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<hr />
<div>Team F: Rankine 672 Final Report<br />
<br />
Authors: Kedric Daly, Ben Granger, Evan Rosati, Kathleen Zhou<br />
<br />
Instructors: Fengqi You, David Wegerer<br />
<br />
March 11, 2016<br />
<br />
=Executive Summary=<br />
Desalination of seawater to drinking water is a technology of ever-increasing importance given trends of increasingly widespread water shortages around the world. Even in the United States, water shortages are becoming increasingly common in dry, highly-populated such as California and certain areas of the Gulf Coast. Our design team, Rankine 672, was tasked with evaluating the need for and designing a desalination plant to provide purified water in a place of need. Investigation revealed that the city of Corpus Christi, Texas, is a strategic location for development of a desalination facility, as surrounding region is in need of new drinking water sources and the city has expressed serious interest in contracting the development of a large-scale desalination plant. Our proposed solution is a multi-stage flash distillation desalination facility capable of producing 20,000,000 gallons (75,708 m<sup>3</sup>) of purified drinking water for the city and surrounding region per operating day.<br />
<br />
In this design, drinking water is produced from seawater feedstock through a 21-stage flash distillation process. By strategically locating the facility next to an existing natural gas power plant, the Nueces Bay Energy Center, pre-heated feed water can be taken directly from the outbound cooling systems of the power plant, allowing energy savings for our desalination plant. The process is designed for 16 hour-per-day operation, requires a seawater feed of 8250 m<sup>3</sup>/hr, and produces 4758 m<sup>3</sup>/hr of purified drinking water alongside a waste stream of 3485 m<sup>3</sup>/hr of concentrated brine. The waste stream is isolated from a recycle stream through a 9.0% purge; this results in an overall product yield of 57.7% on a volume basis. The process requires an additional pretreatment stream of 16.5 kg/hr Belgard EV 2030, which serves as an antiscalant, as well as 9.5 kg/hr chlorine, 352.1 kg/hr lime, and 418.7 kg/hr CO<sub>2</sub> for post-treatment purposes.<br />
<br />
The overall capital cost of the plant is expected to be $345MM, with a total operating cost of $103MM/yr, $59MM/yr of which comes from utilities. Due to the low price at which the product water can be sold, the 30-year net present value of the plant, assuming a 6% discount rate, is $-1,035MM. It is thus imperative this plant be constructed with public funds because it cannot return a profit to any private investor. The growing need for water however could justify the cost, because it is important that the residents of the greater Corpus Christi area have access to drinkable water.<br />
<br />
__TOC__<br />
<br />
=Introduction=<br />
==Background==<br />
Clean drinking water is a basic human need that is becoming increasingly difficult to meet. Currently, over 1 billion people live in places where water is considered scarce<ref> Tapping the oceans. The Economist USA. http://www.economist.com/node/11484059. Accessed March 2, 2016. </ref>. Though often thought of as a problem exclusive to third-world countries, the issue is becoming more prevalent in the US as well, with water managers in 40 of 50 states anticipating water shortage conditions in some portion of their state in the next 10 years. These shortages are due to increasing demands on constant or diminishing freshwater resources, therefore, to correct the issue, a new supply must be found<ref> Water Supply in the US. EPA. http://www3.epa.gov/watersense/pubs/supply.html. Accessed March 2, 2016.</ref>. Desalination of seawater is therefore important as a new source for clean drinking water and prevent water shortages. <br />
<br />
==Project Definition==<br />
The overall goal of the project is to investigate the feasibility of a desalination plant in order to meet the needs of growing water demand. The design needs to take health, safety, and environmental concerns into account, while optimizing costs.<br />
<br />
=Design Basis=<br />
Site Location and Conditions<br />
Corpus Christi, TX was chosen as the location for the proposed desalination plant. The city is currently experiencing “Moderate Shortage Conditions”. This issue additionally comes at a time of growing demand with population growth anticipated due to new industry and Eagle Ford Group crude oil production<ref>Stage 2 Measures in the Drought Contingency Plan. Available at http://www.cctexas.com/government/water/conservation/conservation-drought-plans/stage-2-measures. Accessed January 12, 2016. </ref>.<br />
<br />
In June 2014, the city announced the Corpus Christi Desalination Demonstration Project<ref>Corpus Christi Desalination Demonstration Project. Available at http://www.cctexas.com/Assets/Departments/Water/Files/DesalFactSheet.pdf. Published June 2014. Accessed January 12, 2016. <br />
</ref> which seeks to create a demonstration desalination plant capable of producing 20,000 gallons of water per day, with plans to later build a full scale facility generating 20,000,000 gallons of water per day. The desalination demonstration project indicates a clear need for implementation of a desalination plant of this size to accommodate growth in the Corpus Christi area. <br />
<br />
Locating our plant in Corpus Christi will allow us to take advantage of the benefits of cogeneration through a partnership with the Nueces Bay Energy Center. By utilizing their outlet cooling water as a large portion of our feed for the desalination process, we can raise the temperature of our seawater feed, saving on energy costs in the multi stage flash distillation. The proposed location for the desalination plant is immediately west of the Nueces Bay Energy Center. See Appendix A for a map depicting the proposed location for the desalination plant along the coast of Nueces Bay.<br />
<br />
==Feed and Product Definitions==<br />
The proposed desalination facility’s feed and product streams are defined as shown in Table 1. Rationale for these definitions is also described below. The values reported in Table 1 are final derived numbers from HYSYS simulation modeling. <br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 1: Feed and product stream definitions<br />
! &nbsp;<br />
! Salt Concentration<br />
! Temperature <br />
! Amount<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Feed Stream <br />
| 30,500 ppm || 45°C || 8250 m<sup>3</sup>/hr<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Product Stream<br />
| ~ 0 ppm || 35°C || 4758 m<sup>3</sup>/hr<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Byproduct Stream<br />
| 69,500 ppm || 35°C || 3485 m<sup>3</sup>/hr<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
The process feed will be seawater from Nueces Bay, preheated through the cooling water system of the nearby Nueces Bay Energy Center. Based on calculations developed from NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory) data, it was estimated that the Nueces Bay Energy Center uses approximately 250 million gallons of seawater per day for process and cooling needs. Therefore, the 20 million gallon per day requirement for the desalination facility can easily be met through the power plant’s cooling water<ref>Torcellini P, Long N, Judkoff R. Consumptive Water Use for U.S. Power Consumption. NREL. 2003; TP-550-33905. <br />
</ref>. Note that we are assuming the process will operate 67% of the time (16 hours per day).<br />
<br />
Based on data acquired from two salinity-measuring stations in Nueces Bay, the average salinity of local seawater is 30.5 practical salinity units (psu)<ref>Stations Map & Real - Time Data. The Conrad Blucher Institute for Surveying and Science website. Available at http://www.cbi.tamucc.edu/cbi/data/. Updated January 2016. Accessed January 9, 2016. </ref>, thus setting the concentration of the process feed stream. This translates to a feed stream concentration of 30,500 ppm (parts per million)<ref name = "SALT">Definition and Units. CATD Salinity Expertise Center. Available at http://www.salinityremotesensing.ifremer.fr/home. Accessed January 12, 2016.</ref>. The composition of the salt attributed to this seawater salinity is shown in Table 6 in Appendix B. <br />
<br />
No data on the composition of seawater around the Corpus Christi area was available, but the composition of seawater does not change significantly in different locations. The given composition is considered accurate for our feed stream<ref>Brown E, Colling A, Park D, Phillips J, Rothery D, Wright J. Seawater : Its Composition, Properties and Behaviour. Boston: Butterworth-Heinemann, 1995.<br />
</ref>. Note that seawater salt is primarily sodium chloride - total dissolved solids are 85.7% sodium chloride by mass. As such, the dissolved solids in the feed stream is assumed in this project to be pure NaCl, making the feed composition 96.95% water and 3.05% NaCl by mass. A control system will likely be put in place to ensure feed concentration remains at this level, accounting for natural fluctuations in local seawater salinity.<br />
<br />
The largest byproduct from the process will be a brine slurry with high salt concentrations. An upper corrosion limit of 700 ppm was set for recirculated and purged brine. This undesired byproduct will be sent to a nearby Class I non-hazardous injection well facility operated by GNI Group, which is approximately 12 miles away from the proposed desalination plant location as shown in the figure in Appendix A<ref>Texas Water Code. Availabe at http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/WA/htm/WA.27.htm. Accessed January 14, 2016.<br />
</ref><ref>Google Maps. Available at https://goo.gl/maps/3xcvLZwUCe42 Accessed January 15, 2016.</ref>. Through the incorporation of a Class I injection well, the brine will not have to be treated or diluted before injection. <ref>EPA Regulations on Class I Wells. Available at http://www.epa.gov/uic/class-i-industrial-and-municipal-waste-disposal-wells. Accessed January 14, 2016.<br />
</ref><ref>List of Injection Well Facilities by Location. Available at http://www.ehso.com/cssepa/tsdfdeepwells.php. Accessed January 14, 2016.</ref><br />
<br />
There are no regulations regarding the temperature of city drinking water, so the product stream temperature has no requirements based on regulations. Outlet temperatures of 35<sup>o</sup>C are acceptable for input to the municipal water supply system. Since city water tends to be stored in non-temperature controlled tanks, the temperature will naturally cool to ambient temperature.<ref>Climate Corpus Christi- Texas. US Climate Data. Available at http://www.usclimatedata.com/climate/corpus-christi/texas/united-states/ustx0294. Accessed January 12, 2016. </ref><br />
<br />
==Pre-Treatment and Post-Treatment==<br />
For pretreatment, Belgard EV 2030 is recommended to be added at a concentration of 1.8-2.0 mg/L for a system with top brine temperature approximately 110 °C<ref name="BWA 2030">BWA Water Additives. Belgard EV2030 Technical Data Sheet. BWA Water Additives. http://www.wateradditives.com/files/products/tech_data_sheets/Belgard%20EV%202030_Technical%20Data%20Sheet_Thermal_8.5x11.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016.<br />
</ref>. Since our process is designed to operate at a slightly higher top brine temperature, 120 °C, we will design for the upper bound concentration: 2.0 mg/L of antiscalant. With a feed flow rate of 8250 m<sup>3</sup>/hr, the process therefore requires 16.5 kg/hr of Belgard EV 2030.<br />
<br />
For disinfection during post-treatment, chlorine addition typically requires a dose of roughly 2.0 mg/L as well<ref name="World Health Organization">World Health Organization. Desalination for safe water supply. http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/gdwqrevision/desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. With a pure water distillate flow rate of 4758 m<sup>3</sup>/hr, the process requires 9.5 kg/hr of chlorine as a 5%-15% sodium hypochlorite solution. Approximately 74 mg/L of lime (calcium hydroxide) and 88mg/L of CO<sub>2</sub> should be added to the desalinated water to help prevent corrosion and increase alkalinity within acceptable ranges<ref name="Vouchkov">Vouchkov, N. Re-Mineralization of Desalinated Water. SunCam. https://s3.amazonaws.com/suncam/npdocs/118.pdf. Accessed February 18, 2016.</ref>. With a product stream flow rate of 4758 m3/hr, these concentrations correspond to 352.1 kg/hr of lime and 418.7 kg/hr of CO<sub>2</sub>. Both of these can be purchased, and it is likely that the CO<sub>2</sub> can be procured from the neighboring natural gas power plant.<br />
<br />
==Choice of Desalination Technology==<br />
The two major technologies commonly implemented for desalination include reverse osmosis (RO), and multi-stage flash distillation (MSFD). RO utilizes high pressures to force water through a semipermeable membrane that allows for purified water to pass through, but stops organic and other wastes. Often, the pressures can reach 55 - 68 bar, which requires large pumps to maintain pressure, and introduces safety concerns to the process<ref>Stage 2 Measures in the Drought Contingency Plan. Available at http://www.cctexas.com/government/water/conservation/conservation-drought-plans/stage-2-measures. Accessed January 12, 2016. <br />
</ref>. While RO can be less energy intensive than MSFD, and the membrane can also remove contaminants, it is susceptible to feedwater quality, membrane fouling, and requires more extensive pretreatment and posttreatment than MSFD. The cost of RO is directly proportional to the feed salinity, and so it is less expensive when desalinating low salinity water.<br />
<br />
Multi-stage flash distillation is best selected for areas that have high salinity or low energy costs. The pretreatment process for MSFD is much easier when compared to RO because pretreatment often consists of simply adding anti-corrosives and antiscalants to the feed stream. The process works by heating water in vessels at different pressures to change the boiling point of the water and evaporate it as it passes through the system. After evaporation, the water condenses, leaving pure water as the effluent. MSFD costs are now roughly $1.00/m3, where this cost is mostly independent of salinity, but dependent on energy costs.<ref>Fritzman C, Lowenberg J, Wintgens T, Melin T. State-of-the-art Reverse Osmosis Desalination. Desalination. 2007; 216:1-76. <br />
</ref> In both RO and MSFD a brine is produced which then must be appropriately treated and/or disposed of.<br />
<br />
Multi-stage flash distillation was selected for this process, mainly due to the economic advantages offered by the selected location of Corpus Christi, TX. MSFD is also a well understood process that can be more easily modeled by chemical engineering software.<br />
<br />
=Technical Approach=<br />
Quantitative modeling of the process and all included optimization was conducted using the simulation software Aspen HYSYS. A variety of assumptions were developed to set up and define specific components of the process simulation itself. Within Aspen HYSYS, the NRTL Electrolyte property package was selected to model the behavior of salt water. Each stage of the MSF process is modeled as an individual flash vessel, with individual shell & tube heat exchangers used to model the distillate condensers present in each flash stage in the MSF system.<br />
<br />
The HYSYS simulation model only considers the flash portion of the overall process, allowing establishment of mass and energy balances for the system. Pretreatment and post-treatment were excluded for the HYSYS model, as these steps are simple additions or removals of small concentrations of chemical components. Although the simulation models heat exchangers outside of each flash stage, in the physical design of the plant these heat exchangers will be contained within each flash stage.<br />
<br />
One portion of the process is not modeled, which is the inlet seawater entering the heat rejection stages. As can be seen from the full process flow diagram (Appendix C), the inlet seawater in the heat rejection stage is in high excess to provide maximum cooling capacity; then a significant portion is purged to bring the stream flow rate down to what is needed for the feed stream. It is assumed that the flow rate of cooling water for those three stages is in such high excess that the cooling water does not heat up. Therefore, in the process simulation models, the inlet stream is the feed stream, which enters directly into the heat recovery portion of the process.<br />
<br />
See Appendix D for a screenshot overview of the simulation environment model.<br />
<br />
=Process Overview=<br />
==Process Flowsheet==<br />
The following diagram, Figure 1, shows a basic flowsheet for the process. Process alternatives considered for each stage are discussed below. Please see Appendix C for the full process flowsheet with finalized design decisions.<br />
<br />
[[File:BlockFlowDiagram.png|center|700px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Desalination Facility Block Flow Diagram|Figure 1: Basic block flowsheet of the multi-stage flash desalination process.]]<br />
<br />
==Major Features==<br />
As seen above, there are three primary stages of the desalination process: Pre-treatment, the multi-stage flash distillation, and post-treatment. Seawater enters the pre-treatment phase first to make the feed suitable for the rest of the process by filtering out large particles that could accumulate on pipes, deaerating the water to limit corrosion, and adding an agent to combat fouling. The water then enters the distillation process, which is broken up into two sections: heat recovery and heat rejection. <br />
<br />
In the heat recovery stage, there are 18 flash vessels, each of which separates steam from the salinated liquid water. Each flash vessel has saltwater as its inlet and two outlets: a vapor outlet (steam) that condenses into the final product of purified water and a liquid outlet composed of water with more dissolved solids than the inlet, which is the inlet stream for the next flash vessel. The pipe containing the feed is first mixed with recycled brine, then goes through the top sections of each of the flash vessels, starting with V-118 and ending up at V-101. In this way, the feed stream pipe first serves as a heat exchanger, heating the pre-treated seawater while simultaneously condensing the steam into the final product. The feed then enters a final heat exchanger where it is brought up to 103.6 °C before entering V-101 to be flashed.<br />
<br />
After exiting V-118, the final flash vessel in the heat recovery portion, the water enters the heat rejection portion, which consists of three flash vessels (V-201, V-202, V-203). The flash vessels of this section operate in the same manner as in the heat recovery section, with the exception that condensation occurs using excess cooling water instead of pre-treated seawater. This technique allows excess heat to be rejected into an excess water stream rather than the feed.<br />
<br />
The purified product stream finally enters post-treatment processing in which water is re-aerated and remineralized, disinfected, and pH is adjusted before being delivered to the city. The concentrated brine leftover at the end of the flash cycle is recycled into the feed, although a purge is required to continuously remove some salt from the system. This purged brine is disposed of by use of a Class I injection well, per regional regulations.<br />
<br />
See Appendix E to find detailed stream tables of stream specifications.<br />
<br />
==Process Alternatives==<br />
===Pretreatment===<br />
Multi-stage flash distillation requires significantly less pretreatment than reverse osmosis desalination, but helpful pretreatment techniques still exist. One very inexpensive method of pretreatment is screening/filtration, which is used to filter out large contaminants from intake seawater. Using more complicated membrane technology to accomplish large particle filtration is a possible alternative, but doing so would be much more expensive than using a standard screen or filter, so the latter choice has been selected for this process.<ref>El-Dessouky H., Alatiqi I, Ettouney H. Process synthesis: The multi-stage flash desalination system. Desalination. 1998;115(2):115-179. doi: 10.1016/S0011-9164(98)00035-6.</ref><br />
<br />
The most critical type of fouling in multi-stage flash distillation is scaling - therefore, the most critical step in the pretreatment process will be the inclusion of an anti-scalant. Alkaline scaling can be prevented by acid dosing or polyphosphate addition; however, acid dosing can result in increased corrosion and polyphosphates can lead to non-alkaline calcium phosphate fouling, so these additives will not be considered<ref name="Morris">Morris, R. The development of the multi-stage flash distillation process: A designer's viewpoint. Desalination. 1993;93(1-3):57-68. doi:10.1016/S0011-9164(93)80096-6. Availble at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0011916493800966</ref><ref>Al-Gobaisi, D. A quarter-century of seawater desalination by large multistage flash plants in Abu Dhabi (Plant performance analysis, assessment, present efforts toward enhancement and future hopes). Desalination. 1994;99(2-3):509-512. doi: 10.1016/S0011-9164(94)00196-0.</ref>. As such, a polymer-based additive is recommended for the anti-scalant for this process. The Belgard EV series is designed for use in high-temperature seawater MSF; of these, Belgard EV 2030 is the most neutral in pH<ref>NSF International. NSF Product and Service Listings: Drinking Water Treatment Chemicals - Health Effects. NSF International. http://info.nsf.org/Certified/PwsChemicals/Listings.asp?Company=00300&. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref><ref name="BWA 2030" /><ref>BWA Water Additives. Belgard EV2035 Technical Data Sheet. BWA Water Additives. http://www.wateradditives.com/files/products/tech_data_sheets/Belgard%20EV2035_Technical%20Data%20Sheet_Thermal_8.5x11.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref><ref>BioLab Water Additives. Belgard EV Antiscalant for seawater distillation plants. BioLab Water Additives. http://www.lpq.com.mx/pdf/BELGARD%20EV.PDF. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref>. As such, we have selected Belgard EV 2030 for use as an anti-scalant in our process.<br />
<br />
Corrosion control is another significant method of pretreatment in multi-stage flash distillation plants. Using a piping material that has limited susceptibility to corrosion is typically not economically viable for MSF desalination plants due their large size, so using carbon steel for most of the piping is generally used for its economic benefits despite its susceptibility to corrosion<ref name = "Morris" />. Limiting oxygen concentration is very feasible through the use of deaerators, which can remove oxygen as well as other dissolved gases from the seawater stream. Often, an external deaeration system is used<ref name = "Morris" /><ref>Edwards - Hick Hargreaves. Seawater Deaerators. Edwards - Hick Hargreaves. http://psscorp.co.th/upload/news/20110830105340.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. Given these considerations, using an external deaerator combined with a less-corrosive antiscalant like Belgard EV 2030 is much more practical for the process than using anti-corrosive piping.<br />
<br />
Excessive foam can also be an issue in some MSF distillation facilities, so antifoaming agents are sometimes employed in the pretreatment process as well. However, many plants are operated without foaming issues, and therefore do not need anti-foaming pretreatment at all. Selection of an anti-foaming agent must be carefully weighed with selected of anti-scalant to avoid issues with additive interactions [26]. At this stage in the design process, an anti-foamer will not be included due to the risk of decreasing scalant efficacy, and the likelihood that foam will not be an issue in the desalination plant.<br />
<br />
===Multistage Flash Distillation===<br />
The main objective of the design project is desalinate water. This is done with the main process of multi stage flash distillation (MSF). MSF can be developed using a numerous number of different process configurations, such as Once-Through, Simple Mixer Brine Circulation, and Multi-Stage Heat Rejection Brine Circulation processes. <br />
<br />
The most desired process for the project is the Three Stage Heat Rejection Brine Circulation as it builds on benefits of the other simpler technologies. By combining principles of heat rejection and heat recovery, the required heat transfer area of the process is greatly reduced as compared to once through processes or simple brine recycle processes. It has the highest performance ratio with the lowest specific feed flow rates, therefore greatly lowering the operating costs of the process. It is also known as the industry standard for MSF<ref name = "KSU Chapter 6">Kansas State University ChE 413. Available at: http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/Almutaz/Documents/ChE-413/Multi-stage%20Flash%20Desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. In addition, since our brine disposal technique involves the pumping of the brine into a Class I well, the high brine outlet salinity is not a drawback for our process since post treatment or dilution of the brine is not necessary.<br />
<br />
===Post Treatment===<br />
After processing the water via multi-stage flash, the water needs to be post-treated to make the water taste as consumers would expect, since distilled water is “flat” and unpleasant, as well as to protect the consumers and the piping through which the water will be passing<ref name="Clayton">Clayton R. A review of current knowledge: Desalination for water supply. Foundation for Water Research. http://www.fwr.org/desal.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. There are multiple alternatives to achieve these objectives of remineralization, aeration, corrosion control, and disinfection.<br />
<br />
Aerating and introducing some dissolved solids back into the product water are effective ways to create a quality product that is not flat, and contains flavoring that is expected of the water when delivered to the consumer. Aeration will be accomplished via an inline spray aerator which will take up less space than cascade aeration.<ref>Minnesota Rural Water Association. Aeration. http://www.mrwa.com/WaterWorksMnl/Chapter%2011%20Aeration.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref> Feed blending will be used to remineralize the water as opposed to a remineralization filter because it does not require additional equipment purchases, and can easily handle the large amounts of throughput required for the process.<ref name="Clayton" /><br />
<br />
Corrosion and pH can be controlled by adding lime (calcium hydroxide) and carbon dioxide to the water. To do so, about 74 mg/L of lime and 88mg/L of CO<sub>2</sub> should be added to the desalinated water to help prevent corrosion and increase alkalinity within acceptable ranges. Sodium hydroxide, soda ash, and sodium bicarbonate are alternatives to altering the alkalinity and pH of the product water, but lime and CO<sub>2</sub> is an industry standard <ref name="Vouchkov" />.<br />
<br />
Disinfection needs to be done to prevent microbial growth in the desalinated water and ensure the safety of the general public. Chlorine addition via chlorine gas or sodium hypochlorite is the most common and only requires a dose of 1.5 to 2.5 mg/liter. <ref name="World Health Organization" /> Other alternatives include ozonation, UV light, and chloramination. Chlorine, as a 5% - 15% sodium hypochlorite solution, is sufficient for our process and relatively inexpensive, and as such will be utilized in the process.<br />
<br />
===Transport of Brine to Well===<br />
Three major possibilities exist for transporting the brine from our desalination plant to the injection well for disposal: rail, trucking, and a pipeline. A pipeline was chosen as the most feasible and cost-effective approach. <br />
<br />
A rail line is not available at this time, and with the cost to construct a rail line at approximately $43 million per mile<ref>About Money. How Much Do Rail Transit Projects Cost to Build and Operate? 2014. Available at: http://publictransport.about.com/od/Transit_Projects/a/How-Much-Do-Rail-Transit-Projects-Cost-To-Build-And-Operate.htm. Accessed January 27, 2016. </ref>, the enormous capital cost makes rail transport infeasible for this site. For large volume operations, pipelines are cheaper than trucking. In a study of wastewater sludge produced from wastewater treatment facilities, it was found that it was more economical for facilities producing over 1200 m<sup>3</sup> per day to utilize pipelines rather than trucking.<ref>Marufuzzaman M, Eskioglu S, Hernandez R. Truck versus pipeline transportation cost analysis of wastewater sludge. Transportation Research. 2015; 74(A): 14-30. </ref> Our facility is producing nearly 3 times this volume at 3485 m<sup>3</sup> per day of brine. Furthermore, brine is a less viscous fluid than wastewater sludge, decreasing pumping costs in the pipeline and further amplifying the benefit of choosing a pipeline over an injection well.<br />
<br />
===Brine Storage===<br />
Due to the choice of a pipeline, rather than trucking, as the method of transport of brine to the injection well, brine storage is unnecessary, so storage solutions such as holding tanks were not investigated. One method of storage compatible with a pipeline is to pump the brine through an evaporation pond. This solution is attractive as it would allow the brine to concentrate, saving some costs of pumping, however, the considerable land usage of evaporation ponds leads them to only be effective for smaller plants. The largest municipal plant utilizing this method produces only 5.7 million liters per day<ref>University of Santa Cruz Center for Integrated Water Research. Concentrate Management: Evaporation Ponds. 2010. Available at: https://ciwr.ucsc.edu/sites/default/files/ICM_D5.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016. </ref>, whereas our desalination plant is proposed to produce 75.7 million liters per day. Therefore, evaporation ponds have been eliminated from consideration.<br />
<br />
==Major Specifications==<br />
===Material of Construction Selection===<br />
While saltwater and desalinated water in general can be corrosive, there are best practices within the desalination industry for material selection. With this in mind, best practice shows carbon steel lifetime can be lengthened by monitoring the oxygen concentration in the water, specifying the paint used to coat any metal, and more expensive materials can be used in areas of extremely high corrosion.<ref name = "Morris" />. By following these best practices, it is possible to save significant amounts of money through the use of carbon steel in most areas of the plant, with specific high-corrosion areas being reinforced with, or replaced with, more corrosion resistant materials, such as Cu/Ni 70/30 alloy<ref name = "KSU Chapter 6" />.<br />
<br />
===Heat Exchanger Sizing===<br />
See Appendix F for heat exchanger sizing data. Heat exchanger sizes appear reasonable for placement in the flash vessels.<br />
<br />
===Flash Vessel Sizing===<br />
The dimensions for the flash drums were obtained through literature values. The flash drums were determined to be 18x4x3 m in width, height, and length.<ref name="KSU Chapter 6" /><br />
<br />
Wall thickness was determined using the following conventions: Design pressure is 10% more than the operating pressure, design temperature is 50°F (27.8°C) higher than the operating temperature, a corrosion allowance of 3-mm and an effectiveness of 85% was derived from the assumption of a double-welded butt joint that was spot checked. See Appendix G for wall thicknesses calculated for each pressure vessel. <br />
<br />
The sizing of the vessels to be constructed will be determined after talks with a manufacturer. Due to economies of scale, it may be more cost-effective to buy 21 pressure vessels with the dimensions mentioned above and a wall thickness of 17.1-mm, the highest wall thickness required in the system.<br />
<br />
===Pipe Losses and Pressure Drop===<br />
HYSYS was used to estimate the diameter of a pipe given a specified pressure drop per 100m of pipe. It was determined that for a pressure drop of 0.1 kPa/100m of pipe, a 3.05m diameter pipe is sufficient, which is more than manageable for manufacturers. This pressure drop is mostly insignificant and will be taken care of with the safety factors included in the pumps. The significant pressure drops in our system is accounted for via losses in the flash vessels and heat exchangers, which drive the flash process. Therefore overall pipe losses are insignificant and are built into intentional design losses.<br />
<br />
=Economic Analysis=<br />
==Economic Assumptions==<br />
The sale of purified water yields a revenue stream of $49.5 million per year assuming sale to commercial entities within the city limits of Corpus Christi at $1.7915 per thousand liters.<ref name = "Corpus Christi Water Schedule">Water schedule. City of Corpus Christi Utility Business Office. http://www.cctexas.com/Assets/Departments/Financial-Services/Utilities-Business-Office/files/waterrates.pdf Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref> The primary variable costs are utilities and the brine disposal, with minimal raw materials costs due to the primary feedstock, seawater, being free, and minimal amounts of pre- and post-treatment chemicals being used. The cost of brine disposal used in this analysis was high at $2.097 per thousand liters<ref name="McCurdy">McCurdy, R. Underground injection wells for produced water disposal. Chesapeake Energy Corporation. http://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/documents/21_McCurdy_-_UIC_Disposal_508.pdf Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref>, an estimate for brine disposal utilizing trucking as the mode of transport. As has been shown through previous analyses, a lower cost can be achieved using a direct pipeline, however, no good estimates for this cost could be found.<br />
<br />
The NPV was calculated using a 6% cost of capital, the approximate interest rate for a municipal bond.<ref>Zirbe, R.O. Jr., Han, X., Layton, D., Leshine, T. A history of discount rates and their use by government agencies. (2002). http://faculty.washington.edu/zerbe/docs/DISCOUNT%20RATE%20HISTORY-latesXIt.doc Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref> It was assumed that the plant can be built within two years, with production at half-scale in its first year. Additionally, one month of variable costs, $10.6 million, was set aside for working capital. See Appendix H for a full table of assumptions. A 30 year NPV calculation was chosen as the decision basis since 30 years is a conservative estimate for the lifetime of a desalination plant <ref>Tampa Bay Seawater Desalination Plant. American Water. http://www.amwater.com/files/tampabayseawaterdesalinationplantcasestudy6.16.09.pdf. Accessed February 25, 20216.</ref>. See below for estimates of NPV for the lifetime of the plant under various assumptions and design criteria.<br />
<br />
==Optimization and Sensitivity Analysis==<br />
Looking at the multi-stage flash process, there are a number of opportunities to optimize the process. The major process variables that were investigated were the inlet water temperature, the operating pressure drop per vessel, and the number of stages over which the process takes place. Considering these optimizations, our final process consists of 21 flash vessels (18 heat recovery and 3 heat rejection stages), each with a pressure drop of 5 kPa. See Appendix D for a screenshot of the HYSYS simulation used to model the optimized process.<br />
===Operating Pressure and Pressure Drop===<br />
