Solar driven desalination system for power and desalination water production by concentrated PVT and MED system

Abstract In this paper, a thermodynamic study of the combination of Concentrated Photovoltaic Thermal (CPVT) and Multi Effect Desalination (MED) system was conducted. CPVT produces electricity, and the heat produced in CPVT is used for the MED system. Engineering Equation Software (EES) was utilized to simulate this system. The effect of CPVT parameters (area, concentration ratio, and average solar radiation) and MED parameters (effect number and temperature of heating steam) were investigated on the produced heat, produced power, exergy destruction, total mass flow rate (FR) of desalinated water, total FR of feed water, heating steam FR and total brine FR. The range of changes for CPVT surface, concentration ratio, and average solar radiation was considered from 2000 m 2 to 20000 m 2 , from 5 to 15 and from 400 W/m 2 to 1100 W/m 2 , respectively. Based on obtained results, as the surface area of the solar panel, the ratio of concentration, and average solar radiation increase, the heat produced increases. Transferring this heat to the MED unit increases the total FR of desalinated water. But it has no significant effect on the Gain ratio (GOR). As the surface area of the solar panel increases from 10000 m 2 to 12000 m 2 , the average radiation intensity increases from 800 W/m 2 to 1000 W/m 2 , and the concentration ratio increases from 10 to 12 in effect the number of 4 and steam temperature of 70 °C, the total mass FR of desalinated water increases by 29 %, 23 %, and 20 %, respectively.