Thermodynamic evaluation of a combined-cycle power plant with MSF and MED desalination

Rising water scarcity and abundant brine water resources, especially in desert locations, call for the wider adaptation of desalination techniques. Furthermore, the interdependency of water and energy has gained more attention in recent years and it is expected to play an important role in the near future. The present study deals with both topics in that it presents the coupling of a power plant with desalination units for the simultaneous generation of energy and water in Iran. The power plant used in the analysis is the Qom combined-cycle power plant. The plant is integrated, first, with a multi-stage flash (MSF) unit and, then, with a multi-effect desalination (MED) unit, and it is evaluated using energy and exergy analyses. We find that the generated power of the integrated systems is decreased by 9.7% and 8.5% with the MED and the MSF units, respectively. Lastly, the freshwater production in the plant using MED is significantly higher than in the plant with MSF (1,000 versus 1,521 kg/s).