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Dynamic Modeling of Multi Stage Flash (MSF)

Desalination Plant

by

Hala Faisal Al-Fulaij

Department of Chemical Engineering

University College London

Supervisors: Professor David Bogle

Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) at University College London (UCL)

July 2011

I, Hala Faisal Al-Fulaij, confirm that the work presented in this thesis is my own. Where information has been derived from other sources, I confirm that this has been indicated in the thesis.

Hala F. Al-Fulaij

Acknowledgments i

Acknowledgments

This Ph.D. was carried out between March 2007 and January 2011 at the Chemical Engineering department, University College London (UCL). This work was supervised by Professor David Bogle (UCL) and Professor Hisham Ettouney (Kuwait University). I take this opportunity to thank both of my supervisors for general guidance throughout the project and their great help, support and insight. I also thank Professor Giorgio Micale and Doctor Andrea Cipollina from University of Palermo who expended their time and made significant contribution to my knowledge especially in the computer tools field. Also, I am grateful for the love and support of my family, especially my mother, father, husband and sisters. Their patience and encouragement have given me the strength to complete my thesis study. Finally I would like to dedicate this thesis to my lovely children (Rayan, Maryam, AbdulWahab and Najat) hoping them the most of health, success, and happiness.

Abstract ii

Abstract

The world population is increasing at a very rapid rate while the natural water resources remain constant. During the past decades industrial desalination (reverse osmosis (RO) and multistage flash desalination (MSF)) became a viable, economical, and sustainable source of fresh water throughout the world. In the MSF units, the flashing of seawater involves formation of pure vapour, which flows through a wire mesh demister to remove the entrained brine droplets and then condenses into product water. The study presented in this thesis is motivated by the absence of detailed modelling and analysis of the dynamics of the MSF process and the demister. A detailed dynamic model can be used in design, control, startup/shutdown and troubleshooting. Most of the previous studies on MSF plant focused on model development and presented limited amount of performance data without any validation against plant data. Literature models of the MSF demister are either empirical or semi-empirical. This motivated use of a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software to design a new demister that will reduce the pressure/temperature drop in the vapour stream without affecting the separation efficiency of brine droplets and allows the optimal design of complete MSF units. Lumped parameter dynamic models were developed for the once through (MSF-OT) and the brine circulation (MSF-BC) processes. The models were coded using the gPROMS modelling program. The model predictions for both MSF-OT and MSF-BC in steady state and dynamic conditions showed good agreement against data from existing MSF plants with an error less than 1.5%. Dynamic analysis was made to study plant performance upon making step variations in system manipulated variables and identify stable operating regimes. New stable operating regimes were reached upon changing the cooling water flow rate by + 15% and increasing the recycle brine flow rate by 15% and decreasing it by 7%. This was not the case for the steam temperature where its variation was limited to + 2-3 %. This behavior is consistent with the actual plant data. The FLUENT software was used to model the MSF demister using different combinations of Eulerian and Lagrangian approaches to model the vapour and the

Abstract iii

brine droplets. This provided the open literature with novel and new methodologies for design and simulation of the MSF demister using CFD. A new demister design was made upon varying the wire diameter. This led to an efficient design with low pressure drop and high separation efficiency. This design was used in the MSF/gPROMS model to predict its effect on the heat transfer area. The new design provided reductions of 3-39% in the condenser heat transfer area without affecting dynamic performance. Since the tubing system accounts for almost

70% of the capital cost, then this would reduce the plant capital cost and product unit

cost. The modelling approach presented in this thesis enables design of thermal desalination units to determine optimal heat transfer area and optimized operating conditions.

