Transient characteristics and performance of a novel desalination system based on heat storage and spray flashing

A hybrid latent heat storage and spray flash evaporation system has been de vised in an attempt to develop an energy saving desalination system that st ores intermittent thermal energy such as waste heat, solar heat or heat fi om the surplus steam of a power station at night and utilizes the stored en ergy not only for the generation of process steam from seawater for industr ies and domestic air conditioning but also for the production of fresh wate r from the generated steam for industrial and domestic uses on demand. Expe rimental results of the transient discharge characteristics of the heat sto rage column packed with the phase change material and the transient spray f lash evaporation characteristics are reported. It is also shown that by usi ng the numerical results of the discharge characteristics and the empirical equation of the efficiency of spray flash evaporation, the amount of gener ated steam and produced water can be predicted with sufficient accuracy. Th e utilization of more than 95% of the amount of stored energy for the gener ation of process steam and the production of fresh water, substantiated exp erimentally, confirms the high efficiency of the hybrid system.