constant. Thus, any increase
saline water is: in the system pressure will lead to a decrease in the water column
height and vice versa.
t t
t
ðTout −T t Þ t t t
Initially when the system is started, the pressure in the system will
Q̇ = U Acs  t int  = Ṁsw Cps ðTc;out −Tc;in Þ ð13Þ be equal to the saturation pressure at the ambient temperature of the
T −T
ln T tsat−T tin
sat out saline water. The pressure change in the system relates directly to the
  rates of evaporation and condensation. The pressure increase in the
U t Acs system is due to the combined effect of vapor and non-condensable
− t
t t t t Ṁ sw Cps
⇒Tc;out = Tsat −ðTsat −Tc;in Þe : ð14Þ gases accumulation. The effect of continuous accumulation of non-
condensable gases is taken into account in the system design as it is
assumed that no vacuum pump or steam ejector is used to remove
3.5. Distillate column these gases from the system.
Oxygen and nitrogen and small amounts of other gases are
The distillate column, like the brine column, depends on the absorbed in the seawater only in molecular form, and they are
difference in the pressure of the system and the atmospheric pressure. released without changing the chemical composition of the seawater.
The amount of distillate coming out from the system will be the sum However, the liberation of carbon-dioxide impairs the equilibrium
of the distillate added to the distillate tube after condensation and the between carbon-dioxide CO2, bicarbonate HCO− 2−
3 and carbonate CO3 .
distillate rejection due to the pressure increase in the evaporator. The The physico-chemical equilibrium depends essentially on the tem-
temperature gradient in the distillate column is neglected. The initial perature, pressure, salinity and pH-values of the seawater. In order to
mass and temperature of the water in the column are known (Fig. 6). compensate for the removal of CO2, HCO-3 decomposes to produce
new CO2 molecules. The dissolved gases content of the seawater is
Mass balance
given in Table 1.
" # " # Thus, the pressure in the system at any time instant t can be written
Change in pressure Change in mass of
∝ as:
in the system water in the column
ð15Þ t t t t t
t + Δt t Ap t + Δt t
P = Pvapor + Pgas = f ðTsat Þ + Pgas : ð17Þ
⇒Mps = Mps − ½P −P :
g
The irreversible increase in pressure caused by the non-condens-
Energy balance able gases can be found out using Dalton's law of partial pressures,
and by considering them to behave as ideal gases:
2 3
Energy of the " # " #
6 7 Energy of the distillate Energy added by
4 distillate column 5 = + t ni;gas RT
column at time t condensed distillate in Δt Pgas = ∑Pi;gas = ∑ : ð18Þ
at time t + Δt 2 3 V
Energy of distillate
6 7
−4 rejected from the 5 It is also assumed here that the moles of gases released in time Δt
system in Δt ð16Þ are directly proportional to the concentration of the gas in the
t + Δt t + Δt t t t t Ap t + Δt t t t t seawater and the amount of vapor being generated.
⇒Mps hps = Mps hps + Ṁ d hd Δt− ½P −P hps + Ṁ d hps Δtg
g
t + Δt Tt + Δt
t ðConcentration of gas iÞ
Mps ∫ tps Cpw dT ni;gas = Ṁv Δt:
⇒
T ps t Tt
= Ṁd ∫ tsat Cpw dT:
t ρsw
Δt T ps

3.7. Boiling point elevation (BPE)

3.6. Pressure in the system
The vapor pressure of seawater is approximately 1.84% less than
The pressure is one of the most important parameters in this that of freshwater in the temperature range of 0 °C–100 °C [24]. Thus,
system design. The initial low pressure in the system is created by if two vessels containing freshwater and seawater at the same
 S.C. Maroo, D.Y. Goswami / Desalination 249 (2009) 635–646 641

Table 1 7) Calculate Qt from Eq. (13)

