Desalination, other than the natural water cycle, is hailed as the panacea to alleviate the problems of fresh water shortage in many water stressed countries. However, the main drawback of conventional desalination methods is that they are energy intensive. In many instances, they consumed electricity, chemicals for pre- and post-treatment of water. For each kWh of energy consumed, there is an unavoidable emission of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) at the power stations as well as the discharge of chemically-laden brine into the environment. Thus, there is a motivation to find new direction or methods of desalination that consumed less chemicals, thermal energy and electricity.This paper describes an emerging and yet low cost method of desalination that employs only low-temperature waste heat, which is available in abundance from either the renewable energy sources or exhaust of industrial processes. With only one heat input, the Adsorption Desalination (AD) cycle produces two useful effects, i.e., high grade potable water and cooling. In this article, a brief literature review, the theoretical framework for adsorption thermodynamics, a lumped-parameter model and the experimental tests for a wide range of operational conditions on the basic and the hybrid AD cycles are discussed. Predictions from the model are validated with measured performances from two pilot plants, i.e., a basic AD and the advanced AD cycles. The energetic efficiency of AD cycles has been compared against the conventional desalination methods. Owing to the unique features of AD cycle, i.e., the simultaneous production of dual useful effects, it is proposed that the life cycle cost (LCC) of AD is evaluated against the LCC of combined machines that are needed to deliver the same quantities of useful effects using a unified unit of $/MWh. In closing, an ideal desalination system with zero emission of CO2 is presented where geo-thermal heat is employed for powering a temperature-cascaded cogeneration plant. © 2012 Elsevier B.V.

This paper discusses the analysis of an adsorption (AD) chiller using system entropy generation as a thermodynamic framework for evaluating total dissipative losses that occurred in a batch-operated AD cycle. The study focuses on an adsorption cycle operating at heat source temperatures ranging from 60 to 85 °C, whilst the chilled water inlet temperature is fixed at 12.5 °C,-a temperature of chilled water deemed useful for dehumidification and cooling. The total entropy generation model examines the processes of key components of the AD chiller such as the heat and mass transfer, flushing and de-superheating of liquid refrigerant. The following key findings are observed: (i) The cycle entropy generation increases with the increase in the heat source temperature (10.8 to 46.2 W/K) and the largest share of entropy generation or rate of energy dissipation occurs at the adsorption process, (ii) the second highest energy rate dissipation is the desorption process, (iii) the remaining energy dissipation rates are the evaporation and condensation processes, respectively. Some of the noteworthy highlights from the study are the inevitable but significant dissipative losses found in switching processes of adsorption-desorption and vice versa, as well as the de-superheating of warm condensate that is refluxed at non-thermal equilibrium conditions from the condenser to the evaporator for the completion of the refrigeration cycle. © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Thermo-physical properties, surface characteristics and water vapor uptake capacity are key parameters in the selection of adsorbent for an adsorption desalination (AD) cycle. In the AD cycles, silica gel is used as adsorbent due to their high water vapor uptake capacity, reliability, repeatability and inexpensiveness as compared to other adsorbents. Three types of commercially available silica gels (Type-RD 2560,Type-A5BW and Type-A++) are investigated using a surface characteristic analyzer and their thermo-physical properties are evaluated using several analysis methods. The instrument used in this investigation employs the static volumetric method with liquid Nitrogen at 77 K as the filing fluid. The surface area of each adsorbent is studied using Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) method whilst the pore size distribution (PSD) analysis is conducted with the Non-Local Density Functional Theory (NLDFT). It is observed that the Type-A++ silica gel (granular type) possesses the highest surface area of 863.6 m2/g amongst the three parent silica gels studied. It has a two-maxima or bimodal distribution pattern where the pore diameters are distributed mostly between 10 Å and 30 Å. Water vapor uptake capacity of silica gels are studied with water vapor dosage apparatus and the results show that the Type-A++ silica gel exhibits a highest equilibrium uptake at 537 cm3/g. These thermo-physical properties are essential for the design and the numerical simulation of AD cycles. © 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Multi-bed adsorption cycle with the internal heat recovery between the condenser and the evaporator is investigated for desalination application. A numerical model is developed for a 4-bed adsorption cycle implemented with the master-and-slave configuration and the aforementioned internal heat recovery scheme. The present model captures the reversed adsorption/desorption phenomena frequently associated with the unmatched switching periods. Mesoporous silica gel and water vapor emanated from the evaporation of the seawater are employed as the adsorbent and adsorbate pair. The experimental data and investigation for such configurations are reported for the first time at heat source temperatures from 50 °C to 70 °C. The numerical model is validated rigorously and the parametric study is conducted for the performance of the cycle at assorted operation conditions such as hot and cooling water inlet temperatures and the cycle times. The specific daily water production (SDWP) of the present cycle is found to be about 10 m/day per tonne of silica gel for the heat source temperature at 70 °C. Performance comparison is conducted for various types of adsorption desalination cycles. It is observed that the AD cycle with the current configuration provides superior performance whilst is operational at unprecedentedly low heat source temperature as low as 50 °C.