Table of Contents iv

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments i

Abstract ii

List of Figures ix

List of Tables xvii

Chapter 1: Introduction and motivation 1

Chapter 2: Water Desalination 5

2.1 Introduction 5

2.2 Water Shortage Problem 5

2.3 Sources of Fresh Water 7

2.4 Types of water 9

2.5 Sea Water Composition and Properties 10

2.6 Need for Water Desalination 12

2.7 Classification of Desalination Technology 18

2.7.1 Thermal Processes 18

2.7.2 Membrane Processes 19

2.8 Multistage Flash Desalination 19

2.8.1 Once through MSF Process 21

2.8.2 Brine circulation MSF Process 23

2.8.3 Comparison between MSF Processes 28

2.8.4 Flashing stage description 30

2.9 Conclusion 34

Chapter 3: Modeling of MSF Processes: Literature Review 35

3.1 Introduction 35

3.2 Simple Mathematical Models 36

3.3 Detailed Mathematical Models 40

Table of Contents v

3.3.1 Steady State Models 40

3.3.2 Dynamic Models 44

3.4 Conclusion 51

Chapter 4: Dynamic Modeling of MSF Plant 53

4.1 Introduction 53

4.2 Model Basis and Assumptions 54

4.3 Model Structure 55

4.4 Once Through MSF Process (MSF-OT) 56

4.4.1 Mathematical equations 56

4.4.1.1 Lower Level Model (Flashing Stage Model) 57

4.4.1.2 Higher Level Model (MSF Plant) 65

4.5 Brine circulation MSF Process (MSF-BC) 69

4.5.1 Mathematical equations 69

4.5.1.1 Lower Level Model (Heat Gain

Section Falshing Stage Model) 69

4.5.1.2 Lower Level Model (Heat Rejection

Section Falshing Stage Model) 71

4.5.1.3 Higher Level Model 73

4.6 gPROMS Modeling Language 73

4.7 Conclusion 75

Chapter 5: Validation and Results of Dynamic Modeling of MSF

Plants 77

5.1 Introduction 77

5.2 Modeling real MSF-OT Plants 77

5.2.1 Cases investigated, assignment and initial

conditions 77

5.2.2 Model Validation Results 78

5.2.2.1 Steady state Validation Results 79

5.2.2.2 Dynamic Model Validation Results 81

5.2.3 Dynamic Response Results 85

5.3 Modeling Real MSF-BC Plants 90

Table of Contents vi

5.3.1 Cases investigated, assignment and initial

conditions 90

5.3.2 Model Validation Results 92

5.3.2.1 Steady state Validation Results 93

5.3.2.2 Dynamic Model Validation Results 94

5.3.3 Dynamic Response Results 97

5.3.4 Effect of demister losses on heat transfer area of the

condenser tubes 113

5.4 Conclusion 116

Chapter 6: CFD Modeling of the Demister 117

6.1 Introduction 117

6.2 Demisters Element Description 121

6.3 Modeling of Demisters : Literature Review 129

6.4 Mathematical Model Equations

(Eulerian-Eulerian method) 132

6.4.1 Porous Media with Multi Phase Flow 133

6.4.2 Tube Banks with Multi Phase Flow 143

6.5 Mathematical Model Equations

(Eulerian-Lagrangian method) 147

6.5.1 Tube Banks with Discrete Phase Model 147

6.6 Description of the CFD Code 151

6.7 Model Assumptions 153

6.7.1 Porous Media model 154

6.7.2 Tube Banks- Multi phase model 154

6.7.3 Tube Banks with discrete phase model 154

6.8 Solution Methods of CFD Codes 155

6.9 Conclusion 156

Chapter 7: Validation and Results of CFD Modeling of the Demister 158

7.1 Introduction 158

7.2 Porous Media Multi Phase Model Approach: 158

Table of Contents vii

7.2.1 Grid sensitivity analysis 159

7.2.2 Cases investigated, geometries and boundary

conditions 167

7.2.3 Model validation 169

7.2.4 Modeling results and discussion 175

7.3 Tube Banks Multi Phase Model Approach 177

7.3.1 Grid sensitivity analysis 178

7.3.2 Cases investigated, geometries and boundary

conditions 184

7.3.3 Model validation 185

7.4 Tube Banks Discrete Phase Model Approach 191

7.4.1 Grid sensitivity analysis 191

7.4.2 Cases investigated, geometries and boundary

conditions 196

7.4.3 Model validation 199

7.4.4 Comparison between performance of different

demisters 207

7.5 Conclusion 209

Chapter 8: Improving MSF Plant Performance 211

8.1 Introduction 211

8.2 Effect of Improved Demister on the MSF-OT Plant 212

8.2.1 Effect of new demister on the product quality 212

8.2.2 Effect of new demister on the flashing stage