Concentration of main gases dissolved in seawater (Seifert and Genthner [23]). 8) Simultaneously solve Eqs. (9) and (10) utilizing Eq. (11) to obtain
t+1
Gas Concentration mole/m3 Parts per million (ppm) Tsat
t+1
9) Calculate Pgas from Eq. (18)
CO2 0.005 0.22
O2 0.24 7.7 t+1 t+1
Calculate Pvapor using Tsat calculated in step 7Calculate P t + 1 from
N2 0.45 12.6
Ar 0.01 0.4
Eq. (17)
HCO− 3.062 187.1 t+1
3
10) Calculate actual Tsat from P t + 1 found in step 8
11) Calculate Mtvs+ 1 = Mass of vapor from Eq. (11) using Tsat t+1
calcu-
lated in step 8 + Mass of non-condensable gases added using the
temperature (within the above mentioned temperature range) have ideal gas equation
their vapor space connected, freshwater will distill into the seawater 12) Calculate Ṁ dt from Eq. (9) where Mt,t vs
+1
are calculated from
vessel. In other words, the lower vapor pressure for the seawater Eq. (11)
manifests itself as a boiling point elevation which is a function of the 13) Calculate the new height of the seawater column, and new volume
dissolved solids concentration. of vapor space
14) Calculate Mtev+ 1 from Eq. (6)
t t t
⇒Tv;eq = Tsat + BPE : ð19Þ t+1
15) Calculate Tev from Eq. (8)
t+1
16) Calculate Xev from Eq. (7)
3.8. Performance ratio 17) Calculate Mtps+ 1 from Eq. (15)
18) Calculate Tpt + 1 from Eq. (16)
The performance ratio (PR) can be defined as the ratio between 19) Go to step 1 for t = t + 1 and repeat the process.
heat used to evaporate saline water into freshwater and the heat
added to the system. In context with the present system two 4.2. Two-stage
performance ratios can be stated, one where the heat input is
considered to be the actual heat added into the system and the other, The basic algorithm for the two-stage system is similar to the
based on the total heat incident on the solar collectors. single-stage with the main difference here being two evaporators, two
condensers and two distillate column. The component equations of
mass, salt and energy balance are the same. The following changes in
∑ md hfg the algorithm can be mentioned for the two-stage system:
Heat used for evaporation
PR1 = = Δt
Useful heat added Δt∑Q̇ u 1) The inlet saline water temperature for the condenser of stage 1 is
Δt
the exit temperature from the condenser of stage 2
2) The mass flow rate of the saline water from the evaporator of stage
1 to that of stage 2 depends on the pressure difference in the two
∑ md hfg
Heat used for evaporation stages and the orifice size
PR2 = = Δt : 3) The amount of saline water in the evaporator 1 depends on the
Energy incident on collector Δt∑Q̇
Δt mass flow rate as mentioned in (2) above and the unevaporated
saline water
4) The heat source only heats up the saline water entering the stage 1
4. Method of analysis 5) The temperature of the saline water entering stage 2 is equivalent
to the temperature of the saline water in the evaporator of stage 1.
The procedure followed in this analysis was to first write the
equations in their differential form. All the components of the system are 5. Results and discussion
assumed to move from one static state at time ‘t’ to another static state at
time ‘t + Δt’. In this method all the differential terms are approximated Two cases are studied; the first one assumes a constant heat source
in finite difference form and the equations are solved simultaneously temperature while the second one takes into consideration a solar
and iteratively till a convergence is obtained. All the system parameters collector as the source of heat. The assumptions made here are: the
are solved for time t, and then input parameters for time t + Δt are heat loss from the system, the thermal capacity of the system material
updated to those obtained from the previous iterations at time t, and so and the effect of non-condensable gases on condensation are
on. Thus, this is an explicit two-level time discretization scheme neglected. The system parameters which are taken as constants for
(Forward Euler scheme) with an error of the order of Δt2 i.e. O(Δt2). all the cases are given in Table 2.

