The feasibility of integrating ME-TVC+MEE with Azzour South Power Plant: Economic evaluation

Abstract The economic evaluation of ME-TVC system is carried out to determine water production cost. Three ME-TVC configurations were investigated; conventional ME-TVC, ME-TVC with regenerative feed heaters (ME-TVC, FH) and ME-TVC coupled with conventional MEE system (ME-TVC+MEE), results showed in previous work that the thermal analysis of the third configuration (ME-TVC+MEE) has two main features among the others, first it has low compression ratio, and second it can be used for large-scale production applications [1]. The feasibility of integrating ME-TVC+MEE desalination system with Azzour South Power Plant is investigated in this research. A typical Sidem unit at Umm Al-Nar desalination plant in UAE was considered for the integration purpose. The calculations have been performed to compare the energy cost against the existing MSF desalination system. Results showed that ME-TVC+MEE configuration has the lowest water production cost among the three configurations. Moreover, the economical analysis showed that ME-TVC+MEE could be integrated with Azzour South Power Plant fulfilling the following advantages: 30% drop in fuel energy cost, from 1.06 to 0.815 $/m 3 at TBT of 90°C compared to MSF, less number of effects for the same production capacity (36 compared to 48 for MSF) with low capital cost and operating temperature.

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