condenser area 213

8.3 Effect of Improved Demister on the MSF-BC 217

8.3.1 Effect of new demister on the product quality 217

8.3.2 Effect of new demister on the flashing stage

condenser area 218

8.3.3 Effect of new demister system dynamics 226

8.4 Conclusion 229

Table of Contents viii

Chapter 9: Conclusions and Future work 230

9.1 Conclusions 230

9.2 Future work 233

Notation 237

Bibliography 242

Publications 254

Appendix A: Model Physical Properties Correlations 256 Appendix B: Degree of Freedon in gPROMS Models 263

Appendix C: (MSF-OT) gPROMS Code 267

Appendix D: (MSF-BC) gPROMS Code 286

List of Figures ix

List of Figures

Figure 2.1 Variation in world population from 1823 to 2050 Figure 2.2 Desalination market shares of large producers

Figure 2.3 MSF unit capacity growth

Figure 2.4 Market share of the main desalination process for desalination of river, brackish and seawater Figure 2.5 Market share of the main desalination process for desalination of seawater Figure 2.6 Cumulative production capacity of MSF plants in the Gulf countries Figure 2.7 Conventional thermal and membrane desalination processes Figure 2.8 View of a typical multistage flash desalination plant Figure 2.9 Multistage flash desalination once through process (MSF- OT) Figure 2.10 Multistage flash desalination with brine circulation (MSF- BC) Figure 2.11 MSF flashing stage showing input and output variables Figure 2.12 Two types of MSF orifices. (a) Weir orifice. (b) Flash box orifice Figure 4.1 Hierarchical structure of lower hierarchy flashing stage model and higher hierarchy MSF plant model Figure 4.2 Process variables in MSF-OT process (a) variables between stages (i) and (i+1) and (b) overall variables Figure 4.3 Process variables in MSF_BR process (a) variables between heat gain section stages (i) and (i+1) and (b) overall heat gain section variables Figure. 4.4. Process variables in MSF process (a) variables between heat rejection section stages (i) and (i+1) and (b) overall heat rejection section variables Figure 5.1 Comparison of gPROMS predictions and the field data for stage profiles of flow rate, salinity, and temperature of the brine stream leaving the stage 6 13 14 15 15 16 18 23
24
27
33
33
56
57
70
72
80

List of Figures x

Figure 5.2 Comparison of gPROMS predictions and the field dynamic data for stage profiles of salinity of the brine stream. Figure 5.3 Comparison of gPROMS predictions and the field dynamic data for stage profiles of flow rate of the brine stream Figure 5.4 Comparison of gPROMS predictions and the field dynamic data for stage profiles of Temperature of the brine stream Figure 5.5 Non-monotonic behaviours in the brine level in the stages of MSF-OT plant Figure 5.6 Dynamics of the brine level in stages 1, 7, 14, and 21 for step changes in the feed seawater flow rate (MF) Figure 5.7 Dynamics of condensate rate in stages 1, 7, 14, and 21 for step changes in the feed seawater flow rate (MF) Figure 5.8 Dynamics in GOR in stages 1, 7, 14, and 21 for step changes in the feed seawater flow rate (MF) Figure 5.9 Dynamics of the brine level in stages 1, 7, 14, and 21 for step changes in the Top brine temperature (TBT) Figure 5.10 Dynamics of the condensate rate in stages 1, 7, 14, and 21 for step changes in the top brine temperature (TBT) Figure 5.11 Dynamics of GOR in stages 1, 7, 14, and 21 for step changes in the top brine temperature (TBT) Figure 5.12 Comparison of gPROMS predictions and the field data for stage profiles of flow rate, salinity, and temperature of the brine stream Figure 5.13 Comparison of gPROMS predictions and the field dynamic data for stage profiles of salinity of the brine stream Figure 5.14 Comparison of gPROMS predictions and the field dynamic data for stage profiles of flowrate of the brine stream Figure 5.15 Comparison of gPROMS predictions and the field dynamic data for stage profiles of Temperature of the brine stream Figure 5.16 Simulation dynamics of the brine level in stages 1, 7, 14,