4.1. Single-stage 5.1. Single-stage system with constant temperature heat source

Known Initial Conditions → M0ev, M0ps, M0vs, P0, T0ev, T0p, T0sat, X0ev The main input parameters in the system are the temperature of
Known for t > 0 → Ṁsw, Ṁcw, Tin, Xsw the heated saline water (Tsw), the saline water mass flow rate (Msw)
For iteration at any time t ≥ 0, beginning from t = 0:
Table 2
1) Calculate Ttv,eq from Eq. (19) System parameters.
Calculate Tvt from Eqs. (4) and (5)
2) Tsw is known for constant temperature case, and can be calculated Inner diameter of condenser tube 0.0762 m (= 3 in.)
Outer diameter of condenser tube 0.1016 (= 4 in.)
from Eq. (20) for the solar collector case
Circular cross-sectional area of evaporator 0.2 m2
3) Calculate Ṁ vt from Eq. (3) Length of collections tanks 0.2 m
4) Calculate Ṁ bt from Eq. (1) Cross-sectional area of collection tanks 0.1 m2
5) Calculate Xbt from Eq. (2) Diameter of connecting pipes 0.0254 m (= 1 in.)
Volume of the initial space in the system 0.03 m3
6) Calculate Ut using Eq. (12)
t Salinity 35 g/kg
Calculate Tc,out from Eq. (14)
642 S.C. Maroo, D.Y. Goswami / Desalination 249 (2009) 635–646
Fig. 7. Hourly output for single-stage system with constant temperature heat source.
and the length of the condenser (Lc). The ambient temperature (Ta)
also has some effect on the system output. For the simulation, the time
interval Δt is taken to be 5 s.
The system was simulated for a 12 h duration run. The input
parameters were Msw = 20 kg/h, Lc = 1 m and Tsw = 90 °C with
Ta = 23.8 °C. The output of the system is shown in Fig. 7. The total
distillate output at the end of 12 h was 11.31 kg. The net pressure and
saturation temperature continued to increase throughout the dura-
tion, and reached values of 22.3 kPa and 62.8 °C. Due to the pressure
rise, the brine and distillate water column fell to 7.94 m from the
initial 9.87 m. The pressure increase due to the non-condensable gases
was 1.1% of the total pressure increase.
From the Fig. 7, it can be noticed that the hourly output continues
to decrease due to the increase in the saturation temperature thus
decreasing the superheat for flashing. The salinity of the brine rejected
from the brine column at the end of the run was 36.7 g/kg. The
performance ratio of the system for the 12 h run was 0.746.
5.2. Two-stage system with constant temperature heat source
The two-stage system specifics were taken as: Msw = 20 kg/h,
Lc = 1 m for both condensers and Tsw = 90 °C for the first stage. The
simulation was run for 12 h with Δt taken as 1 s. Fig. 8 shows the hourly
output of both the stages in the duration. The total distillate output
obtained was 13.9 kg, with 7.1 kg from the first stage and 6.8 kg from
the second stage. The performance ratio of this system was 1.42. The
other reason for this increase, apart from being a two-stage system, is
that the saline water is now pre-heated in two condensers and thus the
heat required to reach a temperature of 90 °C reduces.
Fig. 8. Hourly output for two-stage system with constant temperature heat source.
As seen from Fig. 8, the output from the first stage continues to
decrease due to the increasing pressure. The second stage is assumed
to become operational when the height of brine accumulated in the
first stage is over 5 cm. The second stage operation starts midway
through the first hour with the output increasing initially and then
decreasing. The pressure at the end of 12 h in the first and second
stages reached about 39.9 kPa and 17.5 kPa respectively. The satu-
ration temperature in the first stage was 76.3 °C, and in the second
stage was 57.6 °C. The pressure increase due to non-condensable
gases was nearly 1.14% of the total pressure in the first stage and 0.82%
in the second stage. The brine accumulation height in the first
stage was 12.6 cm, while the brine column height drop in second
stage was 1.47 m.
5.3. Solar collector specifications
Flat plate solar collectors are used to drive the system. The saline
water, after being pre-heated in the condenser, is passed through the
solar collector to increase its temperature in the desired range and
then flashed in the evaporator. A heat exchanger between the
collector loop and the desalination system has been omitted as
the seawater flows directly through the collector. This increases the
efficiency and simultaneously reduces costs. But this also leads to the
risk of scale formation and corrosion in the metallic absorbers of
the conventional flat plate solar collector. A possible solution was
suggested by Hermann et al. [25]: to use collectors with corrosion-free
absorbers. In their design, selectively coated glass tubes acted as the
absorbers with silicone hoses reinforced with aramid fibers acting as
the headers. The efficiency was increased by adding a specially shaped
reflector. Operating temperatures as high as 90 °C can be reached with
efficiencies of about 50%.
In this simulation, clear sky conditions are assumed for Gainesville,
Florida (Latitude 29.68°N, Longitude 82.27°W) with the collector
facing south and tilted at an angle equal to the latitude of Gainesville
(Latitude 29.68°N) from the horizontal. The collector efficiency is
given by:
ðTsc;in −Ta Þ
ηsc = 0:75−4:87 :
Ic
Fig. 9 shows the solar insolation on the surface of a collector
oriented as mentioned. The area of the collector was taken to be 1 m2.
The collector is chosen to be operated (i.e. the feedwater pump is on)
from 8:37 AM to 4:22 PM i.e. for a duration of about 8 h.
 S.C. Maroo, D.Y. Goswami / Desalination 249 (2009) 635–646 643

Fig. 9. Insolation on a tilted solar collector surface on May 21 for a clear day (Gainesville, FL). Fig. 11. Single-stage system pressure coupled with solar collector.

