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Experimental and Numerical Analysis of a PCM-Supported ...

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summarized in figure (1.2).<br />

Thermal technologies (or distillation) are based on liquid-vapor phase change due<br />

to addition <strong>of</strong> heat to drive the process. In the distillation process, seawater is heated<br />

to evaporate the water partially <strong>and</strong> the generated vapor is then condensed back into<br />

fresh water, leaving behind high concentrated salts in the waste brine. Evaporation<br />

heat is retained by the generated vapor as latent heat. When the vapor is<br />

condensed, it releases its latent heat, which can either be used to preheat feed<br />

seawater or evaporate water in a next stage. This process produces highly purified<br />

fresh water <strong>of</strong> better quality than the membrane processes.<br />

Distillation processes are divided into mainly three methods, multiple effect<br />

distillation (MED), multistage flash (MSF), <strong>and</strong> vapor compression (VC) as well as<br />

solar distillation techniques (e.g. basin-type solar distillers <strong>and</strong> HDH technique).<br />

Figure 1.2: Overview <strong>and</strong> energy classification <strong>of</strong> desalination<br />

processes<br />

In membrane technologies, the separation is realized by selectively passing fresh<br />

water or salt ions through semi-permeable membranes. The former process is called<br />

reverse osmosis (RO) where the separation is realized by applying high pressure<br />

difference on the membrane to outbalance the osmotic pressure. The later is called<br />

electro dialysis (ED) where an electrolytic charge difference on a pair <strong>of</strong> separation<br />

membranes is used as the driving force. In such processes no phase change takes<br />

place <strong>and</strong>, therefore, the energy consumption is lower than that <strong>of</strong> thermal processes<br />

for producing the same amount <strong>of</strong> fresh water. Other types such as micro <strong>and</strong> nano<br />

filtration membranes are used for water quality improvement <strong>and</strong> wastewater<br />

treatment.<br />

3

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