21and 24 for step increment in the cooling water flow rate

82
83
84
86
86
87
88
89
89
90
93
95
96
97
99

List of Figures xi

Figure 5.17 Simulation dynamics of the brine level in stages 1, 7, 14,

21and 24 for step reduction in the cooling water flow rate

Figure 5.18 Simulation dynamics of the condensate rate in stages 1, 7,

14, 21and 24 for step increment in the cooling water flow

rate Figure 5.19 Simulation dynamics of the condensate rate in stages 1, 7,

14, 21and 24 for step reduction in the cooling water flow

rate Figure 5.20 Simulation dynamics of the Gain Output Ratio (GOR) for step increment in the cooling water flow rate Figure 5.21 Simulation dynamics of the Gain Output Ratio (GOR) for step reduction in the cooling water flow rate. Figure 5.22 Simulation dynamics of the total production rate for step increment in the cooling water flow rate Figure 5.23 Simulation dynamics of the total production rate for step reduction in the cooling water flow rate Figure 5.24 Simulation dynamics of the brine level in stages 1, 7, 14,

21and 24 for step increment in the recycle brine flow rate

Figure 5.25 Simulation dynamics of the brine level in stages 1, 7, 14,

21and 24 for step reduction in the recycle brine flow rate

Figure 5.26 Simulation dynamics of the condensate rate in stages 1, 7,

14, 21and 24 for step increment in the recycle brine flow

rate Figure 5.27 Simulation dynamics of the condensate rate in stages 1, 7,

14, 21and 24 for step reduction in the recycle brine flow rate

Figure 5.28 Simulation dynamics of the Gain Output Ratio (GOR) for step increment in the recycle brine flow rate Figure 5.29 Simulation dynamics of the Gain Output Ratio (GOR) for step reduction in the recycle brine flow rate Figure 5.30 Dynamics of the total production rate for step increment in the recycle brine flow rate Figure 5.31 Simulation dynamics of the total production rate for step reduction in the recycle brine flow rate 99
100
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103
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105
105
106
106
107
107

List of Figures xii

Figure 5.32 Simulation dynamics of the brine level in stages 1, 7, 14,

21and 24 for step increment in the steam temperature

Figure 5.33 Simulation dynamics of the brine level in stages 1, 7, 14,

21and 24 for step reduction in the steam temperature

Figure 5.34 Simulation dynamics of the condensate rate in stages 1, 7,

14, 21and 24 for step increment in the steam temperature

Figure 5.35 Simulation dynamics of the condensate rate in stages 1, 7,

14, 21and 24 for step reduction in the steam temperature

Figure 5.36 Simulation dynamics of the Gain Output Ratio (GOR) for step increment in the steam temperature Figure 5.37 Simulation dynamics of the Gain Output Ratio (GOR) for step reduction in the steam temperature Figure 5.38 Simulation dynamics of the total production rate for step increment in the steam temperature Figure 5.39 Simulation dynamics of the total production rate for step reduction in the steam temperature

Figure 6.1 Wire mesh demister.

Figure 6.2 wire mesh demister (a) side view (b) top view. Figure.6.3 Steps of water droplets separation from vapour stream in the wire mesh demister (a) clean wire mesh, (b) accumulation, (c) and (d) coalescence, (d) detachment Figure 6.4(a) Balance of forces for a settling liquid droplets. (b) Balance of forces for a droplet attached to a demister wire (Ettouney, 2005) Figure 6.5 Schematic diagram of the porous media grid Figure.6.6 Schematic diagram of the tube bank gridquotesdbs_dbs6.pdfusesText_11