5.4. Single-stage system coupled with solar collector

A single-stage system coupled with a solar collector was simulated

for May 21 with the Msw = 20 kg/h and Lc = 1 m. The time interval Δt
was set as 5 s. The simulation ran for a system time of 7.83 h. The
temperature of the inlet saline water increased as the insolation on
the collector surface increased. It attained a maximum value of
83.7 °C. Fig. 10 shows the variation of temperature with time. The
system saturation temperature reached a maximum of 58 °C. The
insolation decreased after reaching a maximum, and thus decreasing
the inlet saline water temperature and the saturation temperature.
With the increasing saturation temperature, more vapor is
generated and hence the system pressure increases. The pressure
also follows the same trend, reaching a maximum of 17.8 kPa with Fig. 12. Pressure change due to non-condensable (NC) gases in single-stage system
insolation. The variation of pressure is shown in Fig. 11. with collector.
The pressure increase due to the accumulation of non-condensable
gases is shown in Fig. 12. It depends on the rate of release of the non-
condensable gases and hence the vapor generation rate. Here only 5.5. Two-stage system coupled with solar collector
oxygen and nitrogen are taken into account as they make up the major
portion of the total dissolved gases in the seawater. The pressure The performance of a two-stage system is simulated for the same
increase due to the gases at the end of the duration is about 117 Pa which day i.e. May 21 with the input values as Msw = 20 kg/h and Lc = 1 m.
is quite small compared to the pressure change due to vapor generation. The time interval Δt taken here is 1 s as the initial pressure difference
The height of the brine column also fluctuates as it depends on the between the two stages is small and hence, the evolution of the
pressure in the system. It attains a minimum of 8.38 m. Fig. 13 shows system has to be done with a smaller timestep (compared to a single-
the variation of the brine water column height with time. stage system) in order to obtain convergence in the numerical
The maximum distillate output rate reached is 2.4 × 10− 4 kg/s. The analysis. The second stage is assumed to become operational when
net output obtained after 7.83 h is 5.54 kg. The hourly output is shown the height of the brine accumulated in the first stage is over 5 cm.
in Fig. 14. As per the performance ratios as defined earlier were The temperature of the inlet seawater varies with time due to the
obtained as: PR1 = 0.748 and PR2 = 0.480. change in solar insolation, and is shown in Fig. 15. The maximum
temperature attained by the saline water is higher than that of the
single-stage as the saline water is pre-heated in two condensers

Fig. 10. Variation of single-stage system temperatures coupled with solar collector. Fig. 13. Water column height variation for single-stage coupled with solar collector.
644 S.C. Maroo, D.Y. Goswami / Desalination 249 (2009) 635–646

Fig. 14. Hourly output of single-stage system coupled with solar collector. Fig. 17. Saturation temperature curves for two-stage system with solar collector.

Fig. 15. Feed water temperature for two-stage system coupled with collector.
The pressure in the first stage reaches a maximum value of 44.5 kPa
and in the second stage a value of 15.9 kPa. The pressure decreases
henceforth due to the decrease in insolation and vapor generation
rate.
The pressure in the second stage peaks after the peak reached in
the first stage because of the difference in the peaks for the maximum
inlet seawater temperature in the two stages. Again, the jump in the
pressure curve for the first stage is due to the jump in the inlet
seawater temperature.
With the increase in pressure, the saturation temperatures of both
the stages follow the same pattern. The maximum value reached in
the first stage is 78.9 °C and in the second stage is 55.6 °C. The
variation of the saturation temperature is shown in Fig. 17.
The variation of condenser outlet temperatures with time is shown
in Fig. 18. The high temperatures as shown are obtained due to the

before passing through the solar collector. The value of this

temperature is 99 °C, which would require high efficiency flat plate
solar collectors or evacuated tube collectors for operation. The inlet
saline water to the second stage is from the first stage, and the
maximum value attained is 77.3 °C.
It is also seen here that this maximum value for the second stage is
reached after the temperature in the first stage has peaked. The reason
is that the high inlet temperature in the first stage takes a finite
amount of time to reflect in the brine accumulating in first stage,
which is the feed water for the second stage. The sudden jump seen in
the inlet seawater temperature in the first stage is when the second
stage becomes operational and its condenser starts pre-heating the
feed water.
The increase in the inlet seawater temperature leads to an increase
in the vapor generation rate and hence an increase in the system
pressure. Fig. 16 shows the variation of the system pressure with time. Fig. 18. Condenser outlet temperature of two-stage system coupled with collector.

