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Performance analysis of nuclear powered desalination unit based on MED-TVC: a case study for Saudi Arabia

  • Salah Ud-Din Khan EMAIL logo , Abdullah Najib and Jamel Orfi
Published/Copyright: April 24, 2023
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Abstract

Nuclear desalination has been identified as an alternative option with much lower carbon dioxide emissions to provide fresh water by driving high capacity desalination plants. This work considers a theoretical analysis of using nuclear desalination to provide fresh water in three selected Saudi Arabian cities. It presents a theoretical model that integrates the characteristics of nuclear reactor, power cycle and desalination blocks. The power block includes three steam turbines and five feed water heaters. It is coupled via low pressure turbine to a multiple effect desalination unit integrated with a thermal vapor compressor encompassing eight effects, seven feed preheaters and a down condenser. The output includes work generated as function of fuel mass and reactor type, enrichment percentage, power and water production with different nuclear reactor type. Desalination performance indicators such as the fresh water production rate, gain output ratio (GOR), specific energy consumption (SEC) and specific cooling water mass flow rate have been evaluated and analyzed as function of sea water temperature for three specific Saudi cities. It was found that these indicators reflect better performance along a year for Jizan city than for Jubail and Tabuk. The case of Jizan city gives over the whole year more uniform values of water production rates, gain output ratio, specific energy consumption and cooling water mass flow rates.


Corresponding author: Salah Ud-Din Khan, Sustainable Energy Center Technologies, College of Engineering, King Saud University, P.O.Box 800, Riyadh 11421, Saudi Arabia; and K.A.CARE Energy Research and Innovation center in Riyadh, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, E-mail:

Award Identifier / Grant number: 2-17-02-001-0056

  1. Author contributions: All the authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this submitted manuscript and approved submission.

  2. Research funding: This research was funded by National Plan for Science, Technology and Innovation (MAARIFAH), King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology, grant number 2-17-02-001-0056.

  3. Conflict of interest statement: The authors declare no conflicts of interest regarding this article.

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Received: 2023-02-14
Published Online: 2023-04-24
Published in Print: 2023-06-27

© 2023 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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