2023ICERD8-C28 -- Energy and Exergy Analysis of the Historical Development of MSF Desalination Plants in Kuwait PDF

The objective of this study is to compare the thermal performance of three Multi-Stage Flashing (MSF) desalination plants that were built at different times over 40 years. The plants considered in this study are Al-Doha East, Al-Zour, and Al-Sobia, which were built in 1978, 2001, and 2007, respectively. First and second laws of thermodynamics were performed to model the three MSF desalination plants using actual operational data. The thermal performance comparisons were in terms of energy consumption, exergy consumption, second law efficiency, and exergy destruction in different components. The results showed that Al-Sobia plant yielded 17% lower energy consumption, and 21% lower exergy consumption compared to Al-Doha East and Al-Zour plants. The results also showed that Al-Sobia plant had the highest second law efficiency of 6.9 %, compared to 5.4 % and 5.5% for Al-Doha East and Al-Zour plants. The fact that Al-Sobia desalination plant had less thermal and electrical energy consumption can be explained by the high-performance ratio, high heat exchanger effectiveness, high recovery ratio, and high top-brine temperature (TBT) compared with Al-Doha East and Al-Zour desalination plants. The low exergy consumption of Al-Sobia desalination plant, on the other hand, can be explained by the low exergy destruction in the desuperheater device and ejectors. The low exergy destruction of Al-Sobia desuperheater was due to low steam extraction and high exit flow exergy caused by the high TBT and pressure compared with Al-Doha East and Al-Zour plants.