Fig. 16. Two-stage system pressure coupled with solar collector. Fig. 19. Pressure increase due to NC gases in two-stage system with solar collector.
 S.C. Maroo, D.Y. Goswami / Desalination 249 (2009) 635–646
Fig. 20. Brine height in the first stage of the two-stage system with collectors.
low mass flow rate of the saline water. The maximum is reached when
the saturation temperature peak is attained.
The pressure increase due to the non-condensable gases in the two
stages is shown in Fig. 19. The increase in the second stage is
significantly lower because of the low vapor generation rate, and also
due to the fact that a small fraction of the gases dissolved in the
seawater has been liberated in the first stage leading to lower
dissolved concentrations of gases in the seawater entering the second
stage. At the end of the system run, the increase in pressure due to the
non-condensable gases in the first stage is 955.8 Pa and in the second
stage it is 81.9 Pa which is negligible compared to pressure increase
due to vapor generation.
The pressure changes also lead to changes in the brine column
height in the second stage and the brine accumulation height in the
first stage. These are shown in Figs. 20 and 21. The final brine height
attained in the evaporator in stage 1 is 13.4 cm. The curve shown in
Fig. 20 shows that the brine height increases to a certain value,
decreases slightly and then again starts increasing. The decrease is due
to the increase in the pressure in the first stage due to which more
brine flows from the first stage to the second than the amount of brine
getting accumulated.
The brine column follows the same trend as that of the single-stage
system. It varies with the pressure change and reaches a minimum
when the pressure in the system reaches a maximum. The minimum
height to which the column drops is 8.57 m.
The diameter of the orifice connecting the two stages is an
important parameter in the two-stage system analysis. In the present
work, different orifice diameter values were used as inputs and it was
observed that for large diameters and small diameters, the solution
did not converge after certain number of timesteps. A very large
diameter resulted in all the brine draining from the first stage to the
second, thus equalizing the pressures and making the two-stage
Fig. 21. Brine column height in second stage of the two-stage system with collector.
645
Fig. 22. Hourly output from two-stage system with solar collector.
concept non-operational. A small diameter lead to very small flow
rates from the first stage to the second thus resulting in negligible
output from the second stage, and also leading to large accumulation
of brine in the first stage. From trial and error, the diameter was
chosen as 1.24 mm which resulted in proper convergence of the
solution.
Fig. 22 shows the hourly distillate output from each of the stages.
The total yield for 7.7 h of operation was 8.66 kg, with the first stage
output as 4.76 kg and second stage output as 3.90 kg. The perfor-
mance ratios of the system are:
PR1 = 1:35; PR2 = 0:75
The high efficiency is due to the combined effects of pre-heating of
feed saline water in the condenser and due to the utilization of the
second stage by producing more distillate without using any extra
heat source.
The reader is further guided to the thesis by Maroo, 2006 [26]
(available online at University of Florida libraries) for a complete in-
detail analysis of the system. Future work on this system includes
studying the distillate output sensitivity for different orifice dia-
meters, experimental validation of the numerical model, exergy
analysis and economic analysis to determine the practical cost of the
distillate produced.
6. Conclusion
An innovative desalination system is proposed which makes use of
natural forces of gravity and atmospheric pressure to create vacuum
under which saline water is flashed. The system can be coupled with
low grade heat source like solar collectors to produce potable water.
Single-stage and two-stage concepts of the desalination system were
outlined. Mathematical models of the concepts were formulated and
developed, and the results were presented for the systems coupled
with: a) constant temperature heat source, and b) solar collector.
For the case of constant temperature heat source, the single-stage
system was shown to produce 11.31 kg of distillate with a
performance ratio of 0.746 and the two-stage system produced
13.9 kg with performance ratio of 1.42 in 12 h of operation under the
same initial conditions. When coupled with a solar collector of 1 m2
area, the single-stage system had a distillate output of 5.54 kg in 7.83 h
with a performance ratio of 0.748 (based on only the useful energy
extracted from the collector) or 0.48 (based on the solar insolation
incident on the collector).
The two-stage system produced 8.66 kg in 7.7 h with a perfor-
mance ratio of 1.35 (based on only the useful energy extracted from
the collector) or 0.75 (based on the solar insolation incident on the
collector). The mass flow rate of feed saline water for all the cases was
646 S.C. Maroo, D.Y. Goswami / Desalination 249 (2009) 635–646
20 kg/h. Thus, the system performance obtained is better than that of
a conventional solar still.
The orifice diameter is an important additional parameter in the
two-stage system.
When coupled with solar collector, the increase in pressure due to
non-condensable gases was negligible as compared to the pressure
increase due to vapor accumulation. Thus, the system can be operated
for a number of days without a need to re-establish the vacuum if the
pressure increase due to vapor accumulation can be kept low. This can
be achieved by increased condensation rate and/or by night-cooling.
Acknowledgements
We wish to thank Dr. Sanjay Vijayaraghavan (post doctoral
associate at University of Florida, 2003–2006) for his insight and
invaluable ideas in this work. He is presently working at Intel
Technology India Pvt. Ltd, Banglore, India.
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