Parabolic-trough plant integrated with direct-contact membrane distillation system: Concept, simulation, performance, and economic evaluation

•Mathematical model of DCMD system integrated with PT plant was developed and solved in MATLAB software.•Effect of feed water temperature on permeate flux and freshwater production has been presented.•Performance of PT solar power plant has been evaluated in terms of capacity factor and gross-to-net conversion factor.•Performance of DCMD system has been assessed in terms of evaporation efficiency and specific energy consumption. This paper investigates performance and economic evaluation of integrating 50 MWe parabolic-trough (PT) plant with direct-contact membrane distillation (DCMD) system for electricity and freshwater production in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. The evaluations of PT plant were performed utilizing SAM software. Maximum and minimum electrical energy generation was estimated to be 13.5 GWh and 7.71 GWh in May and December, respectively. Similarly, the cooling water requirement fluctuated from 856 m3/day to 1440 m3/day in December and May, respectively. The economic evaluation showed that the nominal and real levelized electricity cost was 24.54 cents per kWh and 19.3833 cents per kWh, respectively. The performance evaluation of DCMD system was performed by solving DCMD mathematical model in MATLAB® Software. An increase in feed temperature from 30 °C to 45 °C increased the permeate flux from 5.19 kg/m2 h to 20.01 kg/m2 h, and evaporation efficiency from 39.2% to 54.98%, respectively. Furthermore, it was assessed that proposed PT plant integrated with DCMD system could produce up to 14.33 m3 of freshwater per day with a water production cost of $0.64/m3. It was revealed that the integration of DCMD system with PT plant could be a sustainable and economical approach to cope with increasing demand of freshwater and electricity.