Initially our process was designed to pump the inlet seawater and brine to a pressure of 2 bar and allow the pressure drop in each flash stage to end our process downstream at 1 bar to prevent complications associated with designing a system under vacuum. While this provided pumping advantages, the energy in the system was significantly higher due to vapor pressure considerations. Due to this fact, the required heat exchange area for certain exchangers proved to be infeasible (on the order of 80,000m<sup>2</sup>) due to the enormous capital and operating costs that would be associated with such a large heat exchanger.<br />
<br />
The process was optimized to operate under vacuum, requiring additional pumping requirements but much lower required heat exchange area, and therefore lower utility costs. This optimization was done by specifying the pressure of the final flash vessel to 5.7kPa, so that the temperature of the water vapor (~30<sup>o</sup>C) is within approximately 5<sup>o</sup>C of the cooling water (35<sup>o</sup>C) so that condensation can occur within a reasonable approach. This also allows our system to optimally extract pure water from the brine running through the system and reduce energy requirements for cooling the product or the recycle. Our system redesign and optimization reduced the energy in the system and reduce the same heat exchanger area requirements by more than 3 orders of magnitude to approximately 800m<sup>2</sup>. <br />
<br />
Once the process was optimized to operate in a vacuum, the pressure drop per flash stage regulated through values was then optimized. Three pressure drops per stages, 3kPa, 5kPa, and 7kPa, were tested and then an economic analysis was conducted to find the optimal value for the pressure drop. These changes had impacts on both operating and capital costs as they would change initial pumping requirements, the amount of water flowing through the process and recycle (and therefore the flash vessel sizes, heat exchanger sizing), and the efficiency of each stage.<br />
<br />
The various pressure drops (3 kPa, 5 kPa, and 7 kPa) were tested on a system nominally at 24 stages under the assumption that the results would be generalizable to systems with a different number of stages. With increasing pressure drop, we found decreased capital cost but increased utility cost. As can be seen from Table 2 below, a pressure drop of 5 kPa proved to be the best option based on 30 year NPV, with a loss of $838.8 million, a savings of $65.5 million compared to the next-best option with a pressure drop of 7 kPa.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 2: Comparison of profitability for our MSF desalination process with 24 stages with 3 different pressure drops per stage<br />
! Number of Stages <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! Pressure Drop <br/> (kPa)<br />
! Capital Cost <br/> ($MM)<br />
! Utility Cost <br/> ($MM/yr)<br />
! 30-Year NPV <br/> ($MM)<br />
! NPV Ratio <br/> (over 5kPa)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 3 || 362.3 || 39.1 || -905.8 || 1.08<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 5 || 255.1 || 53.6 || -838.8 || 1.00<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 7 || 209.5 || 72.2 || -904.3 || 1.08<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
===Number of Flash Stages===<br />
The number of stages is an important area for optimization. An increased number of stages yields better recovery of purified water, however, requires higher capital cost from the additional pressure vessel. Furthermore, with an increased amount of purified water comes increasingly concentrated brine. This must be taken into account since any brine concentration in excess of about 7% presents a more significant corrosion risk<ref name="KSU Chapter 6" />, so increased maintenance costs for the piping or higher capital costs for more corrosion-resistant materials could be necessary for brine concentrations exceeding 7%. Therefore, to recover the same amount of pure water without exceeding corrosion limitations, increasing the number of stages will reduce the overall size of each stage.<br />
<br />
Optimizing based on NPV, it was found that 21 stages is optimal, balancing the increased profits from the additional purified water additional costs of higher capital cost. See Table 3 below to compare the 30-year NPV of the process across various numbers of flash vessels.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 3: Comparison of profitability for our MSF desalination process with a 5 kPa pressure drop, 5000 m<sup>3</sup>/hr feed flow rate, with varying number of stages.<br />
! Number of Stages <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! Pressure Drop <br/> (kPa)<br />
! Capital Cost <br/> ($MM)<br />
! Utility Cost <br/> ($MM/yr)<br />
! 30-Year NPV <br/> ($MM)<br />
! NPV Ratio <br/> (over 21 Stages)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 17 || 5 || 213.9 || 58.7 || -813.8 || 1.016<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 18 || 5 || 218 || 57.6 || -809.9 || 1.011<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 19 || 5 || 224.3 || 58 || -806.1 || 1.007<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 20 || 5 || 229.8 || 57.9 || -813.6 || 1.016<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 21 || 5 || 226.6 || 55.9 || -800.7 || 1<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 22 || 5 || 254.7 || 54.6 || -849.5 || 1.061<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 23 || 5 || 249.3 || 54.1 || -833.1 || 1.04<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 5 || 255.1 || 53.6 || -838.8 || 1.048<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 25 || 5 || 254.9 || 52.7 || -837.4 || 1.046<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
===Inlet Seawater Temperature===<br />
By pairing our desalination plant with a natural gas power plant and utilizing its cooling water we forgo initial heating of our inlet stream. Normally, water pumped from the ocean would be approximately 25<sup>o</sup>C and by capturing waste heat from the power plant we can reduce utilities with our water inlet of 45<sup>o</sup>C. Through an economic comparison between two plants nominally at 21 flash stages, the plant with an inlet temperature at 25<sup>o</sup>C has a capital cost of $245MM and a utility cost of $77MM/yr and the same facility with an inlet water temperature at 45<sup>o</sup>C has a capital cost of only $226MM and a utility cost of $56MM/yr. As shown in Table 4 below, this $19MM savings in capital costs and $21MM/yr saving in utilities is largely due to reducing the size of the heat exchangers and lowering the steam required for heating duty on the inlet seawater respectively. Therefore our process is optimized by recovering the waste heat water from the gas fired power plant.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 4: Seawater Inlet Temperature Process Cost Optimization<br />
! Seawater Temperature <br/> (°C)<br />
! Capital Cost <br/> ($MM)<br />
! Utility Cost <br/> ($MM/yr)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 25 || 245 || 77<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 45 || 226 || 56<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Savings || 56 || 19<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
==Overall Process Economics==<br />
After optimization at fixed flow rates, the process was scaled to meet the the 67% operating percentage and final product definitions as shown in Table 1, which resulted in finalized economics shown in Table 5 below. For a table of the installed costs of each process vessel, see Appendix I. For the finalized NPV calculations, see Appendix J.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 5: Summarized Economics for 21-stage MSFD Process<br />
! Economic Parameter<br />
! Cost <br/> (USD)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Capital Cost || 345 MM<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Total Operating Cost per Year || 103 MM<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Utility Cost per Year || 59 MM<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 30-Year NPV (6% Discount) || -1035 MM<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
=Conclusions and Recommendations=<br />
==Project Viability==<br />
Table 5 above demonstrates that the process has reasonable operating and capital costs, but the 30-year NPV is negative by -1035 $MM due to the extremely low sell price capability of desalinated water as a product. Therefore, this plant would have to heavily be supported by the City of Corpus Christi to run as the product revenue will not make it self-sufficient. The acquisition of government subsidies are key operating requirements for all desalination facilities in the United States. <br />
<br />
==Additional Concerns==<br />
Large volumes of water, steam, and energy are needed to ensure the project runs as specified. While most of the water can easily be extracted from the ocean with little to consequence, the fuel used to generate the steam and electricity can have a significant environmental impact. As the plant is located next to a natural gas power plant, this fuel is better than coal with respect to environmental concerns, and utilizing energy from the power plant to preheat the feed stream for the desalination plant helps lower environmental impacts.<br />
<br />
The large amounts of high pressure steam being used represents one of the the largest safety concern in the process, because a high pressure steam release could easily cause severe burns or even death. Proper precautions and control measures must be in place to prevent accidental release. Otherwise, the process does not utilize any known toxic chemicals and is relatively safe from a chemical standpoint. The flash vessels mostly operate below atmospheric pressure, so they must be constructed as vessels that can withstand vacuum without failing.<br />
<br />
<br />
=Appendix A: Proposed Location of Desalination Plant=<br />
Pictured below is the proposed location for the desalination plant, located on Nueces Bay in Corpus Christi, adjacent to the Nueces Bay Energy Center. The plant’s proposed location is shown in the area outlined by the small circle in the upper right of the figure.<br />
<br />
[[File:NuecesBayLocation.png|center|600px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Desalination Facility Location|Figure A.1: Proposed mapped location of Nueces Bay Desalination Facility.]]<br />
[[File:ClassIWell.png|center|700px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Desalination Facility Distance to Injection Well|Figure A.2: Mapped distance from proposed location to Class I Injection Well]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix B: Feed and Product Definitions - Salinity=<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 6: Average Composition of Total Dissolved Solids in Seawater<ref> Physical and Thermodynamic Data. In: Dickson AG, Goyet C. Handbook of Methods for the Analysis of the Various Parameters of the Carbon Dioxide System in Sea Water.</ref><ref> Composition of Seawater. Water Treatment of Solutions. Available at http://www.lenntech.com/composition-seawater.htm. Accessed January 12, 2016.</ref><br />
! Compound <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! Mass Composition <br/> (kPa)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Chlorine || 55.03%<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Sodium || 30.64%<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Sulfate || 7.70%<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Magnesium || 3.66%<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Calcium || 1.17%<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Potassium || 1.12%<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Bicarbonate || 0.36%<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Bromine || 0.19%<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Other || 0.15%<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
[[File:Nueces Bay Salinity.JPG|center|700px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Salinity Tracking|Figure C.1: Salinity in Nueces Bay over the past 10 years<ref name = "SALT" />.]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix C: Process Flow Diagram=<br />
[[File:TeamF_FinalPFD.JPG|center|1200px|thumb|alt=Process Flow Diagram|Figure C.1: Process Flow Diagram]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix D: HYSYS Simulation Model=<br />
[[File:TeamF_HYSYS_Screenshot.PNG|center|1200px|thumb|alt=HYSYS Simulation Model|Figure D.1: Screenshot of HYSYS Model Simulation.]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix E: Stream Tables=<br />
A summary of some values is shown below:<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 7: Key process material streams<br />
! &nbsp;<br />
! Stream <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! Molar Flow <br/> (10<sup>5</sup> kgmole/h)<br />
! Mass Flow <br/> (10<sup>5</sup> kg/h)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Inlet <br />
| Feed Water || 454 || 83.6<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Outlet<br />
| Brine Reject || 1.90 || 36.0<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Product<br />
| Pure Water || 2.64 || 47.5<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 8: Key process energy streams<br />
! Stream <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! Heat Flow <br/> (kJ/h)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Feed Water || 1.30E+11<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Q-301 || 5.73E+06<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Q-302 || 3.09E+09<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Q-304 || 4.68E+06<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Q-303 || -1.26E+09<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Brine Reject || -5.47E+10<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Pure Water || -7.46E+10<br />
|}<br />
(Negative value denotes energy leaving process)<br />
</center><br />
<br />
=Appendix F: Heat Exchanger Sizing=<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 9: Utility Temperatures and Heat Transfer Coefficient<ref name="Towler">G.P. Towler, R. Sinnott. Chemical Engineering Design: Principles, Practice and Economics of Plant and Process Design. Elsevier, 2012.</ref><br />
! &nbsp;<br />
! HP Steam<br />
! Cooling Water<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! Temperature (°C)<br />
| 250 || 35<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! U (W/m<sup>2</sup>K)<br />
| 4000 || 1500<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 10: Internal Flash Heat Exchanger Sizing, condensing steam.<br />
! Exchanger<br />
! UA <br/> (kJ/°C-h)<br />
! U <br/> (kJ/hr/m<sup>2</sup>°C)<br />
! A <br/> (m<sup>2</sup>)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-101 || 1.47E+07 || 14400 || 1019<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-102 || 1.53E+07 || 14400 || 1059<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-103 || 1.59E+07 || 14400 || 1103<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-104 || 1.66E+07 || 14400 || 1153<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-105 || 1.74E+07 || 14400 || 1209<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-106 || 1.83E+07 || 14400 || 1272<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-107 || 1.93E+07 || 14400 || 1342<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-108 || 2.05E+07 || 14400 || 1424<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-109 || 2.19E+07 || 14400 || 1518<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-110 || 2.35E+07 || 14400 || 1629<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-111 || 2.54E+07 || 14400 || 1761<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-112 || 2.77E+07 || 14400 || 1921<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-113 || 3.05E+07 || 14400 || 2119<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-114 || 3.42E+07 || 14400 || 2372<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-115 || 3.90E+07 || 14400 || 2706<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-116 || 4.56E+07 || 14400 || 3167<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-117 || 5.55E+07 || 14400 || 3856<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-118 || 7.20E+07 || 14400 || 5000<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 11: Heat Exchanger Sizing for Process Heaters and Coolers<br />
! Exchanger<br />
! Q <br/> (kJ/h)<br />
! U <br/> (J/s/m<sup>2</sup>K)<br />
! U <br/> (kJ/hr/m<sup>2</sup>K)<br />
! LMTD <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! A <br/> (m<sup>2</sup>)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-201 || 9.67E+08 || 1500 || 5400 || 16.03 || 11165<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-202 || 1.26E+09 || 1500 || 5400 || 7.57 || 30921<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-203 || 1.88E+09 || 1500 || 5400 || 0.45 || 77366<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-302 || 3.09E+09 || 4000 || 14400 || 155 || 1385<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-303 || 1.26E+09 || 4000 || 14400 || 209.5 || 418<br />
|}<br />
The high heat transfer area in the final cooler of the heat rejection stage is due to the close approach temperature. <br />
<br/>Other cooling / pressurization techniques will be used to reduce the area.<br />
</center><br />
<br />
=Appendix G: Pressure Vessel Sizing=<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 12: Operating temperature and pressure and corresponding thickness for flash vessels<br />
! Unit<br />
! Temperature <br/> (°C)<br />
! Pressure <br/> (kPa)<br />
! Thickness <br/> (mm)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-101 || 103.6 || 110.7 || 17.14<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-102 || 102.3 || 105.7 || 16.62<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-103 || 100.9 || 100.7 || 16.10<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-104 || 99.5 || 95.7 || 15.58<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-105 || 98.0 || 90.7 || 15.06<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-106 || 96.4 || 85.7 || 14.53<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-107 || 94.8 || 80.7 || 14.01<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-108 || 93.1 || 75.7 || 13.49<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-109 || 91.3 || 70.7 || 12.97<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-110 || 89.3 || 65.7 || 12.45<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-111 || 87.3 || 60.7 || 11.93<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-112 || 85.1 || 55.7 || 11.41<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-113 || 82.7 || 50.7 || 10.89<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-114 || 80.1 || 45.7 || 10.36<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-115 || 77.3 || 40.7 || 9.84<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-116 || 74.1 || 35.7 || 9.32<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-117 || 70.6 || 30.7 || 8.80<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-118 || 66.5 || 25.7 || 8.28<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-201 || 61.7 || 20.7 || 7.76<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-202 || 55.8 || 15.7 || 7.24<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-203 || 47.9 || 10.7 || 6.72<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
=Appendix H: Expanded Economic Assumptions=<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 13: Product and raw material market prices<br />
! Parameter<br />
! Value/Unit<br />
! Unit<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Sale price of water<ref name = "Corpus Christi Water Schedule" /> || $0.0021 || liter<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Brine disposal<ref name="McCurdy" /> || $0.0016 || barrel<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Belgard EV 2030<ref>Detailed import data of Belgard. Zauba. https://www.zauba.com/import-belgard-hs-code.html Accessed February 24, 2016.</ref> || $1.99 || kilogram<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Sodium Hypochlorite 12%<ref>High Quality Sodium Hypochlorite 12% solution Best Price. Alibaba Group. http://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/High-Quality-Sodium-Hypochlorite-12-solution_60355867621.html?spm=a2700.7724838.0.0.YHuHt3. Accessed March 7, 2016.</ref> || $4.54 || kilogram<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Lime<ref>Alibaba. Hydrated Lime 93%. Alibaba Group. http://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/high-quality-hydrated-lime-for-water_60423352849.html?spm=a2700.7724838.30.31.BVcfrP. Accessed February 24, 2016.</ref> || $0.09 || kilogram<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| CO<sub>2</sub><ref>Carbon Dioxide Advanced Oil Recovery. The American Oil & Gas Reporter. http://www.aogr.com/magazine/editors-choice/industrial-co2-supply-crucial-for-eor. Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref> || $0.04 || kilogram<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
<br/><br />
Additional Economic Assumptions<br />
*6% cost of capital<br />
*Construction of plant in 2 years, 50% of full-scale production in 3rd year<br />
*35% tax rate with 5 year MACRS depreciation<br />
*5 operators per shift with 3 shifts<br />
*$50,000 salary per operator<br />
*Supervision is 25% operating labor<br />
*Direct overhead is 45% of labor & supervision<br />
*Maintenance is 3% of ISBL investment per year<br />
*Plant overhead is 65% of labor and maintenance<br />
*Screen price negligible (~$2,000)<br />
<br />
=Appendix I: Equipment Cost Summary=<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 14: Installed costs of all major process equipment, in USD.<br />
! Unit<br />
! Equipment Cost <br/> (USD)<br />
! Installed Cost <br/> (USD)<br />
! Equipment Weight <br/> (LBS)<br />
! Total Installed Weight <br/> (LBS)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-101 ||1033900 || 1716400 || 403500 || 568790<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-102 ||1065700 || 1748700 || 416500 || 581960<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-103 ||1131500 || 1835900 || 439800 || 609338<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-104 ||1206900 || 1913200 || 469800 || 639902<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-105 ||1238900 || 1945800 || 483000 || 653292<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-106 ||1315000 || 2023500 || 515400 || 686222<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-107 ||1058900 || 1741900 || 413000 || 578460<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-108 ||1447500 || 2458400 || 564900 || 796324<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-109 ||1526200 || 2540200 || 598500 || 830924<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-110 ||1656600 || 2698900 || 646400 || 883959<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-111 ||1833500 || 2900600 || 714600 || 953808<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-112 ||1974700 || 3046000 || 774000 || 1014446<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-113 ||2186200 || 3647000 || 856000 || 1154275<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-114 ||2483100 || 4018400 || 968400 || 1278580<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-115 ||2817800 || 4433900 || 1103700 || 1431085<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-116 ||3291100 || 5778100 || 1290000 || 1731000<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-117 ||4062000 || 6880400 || 1588400 || 2081273<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-118 ||5361900 || 10603700 || 2097500 || 3054252<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-201 ||1682100 || 2649700 || 633600 || 835319<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-202 ||3265400 || 5677900 || 1233000 || 1643496<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| P-301 ||8263300 || 10579300 || 593100 || 1016878<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| P-302 ||5435000 || 7740400 || 389400 || 811881<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-101 ||43800 || 221900 || 11900 || 40680<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-102 ||2070900 || 5175400 || 1051900 || 1717877<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-103 ||1759900 || 4866600 || 804500 || 1476730<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-104 ||2976300 || 6117800 || 1625400 || 2292006<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-105 ||32200 || 201500 || 8300 || 35146<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-106 ||3480300 || 6698800 || 1863900 || 2546114<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-107 ||3538500 || 6800500 || 1918700 || 2612432<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-108 ||3673200 || 6973400 || 1985400 || 2687585<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-109 ||4178000 || 7524400 || 2228400 || 2938816<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-110 ||3690700 || 6978300 || 1994800 || 2693811<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-111 ||3711900 || 6991200 || 1986700 || 2683352<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-112 ||3541500 || 6754700 || 1891600 || 2562046<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-113 ||3288600 || 6463300 || 1782100 || 2444134<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-114 ||3039500 || 6176100 || 1651800 || 2306017<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-115 ||2961900 || 5572100 || 1614900 || 2161959<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-117 ||2831600 || 5403700 || 1549900 || 2087670<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-118 ||2800000 || 5359400 || 1531200 || 2065331<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-201 ||2807200 || 5147700 || 1535700 || 2002614<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-202 ||2921700 || 5295200 || 1587700 || 2063167<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-203 ||6322000 || 9725700 || 3364500 || 4063966<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
=Appendix J: Economic NPV Analysis=<br />
[[File:Team F Economics.JPG|center|1200px|thumb|alt=Economic Analysis|Figure J.1: Screenshot of process economic analysis.]]<br />
<br />
=References=<br />
<references/></div>Kedricdaly2https://processdesign.mccormick.northwestern.edu/index.php?title=Nueces_Desalination_Center:_Production_of_Drinking_Water_by_Multi-Stage_Flash_Distillation&diff=4975Nueces Desalination Center: Production of Drinking Water by Multi-Stage Flash Distillation2016-03-10T18:25:19Z<p>Kedricdaly2: subscripted CO2 in executive summary</p>
<hr />
<div>Team F: Rankine 672 Final Report<br />
<br />
Authors: Kedric Daly, Ben Granger, Evan Rosati, Kathleen Zhou<br />
<br />
Instructors: Fengqi You, David Wegerer<br />
<br />
March 11, 2016<br />
<br />
=Executive Summary=<br />
Desalination of seawater to drinking water is a technology of ever-increasing importance given trends of increasingly widespread water shortages around the world. Even in the United States, water shortages are becoming increasingly common in dry, highly-populated such as California and certain areas of the Gulf Coast. Our design team, Rankine 672, was tasked with evaluating the need for and designing a desalination plant to provide purified water in a place of need. Investigation revealed that the city of Corpus Christi, Texas, is a strategic location for development of a desalination facility, as surrounding region is in need of new drinking water sources and the city has expressed serious interest in contracting the development of a large-scale desalination plant. Our proposed solution is a multi-stage flash distillation desalination facility capable of producing 20,000,000 gallons (75,708 m<sup>3</sup>) of purified drinking water for the city and surrounding region per operating day.<br />
<br />
In this design, drinking water is produced from seawater feedstock through a 21-stage flash distillation process. By strategically locating the facility next to an existing natural gas power plant, the Nueces Bay Energy Center, pre-heated feed water can be taken directly from the outbound cooling systems of the power plant, allowing energy savings for our desalination plant. The process is designed for 16 hour-per-day operation, requires a seawater feed of 8250 m<sup>3</sup>/hr, and produces 4758 m<sup>3</sup>/hr of purified drinking water alongside a waste stream of 3485 m<sup>3</sup>/hr of concentrated brine. The waste stream is isolated from a recycle stream through a 9.0% purge; this results in an overall product yield of 57.7% on a volume basis. The process requires an additional pretreatment stream of 16.5 kg/hr Belgard EV 2030, which serves as an antiscalant, as well as 9.5 kg/hr chlorine, 352.1 kg/hr lime, and 418.7 kg/hr CO<sub>2</sub> for post-treatment purposes.<br />
<br />
The overall capital cost of the plant is expected to be $345MM, with a total operating cost of $103MM/yr, $59MM/yr of which comes from utilities. Due to the low price at which the product water can be sold, the 30-year net present value of the plant, assuming a 6% discount rate, is $-1,035MM. It is thus imperative this plant be constructed with public funds because it cannot return a profit to any private investor. The growing need for water however could justify the cost, because it is important that the residents of the greater Corpus Christi area have access to drinkable water.<br />
<br />
__TOC__<br />
<br />
=Introduction=<br />
==Background==<br />
Clean drinking water is a basic human need that is becoming increasingly difficult to meet. Currently, over 1 billion people live in places where water is considered scarce<ref> Tapping the oceans. The Economist USA. http://www.economist.com/node/11484059. Accessed March 2, 2016. </ref>. Though often thought of as a problem exclusive to third-world countries, the issue is becoming more prevalent in the US as well, with water managers in 40 of 50 states anticipating water shortage conditions in some portion of their state in the next 10 years. These shortages are due to increasing demands on constant or diminishing freshwater resources, therefore, to correct the issue, a new supply must be found<ref> Water Supply in the US. EPA. http://www3.epa.gov/watersense/pubs/supply.html. Accessed March 2, 2016.</ref>. Desalination of seawater is therefore important as a new source for clean drinking water and prevent water shortages. <br />
<br />
==Project Definition==<br />
The overall goal of the project is to investigate the feasibility of a desalination plant in order to meet the needs of growing water demand. The design needs to take health, safety, and environmental concerns into account, while optimizing costs.<br />
<br />
=Design Basis=<br />
Site Location and Conditions<br />
Corpus Christi, TX was chosen as the location for the proposed desalination plant. The city is currently experiencing “Moderate Shortage Conditions”. This issue additionally comes at a time of growing demand with population growth anticipated due to new industry and Eagle Ford Group crude oil production<ref>Stage 2 Measures in the Drought Contingency Plan. Available at http://www.cctexas.com/government/water/conservation/conservation-drought-plans/stage-2-measures. Accessed January 12, 2016. </ref>.<br />
<br />
In June 2014, the city announced the Corpus Christi Desalination Demonstration Project<ref>Corpus Christi Desalination Demonstration Project. Available at http://www.cctexas.com/Assets/Departments/Water/Files/DesalFactSheet.pdf. Published June 2014. Accessed January 12, 2016. <br />
</ref> which seeks to create a demonstration desalination plant capable of producing 20,000 gallons of water per day, with plans to later build a full scale facility generating 20,000,000 gallons of water per day. The desalination demonstration project indicates a clear need for implementation of a desalination plant of this size to accommodate growth in the Corpus Christi area. <br />
<br />
Locating our plant in Corpus Christi will allow us to take advantage of the benefits of cogeneration through a partnership with the Nueces Bay Energy Center. By utilizing their outlet cooling water as a large portion of our feed for the desalination process, we can raise the temperature of our seawater feed, saving on energy costs in the multi stage flash distillation. The proposed location for the desalination plant is immediately west of the Nueces Bay Energy Center. See Appendix A for a map depicting the proposed location for the desalination plant along the coast of Nueces Bay.<br />
<br />
==Feed and Product Definitions==<br />
The proposed desalination facility’s feed and product streams are defined as shown in Table 1. Rationale for these definitions is also described below. The values reported in Table 1 are final derived numbers from HYSYS simulation modeling. <br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 1: Feed and product stream definitions<br />
! &nbsp;<br />
! Salt Concentration<br />
! Temperature <br />
! Amount<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Feed Stream <br />
| 30,500 ppm || 45°C || 8250 m<sup>3</sup>/hr<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Product Stream<br />
| ~ 0 ppm || 35°C || 4758 m<sup>3</sup>/hr<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Byproduct Stream<br />
| 69,500 ppm || 35°C || 3485 m<sup>3</sup>/hr<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
The process feed will be seawater from Nueces Bay, preheated through the cooling water system of the nearby Nueces Bay Energy Center. Based on calculations developed from NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory) data, it was estimated that the Nueces Bay Energy Center uses approximately 250 million gallons of seawater per day for process and cooling needs. Therefore, the 20 million gallon per day requirement for the desalination facility can easily be met through the power plant’s cooling water<ref>Torcellini P, Long N, Judkoff R. Consumptive Water Use for U.S. Power Consumption. NREL. 2003; TP-550-33905. <br />
</ref>. Note that we are assuming the process will operate 67% of the time (16 hours per day).<br />
<br />
Based on data acquired from two salinity-measuring stations in Nueces Bay, the average salinity of local seawater is 30.5 practical salinity units (psu)<ref>Stations Map & Real - Time Data. The Conrad Blucher Institute for Surveying and Science website. Available at http://www.cbi.tamucc.edu/cbi/data/. Updated January 2016. Accessed January 9, 2016. </ref>, thus setting the concentration of the process feed stream. This translates to a feed stream concentration of 30,500 ppm (parts per million)<ref name = "SALT">Definition and Units. CATD Salinity Expertise Center. Available at http://www.salinityremotesensing.ifremer.fr/home. Accessed January 12, 2016.</ref>. The composition of the salt attributed to this seawater salinity is shown in Table 6 in Appendix B. <br />
<br />
No data on the composition of seawater around the Corpus Christi area was available, but the composition of seawater does not change significantly in different locations. The given composition is considered accurate for our feed stream<ref>Brown E, Colling A, Park D, Phillips J, Rothery D, Wright J. Seawater : Its Composition, Properties and Behaviour. Boston: Butterworth-Heinemann, 1995.<br />
</ref>. Note that seawater salt is primarily sodium chloride - total dissolved solids are 85.7% sodium chloride by mass. As such, the dissolved solids in the feed stream is assumed in this project to be pure NaCl, making the feed composition 96.95% water and 3.05% NaCl by mass. A control system will likely be put in place to ensure feed concentration remains at this level, accounting for natural fluctuations in local seawater salinity.<br />
<br />
The largest byproduct from the process will be a brine slurry with high salt concentrations. An upper corrosion limit of 700 ppm was set for recirculated and purged brine. This undesired byproduct will be sent to a nearby Class I non-hazardous injection well facility operated by GNI Group, which is approximately 12 miles away from the proposed desalination plant location as shown in the figure in Appendix A<ref>Texas Water Code. Availabe at http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/WA/htm/WA.27.htm. Accessed January 14, 2016.<br />
</ref><ref>Google Maps. Available at https://goo.gl/maps/3xcvLZwUCe42 Accessed January 15, 2016.</ref>. Through the incorporation of a Class I injection well, the brine will not have to be treated or diluted before injection. <ref>EPA Regulations on Class I Wells. Available at http://www.epa.gov/uic/class-i-industrial-and-municipal-waste-disposal-wells. Accessed January 14, 2016.<br />
