Optimal design of integrated total site utility-multi-stage flash desalination plant

Abstract

Central site utility of process industries can produce steam at different levels and the excess steam can be used to produce the desalinated water simultaneously. This paper presents the potential of total site process integration and exergoeconomic optimization to find optimal coupling between central site utility system and multi stage flash (MSF) desalination. In the first step, total site analysis has been applied to better understand the integration between site utility and MSF desalination. In this regard, the total site sink/source profiles and Site Utility Grand Composite Curves have been demonstrated to find best scenario for integration. Also, an accurate targeting procedure has been used. In the second step, exergoeconomic optimization has been applied to find optimum MSF desalination integrated with central utility. A case study is used to illustrate the usefulness of the proposed procedure to find optimum integrated MSF/site utility plant.