Membrane and Desalination Technologies - TCE Moodle Website

Adsorption Desalination: A Novel Method 429
7. CLOSURE
The chapter provides fundamental and design information that are necessary for engineers
and scientists to make a foray into the adsorption desalination plant design. These data are
deemed to be novel at this junction of writing the monographs, but the authors believe that
further improvements to the adsorption desalination plants design could be forthcoming as
more research will be performed in the future. With further improvements to the AD cycle, it
is deemed possible for the AD cycle to be most energy efficient amongst all the known
desalination methods. The specific daily water production from the AD cycle varies from 8 to
11 m 3 /tonne of silica gel. The parasitic power consumption of the cycle could be improved
from 1.2 to 1.5 kWh/m 3 of high-grade water, where the TDS of such water is usually less than
7 ppm. The other major bonus obtained from the AD cycle is the vast amount of cooling
effect, estimated to be about 145 kW/tonne of silica gel when the cycle is operated at the rated
conditions.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors express sincere thanks to King Abdullah University of Science and Technology
(KAUST) for the financial support through the project (WBS R265-000-286-597). The
authors would also like to thank Mr. Kyaw Thu, a NUS Ph.D. student in the ME Department,
for his help in experimental investigations of the AD plant (46–47).
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