</ref><ref>List of Injection Well Facilities by Location. Available at http://www.ehso.com/cssepa/tsdfdeepwells.php. Accessed January 14, 2016.</ref><br />
<br />
There are no regulations regarding the temperature of city drinking water, so the product stream temperature has no requirements based on regulations. Outlet temperatures of 35<sup>o</sup>C are acceptable for input to the municipal water supply system. Since city water tends to be stored in non-temperature controlled tanks, the temperature will naturally cool to ambient temperature.<ref>Climate Corpus Christi- Texas. US Climate Data. Available at http://www.usclimatedata.com/climate/corpus-christi/texas/united-states/ustx0294. Accessed January 12, 2016. </ref><br />
<br />
==Pre-Treatment and Post-Treatment==<br />
For pretreatment, Belgard EV 2030 is recommended to be added at a concentration of 1.8-2.0 mg/L for a system with top brine temperature approximately 110 °C<ref name="BWA 2030">BWA Water Additives. Belgard EV2030 Technical Data Sheet. BWA Water Additives. http://www.wateradditives.com/files/products/tech_data_sheets/Belgard%20EV%202030_Technical%20Data%20Sheet_Thermal_8.5x11.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016.<br />
</ref>. Since our process is designed to operate at a slightly higher top brine temperature, 120 °C, we will design for the upper bound concentration: 2.0 mg/L of antiscalant. With a feed flow rate of 8250 m<sup>3</sup>/hr, the process therefore requires 16.5 kg/hr of Belgard EV 2030.<br />
<br />
For disinfection during post-treatment, chlorine addition typically requires a dose of roughly 2.0 mg/L as well<ref name="World Health Organization">World Health Organization. Desalination for safe water supply. http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/gdwqrevision/desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. With a pure water distillate flow rate of 4758 m<sup>3</sup>/hr, the process requires 9.5 kg/hr of chlorine as a 5%-15% sodium hypochlorite solution. Approximately 74 mg/L of lime (calcium hydroxide) and 88mg/L of CO2 should be added to the desalinated water to help prevent corrosion and increase alkalinity within acceptable ranges<ref name="Vouchkov">Vouchkov, N. Re-Mineralization of Desalinated Water. SunCam. https://s3.amazonaws.com/suncam/npdocs/118.pdf. Accessed February 18, 2016.</ref>. With a product stream flow rate of 4758 m3/hr, these concentrations correspond to 352.1 kg/hr of lime and 418.7 kg/hr of CO2. Both of these can be purchased, and it is likely that the CO2 can be procured from the neighboring natural gas power plant.<br />
<br />
==Choice of Desalination Technology==<br />
The two major technologies commonly implemented for desalination include reverse osmosis (RO), and multi-stage flash distillation (MSFD). RO utilizes high pressures to force water through a semipermeable membrane that allows for purified water to pass through, but stops organic and other wastes. Often, the pressures can reach 55 - 68 bar, which requires large pumps to maintain pressure, and introduces safety concerns to the process<ref>Stage 2 Measures in the Drought Contingency Plan. Available at http://www.cctexas.com/government/water/conservation/conservation-drought-plans/stage-2-measures. Accessed January 12, 2016. <br />
</ref>. While RO can be less energy intensive than MSFD, and the membrane can also remove contaminants, it is susceptible to feedwater quality, membrane fouling, and requires more extensive pretreatment and posttreatment than MSFD. The cost of RO is directly proportional to the feed salinity, and so it is less expensive when desalinating low salinity water.<br />
<br />
Multi-stage flash distillation is best selected for areas that have high salinity or low energy costs. The pretreatment process for MSFD is much easier when compared to RO because pretreatment often consists of simply adding anti-corrosives and antiscalants to the feed stream. The process works by heating water in vessels at different pressures to change the boiling point of the water and evaporate it as it passes through the system. After evaporation, the water condenses, leaving pure water as the effluent. MSFD costs are now roughly $1.00/m3, where this cost is mostly independent of salinity, but dependent on energy costs.<ref>Fritzman C, Lowenberg J, Wintgens T, Melin T. State-of-the-art Reverse Osmosis Desalination. Desalination. 2007; 216:1-76. <br />
</ref> In both RO and MSFD a brine is produced which then must be appropriately treated and/or disposed of.<br />
<br />
Multi-stage flash distillation was selected for this process, mainly due to the economic advantages offered by the selected location of Corpus Christi, TX. MSFD is also a well understood process that can be more easily modeled by chemical engineering software.<br />
<br />
=Technical Approach=<br />
Quantitative modeling of the process and all included optimization was conducted using the simulation software Aspen HYSYS. A variety of assumptions were developed to set up and define specific components of the process simulation itself. Within Aspen HYSYS, the NRTL Electrolyte property package was selected to model the behavior of salt water. Each stage of the MSF process is modeled as an individual flash vessel, with individual shell & tube heat exchangers used to model the distillate condensers present in each flash stage in the MSF system.<br />
<br />
The HYSYS simulation model only considers the flash portion of the overall process, allowing establishment of mass and energy balances for the system. Pretreatment and post-treatment were excluded for the HYSYS model, as these steps are simple additions or removals of small concentrations of chemical components. Although the simulation models heat exchangers outside of each flash stage, in the physical design of the plant these heat exchangers will be contained within each flash stage.<br />
<br />
One portion of the process is not modeled, which is the inlet seawater entering the heat rejection stages. As can be seen from the full process flow diagram (Appendix C), the inlet seawater in the heat rejection stage is in high excess to provide maximum cooling capacity; then a significant portion is purged to bring the stream flow rate down to what is needed for the feed stream. It is assumed that the flow rate of cooling water for those three stages is in such high excess that the cooling water does not heat up. Therefore, in the process simulation models, the inlet stream is the feed stream, which enters directly into the heat recovery portion of the process.<br />
<br />
See Appendix D for a screenshot overview of the simulation environment model.<br />
<br />
=Process Overview=<br />
==Process Flowsheet==<br />
The following diagram, Figure 1, shows a basic flowsheet for the process. Process alternatives considered for each stage are discussed below. Please see Appendix C for the full process flowsheet with finalized design decisions.<br />
<br />
[[File:BlockFlowDiagram.png|center|700px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Desalination Facility Block Flow Diagram|Figure 1: Basic block flowsheet of the multi-stage flash desalination process.]]<br />
<br />
==Major Features==<br />
As seen above, there are three primary stages of the desalination process: Pre-treatment, the multi-stage flash distillation, and post-treatment. Seawater enters the pre-treatment phase first to make the feed suitable for the rest of the process by filtering out large particles that could accumulate on pipes, deaerating the water to limit corrosion, and adding an agent to combat fouling. The water then enters the distillation process, which is broken up into two sections: heat recovery and heat rejection. <br />
<br />
In the heat recovery stage, there are 18 flash vessels, each of which separates steam from the salinated liquid water. Each flash vessel has saltwater as its inlet and two outlets: a vapor outlet (steam) that condenses into the final product of purified water and a liquid outlet composed of water with more dissolved solids than the inlet, which is the inlet stream for the next flash vessel. The pipe containing the feed is first mixed with recycled brine, then goes through the top sections of each of the flash vessels, starting with V-118 and ending up at V-101. In this way, the feed stream pipe first serves as a heat exchanger, heating the pre-treated seawater while simultaneously condensing the steam into the final product. The feed then enters a final heat exchanger where it is brought up to 103.6 °C before entering V-101 to be flashed.<br />
<br />
After exiting V-118, the final flash vessel in the heat recovery portion, the water enters the heat rejection portion, which consists of three flash vessels (V-201, V-202, V-203). The flash vessels of this section operate in the same manner as in the heat recovery section, with the exception that condensation occurs using excess cooling water instead of pre-treated seawater. This technique allows excess heat to be rejected into an excess water stream rather than the feed.<br />
<br />
The purified product stream finally enters post-treatment processing in which water is re-aerated and remineralized, disinfected, and pH is adjusted before being delivered to the city. The concentrated brine leftover at the end of the flash cycle is recycled into the feed, although a purge is required to continuously remove some salt from the system. This purged brine is disposed of by use of a Class I injection well, per regional regulations.<br />
<br />
See Appendix E to find detailed stream tables of stream specifications.<br />
<br />
==Process Alternatives==<br />
===Pretreatment===<br />
Multi-stage flash distillation requires significantly less pretreatment than reverse osmosis desalination, but helpful pretreatment techniques still exist. One very inexpensive method of pretreatment is screening/filtration, which is used to filter out large contaminants from intake seawater. Using more complicated membrane technology to accomplish large particle filtration is a possible alternative, but doing so would be much more expensive than using a standard screen or filter, so the latter choice has been selected for this process.<ref>El-Dessouky H., Alatiqi I, Ettouney H. Process synthesis: The multi-stage flash desalination system. Desalination. 1998;115(2):115-179. doi: 10.1016/S0011-9164(98)00035-6.</ref><br />
<br />
The most critical type of fouling in multi-stage flash distillation is scaling - therefore, the most critical step in the pretreatment process will be the inclusion of an anti-scalant. Alkaline scaling can be prevented by acid dosing or polyphosphate addition; however, acid dosing can result in increased corrosion and polyphosphates can lead to non-alkaline calcium phosphate fouling, so these additives will not be considered<ref name="Morris">Morris, R. The development of the multi-stage flash distillation process: A designer's viewpoint. Desalination. 1993;93(1-3):57-68. doi:10.1016/S0011-9164(93)80096-6. Availble at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0011916493800966</ref><ref>Al-Gobaisi, D. A quarter-century of seawater desalination by large multistage flash plants in Abu Dhabi (Plant performance analysis, assessment, present efforts toward enhancement and future hopes). Desalination. 1994;99(2-3):509-512. doi: 10.1016/S0011-9164(94)00196-0.</ref>. As such, a polymer-based additive is recommended for the anti-scalant for this process. The Belgard EV series is designed for use in high-temperature seawater MSF; of these, Belgard EV 2030 is the most neutral in pH<ref>NSF International. NSF Product and Service Listings: Drinking Water Treatment Chemicals - Health Effects. NSF International. http://info.nsf.org/Certified/PwsChemicals/Listings.asp?Company=00300&. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref><ref name="BWA 2030" /><ref>BWA Water Additives. Belgard EV2035 Technical Data Sheet. BWA Water Additives. http://www.wateradditives.com/files/products/tech_data_sheets/Belgard%20EV2035_Technical%20Data%20Sheet_Thermal_8.5x11.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref><ref>BioLab Water Additives. Belgard EV Antiscalant for seawater distillation plants. BioLab Water Additives. http://www.lpq.com.mx/pdf/BELGARD%20EV.PDF. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref>. As such, we have selected Belgard EV 2030 for use as an anti-scalant in our process.<br />
<br />
Corrosion control is another significant method of pretreatment in multi-stage flash distillation plants. Using a piping material that has limited susceptibility to corrosion is typically not economically viable for MSF desalination plants due their large size, so using carbon steel for most of the piping is generally used for its economic benefits despite its susceptibility to corrosion<ref name = "Morris" />. Limiting oxygen concentration is very feasible through the use of deaerators, which can remove oxygen as well as other dissolved gases from the seawater stream. Often, an external deaeration system is used<ref name = "Morris" /><ref>Edwards - Hick Hargreaves. Seawater Deaerators. Edwards - Hick Hargreaves. http://psscorp.co.th/upload/news/20110830105340.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. Given these considerations, using an external deaerator combined with a less-corrosive antiscalant like Belgard EV 2030 is much more practical for the process than using anti-corrosive piping.<br />
<br />
Excessive foam can also be an issue in some MSF distillation facilities, so antifoaming agents are sometimes employed in the pretreatment process as well. However, many plants are operated without foaming issues, and therefore do not need anti-foaming pretreatment at all. Selection of an anti-foaming agent must be carefully weighed with selected of anti-scalant to avoid issues with additive interactions [26]. At this stage in the design process, an anti-foamer will not be included due to the risk of decreasing scalant efficacy, and the likelihood that foam will not be an issue in the desalination plant.<br />
<br />
===Multistage Flash Distillation===<br />
The main objective of the design project is desalinate water. This is done with the main process of multi stage flash distillation (MSF). MSF can be developed using a numerous number of different process configurations, such as Once-Through, Simple Mixer Brine Circulation, and Multi-Stage Heat Rejection Brine Circulation processes. <br />
<br />
The most desired process for the project is the Three Stage Heat Rejection Brine Circulation as it builds on benefits of the other simpler technologies. By combining principles of heat rejection and heat recovery, the required heat transfer area of the process is greatly reduced as compared to once through processes or simple brine recycle processes. It has the highest performance ratio with the lowest specific feed flow rates, therefore greatly lowering the operating costs of the process. It is also known as the industry standard for MSF<ref name = "KSU Chapter 6">Kansas State University ChE 413. Available at: http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/Almutaz/Documents/ChE-413/Multi-stage%20Flash%20Desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. In addition, since our brine disposal technique involves the pumping of the brine into a Class I well, the high brine outlet salinity is not a drawback for our process since post treatment or dilution of the brine is not necessary.<br />
<br />
===Post Treatment===<br />
After processing the water via multi-stage flash, the water needs to be post-treated to make the water taste as consumers would expect, since distilled water is “flat” and unpleasant, as well as to protect the consumers and the piping through which the water will be passing<ref name="Clayton">Clayton R. A review of current knowledge: Desalination for water supply. Foundation for Water Research. http://www.fwr.org/desal.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. There are multiple alternatives to achieve these objectives of remineralization, aeration, corrosion control, and disinfection.<br />
<br />
Aerating and introducing some dissolved solids back into the product water are effective ways to create a quality product that is not flat, and contains flavoring that is expected of the water when delivered to the consumer. Aeration will be accomplished via an inline spray aerator which will take up less space than cascade aeration.<ref>Minnesota Rural Water Association. Aeration. http://www.mrwa.com/WaterWorksMnl/Chapter%2011%20Aeration.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref> Feed blending will be used to remineralize the water as opposed to a remineralization filter because it does not require additional equipment purchases, and can easily handle the large amounts of throughput required for the process.<ref name="Clayton" /><br />
<br />
Corrosion and pH can be controlled by adding lime (calcium hydroxide) and carbon dioxide to the water. To do so, about 74 mg/L of lime and 88mg/L of CO<sub>2</sub> should be added to the desalinated water to help prevent corrosion and increase alkalinity within acceptable ranges. Sodium hydroxide, soda ash, and sodium bicarbonate are alternatives to altering the alkalinity and pH of the product water, but lime and CO<sub>2</sub> is an industry standard <ref name="Vouchkov" />.<br />
<br />
Disinfection needs to be done to prevent microbial growth in the desalinated water and ensure the safety of the general public. Chlorine addition via chlorine gas or sodium hypochlorite is the most common and only requires a dose of 1.5 to 2.5 mg/liter. <ref name="World Health Organization" /> Other alternatives include ozonation, UV light, and chloramination. Chlorine, as a 5% - 15% sodium hypochlorite solution, is sufficient for our process and relatively inexpensive, and as such will be utilized in the process.<br />
<br />
===Transport of Brine to Well===<br />
Three major possibilities exist for transporting the brine from our desalination plant to the injection well for disposal: rail, trucking, and a pipeline. A pipeline was chosen as the most feasible and cost-effective approach. <br />
<br />
A rail line is not available at this time, and with the cost to construct a rail line at approximately $43 million per mile<ref>About Money. How Much Do Rail Transit Projects Cost to Build and Operate? 2014. Available at: http://publictransport.about.com/od/Transit_Projects/a/How-Much-Do-Rail-Transit-Projects-Cost-To-Build-And-Operate.htm. Accessed January 27, 2016. </ref>, the enormous capital cost makes rail transport infeasible for this site. For large volume operations, pipelines are cheaper than trucking. In a study of wastewater sludge produced from wastewater treatment facilities, it was found that it was more economical for facilities producing over 1200 m<sup>3</sup> per day to utilize pipelines rather than trucking.<ref>Marufuzzaman M, Eskioglu S, Hernandez R. Truck versus pipeline transportation cost analysis of wastewater sludge. Transportation Research. 2015; 74(A): 14-30. </ref> Our facility is producing nearly 3 times this volume at 3485 m<sup>3</sup> per day of brine. Furthermore, brine is a less viscous fluid than wastewater sludge, decreasing pumping costs in the pipeline and further amplifying the benefit of choosing a pipeline over an injection well.<br />
<br />
===Brine Storage===<br />
Due to the choice of a pipeline, rather than trucking, as the method of transport of brine to the injection well, brine storage is unnecessary, so storage solutions such as holding tanks were not investigated. One method of storage compatible with a pipeline is to pump the brine through an evaporation pond. This solution is attractive as it would allow the brine to concentrate, saving some costs of pumping, however, the considerable land usage of evaporation ponds leads them to only be effective for smaller plants. The largest municipal plant utilizing this method produces only 5.7 million liters per day<ref>University of Santa Cruz Center for Integrated Water Research. Concentrate Management: Evaporation Ponds. 2010. Available at: https://ciwr.ucsc.edu/sites/default/files/ICM_D5.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016. </ref>, whereas our desalination plant is proposed to produce 75.7 million liters per day. Therefore, evaporation ponds have been eliminated from consideration.<br />
<br />
==Major Specifications==<br />
===Material of Construction Selection===<br />
While saltwater and desalinated water in general can be corrosive, there are best practices within the desalination industry for material selection. With this in mind, best practice shows carbon steel lifetime can be lengthened by monitoring the oxygen concentration in the water, specifying the paint used to coat any metal, and more expensive materials can be used in areas of extremely high corrosion.<ref name = "Morris" />. By following these best practices, it is possible to save significant amounts of money through the use of carbon steel in most areas of the plant, with specific high-corrosion areas being reinforced with, or replaced with, more corrosion resistant materials, such as Cu/Ni 70/30 alloy<ref name = "KSU Chapter 6" />.<br />
<br />
===Heat Exchanger Sizing===<br />
See Appendix F for heat exchanger sizing data. Heat exchanger sizes appear reasonable for placement in the flash vessels.<br />
<br />
===Flash Vessel Sizing===<br />
The dimensions for the flash drums were obtained through literature values. The flash drums were determined to be 18x4x3 m in width, height, and length.<ref name="KSU Chapter 6" /><br />
<br />
Wall thickness was determined using the following conventions: Design pressure is 10% more than the operating pressure, design temperature is 50°F (27.8°C) higher than the operating temperature, a corrosion allowance of 3-mm and an effectiveness of 85% was derived from the assumption of a double-welded butt joint that was spot checked. See Appendix G for wall thicknesses calculated for each pressure vessel. <br />
<br />
The sizing of the vessels to be constructed will be determined after talks with a manufacturer. Due to economies of scale, it may be more cost-effective to buy 21 pressure vessels with the dimensions mentioned above and a wall thickness of 17.1-mm, the highest wall thickness required in the system.<br />
<br />
===Pipe Losses and Pressure Drop===<br />
HYSYS was used to estimate the diameter of a pipe given a specified pressure drop per 100m of pipe. It was determined that for a pressure drop of 0.1 kPa/100m of pipe, a 3.05m diameter pipe is sufficient, which is more than manageable for manufacturers. This pressure drop is mostly insignificant and will be taken care of with the safety factors included in the pumps. The significant pressure drops in our system is accounted for via losses in the flash vessels and heat exchangers, which drive the flash process. Therefore overall pipe losses are insignificant and are built into intentional design losses.<br />
<br />
=Economic Analysis=<br />
==Economic Assumptions==<br />
The sale of purified water yields a revenue stream of $49.5 million per year assuming sale to commercial entities within the city limits of Corpus Christi at $1.7915 per thousand liters.<ref name = "Corpus Christi Water Schedule">Water schedule. City of Corpus Christi Utility Business Office. http://www.cctexas.com/Assets/Departments/Financial-Services/Utilities-Business-Office/files/waterrates.pdf Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref> The primary variable costs are utilities and the brine disposal, with minimal raw materials costs due to the primary feedstock, seawater, being free, and minimal amounts of pre- and post-treatment chemicals being used. The cost of brine disposal used in this analysis was high at $2.097 per thousand liters<ref name="McCurdy">McCurdy, R. Underground injection wells for produced water disposal. Chesapeake Energy Corporation. http://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/documents/21_McCurdy_-_UIC_Disposal_508.pdf Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref>, an estimate for brine disposal utilizing trucking as the mode of transport. As has been shown through previous analyses, a lower cost can be achieved using a direct pipeline, however, no good estimates for this cost could be found.<br />
<br />
The NPV was calculated using a 6% cost of capital, the approximate interest rate for a municipal bond.<ref>Zirbe, R.O. Jr., Han, X., Layton, D., Leshine, T. A history of discount rates and their use by government agencies. (2002). http://faculty.washington.edu/zerbe/docs/DISCOUNT%20RATE%20HISTORY-latesXIt.doc Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref> It was assumed that the plant can be built within two years, with production at half-scale in its first year. Additionally, one month of variable costs, $10.6 million, was set aside for working capital. See Appendix H for a full table of assumptions. A 30 year NPV calculation was chosen as the decision basis since 30 years is a conservative estimate for the lifetime of a desalination plant <ref>Tampa Bay Seawater Desalination Plant. American Water. http://www.amwater.com/files/tampabayseawaterdesalinationplantcasestudy6.16.09.pdf. Accessed February 25, 20216.</ref>. See below for estimates of NPV for the lifetime of the plant under various assumptions and design criteria.<br />
<br />
==Optimization and Sensitivity Analysis==<br />
Looking at the multi-stage flash process, there are a number of opportunities to optimize the process. The major process variables that were investigated were the inlet water temperature, the operating pressure drop per vessel, and the number of stages over which the process takes place. Considering these optimizations, our final process consists of 21 flash vessels (18 heat recovery and 3 heat rejection stages), each with a pressure drop of 5 kPa. See Appendix D for a screenshot of the HYSYS simulation used to model the optimized process.<br />
===Operating Pressure and Pressure Drop===<br />
Initially our process was designed to pump the inlet seawater and brine to a pressure of 2 bar and allow the pressure drop in each flash stage to end our process downstream at 1 bar to prevent complications associated with designing a system under vacuum. While this provided pumping advantages, the energy in the system was significantly higher due to vapor pressure considerations. Due to this fact, the required heat exchange area for certain exchangers proved to be infeasible (on the order of 80,000m<sup>2</sup>) due to the enormous capital and operating costs that would be associated with such a large heat exchanger.<br />
<br />
The process was optimized to operate under vacuum, requiring additional pumping requirements but much lower required heat exchange area, and therefore lower utility costs. This optimization was done by specifying the pressure of the final flash vessel to 5.7kPa, so that the temperature of the water vapor (~30<sup>o</sup>C) is within approximately 5<sup>o</sup>C of the cooling water (35<sup>o</sup>C) so that condensation can occur within a reasonable approach. This also allows our system to optimally extract pure water from the brine running through the system and reduce energy requirements for cooling the product or the recycle. Our system redesign and optimization reduced the energy in the system and reduce the same heat exchanger area requirements by more than 3 orders of magnitude to approximately 800m<sup>2</sup>. <br />
<br />
Once the process was optimized to operate in a vacuum, the pressure drop per flash stage regulated through values was then optimized. Three pressure drops per stages, 3kPa, 5kPa, and 7kPa, were tested and then an economic analysis was conducted to find the optimal value for the pressure drop. These changes had impacts on both operating and capital costs as they would change initial pumping requirements, the amount of water flowing through the process and recycle (and therefore the flash vessel sizes, heat exchanger sizing), and the efficiency of each stage.<br />
<br />
The various pressure drops (3 kPa, 5 kPa, and 7 kPa) were tested on a system nominally at 24 stages under the assumption that the results would be generalizable to systems with a different number of stages. With increasing pressure drop, we found decreased capital cost but increased utility cost. As can be seen from Table 2 below, a pressure drop of 5 kPa proved to be the best option based on 30 year NPV, with a loss of $838.8 million, a savings of $65.5 million compared to the next-best option with a pressure drop of 7 kPa.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 2: Comparison of profitability for our MSF desalination process with 24 stages with 3 different pressure drops per stage<br />
! Number of Stages <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! Pressure Drop <br/> (kPa)<br />
! Capital Cost <br/> ($MM)<br />
! Utility Cost <br/> ($MM/yr)<br />
! 30-Year NPV <br/> ($MM)<br />
! NPV Ratio <br/> (over 5kPa)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 3 || 362.3 || 39.1 || -905.8 || 1.08<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 5 || 255.1 || 53.6 || -838.8 || 1.00<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 7 || 209.5 || 72.2 || -904.3 || 1.08<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
===Number of Flash Stages===<br />
The number of stages is an important area for optimization. An increased number of stages yields better recovery of purified water, however, requires higher capital cost from the additional pressure vessel. Furthermore, with an increased amount of purified water comes increasingly concentrated brine. This must be taken into account since any brine concentration in excess of about 7% presents a more significant corrosion risk<ref name="KSU Chapter 6" />, so increased maintenance costs for the piping or higher capital costs for more corrosion-resistant materials could be necessary for brine concentrations exceeding 7%. Therefore, to recover the same amount of pure water without exceeding corrosion limitations, increasing the number of stages will reduce the overall size of each stage.<br />
<br />
Optimizing based on NPV, it was found that 21 stages is optimal, balancing the increased profits from the additional purified water additional costs of higher capital cost. See Table 3 below to compare the 30-year NPV of the process across various numbers of flash vessels.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 3: Comparison of profitability for our MSF desalination process with a 5 kPa pressure drop, 5000 m<sup>3</sup>/hr feed flow rate, with varying number of stages.<br />
! Number of Stages <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! Pressure Drop <br/> (kPa)<br />
! Capital Cost <br/> ($MM)<br />
! Utility Cost <br/> ($MM/yr)<br />
! 30-Year NPV <br/> ($MM)<br />
! NPV Ratio <br/> (over 21 Stages)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 17 || 5 || 213.9 || 58.7 || -813.8 || 1.016<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 18 || 5 || 218 || 57.6 || -809.9 || 1.011<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 19 || 5 || 224.3 || 58 || -806.1 || 1.007<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 20 || 5 || 229.8 || 57.9 || -813.6 || 1.016<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 21 || 5 || 226.6 || 55.9 || -800.7 || 1<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 22 || 5 || 254.7 || 54.6 || -849.5 || 1.061<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 23 || 5 || 249.3 || 54.1 || -833.1 || 1.04<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 5 || 255.1 || 53.6 || -838.8 || 1.048<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 25 || 5 || 254.9 || 52.7 || -837.4 || 1.046<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
===Inlet Seawater Temperature===<br />
By pairing our desalination plant with a natural gas power plant and utilizing its cooling water we forgo initial heating of our inlet stream. Normally, water pumped from the ocean would be approximately 25<sup>o</sup>C and by capturing waste heat from the power plant we can reduce utilities with our water inlet of 45<sup>o</sup>C. Through an economic comparison between two plants nominally at 21 flash stages, the plant with an inlet temperature at 25<sup>o</sup>C has a capital cost of $245MM and a utility cost of $77MM/yr and the same facility with an inlet water temperature at 45<sup>o</sup>C has a capital cost of only $226MM and a utility cost of $56MM/yr. As shown in Table 4 below, this $19MM savings in capital costs and $21MM/yr saving in utilities is largely due to reducing the size of the heat exchangers and lowering the steam required for heating duty on the inlet seawater respectively. Therefore our process is optimized by recovering the waste heat water from the gas fired power plant.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 4: Seawater Inlet Temperature Process Cost Optimization<br />
! Seawater Temperature <br/> (°C)<br />
! Capital Cost <br/> ($MM)<br />
! Utility Cost <br/> ($MM/yr)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 25 || 245 || 77<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 45 || 226 || 56<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Savings || 56 || 19<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
==Overall Process Economics==<br />
After optimization at fixed flow rates, the process was scaled to meet the the 67% operating percentage and final product definitions as shown in Table 1, which resulted in finalized economics shown in Table 5 below. For a table of the installed costs of each process vessel, see Appendix I. For the finalized NPV calculations, see Appendix J.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 5: Summarized Economics for 21-stage MSFD Process<br />
! Economic Parameter<br />
! Cost <br/> (USD)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Capital Cost || 345 MM<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Total Operating Cost per Year || 103 MM<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Utility Cost per Year || 59 MM<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 30-Year NPV (6% Discount) || -1035 MM<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
=Conclusions and Recommendations=<br />
==Project Viability==<br />
Table 5 above demonstrates that the process has reasonable operating and capital costs, but the 30-year NPV is negative by -1035 $MM due to the extremely low sell price capability of desalinated water as a product. Therefore, this plant would have to heavily be supported by the City of Corpus Christi to run as the product revenue will not make it self-sufficient. The acquisition of government subsidies are key operating requirements for all desalination facilities in the United States. <br />
<br />
==Additional Concerns==<br />
Large volumes of water, steam, and energy are needed to ensure the project runs as specified. While most of the water can easily be extracted from the ocean with little to consequence, the fuel used to generate the steam and electricity can have a significant environmental impact. As the plant is located next to a natural gas power plant, this fuel is better than coal with respect to environmental concerns, and utilizing energy from the power plant to preheat the feed stream for the desalination plant helps lower environmental impacts.<br />
<br />
The large amounts of high pressure steam being used represents one of the the largest safety concern in the process, because a high pressure steam release could easily cause severe burns or even death. Proper precautions and control measures must be in place to prevent accidental release. Otherwise, the process does not utilize any known toxic chemicals and is relatively safe from a chemical standpoint. The flash vessels mostly operate below atmospheric pressure, so they must be constructed as vessels that can withstand vacuum without failing.<br />
<br />
<br />
=Appendix A: Proposed Location of Desalination Plant=<br />
Pictured below is the proposed location for the desalination plant, located on Nueces Bay in Corpus Christi, adjacent to the Nueces Bay Energy Center. The plant’s proposed location is shown in the area outlined by the small circle in the upper right of the figure.<br />
<br />
