In this research study, a new solar energy-based integrated system is developed for treating industrial brine wastewater. An integrated solar-powered evaporation and membrane-based water treatment technique is utilized. Both forced convection as well as falling film evaporators are incorporated to treat high-concentration rejected brine. The system performance is assessed through a comprehensive thermodynamic investigation at varying operating parameters. The energetic performance is evaluated to vary from 12.5% to 15.9% across the year. Furthermore, the peak efficiency in terms of exergy is found to be 11.1%. Also, the membrane-based wastewater treatment subsystem is found to entail an energetic performance of 73.3% and an exergetic performance of 34.6% in terms of efficiencies. Moreover, an energetic performance of 15.4% and an exergetic performance of 2.9% is found for the evaporation-based subsystem. The exergy destructions in each system component are evaluated and the power generation subsystem is determined to have the highest exergy destruction rate of 15.4 MW. To investigate the effects of varying design parameters and operating conditions on the system performance, several parametric studies are also performed.
Keywords: Efficiency; Energy; Exergy; Industrial wastewater; Solar energy; Waste water treatment.
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