Design, Fabrication and Performance Analysis of a Hybrid Multi-Stage Flash and Reverse Osmosis Desalination System

Abstract

In this research, a freshwater production system utilizing a hybrid reverse osmosis (RO) and multi-stage flash (MSF) desalination approach has been designed and fabricated and its performance has been subjected to analysis. Initially, the RO system desalinates the saline water, and the resulting concentrated brine is fed into the MSF system. The MSF unit was tested under three distinct conditions, with the saline water inlet flow rate held constant at 0.7 liters per minute and the maximum brine temperature fixed at 82°C across all experiments. Based on relevant scientific literature and similar experimental studies, the vacuum pressures were selected to investigate the effect of chamber pressure on the overall efficiency of the system. the chamber pressures varied across the three cases: the first at ambient pressure, the second at a 5 kPa vacuum and the third at a 10 kPa vacuum. Based on the results obtained, the percentage of freshwater produced from saline water was 1.91% in the first experiment (ambient pressure), 2.40% in the second experiment (5 kPa vacuum), and 3.6% in the third experiment(10kPavacuum).