[[File:NuecesBayLocation.png|center|600px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Desalination Facility Location|Figure A.1: Proposed mapped location of Nueces Bay Desalination Facility.]]<br />
[[File:ClassIWell.png|center|700px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Desalination Facility Distance to Injection Well|Figure A.2: Mapped distance from proposed location to Class I Injection Well]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix B: Feed and Product Definitions - Salinity=<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 6: Average Composition of Total Dissolved Solids in Seawater<ref> Physical and Thermodynamic Data. In: Dickson AG, Goyet C. Handbook of Methods for the Analysis of the Various Parameters of the Carbon Dioxide System in Sea Water.</ref><ref> Composition of Seawater. Water Treatment of Solutions. Available at http://www.lenntech.com/composition-seawater.htm. Accessed January 12, 2016.</ref><br />
! Compound <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! Mass Composition <br/> (kPa)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Chlorine || 55.03%<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Sodium || 30.64%<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Sulfate || 7.70%<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Magnesium || 3.66%<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Calcium || 1.17%<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Potassium || 1.12%<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Bicarbonate || 0.36%<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Bromine || 0.19%<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Other || 0.15%<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
[[File:Nueces Bay Salinity.JPG|center|700px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Salinity Tracking|Figure C.1: Salinity in Nueces Bay over the past 10 years<ref name = "SALT" />.]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix C: Process Flow Diagram=<br />
[[File:TeamF_FinalPFD.JPG|center|1200px|thumb|alt=Process Flow Diagram|Figure C.1: Process Flow Diagram]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix D: HYSYS Simulation Model=<br />
[[File:TeamF_HYSYS_Screenshot.PNG|center|1200px|thumb|alt=HYSYS Simulation Model|Figure D.1: Screenshot of HYSYS Model Simulation.]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix E: Stream Tables=<br />
A summary of some values is shown below:<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 7: Key process material streams<br />
! &nbsp;<br />
! Stream <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! Molar Flow <br/> (10<sup>5</sup> kgmole/h)<br />
! Mass Flow <br/> (10<sup>5</sup> kg/h)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Inlet <br />
| Feed Water || 454 || 83.6<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Outlet<br />
| Brine Reject || 1.90 || 36.0<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Product<br />
| Pure Water || 2.64 || 47.5<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 8: Key process energy streams<br />
! Stream <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! Heat Flow <br/> (kJ/h)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Feed Water || 1.30E+11<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Q-301 || 5.73E+06<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Q-302 || 3.09E+09<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Q-304 || 4.68E+06<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Q-303 || -1.26E+09<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Brine Reject || -5.47E+10<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Pure Water || -7.46E+10<br />
|}<br />
(Negative value denotes energy leaving process)<br />
</center><br />
<br />
=Appendix F: Heat Exchanger Sizing=<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 9: Utility Temperatures and Heat Transfer Coefficient<ref name="Towler">G.P. Towler, R. Sinnott. Chemical Engineering Design: Principles, Practice and Economics of Plant and Process Design. Elsevier, 2012.</ref><br />
! &nbsp;<br />
! HP Steam<br />
! Cooling Water<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! Temperature (°C)<br />
| 250 || 35<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! U (W/m<sup>2</sup>K)<br />
| 4000 || 1500<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 10: Internal Flash Heat Exchanger Sizing, condensing steam.<br />
! Exchanger<br />
! UA <br/> (kJ/°C-h)<br />
! U <br/> (kJ/hr/m<sup>2</sup>°C)<br />
! A <br/> (m<sup>2</sup>)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-101 || 1.47E+07 || 14400 || 1019<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-102 || 1.53E+07 || 14400 || 1059<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-103 || 1.59E+07 || 14400 || 1103<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-104 || 1.66E+07 || 14400 || 1153<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-105 || 1.74E+07 || 14400 || 1209<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-106 || 1.83E+07 || 14400 || 1272<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-107 || 1.93E+07 || 14400 || 1342<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-108 || 2.05E+07 || 14400 || 1424<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-109 || 2.19E+07 || 14400 || 1518<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-110 || 2.35E+07 || 14400 || 1629<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-111 || 2.54E+07 || 14400 || 1761<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-112 || 2.77E+07 || 14400 || 1921<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-113 || 3.05E+07 || 14400 || 2119<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-114 || 3.42E+07 || 14400 || 2372<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-115 || 3.90E+07 || 14400 || 2706<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-116 || 4.56E+07 || 14400 || 3167<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-117 || 5.55E+07 || 14400 || 3856<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-118 || 7.20E+07 || 14400 || 5000<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 11: Heat Exchanger Sizing for Process Heaters and Coolers<br />
! Exchanger<br />
! Q <br/> (kJ/h)<br />
! U <br/> (J/s/m<sup>2</sup>K)<br />
! U <br/> (kJ/hr/m<sup>2</sup>K)<br />
! LMTD <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! A <br/> (m<sup>2</sup>)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-201 || 9.67E+08 || 1500 || 5400 || 16.03 || 11165<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-202 || 1.26E+09 || 1500 || 5400 || 7.57 || 30921<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-203 || 1.88E+09 || 1500 || 5400 || 0.45 || 77366<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-302 || 3.09E+09 || 4000 || 14400 || 155 || 1385<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-303 || 1.26E+09 || 4000 || 14400 || 209.5 || 418<br />
|}<br />
The high heat transfer area in the final cooler of the heat rejection stage is due to the close approach temperature. <br />
<br/>Other cooling / pressurization techniques will be used to reduce the area.<br />
</center><br />
<br />
=Appendix G: Pressure Vessel Sizing=<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 12: Operating temperature and pressure and corresponding thickness for flash vessels<br />
! Unit<br />
! Temperature <br/> (°C)<br />
! Pressure <br/> (kPa)<br />
! Thickness <br/> (mm)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-101 || 103.6 || 110.7 || 17.14<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-102 || 102.3 || 105.7 || 16.62<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-103 || 100.9 || 100.7 || 16.10<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-104 || 99.5 || 95.7 || 15.58<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-105 || 98.0 || 90.7 || 15.06<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-106 || 96.4 || 85.7 || 14.53<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-107 || 94.8 || 80.7 || 14.01<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-108 || 93.1 || 75.7 || 13.49<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-109 || 91.3 || 70.7 || 12.97<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-110 || 89.3 || 65.7 || 12.45<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-111 || 87.3 || 60.7 || 11.93<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-112 || 85.1 || 55.7 || 11.41<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-113 || 82.7 || 50.7 || 10.89<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-114 || 80.1 || 45.7 || 10.36<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-115 || 77.3 || 40.7 || 9.84<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-116 || 74.1 || 35.7 || 9.32<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-117 || 70.6 || 30.7 || 8.80<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-118 || 66.5 || 25.7 || 8.28<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-201 || 61.7 || 20.7 || 7.76<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-202 || 55.8 || 15.7 || 7.24<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-203 || 47.9 || 10.7 || 6.72<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
=Appendix H: Expanded Economic Assumptions=<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 13: Product and raw material market prices<br />
! Parameter<br />
! Value/Unit<br />
! Unit<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Sale price of water<ref name = "Corpus Christi Water Schedule" /> || $0.0021 || liter<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Brine disposal<ref name="McCurdy" /> || $0.0016 || barrel<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Belgard EV 2030<ref>Detailed import data of Belgard. Zauba. https://www.zauba.com/import-belgard-hs-code.html Accessed February 24, 2016.</ref> || $1.99 || kilogram<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Sodium Hypochlorite 12%<ref>High Quality Sodium Hypochlorite 12% solution Best Price. Alibaba Group. http://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/High-Quality-Sodium-Hypochlorite-12-solution_60355867621.html?spm=a2700.7724838.0.0.YHuHt3. Accessed March 7, 2016.</ref> || $4.54 || kilogram<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Lime<ref>Alibaba. Hydrated Lime 93%. Alibaba Group. http://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/high-quality-hydrated-lime-for-water_60423352849.html?spm=a2700.7724838.30.31.BVcfrP. Accessed February 24, 2016.</ref> || $0.09 || kilogram<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| CO<sub>2</sub><ref>Carbon Dioxide Advanced Oil Recovery. The American Oil & Gas Reporter. http://www.aogr.com/magazine/editors-choice/industrial-co2-supply-crucial-for-eor. Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref> || $0.04 || kilogram<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
<br/><br />
Additional Economic Assumptions<br />
*6% cost of capital<br />
*Construction of plant in 2 years, 50% of full-scale production in 3rd year<br />
*35% tax rate with 5 year MACRS depreciation<br />
*5 operators per shift with 3 shifts<br />
*$50,000 salary per operator<br />
*Supervision is 25% operating labor<br />
*Direct overhead is 45% of labor & supervision<br />
*Maintenance is 3% of ISBL investment per year<br />
*Plant overhead is 65% of labor and maintenance<br />
*Screen price negligible (~$2,000)<br />
<br />
=Appendix I: Equipment Cost Summary=<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 14: Installed costs of all major process equipment, in USD.<br />
! Unit<br />
! Equipment Cost <br/> (USD)<br />
! Installed Cost <br/> (USD)<br />
! Equipment Weight <br/> (LBS)<br />
! Total Installed Weight <br/> (LBS)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-101 ||1033900 || 1716400 || 403500 || 568790<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-102 ||1065700 || 1748700 || 416500 || 581960<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-103 ||1131500 || 1835900 || 439800 || 609338<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-104 ||1206900 || 1913200 || 469800 || 639902<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-105 ||1238900 || 1945800 || 483000 || 653292<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-106 ||1315000 || 2023500 || 515400 || 686222<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-107 ||1058900 || 1741900 || 413000 || 578460<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-108 ||1447500 || 2458400 || 564900 || 796324<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-109 ||1526200 || 2540200 || 598500 || 830924<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-110 ||1656600 || 2698900 || 646400 || 883959<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-111 ||1833500 || 2900600 || 714600 || 953808<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-112 ||1974700 || 3046000 || 774000 || 1014446<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-113 ||2186200 || 3647000 || 856000 || 1154275<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-114 ||2483100 || 4018400 || 968400 || 1278580<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-115 ||2817800 || 4433900 || 1103700 || 1431085<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-116 ||3291100 || 5778100 || 1290000 || 1731000<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-117 ||4062000 || 6880400 || 1588400 || 2081273<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-118 ||5361900 || 10603700 || 2097500 || 3054252<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-201 ||1682100 || 2649700 || 633600 || 835319<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-202 ||3265400 || 5677900 || 1233000 || 1643496<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| P-301 ||8263300 || 10579300 || 593100 || 1016878<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| P-302 ||5435000 || 7740400 || 389400 || 811881<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-101 ||43800 || 221900 || 11900 || 40680<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-102 ||2070900 || 5175400 || 1051900 || 1717877<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-103 ||1759900 || 4866600 || 804500 || 1476730<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-104 ||2976300 || 6117800 || 1625400 || 2292006<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-105 ||32200 || 201500 || 8300 || 35146<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-106 ||3480300 || 6698800 || 1863900 || 2546114<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-107 ||3538500 || 6800500 || 1918700 || 2612432<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-108 ||3673200 || 6973400 || 1985400 || 2687585<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-109 ||4178000 || 7524400 || 2228400 || 2938816<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-110 ||3690700 || 6978300 || 1994800 || 2693811<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-111 ||3711900 || 6991200 || 1986700 || 2683352<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-112 ||3541500 || 6754700 || 1891600 || 2562046<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-113 ||3288600 || 6463300 || 1782100 || 2444134<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-114 ||3039500 || 6176100 || 1651800 || 2306017<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-115 ||2961900 || 5572100 || 1614900 || 2161959<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-117 ||2831600 || 5403700 || 1549900 || 2087670<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-118 ||2800000 || 5359400 || 1531200 || 2065331<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-201 ||2807200 || 5147700 || 1535700 || 2002614<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-202 ||2921700 || 5295200 || 1587700 || 2063167<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-203 ||6322000 || 9725700 || 3364500 || 4063966<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
=Appendix J: Economic NPV Analysis=<br />
[[File:Team F Economics.JPG|center|1200px|thumb|alt=Economic Analysis|Figure J.1: Screenshot of process economic analysis.]]<br />
<br />
=References=<br />
<references/></div>Kedricdaly2https://processdesign.mccormick.northwestern.edu/index.php?title=Nueces_Desalination_Center:_Production_of_Drinking_Water_by_Multi-Stage_Flash_Distillation&diff=4973Nueces Desalination Center: Production of Drinking Water by Multi-Stage Flash Distillation2016-03-07T21:53:20Z<p>Kedricdaly2: Updated sources for Table 13</p>
<hr />
<div>Team F: Rankine 672 Final Report<br />
<br />
Authors: Kedric Daly, Ben Granger, Evan Rosati, Kathleen Zhou<br />
<br />
Instructors: Fengqi You, David Wegerer<br />
<br />
March 11, 2016<br />
<br />
=Executive Summary=<br />
Desalination of seawater to drinking water is a technology of ever-increasing importance given trends of increasingly widespread water shortages around the world. Even in the United States, water shortages are becoming increasingly common in dry, highly-populated such as California and certain areas of the Gulf Coast. Our design team, Rankine 672, was tasked with evaluating the need for and designing a desalination plant to provide purified water in a place of need. Investigation revealed that the city of Corpus Christi, Texas, is a strategic location for development of a desalination facility, as surrounding region is in need of new drinking water sources and the city has expressed serious interest in contracting the development of a large-scale desalination plant. Our proposed solution is a multi-stage flash distillation desalination facility capable of producing 20,000,000 gallons (75,708 m<sup>3</sup>) of purified drinking water for the city and surrounding region per operating day.<br />
<br />
In this design, drinking water is produced from seawater feedstock through a 21-stage flash distillation process. By strategically locating the facility next to an existing natural gas power plant, the Nueces Bay Energy Center, pre-heated feed water can be taken directly from the outbound cooling systems of the power plant, allowing energy savings for our desalination plant. The process is designed for 16 hour-per-day operation, requires a seawater feed of 8250 m<sup>3</sup>/hr, and produces 4758 m<sup>3</sup>/hr of purified drinking water alongside a waste stream of 3485 m<sup>3</sup>/hr of concentrated brine. The waste stream is isolated from a recycle stream through a 9.0% purge; this results in an overall product yield of 57.7% on a volume basis. The process requires an additional pretreatment stream of 16.5 kg/hr Belgard EV 2030, which serves as an antiscalant, as well as 9.5 kg/hr chlorine, 352.1 kg/hr lime, and 418.7 kg/hr CO2 for post-treatment purposes.<br />
<br />
The overall capital cost of the plant is expected to be $345MM, with a total operating cost of $103MM/yr, $59MM/yr of which comes from utilities. Due to the low price at which the product water can be sold, the 30-year net present value of the plant, assuming a 6% discount rate, is $-1,035MM. It is thus imperative this plant be constructed with public funds because it cannot return a profit to any private investor. The growing need for water however could justify the cost, because it is important that the residents of the greater Corpus Christi area have access to drinkable water.<br />
<br />
__TOC__<br />
<br />
=Introduction=<br />
==Background==<br />
Clean drinking water is a basic human need that is becoming increasingly difficult to meet. Currently, over 1 billion people live in places where water is considered scarce<ref> Tapping the oceans. The Economist USA. http://www.economist.com/node/11484059. Accessed March 2, 2016. </ref>. Though often thought of as a problem exclusive to third-world countries, the issue is becoming more prevalent in the US as well, with water managers in 40 of 50 states anticipating water shortage conditions in some portion of their state in the next 10 years. These shortages are due to increasing demands on constant or diminishing freshwater resources, therefore, to correct the issue, a new supply must be found<ref> Water Supply in the US. EPA. http://www3.epa.gov/watersense/pubs/supply.html. Accessed March 2, 2016.</ref>. Desalination of seawater is therefore important as a new source for clean drinking water and prevent water shortages. <br />
<br />
==Project Definition==<br />
The overall goal of the project is to investigate the feasibility of a desalination plant in order to meet the needs of growing water demand. The design needs to take health, safety, and environmental concerns into account, while optimizing costs.<br />
<br />
=Design Basis=<br />
Site Location and Conditions<br />
Corpus Christi, TX was chosen as the location for the proposed desalination plant. The city is currently experiencing “Moderate Shortage Conditions”. This issue additionally comes at a time of growing demand with population growth anticipated due to new industry and Eagle Ford Group crude oil production<ref>Stage 2 Measures in the Drought Contingency Plan. Available at http://www.cctexas.com/government/water/conservation/conservation-drought-plans/stage-2-measures. Accessed January 12, 2016. </ref>.<br />
<br />
In June 2014, the city announced the Corpus Christi Desalination Demonstration Project<ref>Corpus Christi Desalination Demonstration Project. Available at http://www.cctexas.com/Assets/Departments/Water/Files/DesalFactSheet.pdf. Published June 2014. Accessed January 12, 2016. <br />
</ref> which seeks to create a demonstration desalination plant capable of producing 20,000 gallons of water per day, with plans to later build a full scale facility generating 20,000,000 gallons of water per day. The desalination demonstration project indicates a clear need for implementation of a desalination plant of this size to accommodate growth in the Corpus Christi area. <br />
<br />
Locating our plant in Corpus Christi will allow us to take advantage of the benefits of cogeneration through a partnership with the Nueces Bay Energy Center. By utilizing their outlet cooling water as a large portion of our feed for the desalination process, we can raise the temperature of our seawater feed, saving on energy costs in the multi stage flash distillation. The proposed location for the desalination plant is immediately west of the Nueces Bay Energy Center. See Appendix A for a map depicting the proposed location for the desalination plant along the coast of Nueces Bay.<br />
<br />
==Feed and Product Definitions==<br />
The proposed desalination facility’s feed and product streams are defined as shown in Table 1. Rationale for these definitions is also described below. The values reported in Table 1 are final derived numbers from HYSYS simulation modeling. <br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 1: Feed and product stream definitions<br />
! &nbsp;<br />
! Salt Concentration<br />
! Temperature <br />
! Amount<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Feed Stream <br />
| 30,500 ppm || 45°C || 8250 m<sup>3</sup>/hr<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Product Stream<br />
| ~ 0 ppm || 35°C || 4758 m<sup>3</sup>/hr<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Byproduct Stream<br />
| 69,500 ppm || 35°C || 3485 m<sup>3</sup>/hr<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
The process feed will be seawater from Nueces Bay, preheated through the cooling water system of the nearby Nueces Bay Energy Center. Based on calculations developed from NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory) data, it was estimated that the Nueces Bay Energy Center uses approximately 250 million gallons of seawater per day for process and cooling needs. Therefore, the 20 million gallon per day requirement for the desalination facility can easily be met through the power plant’s cooling water<ref>Torcellini P, Long N, Judkoff R. Consumptive Water Use for U.S. Power Consumption. NREL. 2003; TP-550-33905. <br />
</ref>. Note that we are assuming the process will operate 67% of the time (16 hours per day).<br />
<br />
Based on data acquired from two salinity-measuring stations in Nueces Bay, the average salinity of local seawater is 30.5 practical salinity units (psu)<ref>Stations Map & Real - Time Data. The Conrad Blucher Institute for Surveying and Science website. Available at http://www.cbi.tamucc.edu/cbi/data/. Updated January 2016. Accessed January 9, 2016. </ref>, thus setting the concentration of the process feed stream. This translates to a feed stream concentration of 30,500 ppm (parts per million)<ref name = "SALT">Definition and Units. CATD Salinity Expertise Center. Available at http://www.salinityremotesensing.ifremer.fr/home. Accessed January 12, 2016.</ref>. The composition of the salt attributed to this seawater salinity is shown in Table 6 in Appendix B. <br />
<br />
No data on the composition of seawater around the Corpus Christi area was available, but the composition of seawater does not change significantly in different locations. The given composition is considered accurate for our feed stream<ref>Brown E, Colling A, Park D, Phillips J, Rothery D, Wright J. Seawater : Its Composition, Properties and Behaviour. Boston: Butterworth-Heinemann, 1995.<br />
</ref>. Note that seawater salt is primarily sodium chloride - total dissolved solids are 85.7% sodium chloride by mass. As such, the dissolved solids in the feed stream is assumed in this project to be pure NaCl, making the feed composition 96.95% water and 3.05% NaCl by mass. A control system will likely be put in place to ensure feed concentration remains at this level, accounting for natural fluctuations in local seawater salinity.<br />
<br />
The largest byproduct from the process will be a brine slurry with high salt concentrations. An upper corrosion limit of 700 ppm was set for recirculated and purged brine. This undesired byproduct will be sent to a nearby Class I non-hazardous injection well facility operated by GNI Group, which is approximately 12 miles away from the proposed desalination plant location as shown in the figure in Appendix A<ref>Texas Water Code. Availabe at http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/WA/htm/WA.27.htm. Accessed January 14, 2016.<br />
</ref><ref>Google Maps. Available at https://goo.gl/maps/3xcvLZwUCe42 Accessed January 15, 2016.</ref>. Through the incorporation of a Class I injection well, the brine will not have to be treated or diluted before injection. <ref>EPA Regulations on Class I Wells. Available at http://www.epa.gov/uic/class-i-industrial-and-municipal-waste-disposal-wells. Accessed January 14, 2016.<br />
</ref><ref>List of Injection Well Facilities by Location. Available at http://www.ehso.com/cssepa/tsdfdeepwells.php. Accessed January 14, 2016.</ref><br />
<br />
There are no regulations regarding the temperature of city drinking water, so the product stream temperature has no requirements based on regulations. Outlet temperatures of 35<sup>o</sup>C are acceptable for input to the municipal water supply system. Since city water tends to be stored in non-temperature controlled tanks, the temperature will naturally cool to ambient temperature.<ref>Climate Corpus Christi- Texas. US Climate Data. Available at http://www.usclimatedata.com/climate/corpus-christi/texas/united-states/ustx0294. Accessed January 12, 2016. </ref><br />
<br />
==Pre-Treatment and Post-Treatment==<br />
For pretreatment, Belgard EV 2030 is recommended to be added at a concentration of 1.8-2.0 mg/L for a system with top brine temperature approximately 110 °C<ref name="BWA 2030">BWA Water Additives. Belgard EV2030 Technical Data Sheet. BWA Water Additives. http://www.wateradditives.com/files/products/tech_data_sheets/Belgard%20EV%202030_Technical%20Data%20Sheet_Thermal_8.5x11.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016.<br />
</ref>. Since our process is designed to operate at a slightly higher top brine temperature, 120 °C, we will design for the upper bound concentration: 2.0 mg/L of antiscalant. With a feed flow rate of 8250 m<sup>3</sup>/hr, the process therefore requires 16.5 kg/hr of Belgard EV 2030.<br />
<br />
For disinfection during post-treatment, chlorine addition typically requires a dose of roughly 2.0 mg/L as well<ref name="World Health Organization">World Health Organization. Desalination for safe water supply. http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/gdwqrevision/desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. With a pure water distillate flow rate of 4758 m<sup>3</sup>/hr, the process requires 9.5 kg/hr of chlorine as a 5%-15% sodium hypochlorite solution. Approximately 74 mg/L of lime (calcium hydroxide) and 88mg/L of CO2 should be added to the desalinated water to help prevent corrosion and increase alkalinity within acceptable ranges<ref name="Vouchkov">Vouchkov, N. Re-Mineralization of Desalinated Water. SunCam. https://s3.amazonaws.com/suncam/npdocs/118.pdf. Accessed February 18, 2016.</ref>. With a product stream flow rate of 4758 m3/hr, these concentrations correspond to 352.1 kg/hr of lime and 418.7 kg/hr of CO2. Both of these can be purchased, and it is likely that the CO2 can be procured from the neighboring natural gas power plant.<br />
<br />
==Choice of Desalination Technology==<br />
The two major technologies commonly implemented for desalination include reverse osmosis (RO), and multi-stage flash distillation (MSFD). RO utilizes high pressures to force water through a semipermeable membrane that allows for purified water to pass through, but stops organic and other wastes. Often, the pressures can reach 55 - 68 bar, which requires large pumps to maintain pressure, and introduces safety concerns to the process<ref>Stage 2 Measures in the Drought Contingency Plan. Available at http://www.cctexas.com/government/water/conservation/conservation-drought-plans/stage-2-measures. Accessed January 12, 2016. <br />
</ref>. While RO can be less energy intensive than MSFD, and the membrane can also remove contaminants, it is susceptible to feedwater quality, membrane fouling, and requires more extensive pretreatment and posttreatment than MSFD. The cost of RO is directly proportional to the feed salinity, and so it is less expensive when desalinating low salinity water.<br />
<br />
Multi-stage flash distillation is best selected for areas that have high salinity or low energy costs. The pretreatment process for MSFD is much easier when compared to RO because pretreatment often consists of simply adding anti-corrosives and antiscalants to the feed stream. The process works by heating water in vessels at different pressures to change the boiling point of the water and evaporate it as it passes through the system. After evaporation, the water condenses, leaving pure water as the effluent. MSFD costs are now roughly $1.00/m3, where this cost is mostly independent of salinity, but dependent on energy costs.<ref>Fritzman C, Lowenberg J, Wintgens T, Melin T. State-of-the-art Reverse Osmosis Desalination. Desalination. 2007; 216:1-76. <br />
</ref> In both RO and MSFD a brine is produced which then must be appropriately treated and/or disposed of.<br />
<br />
Multi-stage flash distillation was selected for this process, mainly due to the economic advantages offered by the selected location of Corpus Christi, TX. MSFD is also a well understood process that can be more easily modeled by chemical engineering software.<br />
<br />
=Technical Approach=<br />
Quantitative modeling of the process and all included optimization was conducted using the simulation software Aspen HYSYS. A variety of assumptions were developed to set up and define specific components of the process simulation itself. Within Aspen HYSYS, the NRTL Electrolyte property package was selected to model the behavior of salt water. Each stage of the MSF process is modeled as an individual flash vessel, with individual shell & tube heat exchangers used to model the distillate condensers present in each flash stage in the MSF system.<br />
<br />
The HYSYS simulation model only considers the flash portion of the overall process, allowing establishment of mass and energy balances for the system. Pretreatment and post-treatment were excluded for the HYSYS model, as these steps are simple additions or removals of small concentrations of chemical components. Although the simulation models heat exchangers outside of each flash stage, in the physical design of the plant these heat exchangers will be contained within each flash stage.<br />
<br />
One portion of the process is not modeled, which is the inlet seawater entering the heat rejection stages. As can be seen from the full process flow diagram (Appendix C), the inlet seawater in the heat rejection stage is in high excess to provide maximum cooling capacity; then a significant portion is purged to bring the stream flow rate down to what is needed for the feed stream. It is assumed that the flow rate of cooling water for those three stages is in such high excess that the cooling water does not heat up. Therefore, in the process simulation models, the inlet stream is the feed stream, which enters directly into the heat recovery portion of the process.<br />
<br />
See Appendix D for a screenshot overview of the simulation environment model.<br />
<br />
=Process Overview=<br />
==Process Flowsheet==<br />
The following diagram, Figure 1, shows a basic flowsheet for the process. Process alternatives considered for each stage are discussed below. Please see Appendix C for the full process flowsheet with finalized design decisions.<br />
<br />
[[File:BlockFlowDiagram.png|center|700px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Desalination Facility Block Flow Diagram|Figure 1: Basic block flowsheet of the multi-stage flash desalination process.]]<br />
<br />
==Major Features==<br />
As seen above, there are three primary stages of the desalination process: Pre-treatment, the multi-stage flash distillation, and post-treatment. Seawater enters the pre-treatment phase first to make the feed suitable for the rest of the process by filtering out large particles that could accumulate on pipes, deaerating the water to limit corrosion, and adding an agent to combat fouling. The water then enters the distillation process, which is broken up into two sections: heat recovery and heat rejection. <br />
<br />
In the heat recovery stage, there are 18 flash vessels, each of which separates steam from the salinated liquid water. Each flash vessel has saltwater as its inlet and two outlets: a vapor outlet (steam) that condenses into the final product of purified water and a liquid outlet composed of water with more dissolved solids than the inlet, which is the inlet stream for the next flash vessel. The pipe containing the feed is first mixed with recycled brine, then goes through the top sections of each of the flash vessels, starting with V-118 and ending up at V-101. In this way, the feed stream pipe first serves as a heat exchanger, heating the pre-treated seawater while simultaneously condensing the steam into the final product. The feed then enters a final heat exchanger where it is brought up to 103.6 °C before entering V-101 to be flashed.<br />
<br />
After exiting V-118, the final flash vessel in the heat recovery portion, the water enters the heat rejection portion, which consists of three flash vessels (V-201, V-202, V-203). The flash vessels of this section operate in the same manner as in the heat recovery section, with the exception that condensation occurs using excess cooling water instead of pre-treated seawater. This technique allows excess heat to be rejected into an excess water stream rather than the feed.<br />
<br />
The purified product stream finally enters post-treatment processing in which water is re-aerated and remineralized, disinfected, and pH is adjusted before being delivered to the city. The concentrated brine leftover at the end of the flash cycle is recycled into the feed, although a purge is required to continuously remove some salt from the system. This purged brine is disposed of by use of a Class I injection well, per regional regulations.<br />
<br />
See Appendix E to find detailed stream tables of stream specifications.<br />
<br />
==Process Alternatives==<br />
===Pretreatment===<br />
Multi-stage flash distillation requires significantly less pretreatment than reverse osmosis desalination, but helpful pretreatment techniques still exist. One very inexpensive method of pretreatment is screening/filtration, which is used to filter out large contaminants from intake seawater. Using more complicated membrane technology to accomplish large particle filtration is a possible alternative, but doing so would be much more expensive than using a standard screen or filter, so the latter choice has been selected for this process.<ref>El-Dessouky H., Alatiqi I, Ettouney H. Process synthesis: The multi-stage flash desalination system. Desalination. 1998;115(2):115-179. doi: 10.1016/S0011-9164(98)00035-6.</ref><br />
<br />
The most critical type of fouling in multi-stage flash distillation is scaling - therefore, the most critical step in the pretreatment process will be the inclusion of an anti-scalant. Alkaline scaling can be prevented by acid dosing or polyphosphate addition; however, acid dosing can result in increased corrosion and polyphosphates can lead to non-alkaline calcium phosphate fouling, so these additives will not be considered<ref name="Morris">Morris, R. The development of the multi-stage flash distillation process: A designer's viewpoint. Desalination. 1993;93(1-3):57-68. doi:10.1016/S0011-9164(93)80096-6. Availble at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0011916493800966</ref><ref>Al-Gobaisi, D. A quarter-century of seawater desalination by large multistage flash plants in Abu Dhabi (Plant performance analysis, assessment, present efforts toward enhancement and future hopes). Desalination. 1994;99(2-3):509-512. doi: 10.1016/S0011-9164(94)00196-0.</ref>. As such, a polymer-based additive is recommended for the anti-scalant for this process. The Belgard EV series is designed for use in high-temperature seawater MSF; of these, Belgard EV 2030 is the most neutral in pH<ref>NSF International. NSF Product and Service Listings: Drinking Water Treatment Chemicals - Health Effects. NSF International. http://info.nsf.org/Certified/PwsChemicals/Listings.asp?Company=00300&. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref><ref name="BWA 2030" /><ref>BWA Water Additives. Belgard EV2035 Technical Data Sheet. BWA Water Additives. http://www.wateradditives.com/files/products/tech_data_sheets/Belgard%20EV2035_Technical%20Data%20Sheet_Thermal_8.5x11.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref><ref>BioLab Water Additives. Belgard EV Antiscalant for seawater distillation plants. BioLab Water Additives. http://www.lpq.com.mx/pdf/BELGARD%20EV.PDF. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref>. As such, we have selected Belgard EV 2030 for use as an anti-scalant in our process.<br />
<br />
Corrosion control is another significant method of pretreatment in multi-stage flash distillation plants. Using a piping material that has limited susceptibility to corrosion is typically not economically viable for MSF desalination plants due their large size, so using carbon steel for most of the piping is generally used for its economic benefits despite its susceptibility to corrosion<ref name = "Morris" />. Limiting oxygen concentration is very feasible through the use of deaerators, which can remove oxygen as well as other dissolved gases from the seawater stream. Often, an external deaeration system is used<ref name = "Morris" /><ref>Edwards - Hick Hargreaves. Seawater Deaerators. Edwards - Hick Hargreaves. http://psscorp.co.th/upload/news/20110830105340.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. Given these considerations, using an external deaerator combined with a less-corrosive antiscalant like Belgard EV 2030 is much more practical for the process than using anti-corrosive piping.<br />
<br />
Excessive foam can also be an issue in some MSF distillation facilities, so antifoaming agents are sometimes employed in the pretreatment process as well. However, many plants are operated without foaming issues, and therefore do not need anti-foaming pretreatment at all. Selection of an anti-foaming agent must be carefully weighed with selected of anti-scalant to avoid issues with additive interactions [26]. At this stage in the design process, an anti-foamer will not be included due to the risk of decreasing scalant efficacy, and the likelihood that foam will not be an issue in the desalination plant.<br />
<br />
===Multistage Flash Distillation===<br />
The main objective of the design project is desalinate water. This is done with the main process of multi stage flash distillation (MSF). MSF can be developed using a numerous number of different process configurations, such as Once-Through, Simple Mixer Brine Circulation, and Multi-Stage Heat Rejection Brine Circulation processes. <br />
<br />
The most desired process for the project is the Three Stage Heat Rejection Brine Circulation as it builds on benefits of the other simpler technologies. By combining principles of heat rejection and heat recovery, the required heat transfer area of the process is greatly reduced as compared to once through processes or simple brine recycle processes. It has the highest performance ratio with the lowest specific feed flow rates, therefore greatly lowering the operating costs of the process. It is also known as the industry standard for MSF<ref name = "KSU Chapter 6">Kansas State University ChE 413. Available at: http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/Almutaz/Documents/ChE-413/Multi-stage%20Flash%20Desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. In addition, since our brine disposal technique involves the pumping of the brine into a Class I well, the high brine outlet salinity is not a drawback for our process since post treatment or dilution of the brine is not necessary.<br />
<br />
===Post Treatment===<br />
After processing the water via multi-stage flash, the water needs to be post-treated to make the water taste as consumers would expect, since distilled water is “flat” and unpleasant, as well as to protect the consumers and the piping through which the water will be passing<ref name="Clayton">Clayton R. A review of current knowledge: Desalination for water supply. Foundation for Water Research. http://www.fwr.org/desal.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. There are multiple alternatives to achieve these objectives of remineralization, aeration, corrosion control, and disinfection.<br />
<br />
Aerating and introducing some dissolved solids back into the product water are effective ways to create a quality product that is not flat, and contains flavoring that is expected of the water when delivered to the consumer. Aeration will be accomplished via an inline spray aerator which will take up less space than cascade aeration.<ref>Minnesota Rural Water Association. Aeration. http://www.mrwa.com/WaterWorksMnl/Chapter%2011%20Aeration.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref> Feed blending will be used to remineralize the water as opposed to a remineralization filter because it does not require additional equipment purchases, and can easily handle the large amounts of throughput required for the process.<ref name="Clayton" /><br />
<br />
Corrosion and pH can be controlled by adding lime (calcium hydroxide) and carbon dioxide to the water. To do so, about 74 mg/L of lime and 88mg/L of CO<sub>2</sub> should be added to the desalinated water to help prevent corrosion and increase alkalinity within acceptable ranges. Sodium hydroxide, soda ash, and sodium bicarbonate are alternatives to altering the alkalinity and pH of the product water, but lime and CO<sub>2</sub> is an industry standard <ref name="Vouchkov" />.<br />
<br />
Disinfection needs to be done to prevent microbial growth in the desalinated water and ensure the safety of the general public. Chlorine addition via chlorine gas or sodium hypochlorite is the most common and only requires a dose of 1.5 to 2.5 mg/liter. <ref name="World Health Organization" /> Other alternatives include ozonation, UV light, and chloramination. Chlorine, as a 5% - 15% sodium hypochlorite solution, is sufficient for our process and relatively inexpensive, and as such will be utilized in the process.<br />
<br />
===Transport of Brine to Well===<br />
Three major possibilities exist for transporting the brine from our desalination plant to the injection well for disposal: rail, trucking, and a pipeline. A pipeline was chosen as the most feasible and cost-effective approach. <br />
<br />
A rail line is not available at this time, and with the cost to construct a rail line at approximately $43 million per mile<ref>About Money. How Much Do Rail Transit Projects Cost to Build and Operate? 2014. Available at: http://publictransport.about.com/od/Transit_Projects/a/How-Much-Do-Rail-Transit-Projects-Cost-To-Build-And-Operate.htm. Accessed January 27, 2016. </ref>, the enormous capital cost makes rail transport infeasible for this site. For large volume operations, pipelines are cheaper than trucking. In a study of wastewater sludge produced from wastewater treatment facilities, it was found that it was more economical for facilities producing over 1200 m<sup>3</sup> per day to utilize pipelines rather than trucking.<ref>Marufuzzaman M, Eskioglu S, Hernandez R. Truck versus pipeline transportation cost analysis of wastewater sludge. Transportation Research. 2015; 74(A): 14-30. </ref> Our facility is producing nearly 3 times this volume at 3485 m<sup>3</sup> per day of brine. Furthermore, brine is a less viscous fluid than wastewater sludge, decreasing pumping costs in the pipeline and further amplifying the benefit of choosing a pipeline over an injection well.<br />
<br />
===Brine Storage===<br />
Due to the choice of a pipeline, rather than trucking, as the method of transport of brine to the injection well, brine storage is unnecessary, so storage solutions such as holding tanks were not investigated. One method of storage compatible with a pipeline is to pump the brine through an evaporation pond. This solution is attractive as it would allow the brine to concentrate, saving some costs of pumping, however, the considerable land usage of evaporation ponds leads them to only be effective for smaller plants. The largest municipal plant utilizing this method produces only 5.7 million liters per day<ref>University of Santa Cruz Center for Integrated Water Research. Concentrate Management: Evaporation Ponds. 2010. Available at: https://ciwr.ucsc.edu/sites/default/files/ICM_D5.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016. </ref>, whereas our desalination plant is proposed to produce 75.7 million liters per day. Therefore, evaporation ponds have been eliminated from consideration.<br />
<br />
==Major Specifications==<br />
===Material of Construction Selection===<br />
While saltwater and desalinated water in general can be corrosive, there are best practices within the desalination industry for material selection. With this in mind, best practice shows carbon steel lifetime can be lengthened by monitoring the oxygen concentration in the water, specifying the paint used to coat any metal, and more expensive materials can be used in areas of extremely high corrosion.<ref name = "Morris" />. By following these best practices, it is possible to save significant amounts of money through the use of carbon steel in most areas of the plant, with specific high-corrosion areas being reinforced with, or replaced with, more corrosion resistant materials, such as Cu/Ni 70/30 alloy<ref name = "KSU Chapter 6" />.<br />
<br />
===Heat Exchanger Sizing===<br />
See Appendix F for heat exchanger sizing data. Heat exchanger sizes appear reasonable for placement in the flash vessels.<br />
<br />
===Flash Vessel Sizing===<br />
The dimensions for the flash drums were obtained through literature values. The flash drums were determined to be 18x4x3 m in width, height, and length.<ref name="KSU Chapter 6" /><br />
<br />
Wall thickness was determined using the following conventions: Design pressure is 10% more than the operating pressure, design temperature is 50°F (27.8°C) higher than the operating temperature, a corrosion allowance of 3-mm and an effectiveness of 85% was derived from the assumption of a double-welded butt joint that was spot checked. See Appendix G for wall thicknesses calculated for each pressure vessel. <br />
<br />
The sizing of the vessels to be constructed will be determined after talks with a manufacturer. Due to economies of scale, it may be more cost-effective to buy 21 pressure vessels with the dimensions mentioned above and a wall thickness of 17.1-mm, the highest wall thickness required in the system.<br />
<br />
===Pipe Losses and Pressure Drop===<br />
HYSYS was used to estimate the diameter of a pipe given a specified pressure drop per 100m of pipe. It was determined that for a pressure drop of 0.1 kPa/100m of pipe, a 3.05m diameter pipe is sufficient, which is more than manageable for manufacturers. This pressure drop is mostly insignificant and will be taken care of with the safety factors included in the pumps. The significant pressure drops in our system is accounted for via losses in the flash vessels and heat exchangers, which drive the flash process. Therefore overall pipe losses are insignificant and are built into intentional design losses.<br />
<br />
=Economic Analysis=<br />
==Economic Assumptions==<br />
The sale of purified water yields a revenue stream of $49.5 million per year assuming sale to commercial entities within the city limits of Corpus Christi at $1.7915 per thousand liters.<ref name = "Corpus Christi Water Schedule">Water schedule. City of Corpus Christi Utility Business Office. http://www.cctexas.com/Assets/Departments/Financial-Services/Utilities-Business-Office/files/waterrates.pdf Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref> The primary variable costs are utilities and the brine disposal, with minimal raw materials costs due to the primary feedstock, seawater, being free, and minimal amounts of pre- and post-treatment chemicals being used. The cost of brine disposal used in this analysis was high at $2.097 per thousand liters<ref name="McCurdy">McCurdy, R. Underground injection wells for produced water disposal. Chesapeake Energy Corporation. http://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/documents/21_McCurdy_-_UIC_Disposal_508.pdf Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref>, an estimate for brine disposal utilizing trucking as the mode of transport. As has been shown through previous analyses, a lower cost can be achieved using a direct pipeline, however, no good estimates for this cost could be found.<br />
<br />
The NPV was calculated using a 6% cost of capital, the approximate interest rate for a municipal bond.<ref>Zirbe, R.O. Jr., Han, X., Layton, D., Leshine, T. A history of discount rates and their use by government agencies. (2002). http://faculty.washington.edu/zerbe/docs/DISCOUNT%20RATE%20HISTORY-latesXIt.doc Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref> It was assumed that the plant can be built within two years, with production at half-scale in its first year. Additionally, one month of variable costs, $10.6 million, was set aside for working capital. See Appendix H for a full table of assumptions. A 30 year NPV calculation was chosen as the decision basis since 30 years is a conservative estimate for the lifetime of a desalination plant <ref>Tampa Bay Seawater Desalination Plant. American Water. http://www.amwater.com/files/tampabayseawaterdesalinationplantcasestudy6.16.09.pdf. Accessed February 25, 20216.</ref>. See below for estimates of NPV for the lifetime of the plant under various assumptions and design criteria.<br />
<br />
==Optimization and Sensitivity Analysis==<br />
Looking at the multi-stage flash process, there are a number of opportunities to optimize the process. The major process variables that were investigated were the inlet water temperature, the operating pressure drop per vessel, and the number of stages over which the process takes place. Considering these optimizations, our final process consists of 21 flash vessels (18 heat recovery and 3 heat rejection stages), each with a pressure drop of 5 kPa. See Appendix D for a screenshot of the HYSYS simulation used to model the optimized process.<br />
===Operating Pressure and Pressure Drop===<br />
Initially our process was designed to pump the inlet seawater and brine to a pressure of 2 bar and allow the pressure drop in each flash stage to end our process downstream at 1 bar to prevent complications associated with designing a system under vacuum. While this provided pumping advantages, the energy in the system was significantly higher due to vapor pressure considerations. Due to this fact, the required heat exchange area for certain exchangers proved to be infeasible (on the order of 80,000m<sup>2</sup>) due to the enormous capital and operating costs that would be associated with such a large heat exchanger.<br />
<br />
The process was optimized to operate under vacuum, requiring additional pumping requirements but much lower required heat exchange area, and therefore lower utility costs. This optimization was done by specifying the pressure of the final flash vessel to 5.7kPa, so that the temperature of the water vapor (~30<sup>o</sup>C) is within approximately 5<sup>o</sup>C of the cooling water (35<sup>o</sup>C) so that condensation can occur within a reasonable approach. This also allows our system to optimally extract pure water from the brine running through the system and reduce energy requirements for cooling the product or the recycle. Our system redesign and optimization reduced the energy in the system and reduce the same heat exchanger area requirements by more than 3 orders of magnitude to approximately 800m<sup>2</sup>. <br />
<br />
Once the process was optimized to operate in a vacuum, the pressure drop per flash stage regulated through values was then optimized. Three pressure drops per stages, 3kPa, 5kPa, and 7kPa, were tested and then an economic analysis was conducted to find the optimal value for the pressure drop. These changes had impacts on both operating and capital costs as they would change initial pumping requirements, the amount of water flowing through the process and recycle (and therefore the flash vessel sizes, heat exchanger sizing), and the efficiency of each stage.<br />
<br />
The various pressure drops (3 kPa, 5 kPa, and 7 kPa) were tested on a system nominally at 24 stages under the assumption that the results would be generalizable to systems with a different number of stages. With increasing pressure drop, we found decreased capital cost but increased utility cost. As can be seen from Table 2 below, a pressure drop of 5 kPa proved to be the best option based on 30 year NPV, with a loss of $838.8 million, a savings of $65.5 million compared to the next-best option with a pressure drop of 7 kPa.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 2: Comparison of profitability for our MSF desalination process with 24 stages with 3 different pressure drops per stage<br />
! Number of Stages <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! Pressure Drop <br/> (kPa)<br />
! Capital Cost <br/> ($MM)<br />
! Utility Cost <br/> ($MM/yr)<br />
! 30-Year NPV <br/> ($MM)<br />
! NPV Ratio <br/> (over 5kPa)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 3 || 362.3 || 39.1 || -905.8 || 1.08<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 5 || 255.1 || 53.6 || -838.8 || 1.00<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 7 || 209.5 || 72.2 || -904.3 || 1.08<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
===Number of Flash Stages===<br />
The number of stages is an important area for optimization. An increased number of stages yields better recovery of purified water, however, requires higher capital cost from the additional pressure vessel. Furthermore, with an increased amount of purified water comes increasingly concentrated brine. This must be taken into account since any brine concentration in excess of about 7% presents a more significant corrosion risk<ref name="KSU Chapter 6" />, so increased maintenance costs for the piping or higher capital costs for more corrosion-resistant materials could be necessary for brine concentrations exceeding 7%. Therefore, to recover the same amount of pure water without exceeding corrosion limitations, increasing the number of stages will reduce the overall size of each stage.<br />
<br />
Optimizing based on NPV, it was found that 21 stages is optimal, balancing the increased profits from the additional purified water additional costs of higher capital cost. See Table 3 below to compare the 30-year NPV of the process across various numbers of flash vessels.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 3: Comparison of profitability for our MSF desalination process with a 5 kPa pressure drop, 5000 m<sup>3</sup>/hr feed flow rate, with varying number of stages.<br />
! Number of Stages <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! Pressure Drop <br/> (kPa)<br />
! Capital Cost <br/> ($MM)<br />
! Utility Cost <br/> ($MM/yr)<br />
! 30-Year NPV <br/> ($MM)<br />
! NPV Ratio <br/> (over 21 Stages)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 17 || 5 || 213.9 || 58.7 || -813.8 || 1.016<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 18 || 5 || 218 || 57.6 || -809.9 || 1.011<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 19 || 5 || 224.3 || 58 || -806.1 || 1.007<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 20 || 5 || 229.8 || 57.9 || -813.6 || 1.016<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 21 || 5 || 226.6 || 55.9 || -800.7 || 1<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 22 || 5 || 254.7 || 54.6 || -849.5 || 1.061<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 23 || 5 || 249.3 || 54.1 || -833.1 || 1.04<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 5 || 255.1 || 53.6 || -838.8 || 1.048<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 25 || 5 || 254.9 || 52.7 || -837.4 || 1.046<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
===Inlet Seawater Temperature===<br />
By pairing our desalination plant with a natural gas power plant and utilizing its cooling water we forgo initial heating of our inlet stream. Normally, water pumped from the ocean would be approximately 25<sup>o</sup>C and by capturing waste heat from the power plant we can reduce utilities with our water inlet of 45<sup>o</sup>C. Through an economic comparison between two plants nominally at 21 flash stages, the plant with an inlet temperature at 25<sup>o</sup>C has a capital cost of $245MM and a utility cost of $77MM/yr and the same facility with an inlet water temperature at 45<sup>o</sup>C has a capital cost of only $226MM and a utility cost of $56MM/yr. As shown in Table 4 below, this $19MM savings in capital costs and $21MM/yr saving in utilities is largely due to reducing the size of the heat exchangers and lowering the steam required for heating duty on the inlet seawater respectively. Therefore our process is optimized by recovering the waste heat water from the gas fired power plant.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 4: Seawater Inlet Temperature Process Cost Optimization<br />
! Seawater Temperature <br/> (°C)<br />
! Capital Cost <br/> ($MM)<br />
! Utility Cost <br/> ($MM/yr)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 25 || 245 || 77<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 45 || 226 || 56<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Savings || 56 || 19<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
==Overall Process Economics==<br />
After optimization at fixed flow rates, the process was scaled to meet the the 67% operating percentage and final product definitions as shown in Table 1, which resulted in finalized economics shown in Table 5 below. For a table of the installed costs of each process vessel, see Appendix I. For the finalized NPV calculations, see Appendix J.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 5: Summarized Economics for 21-stage MSFD Process<br />
! Economic Parameter<br />
! Cost <br/> (USD)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Capital Cost || 345 MM<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Total Operating Cost per Year || 103 MM<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Utility Cost per Year || 59 MM<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 30-Year NPV (6% Discount) || -1035 MM<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
=Conclusions and Recommendations=<br />
==Project Viability==<br />
Table 5 above demonstrates that the process has reasonable operating and capital costs, but the 30-year NPV is negative by -1035 $MM due to the extremely low sell price capability of desalinated water as a product. Therefore, this plant would have to heavily be supported by the City of Corpus Christi to run as the product revenue will not make it self-sufficient. The acquisition of government subsidies are key operating requirements for all desalination facilities in the United States. <br />
<br />
==Additional Concerns==<br />
Large volumes of water, steam, and energy are needed to ensure the project runs as specified. While most of the water can easily be extracted from the ocean with little to consequence, the fuel used to generate the steam and electricity can have a significant environmental impact. As the plant is located next to a natural gas power plant, this fuel is better than coal with respect to environmental concerns, and utilizing energy from the power plant to preheat the feed stream for the desalination plant helps lower environmental impacts.<br />
<br />
The large amounts of high pressure steam being used represents one of the the largest safety concern in the process, because a high pressure steam release could easily cause severe burns or even death. Proper precautions and control measures must be in place to prevent accidental release. Otherwise, the process does not utilize any known toxic chemicals and is relatively safe from a chemical standpoint. The flash vessels mostly operate below atmospheric pressure, so they must be constructed as vessels that can withstand vacuum without failing.<br />
<br />
<br />
=Appendix A: Proposed Location of Desalination Plant=<br />
Pictured below is the proposed location for the desalination plant, located on Nueces Bay in Corpus Christi, adjacent to the Nueces Bay Energy Center. The plant’s proposed location is shown in the area outlined by the small circle in the upper right of the figure.<br />
<br />
[[File:NuecesBayLocation.png|center|600px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Desalination Facility Location|Figure A.1: Proposed mapped location of Nueces Bay Desalination Facility.]]<br />
[[File:ClassIWell.png|center|700px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Desalination Facility Distance to Injection Well|Figure A.2: Mapped distance from proposed location to Class I Injection Well]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix B: Feed and Product Definitions - Salinity=<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 6: Average Composition of Total Dissolved Solids in Seawater<ref> Physical and Thermodynamic Data. In: Dickson AG, Goyet C. Handbook of Methods for the Analysis of the Various Parameters of the Carbon Dioxide System in Sea Water.</ref><ref> Composition of Seawater. Water Treatment of Solutions. Available at http://www.lenntech.com/composition-seawater.htm. Accessed January 12, 2016.</ref><br />
! Compound <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! Mass Composition <br/> (kPa)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Chlorine || 55.03%<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Sodium || 30.64%<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Sulfate || 7.70%<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Magnesium || 3.66%<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Calcium || 1.17%<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Potassium || 1.12%<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Bicarbonate || 0.36%<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Bromine || 0.19%<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Other || 0.15%<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
[[File:Nueces Bay Salinity.JPG|center|700px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Salinity Tracking|Figure C.1: Salinity in Nueces Bay over the past 10 years<ref name = "SALT" />.]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix C: Process Flow Diagram=<br />
[[File:TeamF_FinalPFD.JPG|center|1200px|thumb|alt=Process Flow Diagram|Figure C.1: Process Flow Diagram]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix D: HYSYS Simulation Model=<br />
[[File:TeamF_HYSYS_Screenshot.PNG|center|1200px|thumb|alt=HYSYS Simulation Model|Figure D.1: Screenshot of HYSYS Model Simulation.]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix E: Stream Tables=<br />
A summary of some values is shown below:<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 7: Key process material streams<br />
! &nbsp;<br />
! Stream <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! Molar Flow <br/> (10<sup>5</sup> kgmole/h)<br />
! Mass Flow <br/> (10<sup>5</sup> kg/h)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Inlet <br />
| Feed Water || 454 || 83.6<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Outlet<br />
| Brine Reject || 1.90 || 36.0<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Product<br />
| Pure Water || 2.64 || 47.5<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 8: Key process energy streams<br />
! Stream <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! Heat Flow <br/> (kJ/h)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Feed Water || 1.30E+11<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Q-301 || 5.73E+06<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Q-302 || 3.09E+09<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Q-304 || 4.68E+06<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Q-303 || -1.26E+09<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Brine Reject || -5.47E+10<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Pure Water || -7.46E+10<br />
|}<br />
(Negative value denotes energy leaving process)<br />
</center><br />
<br />
=Appendix F: Heat Exchanger Sizing=<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 9: Utility Temperatures and Heat Transfer Coefficient<ref name="Towler">G.P. Towler, R. Sinnott. Chemical Engineering Design: Principles, Practice and Economics of Plant and Process Design. Elsevier, 2012.</ref><br />
! &nbsp;<br />
! HP Steam<br />
! Cooling Water<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! Temperature (°C)<br />
| 250 || 35<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! U (W/m<sup>2</sup>K)<br />
| 4000 || 1500<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 10: Internal Flash Heat Exchanger Sizing, condensing steam.<br />
! Exchanger<br />
! UA <br/> (kJ/°C-h)<br />
! U <br/> (kJ/hr/m<sup>2</sup>°C)<br />
! A <br/> (m<sup>2</sup>)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-101 || 1.47E+07 || 14400 || 1019<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-102 || 1.53E+07 || 14400 || 1059<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-103 || 1.59E+07 || 14400 || 1103<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-104 || 1.66E+07 || 14400 || 1153<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-105 || 1.74E+07 || 14400 || 1209<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-106 || 1.83E+07 || 14400 || 1272<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-107 || 1.93E+07 || 14400 || 1342<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-108 || 2.05E+07 || 14400 || 1424<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-109 || 2.19E+07 || 14400 || 1518<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-110 || 2.35E+07 || 14400 || 1629<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-111 || 2.54E+07 || 14400 || 1761<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-112 || 2.77E+07 || 14400 || 1921<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-113 || 3.05E+07 || 14400 || 2119<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-114 || 3.42E+07 || 14400 || 2372<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-115 || 3.90E+07 || 14400 || 2706<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-116 || 4.56E+07 || 14400 || 3167<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-117 || 5.55E+07 || 14400 || 3856<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-118 || 7.20E+07 || 14400 || 5000<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 11: Heat Exchanger Sizing for Process Heaters and Coolers<br />
! Exchanger<br />
! Q <br/> (kJ/h)<br />
! U <br/> (J/s/m<sup>2</sup>K)<br />
! U <br/> (kJ/hr/m<sup>2</sup>K)<br />
! LMTD <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! A <br/> (m<sup>2</sup>)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-201 || 9.67E+08 || 1500 || 5400 || 16.03 || 11165<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-202 || 1.26E+09 || 1500 || 5400 || 7.57 || 30921<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-203 || 1.88E+09 || 1500 || 5400 || 0.45 || 77366<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-302 || 3.09E+09 || 4000 || 14400 || 155 || 1385<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-303 || 1.26E+09 || 4000 || 14400 || 209.5 || 418<br />
|}<br />
The high heat transfer area in the final cooler of the heat rejection stage is due to the close approach temperature. <br />
<br/>Other cooling / pressurization techniques will be used to reduce the area.<br />
</center><br />
<br />
=Appendix G: Pressure Vessel Sizing=<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 12: Operating temperature and pressure and corresponding thickness for flash vessels<br />
! Unit<br />
! Temperature <br/> (°C)<br />
! Pressure <br/> (kPa)<br />
! Thickness <br/> (mm)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-101 || 103.6 || 110.7 || 17.14<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-102 || 102.3 || 105.7 || 16.62<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-103 || 100.9 || 100.7 || 16.10<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-104 || 99.5 || 95.7 || 15.58<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-105 || 98.0 || 90.7 || 15.06<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-106 || 96.4 || 85.7 || 14.53<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-107 || 94.8 || 80.7 || 14.01<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-108 || 93.1 || 75.7 || 13.49<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-109 || 91.3 || 70.7 || 12.97<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-110 || 89.3 || 65.7 || 12.45<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-111 || 87.3 || 60.7 || 11.93<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-112 || 85.1 || 55.7 || 11.41<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-113 || 82.7 || 50.7 || 10.89<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-114 || 80.1 || 45.7 || 10.36<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-115 || 77.3 || 40.7 || 9.84<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-116 || 74.1 || 35.7 || 9.32<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-117 || 70.6 || 30.7 || 8.80<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-118 || 66.5 || 25.7 || 8.28<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-201 || 61.7 || 20.7 || 7.76<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-202 || 55.8 || 15.7 || 7.24<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-203 || 47.9 || 10.7 || 6.72<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
=Appendix H: Expanded Economic Assumptions=<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 13: Product and raw material market prices<br />
! Parameter<br />
! Value/Unit<br />
! Unit<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Sale price of water<ref name = "Corpus Christi Water Schedule" /> || $0.0021 || liter<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Brine disposal<ref name="McCurdy" /> || $0.0016 || barrel<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Belgard EV 2030<ref>Detailed import data of Belgard. Zauba. https://www.zauba.com/import-belgard-hs-code.html Accessed February 24, 2016.</ref> || $1.99 || kilogram<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Sodium Hypochlorite 12%<ref>High Quality Sodium Hypochlorite 12% solution Best Price. Alibaba Group. http://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/High-Quality-Sodium-Hypochlorite-12-solution_60355867621.html?spm=a2700.7724838.0.0.YHuHt3. Accessed March 7, 2016.</ref> || $4.54 || kilogram<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Lime<ref>Alibaba. Hydrated Lime 93%. Alibaba Group. http://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/high-quality-hydrated-lime-for-water_60423352849.html?spm=a2700.7724838.30.31.BVcfrP. Accessed February 24, 2016.</ref> || $0.09 || kilogram<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| CO<sub>2</sub><ref>Carbon Dioxide Advanced Oil Recovery. The American Oil & Gas Reporter. http://www.aogr.com/magazine/editors-choice/industrial-co2-supply-crucial-for-eor. Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref> || $0.04 || kilogram<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
<br/><br />
Additional Economic Assumptions<br />
*6% cost of capital<br />
*Construction of plant in 2 years, 50% of full-scale production in 3rd year<br />
*35% tax rate with 5 year MACRS depreciation<br />
*5 operators per shift with 3 shifts<br />
*$50,000 salary per operator<br />
*Supervision is 25% operating labor<br />
*Direct overhead is 45% of labor & supervision<br />
*Maintenance is 3% of ISBL investment per year<br />
*Plant overhead is 65% of labor and maintenance<br />
*Screen price negligible (~$2,000)<br />
<br />
=Appendix I: Equipment Cost Summary=<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 14: Installed costs of all major process equipment, in USD.<br />
! Unit<br />
! Equipment Cost <br/> (USD)<br />
! Installed Cost <br/> (USD)<br />
! Equipment Weight <br/> (LBS)<br />
! Total Installed Weight <br/> (LBS)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-101 ||1033900 || 1716400 || 403500 || 568790<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-102 ||1065700 || 1748700 || 416500 || 581960<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-103 ||1131500 || 1835900 || 439800 || 609338<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-104 ||1206900 || 1913200 || 469800 || 639902<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-105 ||1238900 || 1945800 || 483000 || 653292<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-106 ||1315000 || 2023500 || 515400 || 686222<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-107 ||1058900 || 1741900 || 413000 || 578460<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-108 ||1447500 || 2458400 || 564900 || 796324<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-109 ||1526200 || 2540200 || 598500 || 830924<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-110 ||1656600 || 2698900 || 646400 || 883959<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-111 ||1833500 || 2900600 || 714600 || 953808<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-112 ||1974700 || 3046000 || 774000 || 1014446<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-113 ||2186200 || 3647000 || 856000 || 1154275<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-114 ||2483100 || 4018400 || 968400 || 1278580<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-115 ||2817800 || 4433900 || 1103700 || 1431085<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-116 ||3291100 || 5778100 || 1290000 || 1731000<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-117 ||4062000 || 6880400 || 1588400 || 2081273<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-118 ||5361900 || 10603700 || 2097500 || 3054252<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-201 ||1682100 || 2649700 || 633600 || 835319<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-202 ||3265400 || 5677900 || 1233000 || 1643496<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| P-301 ||8263300 || 10579300 || 593100 || 1016878<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| P-302 ||5435000 || 7740400 || 389400 || 811881<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-101 ||43800 || 221900 || 11900 || 40680<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-102 ||2070900 || 5175400 || 1051900 || 1717877<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-103 ||1759900 || 4866600 || 804500 || 1476730<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-104 ||2976300 || 6117800 || 1625400 || 2292006<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-105 ||32200 || 201500 || 8300 || 35146<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-106 ||3480300 || 6698800 || 1863900 || 2546114<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-107 ||3538500 || 6800500 || 1918700 || 2612432<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-108 ||3673200 || 6973400 || 1985400 || 2687585<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-109 ||4178000 || 7524400 || 2228400 || 2938816<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-110 ||3690700 || 6978300 || 1994800 || 2693811<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-111 ||3711900 || 6991200 || 1986700 || 2683352<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-112 ||3541500 || 6754700 || 1891600 || 2562046<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-113 ||3288600 || 6463300 || 1782100 || 2444134<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-114 ||3039500 || 6176100 || 1651800 || 2306017<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-115 ||2961900 || 5572100 || 1614900 || 2161959<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-117 ||2831600 || 5403700 || 1549900 || 2087670<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-118 ||2800000 || 5359400 || 1531200 || 2065331<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-201 ||2807200 || 5147700 || 1535700 || 2002614<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-202 ||2921700 || 5295200 || 1587700 || 2063167<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-203 ||6322000 || 9725700 || 3364500 || 4063966<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
=Appendix J: Economic NPV Analysis=<br />
[[File:Team F Economics.JPG|center|1200px|thumb|alt=Economic Analysis|Figure J.1: Screenshot of process economic analysis.]]<br />
<br />
=References=<br />
<references/></div>Kedricdaly2https://processdesign.mccormick.northwestern.edu/index.php?title=Nueces_Desalination_Center:_Production_of_Drinking_Water_by_Multi-Stage_Flash_Distillation&diff=4972Nueces Desalination Center: Production of Drinking Water by Multi-Stage Flash Distillation2016-03-07T21:48:19Z<p>Kedricdaly2: Updated water schedule reference for use in table 13</p>
<hr />
<div>Team F: Rankine 672 Final Report<br />
<br />
Authors: Kedric Daly, Ben Granger, Evan Rosati, Kathleen Zhou<br />
<br />
Instructors: Fengqi You, David Wegerer<br />
<br />
March 11, 2016<br />
<br />
=Executive Summary=<br />
Desalination of seawater to drinking water is a technology of ever-increasing importance given trends of increasingly widespread water shortages around the world. Even in the United States, water shortages are becoming increasingly common in dry, highly-populated such as California and certain areas of the Gulf Coast. Our design team, Rankine 672, was tasked with evaluating the need for and designing a desalination plant to provide purified water in a place of need. Investigation revealed that the city of Corpus Christi, Texas, is a strategic location for development of a desalination facility, as surrounding region is in need of new drinking water sources and the city has expressed serious interest in contracting the development of a large-scale desalination plant. Our proposed solution is a multi-stage flash distillation desalination facility capable of producing 20,000,000 gallons (75,708 m<sup>3</sup>) of purified drinking water for the city and surrounding region per operating day.<br />
<br />
In this design, drinking water is produced from seawater feedstock through a 21-stage flash distillation process. By strategically locating the facility next to an existing natural gas power plant, the Nueces Bay Energy Center, pre-heated feed water can be taken directly from the outbound cooling systems of the power plant, allowing energy savings for our desalination plant. The process is designed for 16 hour-per-day operation, requires a seawater feed of 8250 m<sup>3</sup>/hr, and produces 4758 m<sup>3</sup>/hr of purified drinking water alongside a waste stream of 3485 m<sup>3</sup>/hr of concentrated brine. The waste stream is isolated from a recycle stream through a 9.0% purge; this results in an overall product yield of 57.7% on a volume basis. The process requires an additional pretreatment stream of 16.5 kg/hr Belgard EV 2030, which serves as an antiscalant, as well as 9.5 kg/hr chlorine, 352.1 kg/hr lime, and 418.7 kg/hr CO2 for post-treatment purposes.<br />
<br />
The overall capital cost of the plant is expected to be $345MM, with a total operating cost of $103MM/yr, $59MM/yr of which comes from utilities. Due to the low price at which the product water can be sold, the 30-year net present value of the plant, assuming a 6% discount rate, is $-1,035MM. It is thus imperative this plant be constructed with public funds because it cannot return a profit to any private investor. The growing need for water however could justify the cost, because it is important that the residents of the greater Corpus Christi area have access to drinkable water.<br />
<br />
__TOC__<br />
<br />
=Introduction=<br />
==Background==<br />
Clean drinking water is a basic human need that is becoming increasingly difficult to meet. Currently, over 1 billion people live in places where water is considered scarce<ref> Tapping the oceans. The Economist USA. http://www.economist.com/node/11484059. Accessed March 2, 2016. </ref>. Though often thought of as a problem exclusive to third-world countries, the issue is becoming more prevalent in the US as well, with water managers in 40 of 50 states anticipating water shortage conditions in some portion of their state in the next 10 years. These shortages are due to increasing demands on constant or diminishing freshwater resources, therefore, to correct the issue, a new supply must be found<ref> Water Supply in the US. EPA. http://www3.epa.gov/watersense/pubs/supply.html. Accessed March 2, 2016.</ref>. Desalination of seawater is therefore important as a new source for clean drinking water and prevent water shortages. <br />
<br />
==Project Definition==<br />
The overall goal of the project is to investigate the feasibility of a desalination plant in order to meet the needs of growing water demand. The design needs to take health, safety, and environmental concerns into account, while optimizing costs.<br />
<br />
=Design Basis=<br />
Site Location and Conditions<br />
Corpus Christi, TX was chosen as the location for the proposed desalination plant. The city is currently experiencing “Moderate Shortage Conditions”. This issue additionally comes at a time of growing demand with population growth anticipated due to new industry and Eagle Ford Group crude oil production<ref>Stage 2 Measures in the Drought Contingency Plan. Available at http://www.cctexas.com/government/water/conservation/conservation-drought-plans/stage-2-measures. Accessed January 12, 2016. </ref>.<br />
<br />
In June 2014, the city announced the Corpus Christi Desalination Demonstration Project<ref>Corpus Christi Desalination Demonstration Project. Available at http://www.cctexas.com/Assets/Departments/Water/Files/DesalFactSheet.pdf. Published June 2014. Accessed January 12, 2016. <br />
</ref> which seeks to create a demonstration desalination plant capable of producing 20,000 gallons of water per day, with plans to later build a full scale facility generating 20,000,000 gallons of water per day. The desalination demonstration project indicates a clear need for implementation of a desalination plant of this size to accommodate growth in the Corpus Christi area. <br />
<br />
Locating our plant in Corpus Christi will allow us to take advantage of the benefits of cogeneration through a partnership with the Nueces Bay Energy Center. By utilizing their outlet cooling water as a large portion of our feed for the desalination process, we can raise the temperature of our seawater feed, saving on energy costs in the multi stage flash distillation. The proposed location for the desalination plant is immediately west of the Nueces Bay Energy Center. See Appendix A for a map depicting the proposed location for the desalination plant along the coast of Nueces Bay.<br />
<br />
==Feed and Product Definitions==<br />
The proposed desalination facility’s feed and product streams are defined as shown in Table 1. Rationale for these definitions is also described below. The values reported in Table 1 are final derived numbers from HYSYS simulation modeling. <br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 1: Feed and product stream definitions<br />
! &nbsp;<br />
! Salt Concentration<br />
! Temperature <br />
! Amount<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Feed Stream <br />
| 30,500 ppm || 45°C || 8250 m<sup>3</sup>/hr<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Product Stream<br />
| ~ 0 ppm || 35°C || 4758 m<sup>3</sup>/hr<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Byproduct Stream<br />
| 69,500 ppm || 35°C || 3485 m<sup>3</sup>/hr<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
The process feed will be seawater from Nueces Bay, preheated through the cooling water system of the nearby Nueces Bay Energy Center. Based on calculations developed from NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory) data, it was estimated that the Nueces Bay Energy Center uses approximately 250 million gallons of seawater per day for process and cooling needs. Therefore, the 20 million gallon per day requirement for the desalination facility can easily be met through the power plant’s cooling water<ref>Torcellini P, Long N, Judkoff R. Consumptive Water Use for U.S. Power Consumption. NREL. 2003; TP-550-33905. <br />
</ref>. Note that we are assuming the process will operate 67% of the time (16 hours per day).<br />
<br />
Based on data acquired from two salinity-measuring stations in Nueces Bay, the average salinity of local seawater is 30.5 practical salinity units (psu)<ref>Stations Map & Real - Time Data. The Conrad Blucher Institute for Surveying and Science website. Available at http://www.cbi.tamucc.edu/cbi/data/. Updated January 2016. Accessed January 9, 2016. </ref>, thus setting the concentration of the process feed stream. This translates to a feed stream concentration of 30,500 ppm (parts per million)<ref name = "SALT">Definition and Units. CATD Salinity Expertise Center. Available at http://www.salinityremotesensing.ifremer.fr/home. Accessed January 12, 2016.</ref>. The composition of the salt attributed to this seawater salinity is shown in Table 6 in Appendix B. <br />
<br />
No data on the composition of seawater around the Corpus Christi area was available, but the composition of seawater does not change significantly in different locations. The given composition is considered accurate for our feed stream<ref>Brown E, Colling A, Park D, Phillips J, Rothery D, Wright J. Seawater : Its Composition, Properties and Behaviour. Boston: Butterworth-Heinemann, 1995.<br />
</ref>. Note that seawater salt is primarily sodium chloride - total dissolved solids are 85.7% sodium chloride by mass. As such, the dissolved solids in the feed stream is assumed in this project to be pure NaCl, making the feed composition 96.95% water and 3.05% NaCl by mass. A control system will likely be put in place to ensure feed concentration remains at this level, accounting for natural fluctuations in local seawater salinity.<br />
<br />
The largest byproduct from the process will be a brine slurry with high salt concentrations. An upper corrosion limit of 700 ppm was set for recirculated and purged brine. This undesired byproduct will be sent to a nearby Class I non-hazardous injection well facility operated by GNI Group, which is approximately 12 miles away from the proposed desalination plant location as shown in the figure in Appendix A<ref>Texas Water Code. Availabe at http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/WA/htm/WA.27.htm. Accessed January 14, 2016.<br />
</ref><ref>Google Maps. Available at https://goo.gl/maps/3xcvLZwUCe42 Accessed January 15, 2016.</ref>. Through the incorporation of a Class I injection well, the brine will not have to be treated or diluted before injection. <ref>EPA Regulations on Class I Wells. Available at http://www.epa.gov/uic/class-i-industrial-and-municipal-waste-disposal-wells. Accessed January 14, 2016.<br />
</ref><ref>List of Injection Well Facilities by Location. Available at http://www.ehso.com/cssepa/tsdfdeepwells.php. Accessed January 14, 2016.</ref><br />
<br />
There are no regulations regarding the temperature of city drinking water, so the product stream temperature has no requirements based on regulations. Outlet temperatures of 35<sup>o</sup>C are acceptable for input to the municipal water supply system. Since city water tends to be stored in non-temperature controlled tanks, the temperature will naturally cool to ambient temperature.<ref>Climate Corpus Christi- Texas. US Climate Data. Available at http://www.usclimatedata.com/climate/corpus-christi/texas/united-states/ustx0294. Accessed January 12, 2016. </ref><br />
<br />
==Pre-Treatment and Post-Treatment==<br />
For pretreatment, Belgard EV 2030 is recommended to be added at a concentration of 1.8-2.0 mg/L for a system with top brine temperature approximately 110 °C<ref name="BWA 2030">BWA Water Additives. Belgard EV2030 Technical Data Sheet. BWA Water Additives. http://www.wateradditives.com/files/products/tech_data_sheets/Belgard%20EV%202030_Technical%20Data%20Sheet_Thermal_8.5x11.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016.<br />
</ref>. Since our process is designed to operate at a slightly higher top brine temperature, 120 °C, we will design for the upper bound concentration: 2.0 mg/L of antiscalant. With a feed flow rate of 8250 m<sup>3</sup>/hr, the process therefore requires 16.5 kg/hr of Belgard EV 2030.<br />
<br />
For disinfection during post-treatment, chlorine addition typically requires a dose of roughly 2.0 mg/L as well<ref name="World Health Organization">World Health Organization. Desalination for safe water supply. http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/gdwqrevision/desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. With a pure water distillate flow rate of 4758 m<sup>3</sup>/hr, the process requires 9.5 kg/hr of chlorine as a 5%-15% sodium hypochlorite solution. Approximately 74 mg/L of lime (calcium hydroxide) and 88mg/L of CO2 should be added to the desalinated water to help prevent corrosion and increase alkalinity within acceptable ranges<ref name="Vouchkov">Vouchkov, N. Re-Mineralization of Desalinated Water. SunCam. https://s3.amazonaws.com/suncam/npdocs/118.pdf. Accessed February 18, 2016.</ref>. With a product stream flow rate of 4758 m3/hr, these concentrations correspond to 352.1 kg/hr of lime and 418.7 kg/hr of CO2. Both of these can be purchased, and it is likely that the CO2 can be procured from the neighboring natural gas power plant.<br />
<br />
==Choice of Desalination Technology==<br />
The two major technologies commonly implemented for desalination include reverse osmosis (RO), and multi-stage flash distillation (MSFD). RO utilizes high pressures to force water through a semipermeable membrane that allows for purified water to pass through, but stops organic and other wastes. Often, the pressures can reach 55 - 68 bar, which requires large pumps to maintain pressure, and introduces safety concerns to the process<ref>Stage 2 Measures in the Drought Contingency Plan. Available at http://www.cctexas.com/government/water/conservation/conservation-drought-plans/stage-2-measures. Accessed January 12, 2016. <br />
</ref>. While RO can be less energy intensive than MSFD, and the membrane can also remove contaminants, it is susceptible to feedwater quality, membrane fouling, and requires more extensive pretreatment and posttreatment than MSFD. The cost of RO is directly proportional to the feed salinity, and so it is less expensive when desalinating low salinity water.<br />
<br />
Multi-stage flash distillation is best selected for areas that have high salinity or low energy costs. The pretreatment process for MSFD is much easier when compared to RO because pretreatment often consists of simply adding anti-corrosives and antiscalants to the feed stream. The process works by heating water in vessels at different pressures to change the boiling point of the water and evaporate it as it passes through the system. After evaporation, the water condenses, leaving pure water as the effluent. MSFD costs are now roughly $1.00/m3, where this cost is mostly independent of salinity, but dependent on energy costs.<ref>Fritzman C, Lowenberg J, Wintgens T, Melin T. State-of-the-art Reverse Osmosis Desalination. Desalination. 2007; 216:1-76. <br />
</ref> In both RO and MSFD a brine is produced which then must be appropriately treated and/or disposed of.<br />
<br />
Multi-stage flash distillation was selected for this process, mainly due to the economic advantages offered by the selected location of Corpus Christi, TX. MSFD is also a well understood process that can be more easily modeled by chemical engineering software.<br />
<br />
=Technical Approach=<br />
Quantitative modeling of the process and all included optimization was conducted using the simulation software Aspen HYSYS. A variety of assumptions were developed to set up and define specific components of the process simulation itself. Within Aspen HYSYS, the NRTL Electrolyte property package was selected to model the behavior of salt water. Each stage of the MSF process is modeled as an individual flash vessel, with individual shell & tube heat exchangers used to model the distillate condensers present in each flash stage in the MSF system.<br />
<br />
The HYSYS simulation model only considers the flash portion of the overall process, allowing establishment of mass and energy balances for the system. Pretreatment and post-treatment were excluded for the HYSYS model, as these steps are simple additions or removals of small concentrations of chemical components. Although the simulation models heat exchangers outside of each flash stage, in the physical design of the plant these heat exchangers will be contained within each flash stage.<br />
<br />
One portion of the process is not modeled, which is the inlet seawater entering the heat rejection stages. As can be seen from the full process flow diagram (Appendix C), the inlet seawater in the heat rejection stage is in high excess to provide maximum cooling capacity; then a significant portion is purged to bring the stream flow rate down to what is needed for the feed stream. It is assumed that the flow rate of cooling water for those three stages is in such high excess that the cooling water does not heat up. Therefore, in the process simulation models, the inlet stream is the feed stream, which enters directly into the heat recovery portion of the process.<br />
<br />
See Appendix D for a screenshot overview of the simulation environment model.<br />
<br />
=Process Overview=<br />
==Process Flowsheet==<br />
The following diagram, Figure 1, shows a basic flowsheet for the process. Process alternatives considered for each stage are discussed below. Please see Appendix C for the full process flowsheet with finalized design decisions.<br />
<br />
[[File:BlockFlowDiagram.png|center|700px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Desalination Facility Block Flow Diagram|Figure 1: Basic block flowsheet of the multi-stage flash desalination process.]]<br />
<br />
==Major Features==<br />
As seen above, there are three primary stages of the desalination process: Pre-treatment, the multi-stage flash distillation, and post-treatment. Seawater enters the pre-treatment phase first to make the feed suitable for the rest of the process by filtering out large particles that could accumulate on pipes, deaerating the water to limit corrosion, and adding an agent to combat fouling. The water then enters the distillation process, which is broken up into two sections: heat recovery and heat rejection. <br />
<br />
In the heat recovery stage, there are 18 flash vessels, each of which separates steam from the salinated liquid water. Each flash vessel has saltwater as its inlet and two outlets: a vapor outlet (steam) that condenses into the final product of purified water and a liquid outlet composed of water with more dissolved solids than the inlet, which is the inlet stream for the next flash vessel. The pipe containing the feed is first mixed with recycled brine, then goes through the top sections of each of the flash vessels, starting with V-118 and ending up at V-101. In this way, the feed stream pipe first serves as a heat exchanger, heating the pre-treated seawater while simultaneously condensing the steam into the final product. The feed then enters a final heat exchanger where it is brought up to 103.6 °C before entering V-101 to be flashed.<br />
<br />
After exiting V-118, the final flash vessel in the heat recovery portion, the water enters the heat rejection portion, which consists of three flash vessels (V-201, V-202, V-203). The flash vessels of this section operate in the same manner as in the heat recovery section, with the exception that condensation occurs using excess cooling water instead of pre-treated seawater. This technique allows excess heat to be rejected into an excess water stream rather than the feed.<br />
<br />
The purified product stream finally enters post-treatment processing in which water is re-aerated and remineralized, disinfected, and pH is adjusted before being delivered to the city. The concentrated brine leftover at the end of the flash cycle is recycled into the feed, although a purge is required to continuously remove some salt from the system. This purged brine is disposed of by use of a Class I injection well, per regional regulations.<br />
<br />
See Appendix E to find detailed stream tables of stream specifications.<br />
<br />
==Process Alternatives==<br />
===Pretreatment===<br />
Multi-stage flash distillation requires significantly less pretreatment than reverse osmosis desalination, but helpful pretreatment techniques still exist. One very inexpensive method of pretreatment is screening/filtration, which is used to filter out large contaminants from intake seawater. Using more complicated membrane technology to accomplish large particle filtration is a possible alternative, but doing so would be much more expensive than using a standard screen or filter, so the latter choice has been selected for this process.<ref>El-Dessouky H., Alatiqi I, Ettouney H. Process synthesis: The multi-stage flash desalination system. Desalination. 1998;115(2):115-179. doi: 10.1016/S0011-9164(98)00035-6.</ref><br />
<br />
The most critical type of fouling in multi-stage flash distillation is scaling - therefore, the most critical step in the pretreatment process will be the inclusion of an anti-scalant. Alkaline scaling can be prevented by acid dosing or polyphosphate addition; however, acid dosing can result in increased corrosion and polyphosphates can lead to non-alkaline calcium phosphate fouling, so these additives will not be considered<ref name="Morris">Morris, R. The development of the multi-stage flash distillation process: A designer's viewpoint. Desalination. 1993;93(1-3):57-68. doi:10.1016/S0011-9164(93)80096-6. Availble at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0011916493800966</ref><ref>Al-Gobaisi, D. A quarter-century of seawater desalination by large multistage flash plants in Abu Dhabi (Plant performance analysis, assessment, present efforts toward enhancement and future hopes). Desalination. 1994;99(2-3):509-512. doi: 10.1016/S0011-9164(94)00196-0.</ref>. As such, a polymer-based additive is recommended for the anti-scalant for this process. The Belgard EV series is designed for use in high-temperature seawater MSF; of these, Belgard EV 2030 is the most neutral in pH<ref>NSF International. NSF Product and Service Listings: Drinking Water Treatment Chemicals - Health Effects. NSF International. http://info.nsf.org/Certified/PwsChemicals/Listings.asp?Company=00300&. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref><ref name="BWA 2030" /><ref>BWA Water Additives. Belgard EV2035 Technical Data Sheet. BWA Water Additives. http://www.wateradditives.com/files/products/tech_data_sheets/Belgard%20EV2035_Technical%20Data%20Sheet_Thermal_8.5x11.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref><ref>BioLab Water Additives. Belgard EV Antiscalant for seawater distillation plants. BioLab Water Additives. http://www.lpq.com.mx/pdf/BELGARD%20EV.PDF. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref>. As such, we have selected Belgard EV 2030 for use as an anti-scalant in our process.<br />
<br />
Corrosion control is another significant method of pretreatment in multi-stage flash distillation plants. Using a piping material that has limited susceptibility to corrosion is typically not economically viable for MSF desalination plants due their large size, so using carbon steel for most of the piping is generally used for its economic benefits despite its susceptibility to corrosion<ref name = "Morris" />. Limiting oxygen concentration is very feasible through the use of deaerators, which can remove oxygen as well as other dissolved gases from the seawater stream. Often, an external deaeration system is used<ref name = "Morris" /><ref>Edwards - Hick Hargreaves. Seawater Deaerators. Edwards - Hick Hargreaves. http://psscorp.co.th/upload/news/20110830105340.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. Given these considerations, using an external deaerator combined with a less-corrosive antiscalant like Belgard EV 2030 is much more practical for the process than using anti-corrosive piping.<br />
<br />
Excessive foam can also be an issue in some MSF distillation facilities, so antifoaming agents are sometimes employed in the pretreatment process as well. However, many plants are operated without foaming issues, and therefore do not need anti-foaming pretreatment at all. Selection of an anti-foaming agent must be carefully weighed with selected of anti-scalant to avoid issues with additive interactions [26]. At this stage in the design process, an anti-foamer will not be included due to the risk of decreasing scalant efficacy, and the likelihood that foam will not be an issue in the desalination plant.<br />
<br />
===Multistage Flash Distillation===<br />
The main objective of the design project is desalinate water. This is done with the main process of multi stage flash distillation (MSF). MSF can be developed using a numerous number of different process configurations, such as Once-Through, Simple Mixer Brine Circulation, and Multi-Stage Heat Rejection Brine Circulation processes. <br />
<br />
The most desired process for the project is the Three Stage Heat Rejection Brine Circulation as it builds on benefits of the other simpler technologies. By combining principles of heat rejection and heat recovery, the required heat transfer area of the process is greatly reduced as compared to once through processes or simple brine recycle processes. It has the highest performance ratio with the lowest specific feed flow rates, therefore greatly lowering the operating costs of the process. It is also known as the industry standard for MSF<ref name = "KSU Chapter 6">Kansas State University ChE 413. Available at: http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/Almutaz/Documents/ChE-413/Multi-stage%20Flash%20Desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. In addition, since our brine disposal technique involves the pumping of the brine into a Class I well, the high brine outlet salinity is not a drawback for our process since post treatment or dilution of the brine is not necessary.<br />
<br />
===Post Treatment===<br />
After processing the water via multi-stage flash, the water needs to be post-treated to make the water taste as consumers would expect, since distilled water is “flat” and unpleasant, as well as to protect the consumers and the piping through which the water will be passing<ref name="Clayton">Clayton R. A review of current knowledge: Desalination for water supply. Foundation for Water Research. http://www.fwr.org/desal.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. There are multiple alternatives to achieve these objectives of remineralization, aeration, corrosion control, and disinfection.<br />
<br />
Aerating and introducing some dissolved solids back into the product water are effective ways to create a quality product that is not flat, and contains flavoring that is expected of the water when delivered to the consumer. Aeration will be accomplished via an inline spray aerator which will take up less space than cascade aeration.<ref>Minnesota Rural Water Association. Aeration. http://www.mrwa.com/WaterWorksMnl/Chapter%2011%20Aeration.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref> Feed blending will be used to remineralize the water as opposed to a remineralization filter because it does not require additional equipment purchases, and can easily handle the large amounts of throughput required for the process.<ref name="Clayton" /><br />
<br />
Corrosion and pH can be controlled by adding lime (calcium hydroxide) and carbon dioxide to the water. To do so, about 74 mg/L of lime and 88mg/L of CO<sub>2</sub> should be added to the desalinated water to help prevent corrosion and increase alkalinity within acceptable ranges. Sodium hydroxide, soda ash, and sodium bicarbonate are alternatives to altering the alkalinity and pH of the product water, but lime and CO<sub>2</sub> is an industry standard <ref name="Vouchkov" />.<br />
<br />
Disinfection needs to be done to prevent microbial growth in the desalinated water and ensure the safety of the general public. Chlorine addition via chlorine gas or sodium hypochlorite is the most common and only requires a dose of 1.5 to 2.5 mg/liter. <ref name="World Health Organization" /> Other alternatives include ozonation, UV light, and chloramination. Chlorine, as a 5% - 15% sodium hypochlorite solution, is sufficient for our process and relatively inexpensive, and as such will be utilized in the process.<br />
<br />
===Transport of Brine to Well===<br />
Three major possibilities exist for transporting the brine from our desalination plant to the injection well for disposal: rail, trucking, and a pipeline. A pipeline was chosen as the most feasible and cost-effective approach. <br />
<br />
A rail line is not available at this time, and with the cost to construct a rail line at approximately $43 million per mile<ref>About Money. How Much Do Rail Transit Projects Cost to Build and Operate? 2014. Available at: http://publictransport.about.com/od/Transit_Projects/a/How-Much-Do-Rail-Transit-Projects-Cost-To-Build-And-Operate.htm. Accessed January 27, 2016. </ref>, the enormous capital cost makes rail transport infeasible for this site. For large volume operations, pipelines are cheaper than trucking. In a study of wastewater sludge produced from wastewater treatment facilities, it was found that it was more economical for facilities producing over 1200 m<sup>3</sup> per day to utilize pipelines rather than trucking.<ref>Marufuzzaman M, Eskioglu S, Hernandez R. Truck versus pipeline transportation cost analysis of wastewater sludge. Transportation Research. 2015; 74(A): 14-30. </ref> Our facility is producing nearly 3 times this volume at 3485 m<sup>3</sup> per day of brine. Furthermore, brine is a less viscous fluid than wastewater sludge, decreasing pumping costs in the pipeline and further amplifying the benefit of choosing a pipeline over an injection well.<br />
<br />
===Brine Storage===<br />
Due to the choice of a pipeline, rather than trucking, as the method of transport of brine to the injection well, brine storage is unnecessary, so storage solutions such as holding tanks were not investigated. One method of storage compatible with a pipeline is to pump the brine through an evaporation pond. This solution is attractive as it would allow the brine to concentrate, saving some costs of pumping, however, the considerable land usage of evaporation ponds leads them to only be effective for smaller plants. The largest municipal plant utilizing this method produces only 5.7 million liters per day<ref>University of Santa Cruz Center for Integrated Water Research. Concentrate Management: Evaporation Ponds. 2010. Available at: https://ciwr.ucsc.edu/sites/default/files/ICM_D5.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016. </ref>, whereas our desalination plant is proposed to produce 75.7 million liters per day. Therefore, evaporation ponds have been eliminated from consideration.<br />
<br />
==Major Specifications==<br />
===Material of Construction Selection===<br />
While saltwater and desalinated water in general can be corrosive, there are best practices within the desalination industry for material selection. With this in mind, best practice shows carbon steel lifetime can be lengthened by monitoring the oxygen concentration in the water, specifying the paint used to coat any metal, and more expensive materials can be used in areas of extremely high corrosion.<ref name = "Morris" />. By following these best practices, it is possible to save significant amounts of money through the use of carbon steel in most areas of the plant, with specific high-corrosion areas being reinforced with, or replaced with, more corrosion resistant materials, such as Cu/Ni 70/30 alloy<ref name = "KSU Chapter 6" />.<br />
<br />
===Heat Exchanger Sizing===<br />
See Appendix F for heat exchanger sizing data. Heat exchanger sizes appear reasonable for placement in the flash vessels.<br />
<br />
===Flash Vessel Sizing===<br />
The dimensions for the flash drums were obtained through literature values. The flash drums were determined to be 18x4x3 m in width, height, and length.<ref name="KSU Chapter 6" /><br />
<br />
Wall thickness was determined using the following conventions: Design pressure is 10% more than the operating pressure, design temperature is 50°F (27.8°C) higher than the operating temperature, a corrosion allowance of 3-mm and an effectiveness of 85% was derived from the assumption of a double-welded butt joint that was spot checked. See Appendix G for wall thicknesses calculated for each pressure vessel. <br />
<br />
The sizing of the vessels to be constructed will be determined after talks with a manufacturer. Due to economies of scale, it may be more cost-effective to buy 21 pressure vessels with the dimensions mentioned above and a wall thickness of 17.1-mm, the highest wall thickness required in the system.<br />
<br />
===Pipe Losses and Pressure Drop===<br />
HYSYS was used to estimate the diameter of a pipe given a specified pressure drop per 100m of pipe. It was determined that for a pressure drop of 0.1 kPa/100m of pipe, a 3.05m diameter pipe is sufficient, which is more than manageable for manufacturers. This pressure drop is mostly insignificant and will be taken care of with the safety factors included in the pumps. The significant pressure drops in our system is accounted for via losses in the flash vessels and heat exchangers, which drive the flash process. Therefore overall pipe losses are insignificant and are built into intentional design losses.<br />
<br />
=Economic Analysis=<br />
==Economic Assumptions==<br />
The sale of purified water yields a revenue stream of $49.5 million per year assuming sale to commercial entities within the city limits of Corpus Christi at $1.7915 per thousand liters.<ref name = "Corpus Christi Water Schedule">Water schedule. City of Corpus Christi Utility Business Office. http://www.cctexas.com/Assets/Departments/Financial-Services/Utilities-Business-Office/files/waterrates.pdf Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref> The primary variable costs are utilities and the brine disposal, with minimal raw materials costs due to the primary feedstock, seawater, being free, and minimal amounts of pre- and post-treatment chemicals being used. The cost of brine disposal used in this analysis was high at $2.097 per thousand liters<ref>McCurdy, R. Underground injection wells for produced water disposal. Chesapeake Energy Corporation. http://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/documents/21_McCurdy_-_UIC_Disposal_508.pdf Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref>, an estimate for brine disposal utilizing trucking as the mode of transport. As has been shown through previous analyses, a lower cost can be achieved using a direct pipeline, however, no good estimates for this cost could be found.<br />
<br />
The NPV was calculated using a 6% cost of capital, the approximate interest rate for a municipal bond.<ref>Zirbe, R.O. Jr., Han, X., Layton, D., Leshine, T. A history of discount rates and their use by government agencies. (2002). http://faculty.washington.edu/zerbe/docs/DISCOUNT%20RATE%20HISTORY-latesXIt.doc Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref> It was assumed that the plant can be built within two years, with production at half-scale in its first year. Additionally, one month of variable costs, $10.6 million, was set aside for working capital. See Appendix H for a full table of assumptions. A 30 year NPV calculation was chosen as the decision basis since 30 years is a conservative estimate for the lifetime of a desalination plant <ref>Tampa Bay Seawater Desalination Plant. American Water. http://www.amwater.com/files/tampabayseawaterdesalinationplantcasestudy6.16.09.pdf. Accessed February 25, 20216.</ref>. See below for estimates of NPV for the lifetime of the plant under various assumptions and design criteria.<br />
<br />
==Optimization and Sensitivity Analysis==<br />
Looking at the multi-stage flash process, there are a number of opportunities to optimize the process. The major process variables that were investigated were the inlet water temperature, the operating pressure drop per vessel, and the number of stages over which the process takes place. Considering these optimizations, our final process consists of 21 flash vessels (18 heat recovery and 3 heat rejection stages), each with a pressure drop of 5 kPa. See Appendix D for a screenshot of the HYSYS simulation used to model the optimized process.<br />
===Operating Pressure and Pressure Drop===<br />
Initially our process was designed to pump the inlet seawater and brine to a pressure of 2 bar and allow the pressure drop in each flash stage to end our process downstream at 1 bar to prevent complications associated with designing a system under vacuum. While this provided pumping advantages, the energy in the system was significantly higher due to vapor pressure considerations. Due to this fact, the required heat exchange area for certain exchangers proved to be infeasible (on the order of 80,000m<sup>2</sup>) due to the enormous capital and operating costs that would be associated with such a large heat exchanger.<br />
<br />
The process was optimized to operate under vacuum, requiring additional pumping requirements but much lower required heat exchange area, and therefore lower utility costs. This optimization was done by specifying the pressure of the final flash vessel to 5.7kPa, so that the temperature of the water vapor (~30<sup>o</sup>C) is within approximately 5<sup>o</sup>C of the cooling water (35<sup>o</sup>C) so that condensation can occur within a reasonable approach. This also allows our system to optimally extract pure water from the brine running through the system and reduce energy requirements for cooling the product or the recycle. Our system redesign and optimization reduced the energy in the system and reduce the same heat exchanger area requirements by more than 3 orders of magnitude to approximately 800m<sup>2</sup>. <br />
<br />
Once the process was optimized to operate in a vacuum, the pressure drop per flash stage regulated through values was then optimized. Three pressure drops per stages, 3kPa, 5kPa, and 7kPa, were tested and then an economic analysis was conducted to find the optimal value for the pressure drop. These changes had impacts on both operating and capital costs as they would change initial pumping requirements, the amount of water flowing through the process and recycle (and therefore the flash vessel sizes, heat exchanger sizing), and the efficiency of each stage.<br />
<br />
The various pressure drops (3 kPa, 5 kPa, and 7 kPa) were tested on a system nominally at 24 stages under the assumption that the results would be generalizable to systems with a different number of stages. With increasing pressure drop, we found decreased capital cost but increased utility cost. As can be seen from Table 2 below, a pressure drop of 5 kPa proved to be the best option based on 30 year NPV, with a loss of $838.8 million, a savings of $65.5 million compared to the next-best option with a pressure drop of 7 kPa.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 2: Comparison of profitability for our MSF desalination process with 24 stages with 3 different pressure drops per stage<br />
! Number of Stages <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! Pressure Drop <br/> (kPa)<br />
! Capital Cost <br/> ($MM)<br />
! Utility Cost <br/> ($MM/yr)<br />
! 30-Year NPV <br/> ($MM)<br />
! NPV Ratio <br/> (over 5kPa)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 3 || 362.3 || 39.1 || -905.8 || 1.08<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 5 || 255.1 || 53.6 || -838.8 || 1.00<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 7 || 209.5 || 72.2 || -904.3 || 1.08<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
===Number of Flash Stages===<br />
The number of stages is an important area for optimization. An increased number of stages yields better recovery of purified water, however, requires higher capital cost from the additional pressure vessel. Furthermore, with an increased amount of purified water comes increasingly concentrated brine. This must be taken into account since any brine concentration in excess of about 7% presents a more significant corrosion risk<ref name="KSU Chapter 6" />, so increased maintenance costs for the piping or higher capital costs for more corrosion-resistant materials could be necessary for brine concentrations exceeding 7%. Therefore, to recover the same amount of pure water without exceeding corrosion limitations, increasing the number of stages will reduce the overall size of each stage.<br />
<br />
Optimizing based on NPV, it was found that 21 stages is optimal, balancing the increased profits from the additional purified water additional costs of higher capital cost. See Table 3 below to compare the 30-year NPV of the process across various numbers of flash vessels.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 3: Comparison of profitability for our MSF desalination process with a 5 kPa pressure drop, 5000 m<sup>3</sup>/hr feed flow rate, with varying number of stages.<br />
! Number of Stages <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! Pressure Drop <br/> (kPa)<br />
! Capital Cost <br/> ($MM)<br />
! Utility Cost <br/> ($MM/yr)<br />
! 30-Year NPV <br/> ($MM)<br />
! NPV Ratio <br/> (over 21 Stages)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 17 || 5 || 213.9 || 58.7 || -813.8 || 1.016<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 18 || 5 || 218 || 57.6 || -809.9 || 1.011<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 19 || 5 || 224.3 || 58 || -806.1 || 1.007<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 20 || 5 || 229.8 || 57.9 || -813.6 || 1.016<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 21 || 5 || 226.6 || 55.9 || -800.7 || 1<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 22 || 5 || 254.7 || 54.6 || -849.5 || 1.061<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 23 || 5 || 249.3 || 54.1 || -833.1 || 1.04<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 5 || 255.1 || 53.6 || -838.8 || 1.048<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 25 || 5 || 254.9 || 52.7 || -837.4 || 1.046<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
===Inlet Seawater Temperature===<br />
By pairing our desalination plant with a natural gas power plant and utilizing its cooling water we forgo initial heating of our inlet stream. Normally, water pumped from the ocean would be approximately 25<sup>o</sup>C and by capturing waste heat from the power plant we can reduce utilities with our water inlet of 45<sup>o</sup>C. Through an economic comparison between two plants nominally at 21 flash stages, the plant with an inlet temperature at 25<sup>o</sup>C has a capital cost of $245MM and a utility cost of $77MM/yr and the same facility with an inlet water temperature at 45<sup>o</sup>C has a capital cost of only $226MM and a utility cost of $56MM/yr. As shown in Table 4 below, this $19MM savings in capital costs and $21MM/yr saving in utilities is largely due to reducing the size of the heat exchangers and lowering the steam required for heating duty on the inlet seawater respectively. Therefore our process is optimized by recovering the waste heat water from the gas fired power plant.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 4: Seawater Inlet Temperature Process Cost Optimization<br />
! Seawater Temperature <br/> (°C)<br />
! Capital Cost <br/> ($MM)<br />
! Utility Cost <br/> ($MM/yr)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 25 || 245 || 77<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 45 || 226 || 56<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Savings || 56 || 19<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
==Overall Process Economics==<br />
After optimization at fixed flow rates, the process was scaled to meet the the 67% operating percentage and final product definitions as shown in Table 1, which resulted in finalized economics shown in Table 5 below. For a table of the installed costs of each process vessel, see Appendix I. For the finalized NPV calculations, see Appendix J.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 5: Summarized Economics for 21-stage MSFD Process<br />
! Economic Parameter<br />
! Cost <br/> (USD)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Capital Cost || 345 MM<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Total Operating Cost per Year || 103 MM<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Utility Cost per Year || 59 MM<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 30-Year NPV (6% Discount) || -1035 MM<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
=Conclusions and Recommendations=<br />
==Project Viability==<br />
Table 5 above demonstrates that the process has reasonable operating and capital costs, but the 30-year NPV is negative by -1035 $MM due to the extremely low sell price capability of desalinated water as a product. Therefore, this plant would have to heavily be supported by the City of Corpus Christi to run as the product revenue will not make it self-sufficient. The acquisition of government subsidies are key operating requirements for all desalination facilities in the United States. <br />
<br />
==Additional Concerns==<br />
Large volumes of water, steam, and energy are needed to ensure the project runs as specified. While most of the water can easily be extracted from the ocean with little to consequence, the fuel used to generate the steam and electricity can have a significant environmental impact. As the plant is located next to a natural gas power plant, this fuel is better than coal with respect to environmental concerns, and utilizing energy from the power plant to preheat the feed stream for the desalination plant helps lower environmental impacts.<br />
<br />
The large amounts of high pressure steam being used represents one of the the largest safety concern in the process, because a high pressure steam release could easily cause severe burns or even death. Proper precautions and control measures must be in place to prevent accidental release. Otherwise, the process does not utilize any known toxic chemicals and is relatively safe from a chemical standpoint. The flash vessels mostly operate below atmospheric pressure, so they must be constructed as vessels that can withstand vacuum without failing.<br />
<br />
<br />
=Appendix A: Proposed Location of Desalination Plant=<br />
Pictured below is the proposed location for the desalination plant, located on Nueces Bay in Corpus Christi, adjacent to the Nueces Bay Energy Center. The plant’s proposed location is shown in the area outlined by the small circle in the upper right of the figure.<br />
<br />
[[File:NuecesBayLocation.png|center|600px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Desalination Facility Location|Figure A.1: Proposed mapped location of Nueces Bay Desalination Facility.]]<br />
[[File:ClassIWell.png|center|700px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Desalination Facility Distance to Injection Well|Figure A.2: Mapped distance from proposed location to Class I Injection Well]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix B: Feed and Product Definitions - Salinity=<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 6: Average Composition of Total Dissolved Solids in Seawater<ref> Physical and Thermodynamic Data. In: Dickson AG, Goyet C. Handbook of Methods for the Analysis of the Various Parameters of the Carbon Dioxide System in Sea Water.</ref><ref> Composition of Seawater. Water Treatment of Solutions. Available at http://www.lenntech.com/composition-seawater.htm. Accessed January 12, 2016.</ref><br />
! Compound <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! Mass Composition <br/> (kPa)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Chlorine || 55.03%<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Sodium || 30.64%<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Sulfate || 7.70%<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Magnesium || 3.66%<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Calcium || 1.17%<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Potassium || 1.12%<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Bicarbonate || 0.36%<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Bromine || 0.19%<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Other || 0.15%<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
[[File:Nueces Bay Salinity.JPG|center|700px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Salinity Tracking|Figure C.1: Salinity in Nueces Bay over the past 10 years<ref name = "SALT" />.]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix C: Process Flow Diagram=<br />
[[File:TeamF_FinalPFD.JPG|center|1200px|thumb|alt=Process Flow Diagram|Figure C.1: Process Flow Diagram]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix D: HYSYS Simulation Model=<br />
[[File:TeamF_HYSYS_Screenshot.PNG|center|1200px|thumb|alt=HYSYS Simulation Model|Figure D.1: Screenshot of HYSYS Model Simulation.]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix E: Stream Tables=<br />
A summary of some values is shown below:<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 7: Key process material streams<br />
! &nbsp;<br />
! Stream <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! Molar Flow <br/> (10<sup>5</sup> kgmole/h)<br />
! Mass Flow <br/> (10<sup>5</sup> kg/h)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Inlet <br />
| Feed Water || 454 || 83.6<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Outlet<br />
| Brine Reject || 1.90 || 36.0<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Product<br />
| Pure Water || 2.64 || 47.5<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 8: Key process energy streams<br />
! Stream <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! Heat Flow <br/> (kJ/h)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Feed Water || 1.30E+11<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Q-301 || 5.73E+06<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Q-302 || 3.09E+09<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Q-304 || 4.68E+06<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Q-303 || -1.26E+09<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Brine Reject || -5.47E+10<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Pure Water || -7.46E+10<br />
|}<br />
(Negative value denotes energy leaving process)<br />
</center><br />
<br />
=Appendix F: Heat Exchanger Sizing=<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 9: Utility Temperatures and Heat Transfer Coefficient<ref name="Towler">G.P. Towler, R. Sinnott. Chemical Engineering Design: Principles, Practice and Economics of Plant and Process Design. Elsevier, 2012.</ref><br />
! &nbsp;<br />
! HP Steam<br />
! Cooling Water<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! Temperature (°C)<br />
| 250 || 35<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! U (W/m<sup>2</sup>K)<br />
| 4000 || 1500<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 10: Internal Flash Heat Exchanger Sizing, condensing steam.<br />
! Exchanger<br />
! UA <br/> (kJ/°C-h)<br />
! U <br/> (kJ/hr/m<sup>2</sup>°C)<br />
! A <br/> (m<sup>2</sup>)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-101 || 1.47E+07 || 14400 || 1019<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-102 || 1.53E+07 || 14400 || 1059<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-103 || 1.59E+07 || 14400 || 1103<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-104 || 1.66E+07 || 14400 || 1153<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-105 || 1.74E+07 || 14400 || 1209<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-106 || 1.83E+07 || 14400 || 1272<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-107 || 1.93E+07 || 14400 || 1342<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-108 || 2.05E+07 || 14400 || 1424<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-109 || 2.19E+07 || 14400 || 1518<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-110 || 2.35E+07 || 14400 || 1629<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-111 || 2.54E+07 || 14400 || 1761<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-112 || 2.77E+07 || 14400 || 1921<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-113 || 3.05E+07 || 14400 || 2119<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-114 || 3.42E+07 || 14400 || 2372<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-115 || 3.90E+07 || 14400 || 2706<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-116 || 4.56E+07 || 14400 || 3167<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-117 || 5.55E+07 || 14400 || 3856<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-118 || 7.20E+07 || 14400 || 5000<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 11: Heat Exchanger Sizing for Process Heaters and Coolers<br />
! Exchanger<br />
! Q <br/> (kJ/h)<br />
! U <br/> (J/s/m<sup>2</sup>K)<br />
! U <br/> (kJ/hr/m<sup>2</sup>K)<br />
! LMTD <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! A <br/> (m<sup>2</sup>)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-201 || 9.67E+08 || 1500 || 5400 || 16.03 || 11165<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-202 || 1.26E+09 || 1500 || 5400 || 7.57 || 30921<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-203 || 1.88E+09 || 1500 || 5400 || 0.45 || 77366<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-302 || 3.09E+09 || 4000 || 14400 || 155 || 1385<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-303 || 1.26E+09 || 4000 || 14400 || 209.5 || 418<br />
|}<br />
The high heat transfer area in the final cooler of the heat rejection stage is due to the close approach temperature. <br />
<br/>Other cooling / pressurization techniques will be used to reduce the area.<br />
</center><br />
<br />
=Appendix G: Pressure Vessel Sizing=<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 12: Operating temperature and pressure and corresponding thickness for flash vessels<br />
! Unit<br />
! Temperature <br/> (°C)<br />
! Pressure <br/> (kPa)<br />
! Thickness <br/> (mm)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-101 || 103.6 || 110.7 || 17.14<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-102 || 102.3 || 105.7 || 16.62<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-103 || 100.9 || 100.7 || 16.10<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-104 || 99.5 || 95.7 || 15.58<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-105 || 98.0 || 90.7 || 15.06<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-106 || 96.4 || 85.7 || 14.53<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-107 || 94.8 || 80.7 || 14.01<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-108 || 93.1 || 75.7 || 13.49<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-109 || 91.3 || 70.7 || 12.97<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-110 || 89.3 || 65.7 || 12.45<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-111 || 87.3 || 60.7 || 11.93<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-112 || 85.1 || 55.7 || 11.41<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-113 || 82.7 || 50.7 || 10.89<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-114 || 80.1 || 45.7 || 10.36<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-115 || 77.3 || 40.7 || 9.84<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-116 || 74.1 || 35.7 || 9.32<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-117 || 70.6 || 30.7 || 8.80<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-118 || 66.5 || 25.7 || 8.28<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-201 || 61.7 || 20.7 || 7.76<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-202 || 55.8 || 15.7 || 7.24<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-203 || 47.9 || 10.7 || 6.72<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
=Appendix H: Expanded Economic Assumptions=<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 13: Product and raw material market prices<br />
! Parameter<br />
! Value/Unit<br />
! Unit<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Sale price of water<ref name = "Corpus Christi Water Schedule" /> || $0.0021 || liter<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Brine disposal || $0.0016 || barrel || [36]<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Belgard EV 2030 || $1.99 || kilogram || [41]<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Sodium Hypochlorite 12% || $4.54 || kilogram || [42]<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Lime || $0.09 || kilogram || [43]<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| CO<sub>2</sub> || $0.04 || kilogram || [44]<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
<br/><br />
Additional Economic Assumptions<br />
*6% cost of capital<br />
*Construction of plant in 2 years, 50% of full-scale production in 3rd year<br />
*35% tax rate with 5 year MACRS depreciation<br />
*5 operators per shift with 3 shifts<br />
*$50,000 salary per operator<br />
*Supervision is 25% operating labor<br />
*Direct overhead is 45% of labor & supervision<br />
*Maintenance is 3% of ISBL investment per year<br />
*Plant overhead is 65% of labor and maintenance<br />
*Screen price negligible (~$2,000)<br />
<br />
=Appendix I: Equipment Cost Summary=<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 14: Installed costs of all major process equipment, in USD.<br />
! Unit<br />
! Equipment Cost <br/> (USD)<br />
! Installed Cost <br/> (USD)<br />
! Equipment Weight <br/> (LBS)<br />
! Total Installed Weight <br/> (LBS)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-101 ||1033900 || 1716400 || 403500 || 568790<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-102 ||1065700 || 1748700 || 416500 || 581960<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-103 ||1131500 || 1835900 || 439800 || 609338<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-104 ||1206900 || 1913200 || 469800 || 639902<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-105 ||1238900 || 1945800 || 483000 || 653292<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-106 ||1315000 || 2023500 || 515400 || 686222<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-107 ||1058900 || 1741900 || 413000 || 578460<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-108 ||1447500 || 2458400 || 564900 || 796324<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-109 ||1526200 || 2540200 || 598500 || 830924<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-110 ||1656600 || 2698900 || 646400 || 883959<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-111 ||1833500 || 2900600 || 714600 || 953808<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-112 ||1974700 || 3046000 || 774000 || 1014446<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-113 ||2186200 || 3647000 || 856000 || 1154275<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-114 ||2483100 || 4018400 || 968400 || 1278580<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-115 ||2817800 || 4433900 || 1103700 || 1431085<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-116 ||3291100 || 5778100 || 1290000 || 1731000<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-117 ||4062000 || 6880400 || 1588400 || 2081273<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-118 ||5361900 || 10603700 || 2097500 || 3054252<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-201 ||1682100 || 2649700 || 633600 || 835319<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-202 ||3265400 || 5677900 || 1233000 || 1643496<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| P-301 ||8263300 || 10579300 || 593100 || 1016878<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| P-302 ||5435000 || 7740400 || 389400 || 811881<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-101 ||43800 || 221900 || 11900 || 40680<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-102 ||2070900 || 5175400 || 1051900 || 1717877<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-103 ||1759900 || 4866600 || 804500 || 1476730<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-104 ||2976300 || 6117800 || 1625400 || 2292006<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-105 ||32200 || 201500 || 8300 || 35146<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-106 ||3480300 || 6698800 || 1863900 || 2546114<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-107 ||3538500 || 6800500 || 1918700 || 2612432<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-108 ||3673200 || 6973400 || 1985400 || 2687585<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-109 ||4178000 || 7524400 || 2228400 || 2938816<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-110 ||3690700 || 6978300 || 1994800 || 2693811<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-111 ||3711900 || 6991200 || 1986700 || 2683352<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-112 ||3541500 || 6754700 || 1891600 || 2562046<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-113 ||3288600 || 6463300 || 1782100 || 2444134<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-114 ||3039500 || 6176100 || 1651800 || 2306017<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-115 ||2961900 || 5572100 || 1614900 || 2161959<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-117 ||2831600 || 5403700 || 1549900 || 2087670<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-118 ||2800000 || 5359400 || 1531200 || 2065331<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-201 ||2807200 || 5147700 || 1535700 || 2002614<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-202 ||2921700 || 5295200 || 1587700 || 2063167<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-203 ||6322000 || 9725700 || 3364500 || 4063966<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
=Appendix J: Economic NPV Analysis=<br />
[[File:Team F Economics.JPG|center|1200px|thumb|alt=Economic Analysis|Figure J.1: Screenshot of process economic analysis.]]<br />
<br />
=References=<br />
<references/></div>Kedricdaly2https://processdesign.mccormick.northwestern.edu/index.php?title=Nueces_Desalination_Center:_Production_of_Drinking_Water_by_Multi-Stage_Flash_Distillation&diff=4971Nueces Desalination Center: Production of Drinking Water by Multi-Stage Flash Distillation2016-03-07T21:45:59Z<p>Kedricdaly2: Added Table 13</p>
<hr />
<div>Team F: Rankine 672 Final Report<br />
<br />
Authors: Kedric Daly, Ben Granger, Evan Rosati, Kathleen Zhou<br />
<br />
Instructors: Fengqi You, David Wegerer<br />
<br />
March 11, 2016<br />
<br />
=Executive Summary=<br />
Desalination of seawater to drinking water is a technology of ever-increasing importance given trends of increasingly widespread water shortages around the world. Even in the United States, water shortages are becoming increasingly common in dry, highly-populated such as California and certain areas of the Gulf Coast. Our design team, Rankine 672, was tasked with evaluating the need for and designing a desalination plant to provide purified water in a place of need. Investigation revealed that the city of Corpus Christi, Texas, is a strategic location for development of a desalination facility, as surrounding region is in need of new drinking water sources and the city has expressed serious interest in contracting the development of a large-scale desalination plant. Our proposed solution is a multi-stage flash distillation desalination facility capable of producing 20,000,000 gallons (75,708 m<sup>3</sup>) of purified drinking water for the city and surrounding region per operating day.<br />
<br />
In this design, drinking water is produced from seawater feedstock through a 21-stage flash distillation process. By strategically locating the facility next to an existing natural gas power plant, the Nueces Bay Energy Center, pre-heated feed water can be taken directly from the outbound cooling systems of the power plant, allowing energy savings for our desalination plant. The process is designed for 16 hour-per-day operation, requires a seawater feed of 8250 m<sup>3</sup>/hr, and produces 4758 m<sup>3</sup>/hr of purified drinking water alongside a waste stream of 3485 m<sup>3</sup>/hr of concentrated brine. The waste stream is isolated from a recycle stream through a 9.0% purge; this results in an overall product yield of 57.7% on a volume basis. The process requires an additional pretreatment stream of 16.5 kg/hr Belgard EV 2030, which serves as an antiscalant, as well as 9.5 kg/hr chlorine, 352.1 kg/hr lime, and 418.7 kg/hr CO2 for post-treatment purposes.<br />
<br />
The overall capital cost of the plant is expected to be $345MM, with a total operating cost of $103MM/yr, $59MM/yr of which comes from utilities. Due to the low price at which the product water can be sold, the 30-year net present value of the plant, assuming a 6% discount rate, is $-1,035MM. It is thus imperative this plant be constructed with public funds because it cannot return a profit to any private investor. The growing need for water however could justify the cost, because it is important that the residents of the greater Corpus Christi area have access to drinkable water.<br />
<br />
__TOC__<br />
<br />
=Introduction=<br />
==Background==<br />
Clean drinking water is a basic human need that is becoming increasingly difficult to meet. Currently, over 1 billion people live in places where water is considered scarce<ref> Tapping the oceans. The Economist USA. http://www.economist.com/node/11484059. Accessed March 2, 2016. </ref>. Though often thought of as a problem exclusive to third-world countries, the issue is becoming more prevalent in the US as well, with water managers in 40 of 50 states anticipating water shortage conditions in some portion of their state in the next 10 years. These shortages are due to increasing demands on constant or diminishing freshwater resources, therefore, to correct the issue, a new supply must be found<ref> Water Supply in the US. EPA. http://www3.epa.gov/watersense/pubs/supply.html. Accessed March 2, 2016.</ref>. Desalination of seawater is therefore important as a new source for clean drinking water and prevent water shortages. <br />
<br />
==Project Definition==<br />
The overall goal of the project is to investigate the feasibility of a desalination plant in order to meet the needs of growing water demand. The design needs to take health, safety, and environmental concerns into account, while optimizing costs.<br />
<br />
=Design Basis=<br />
Site Location and Conditions<br />
Corpus Christi, TX was chosen as the location for the proposed desalination plant. The city is currently experiencing “Moderate Shortage Conditions”. This issue additionally comes at a time of growing demand with population growth anticipated due to new industry and Eagle Ford Group crude oil production<ref>Stage 2 Measures in the Drought Contingency Plan. Available at http://www.cctexas.com/government/water/conservation/conservation-drought-plans/stage-2-measures. Accessed January 12, 2016. </ref>.<br />
<br />
In June 2014, the city announced the Corpus Christi Desalination Demonstration Project<ref>Corpus Christi Desalination Demonstration Project. Available at http://www.cctexas.com/Assets/Departments/Water/Files/DesalFactSheet.pdf. Published June 2014. Accessed January 12, 2016. <br />
</ref> which seeks to create a demonstration desalination plant capable of producing 20,000 gallons of water per day, with plans to later build a full scale facility generating 20,000,000 gallons of water per day. The desalination demonstration project indicates a clear need for implementation of a desalination plant of this size to accommodate growth in the Corpus Christi area. <br />
<br />
Locating our plant in Corpus Christi will allow us to take advantage of the benefits of cogeneration through a partnership with the Nueces Bay Energy Center. By utilizing their outlet cooling water as a large portion of our feed for the desalination process, we can raise the temperature of our seawater feed, saving on energy costs in the multi stage flash distillation. The proposed location for the desalination plant is immediately west of the Nueces Bay Energy Center. See Appendix A for a map depicting the proposed location for the desalination plant along the coast of Nueces Bay.<br />
<br />
==Feed and Product Definitions==<br />
The proposed desalination facility’s feed and product streams are defined as shown in Table 1. Rationale for these definitions is also described below. The values reported in Table 1 are final derived numbers from HYSYS simulation modeling. <br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 1: Feed and product stream definitions<br />
! &nbsp;<br />
! Salt Concentration<br />
! Temperature <br />
! Amount<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Feed Stream <br />
| 30,500 ppm || 45°C || 8250 m<sup>3</sup>/hr<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Product Stream<br />
| ~ 0 ppm || 35°C || 4758 m<sup>3</sup>/hr<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Byproduct Stream<br />
| 69,500 ppm || 35°C || 3485 m<sup>3</sup>/hr<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
The process feed will be seawater from Nueces Bay, preheated through the cooling water system of the nearby Nueces Bay Energy Center. Based on calculations developed from NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory) data, it was estimated that the Nueces Bay Energy Center uses approximately 250 million gallons of seawater per day for process and cooling needs. Therefore, the 20 million gallon per day requirement for the desalination facility can easily be met through the power plant’s cooling water<ref>Torcellini P, Long N, Judkoff R. Consumptive Water Use for U.S. Power Consumption. NREL. 2003; TP-550-33905. <br />
</ref>. Note that we are assuming the process will operate 67% of the time (16 hours per day).<br />
<br />
Based on data acquired from two salinity-measuring stations in Nueces Bay, the average salinity of local seawater is 30.5 practical salinity units (psu)<ref>Stations Map & Real - Time Data. The Conrad Blucher Institute for Surveying and Science website. Available at http://www.cbi.tamucc.edu/cbi/data/. Updated January 2016. Accessed January 9, 2016. </ref>, thus setting the concentration of the process feed stream. This translates to a feed stream concentration of 30,500 ppm (parts per million)<ref name = "SALT">Definition and Units. CATD Salinity Expertise Center. Available at http://www.salinityremotesensing.ifremer.fr/home. Accessed January 12, 2016.</ref>. The composition of the salt attributed to this seawater salinity is shown in Table 6 in Appendix B. <br />
<br />
No data on the composition of seawater around the Corpus Christi area was available, but the composition of seawater does not change significantly in different locations. The given composition is considered accurate for our feed stream<ref>Brown E, Colling A, Park D, Phillips J, Rothery D, Wright J. Seawater : Its Composition, Properties and Behaviour. Boston: Butterworth-Heinemann, 1995.<br />
</ref>. Note that seawater salt is primarily sodium chloride - total dissolved solids are 85.7% sodium chloride by mass. As such, the dissolved solids in the feed stream is assumed in this project to be pure NaCl, making the feed composition 96.95% water and 3.05% NaCl by mass. A control system will likely be put in place to ensure feed concentration remains at this level, accounting for natural fluctuations in local seawater salinity.<br />
<br />
The largest byproduct from the process will be a brine slurry with high salt concentrations. An upper corrosion limit of 700 ppm was set for recirculated and purged brine. This undesired byproduct will be sent to a nearby Class I non-hazardous injection well facility operated by GNI Group, which is approximately 12 miles away from the proposed desalination plant location as shown in the figure in Appendix A<ref>Texas Water Code. Availabe at http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/WA/htm/WA.27.htm. Accessed January 14, 2016.<br />
</ref><ref>Google Maps. Available at https://goo.gl/maps/3xcvLZwUCe42 Accessed January 15, 2016.</ref>. Through the incorporation of a Class I injection well, the brine will not have to be treated or diluted before injection. <ref>EPA Regulations on Class I Wells. Available at http://www.epa.gov/uic/class-i-industrial-and-municipal-waste-disposal-wells. Accessed January 14, 2016.<br />
</ref><ref>List of Injection Well Facilities by Location. Available at http://www.ehso.com/cssepa/tsdfdeepwells.php. Accessed January 14, 2016.</ref><br />
<br />
There are no regulations regarding the temperature of city drinking water, so the product stream temperature has no requirements based on regulations. Outlet temperatures of 35<sup>o</sup>C are acceptable for input to the municipal water supply system. Since city water tends to be stored in non-temperature controlled tanks, the temperature will naturally cool to ambient temperature.<ref>Climate Corpus Christi- Texas. US Climate Data. Available at http://www.usclimatedata.com/climate/corpus-christi/texas/united-states/ustx0294. Accessed January 12, 2016. </ref><br />
<br />
==Pre-Treatment and Post-Treatment==<br />
For pretreatment, Belgard EV 2030 is recommended to be added at a concentration of 1.8-2.0 mg/L for a system with top brine temperature approximately 110 °C<ref name="BWA 2030">BWA Water Additives. Belgard EV2030 Technical Data Sheet. BWA Water Additives. http://www.wateradditives.com/files/products/tech_data_sheets/Belgard%20EV%202030_Technical%20Data%20Sheet_Thermal_8.5x11.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016.<br />
</ref>. Since our process is designed to operate at a slightly higher top brine temperature, 120 °C, we will design for the upper bound concentration: 2.0 mg/L of antiscalant. With a feed flow rate of 8250 m<sup>3</sup>/hr, the process therefore requires 16.5 kg/hr of Belgard EV 2030.<br />
<br />
For disinfection during post-treatment, chlorine addition typically requires a dose of roughly 2.0 mg/L as well<ref name="World Health Organization">World Health Organization. Desalination for safe water supply. http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/gdwqrevision/desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. With a pure water distillate flow rate of 4758 m<sup>3</sup>/hr, the process requires 9.5 kg/hr of chlorine as a 5%-15% sodium hypochlorite solution. Approximately 74 mg/L of lime (calcium hydroxide) and 88mg/L of CO2 should be added to the desalinated water to help prevent corrosion and increase alkalinity within acceptable ranges<ref name="Vouchkov">Vouchkov, N. Re-Mineralization of Desalinated Water. SunCam. https://s3.amazonaws.com/suncam/npdocs/118.pdf. Accessed February 18, 2016.</ref>. With a product stream flow rate of 4758 m3/hr, these concentrations correspond to 352.1 kg/hr of lime and 418.7 kg/hr of CO2. Both of these can be purchased, and it is likely that the CO2 can be procured from the neighboring natural gas power plant.<br />
<br />
==Choice of Desalination Technology==<br />
The two major technologies commonly implemented for desalination include reverse osmosis (RO), and multi-stage flash distillation (MSFD). RO utilizes high pressures to force water through a semipermeable membrane that allows for purified water to pass through, but stops organic and other wastes. Often, the pressures can reach 55 - 68 bar, which requires large pumps to maintain pressure, and introduces safety concerns to the process<ref>Stage 2 Measures in the Drought Contingency Plan. Available at http://www.cctexas.com/government/water/conservation/conservation-drought-plans/stage-2-measures. Accessed January 12, 2016. <br />
</ref>. While RO can be less energy intensive than MSFD, and the membrane can also remove contaminants, it is susceptible to feedwater quality, membrane fouling, and requires more extensive pretreatment and posttreatment than MSFD. The cost of RO is directly proportional to the feed salinity, and so it is less expensive when desalinating low salinity water.<br />
<br />
Multi-stage flash distillation is best selected for areas that have high salinity or low energy costs. The pretreatment process for MSFD is much easier when compared to RO because pretreatment often consists of simply adding anti-corrosives and antiscalants to the feed stream. The process works by heating water in vessels at different pressures to change the boiling point of the water and evaporate it as it passes through the system. After evaporation, the water condenses, leaving pure water as the effluent. MSFD costs are now roughly $1.00/m3, where this cost is mostly independent of salinity, but dependent on energy costs.<ref>Fritzman C, Lowenberg J, Wintgens T, Melin T. State-of-the-art Reverse Osmosis Desalination. Desalination. 2007; 216:1-76. <br />
</ref> In both RO and MSFD a brine is produced which then must be appropriately treated and/or disposed of.<br />
<br />
Multi-stage flash distillation was selected for this process, mainly due to the economic advantages offered by the selected location of Corpus Christi, TX. MSFD is also a well understood process that can be more easily modeled by chemical engineering software.<br />
<br />
=Technical Approach=<br />
Quantitative modeling of the process and all included optimization was conducted using the simulation software Aspen HYSYS. A variety of assumptions were developed to set up and define specific components of the process simulation itself. Within Aspen HYSYS, the NRTL Electrolyte property package was selected to model the behavior of salt water. Each stage of the MSF process is modeled as an individual flash vessel, with individual shell & tube heat exchangers used to model the distillate condensers present in each flash stage in the MSF system.<br />
<br />
The HYSYS simulation model only considers the flash portion of the overall process, allowing establishment of mass and energy balances for the system. Pretreatment and post-treatment were excluded for the HYSYS model, as these steps are simple additions or removals of small concentrations of chemical components. Although the simulation models heat exchangers outside of each flash stage, in the physical design of the plant these heat exchangers will be contained within each flash stage.<br />
<br />
One portion of the process is not modeled, which is the inlet seawater entering the heat rejection stages. As can be seen from the full process flow diagram (Appendix C), the inlet seawater in the heat rejection stage is in high excess to provide maximum cooling capacity; then a significant portion is purged to bring the stream flow rate down to what is needed for the feed stream. It is assumed that the flow rate of cooling water for those three stages is in such high excess that the cooling water does not heat up. Therefore, in the process simulation models, the inlet stream is the feed stream, which enters directly into the heat recovery portion of the process.<br />
<br />
See Appendix D for a screenshot overview of the simulation environment model.<br />
<br />
=Process Overview=<br />
==Process Flowsheet==<br />
The following diagram, Figure 1, shows a basic flowsheet for the process. Process alternatives considered for each stage are discussed below. Please see Appendix C for the full process flowsheet with finalized design decisions.<br />
<br />
[[File:BlockFlowDiagram.png|center|700px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Desalination Facility Block Flow Diagram|Figure 1: Basic block flowsheet of the multi-stage flash desalination process.]]<br />
<br />
==Major Features==<br />
As seen above, there are three primary stages of the desalination process: Pre-treatment, the multi-stage flash distillation, and post-treatment. Seawater enters the pre-treatment phase first to make the feed suitable for the rest of the process by filtering out large particles that could accumulate on pipes, deaerating the water to limit corrosion, and adding an agent to combat fouling. The water then enters the distillation process, which is broken up into two sections: heat recovery and heat rejection. <br />
<br />
In the heat recovery stage, there are 18 flash vessels, each of which separates steam from the salinated liquid water. Each flash vessel has saltwater as its inlet and two outlets: a vapor outlet (steam) that condenses into the final product of purified water and a liquid outlet composed of water with more dissolved solids than the inlet, which is the inlet stream for the next flash vessel. The pipe containing the feed is first mixed with recycled brine, then goes through the top sections of each of the flash vessels, starting with V-118 and ending up at V-101. In this way, the feed stream pipe first serves as a heat exchanger, heating the pre-treated seawater while simultaneously condensing the steam into the final product. The feed then enters a final heat exchanger where it is brought up to 103.6 °C before entering V-101 to be flashed.<br />
<br />
After exiting V-118, the final flash vessel in the heat recovery portion, the water enters the heat rejection portion, which consists of three flash vessels (V-201, V-202, V-203). The flash vessels of this section operate in the same manner as in the heat recovery section, with the exception that condensation occurs using excess cooling water instead of pre-treated seawater. This technique allows excess heat to be rejected into an excess water stream rather than the feed.<br />
<br />
The purified product stream finally enters post-treatment processing in which water is re-aerated and remineralized, disinfected, and pH is adjusted before being delivered to the city. The concentrated brine leftover at the end of the flash cycle is recycled into the feed, although a purge is required to continuously remove some salt from the system. This purged brine is disposed of by use of a Class I injection well, per regional regulations.<br />
<br />
See Appendix E to find detailed stream tables of stream specifications.<br />
<br />
==Process Alternatives==<br />
===Pretreatment===<br />
Multi-stage flash distillation requires significantly less pretreatment than reverse osmosis desalination, but helpful pretreatment techniques still exist. One very inexpensive method of pretreatment is screening/filtration, which is used to filter out large contaminants from intake seawater. Using more complicated membrane technology to accomplish large particle filtration is a possible alternative, but doing so would be much more expensive than using a standard screen or filter, so the latter choice has been selected for this process.<ref>El-Dessouky H., Alatiqi I, Ettouney H. Process synthesis: The multi-stage flash desalination system. Desalination. 1998;115(2):115-179. doi: 10.1016/S0011-9164(98)00035-6.</ref><br />
<br />
The most critical type of fouling in multi-stage flash distillation is scaling - therefore, the most critical step in the pretreatment process will be the inclusion of an anti-scalant. Alkaline scaling can be prevented by acid dosing or polyphosphate addition; however, acid dosing can result in increased corrosion and polyphosphates can lead to non-alkaline calcium phosphate fouling, so these additives will not be considered<ref name="Morris">Morris, R. The development of the multi-stage flash distillation process: A designer's viewpoint. Desalination. 1993;93(1-3):57-68. doi:10.1016/S0011-9164(93)80096-6. Availble at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0011916493800966</ref><ref>Al-Gobaisi, D. A quarter-century of seawater desalination by large multistage flash plants in Abu Dhabi (Plant performance analysis, assessment, present efforts toward enhancement and future hopes). Desalination. 1994;99(2-3):509-512. doi: 10.1016/S0011-9164(94)00196-0.</ref>. As such, a polymer-based additive is recommended for the anti-scalant for this process. The Belgard EV series is designed for use in high-temperature seawater MSF; of these, Belgard EV 2030 is the most neutral in pH<ref>NSF International. NSF Product and Service Listings: Drinking Water Treatment Chemicals - Health Effects. NSF International. http://info.nsf.org/Certified/PwsChemicals/Listings.asp?Company=00300&. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref><ref name="BWA 2030" /><ref>BWA Water Additives. Belgard EV2035 Technical Data Sheet. BWA Water Additives. http://www.wateradditives.com/files/products/tech_data_sheets/Belgard%20EV2035_Technical%20Data%20Sheet_Thermal_8.5x11.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref><ref>BioLab Water Additives. Belgard EV Antiscalant for seawater distillation plants. BioLab Water Additives. http://www.lpq.com.mx/pdf/BELGARD%20EV.PDF. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref>. As such, we have selected Belgard EV 2030 for use as an anti-scalant in our process.<br />
<br />
Corrosion control is another significant method of pretreatment in multi-stage flash distillation plants. Using a piping material that has limited susceptibility to corrosion is typically not economically viable for MSF desalination plants due their large size, so using carbon steel for most of the piping is generally used for its economic benefits despite its susceptibility to corrosion<ref name = "Morris" />. Limiting oxygen concentration is very feasible through the use of deaerators, which can remove oxygen as well as other dissolved gases from the seawater stream. Often, an external deaeration system is used<ref name = "Morris" /><ref>Edwards - Hick Hargreaves. Seawater Deaerators. Edwards - Hick Hargreaves. http://psscorp.co.th/upload/news/20110830105340.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. Given these considerations, using an external deaerator combined with a less-corrosive antiscalant like Belgard EV 2030 is much more practical for the process than using anti-corrosive piping.<br />
<br />
Excessive foam can also be an issue in some MSF distillation facilities, so antifoaming agents are sometimes employed in the pretreatment process as well. However, many plants are operated without foaming issues, and therefore do not need anti-foaming pretreatment at all. Selection of an anti-foaming agent must be carefully weighed with selected of anti-scalant to avoid issues with additive interactions [26]. At this stage in the design process, an anti-foamer will not be included due to the risk of decreasing scalant efficacy, and the likelihood that foam will not be an issue in the desalination plant.<br />
<br />
===Multistage Flash Distillation===<br />
The main objective of the design project is desalinate water. This is done with the main process of multi stage flash distillation (MSF). MSF can be developed using a numerous number of different process configurations, such as Once-Through, Simple Mixer Brine Circulation, and Multi-Stage Heat Rejection Brine Circulation processes. <br />
<br />
The most desired process for the project is the Three Stage Heat Rejection Brine Circulation as it builds on benefits of the other simpler technologies. By combining principles of heat rejection and heat recovery, the required heat transfer area of the process is greatly reduced as compared to once through processes or simple brine recycle processes. It has the highest performance ratio with the lowest specific feed flow rates, therefore greatly lowering the operating costs of the process. It is also known as the industry standard for MSF<ref name = "KSU Chapter 6">Kansas State University ChE 413. Available at: http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/Almutaz/Documents/ChE-413/Multi-stage%20Flash%20Desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. In addition, since our brine disposal technique involves the pumping of the brine into a Class I well, the high brine outlet salinity is not a drawback for our process since post treatment or dilution of the brine is not necessary.<br />
<br />
===Post Treatment===<br />
After processing the water via multi-stage flash, the water needs to be post-treated to make the water taste as consumers would expect, since distilled water is “flat” and unpleasant, as well as to protect the consumers and the piping through which the water will be passing<ref name="Clayton">Clayton R. A review of current knowledge: Desalination for water supply. Foundation for Water Research. http://www.fwr.org/desal.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. There are multiple alternatives to achieve these objectives of remineralization, aeration, corrosion control, and disinfection.<br />
<br />
Aerating and introducing some dissolved solids back into the product water are effective ways to create a quality product that is not flat, and contains flavoring that is expected of the water when delivered to the consumer. Aeration will be accomplished via an inline spray aerator which will take up less space than cascade aeration.<ref>Minnesota Rural Water Association. Aeration. http://www.mrwa.com/WaterWorksMnl/Chapter%2011%20Aeration.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref> Feed blending will be used to remineralize the water as opposed to a remineralization filter because it does not require additional equipment purchases, and can easily handle the large amounts of throughput required for the process.<ref name="Clayton" /><br />
<br />
Corrosion and pH can be controlled by adding lime (calcium hydroxide) and carbon dioxide to the water. To do so, about 74 mg/L of lime and 88mg/L of CO<sub>2</sub> should be added to the desalinated water to help prevent corrosion and increase alkalinity within acceptable ranges. Sodium hydroxide, soda ash, and sodium bicarbonate are alternatives to altering the alkalinity and pH of the product water, but lime and CO<sub>2</sub> is an industry standard <ref name="Vouchkov" />.<br />
<br />
Disinfection needs to be done to prevent microbial growth in the desalinated water and ensure the safety of the general public. Chlorine addition via chlorine gas or sodium hypochlorite is the most common and only requires a dose of 1.5 to 2.5 mg/liter. <ref name="World Health Organization" /> Other alternatives include ozonation, UV light, and chloramination. Chlorine, as a 5% - 15% sodium hypochlorite solution, is sufficient for our process and relatively inexpensive, and as such will be utilized in the process.<br />
<br />
===Transport of Brine to Well===<br />
Three major possibilities exist for transporting the brine from our desalination plant to the injection well for disposal: rail, trucking, and a pipeline. A pipeline was chosen as the most feasible and cost-effective approach. <br />
<br />
A rail line is not available at this time, and with the cost to construct a rail line at approximately $43 million per mile<ref>About Money. How Much Do Rail Transit Projects Cost to Build and Operate? 2014. Available at: http://publictransport.about.com/od/Transit_Projects/a/How-Much-Do-Rail-Transit-Projects-Cost-To-Build-And-Operate.htm. Accessed January 27, 2016. </ref>, the enormous capital cost makes rail transport infeasible for this site. For large volume operations, pipelines are cheaper than trucking. In a study of wastewater sludge produced from wastewater treatment facilities, it was found that it was more economical for facilities producing over 1200 m<sup>3</sup> per day to utilize pipelines rather than trucking.<ref>Marufuzzaman M, Eskioglu S, Hernandez R. Truck versus pipeline transportation cost analysis of wastewater sludge. Transportation Research. 2015; 74(A): 14-30. </ref> Our facility is producing nearly 3 times this volume at 3485 m<sup>3</sup> per day of brine. Furthermore, brine is a less viscous fluid than wastewater sludge, decreasing pumping costs in the pipeline and further amplifying the benefit of choosing a pipeline over an injection well.<br />
<br />
===Brine Storage===<br />
Due to the choice of a pipeline, rather than trucking, as the method of transport of brine to the injection well, brine storage is unnecessary, so storage solutions such as holding tanks were not investigated. One method of storage compatible with a pipeline is to pump the brine through an evaporation pond. This solution is attractive as it would allow the brine to concentrate, saving some costs of pumping, however, the considerable land usage of evaporation ponds leads them to only be effective for smaller plants. The largest municipal plant utilizing this method produces only 5.7 million liters per day<ref>University of Santa Cruz Center for Integrated Water Research. Concentrate Management: Evaporation Ponds. 2010. Available at: https://ciwr.ucsc.edu/sites/default/files/ICM_D5.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016. </ref>, whereas our desalination plant is proposed to produce 75.7 million liters per day. Therefore, evaporation ponds have been eliminated from consideration.<br />
<br />
==Major Specifications==<br />
===Material of Construction Selection===<br />
While saltwater and desalinated water in general can be corrosive, there are best practices within the desalination industry for material selection. With this in mind, best practice shows carbon steel lifetime can be lengthened by monitoring the oxygen concentration in the water, specifying the paint used to coat any metal, and more expensive materials can be used in areas of extremely high corrosion.<ref name = "Morris" />. By following these best practices, it is possible to save significant amounts of money through the use of carbon steel in most areas of the plant, with specific high-corrosion areas being reinforced with, or replaced with, more corrosion resistant materials, such as Cu/Ni 70/30 alloy<ref name = "KSU Chapter 6" />.<br />
<br />
===Heat Exchanger Sizing===<br />
See Appendix F for heat exchanger sizing data. Heat exchanger sizes appear reasonable for placement in the flash vessels.<br />
<br />
===Flash Vessel Sizing===<br />
The dimensions for the flash drums were obtained through literature values. The flash drums were determined to be 18x4x3 m in width, height, and length.<ref name="KSU Chapter 6" /><br />
<br />
Wall thickness was determined using the following conventions: Design pressure is 10% more than the operating pressure, design temperature is 50°F (27.8°C) higher than the operating temperature, a corrosion allowance of 3-mm and an effectiveness of 85% was derived from the assumption of a double-welded butt joint that was spot checked. See Appendix G for wall thicknesses calculated for each pressure vessel. <br />
<br />
The sizing of the vessels to be constructed will be determined after talks with a manufacturer. Due to economies of scale, it may be more cost-effective to buy 21 pressure vessels with the dimensions mentioned above and a wall thickness of 17.1-mm, the highest wall thickness required in the system.<br />
<br />
===Pipe Losses and Pressure Drop===<br />
HYSYS was used to estimate the diameter of a pipe given a specified pressure drop per 100m of pipe. It was determined that for a pressure drop of 0.1 kPa/100m of pipe, a 3.05m diameter pipe is sufficient, which is more than manageable for manufacturers. This pressure drop is mostly insignificant and will be taken care of with the safety factors included in the pumps. The significant pressure drops in our system is accounted for via losses in the flash vessels and heat exchangers, which drive the flash process. Therefore overall pipe losses are insignificant and are built into intentional design losses.<br />
<br />
=Economic Analysis=<br />
==Economic Assumptions==<br />
The sale of purified water yields a revenue stream of $49.5 million per year assuming sale to commercial entities within the city limits of Corpus Christi at $1.7915 per thousand liters.<ref>Water schedule. City of Corpus Christi Utility Business Office. http://www.cctexas.com/Assets/Departments/Financial-Services/Utilities-Business-Office/files/waterrates.pdf Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref> The primary variable costs are utilities and the brine disposal, with minimal raw materials costs due to the primary feedstock, seawater, being free, and minimal amounts of pre- and post-treatment chemicals being used. The cost of brine disposal used in this analysis was high at $2.097 per thousand liters<ref>McCurdy, R. Underground injection wells for produced water disposal. Chesapeake Energy Corporation. http://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/documents/21_McCurdy_-_UIC_Disposal_508.pdf Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref>, an estimate for brine disposal utilizing trucking as the mode of transport. As has been shown through previous analyses, a lower cost can be achieved using a direct pipeline, however, no good estimates for this cost could be found.<br />
<br />
The NPV was calculated using a 6% cost of capital, the approximate interest rate for a municipal bond.<ref>Zirbe, R.O. Jr., Han, X., Layton, D., Leshine, T. A history of discount rates and their use by government agencies. (2002). http://faculty.washington.edu/zerbe/docs/DISCOUNT%20RATE%20HISTORY-latesXIt.doc Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref> It was assumed that the plant can be built within two years, with production at half-scale in its first year. Additionally, one month of variable costs, $10.6 million, was set aside for working capital. See Appendix H for a full table of assumptions. A 30 year NPV calculation was chosen as the decision basis since 30 years is a conservative estimate for the lifetime of a desalination plant <ref>Tampa Bay Seawater Desalination Plant. American Water. http://www.amwater.com/files/tampabayseawaterdesalinationplantcasestudy6.16.09.pdf. Accessed February 25, 20216.</ref>. See below for estimates of NPV for the lifetime of the plant under various assumptions and design criteria.<br />
<br />
==Optimization and Sensitivity Analysis==<br />
Looking at the multi-stage flash process, there are a number of opportunities to optimize the process. The major process variables that were investigated were the inlet water temperature, the operating pressure drop per vessel, and the number of stages over which the process takes place. Considering these optimizations, our final process consists of 21 flash vessels (18 heat recovery and 3 heat rejection stages), each with a pressure drop of 5 kPa. See Appendix D for a screenshot of the HYSYS simulation used to model the optimized process.<br />
===Operating Pressure and Pressure Drop===<br />
Initially our process was designed to pump the inlet seawater and brine to a pressure of 2 bar and allow the pressure drop in each flash stage to end our process downstream at 1 bar to prevent complications associated with designing a system under vacuum. While this provided pumping advantages, the energy in the system was significantly higher due to vapor pressure considerations. Due to this fact, the required heat exchange area for certain exchangers proved to be infeasible (on the order of 80,000m<sup>2</sup>) due to the enormous capital and operating costs that would be associated with such a large heat exchanger.<br />
<br />
The process was optimized to operate under vacuum, requiring additional pumping requirements but much lower required heat exchange area, and therefore lower utility costs. This optimization was done by specifying the pressure of the final flash vessel to 5.7kPa, so that the temperature of the water vapor (~30<sup>o</sup>C) is within approximately 5<sup>o</sup>C of the cooling water (35<sup>o</sup>C) so that condensation can occur within a reasonable approach. This also allows our system to optimally extract pure water from the brine running through the system and reduce energy requirements for cooling the product or the recycle. Our system redesign and optimization reduced the energy in the system and reduce the same heat exchanger area requirements by more than 3 orders of magnitude to approximately 800m<sup>2</sup>. <br />
<br />
Once the process was optimized to operate in a vacuum, the pressure drop per flash stage regulated through values was then optimized. Three pressure drops per stages, 3kPa, 5kPa, and 7kPa, were tested and then an economic analysis was conducted to find the optimal value for the pressure drop. These changes had impacts on both operating and capital costs as they would change initial pumping requirements, the amount of water flowing through the process and recycle (and therefore the flash vessel sizes, heat exchanger sizing), and the efficiency of each stage.<br />
<br />
The various pressure drops (3 kPa, 5 kPa, and 7 kPa) were tested on a system nominally at 24 stages under the assumption that the results would be generalizable to systems with a different number of stages. With increasing pressure drop, we found decreased capital cost but increased utility cost. As can be seen from Table 2 below, a pressure drop of 5 kPa proved to be the best option based on 30 year NPV, with a loss of $838.8 million, a savings of $65.5 million compared to the next-best option with a pressure drop of 7 kPa.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 2: Comparison of profitability for our MSF desalination process with 24 stages with 3 different pressure drops per stage<br />
! Number of Stages <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! Pressure Drop <br/> (kPa)<br />
! Capital Cost <br/> ($MM)<br />
! Utility Cost <br/> ($MM/yr)<br />
! 30-Year NPV <br/> ($MM)<br />
! NPV Ratio <br/> (over 5kPa)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 3 || 362.3 || 39.1 || -905.8 || 1.08<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 5 || 255.1 || 53.6 || -838.8 || 1.00<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 7 || 209.5 || 72.2 || -904.3 || 1.08<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
===Number of Flash Stages===<br />
The number of stages is an important area for optimization. An increased number of stages yields better recovery of purified water, however, requires higher capital cost from the additional pressure vessel. Furthermore, with an increased amount of purified water comes increasingly concentrated brine. This must be taken into account since any brine concentration in excess of about 7% presents a more significant corrosion risk<ref name="KSU Chapter 6" />, so increased maintenance costs for the piping or higher capital costs for more corrosion-resistant materials could be necessary for brine concentrations exceeding 7%. Therefore, to recover the same amount of pure water without exceeding corrosion limitations, increasing the number of stages will reduce the overall size of each stage.<br />
<br />
Optimizing based on NPV, it was found that 21 stages is optimal, balancing the increased profits from the additional purified water additional costs of higher capital cost. See Table 3 below to compare the 30-year NPV of the process across various numbers of flash vessels.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 3: Comparison of profitability for our MSF desalination process with a 5 kPa pressure drop, 5000 m<sup>3</sup>/hr feed flow rate, with varying number of stages.<br />
! Number of Stages <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! Pressure Drop <br/> (kPa)<br />
! Capital Cost <br/> ($MM)<br />
! Utility Cost <br/> ($MM/yr)<br />
! 30-Year NPV <br/> ($MM)<br />
! NPV Ratio <br/> (over 21 Stages)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 17 || 5 || 213.9 || 58.7 || -813.8 || 1.016<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 18 || 5 || 218 || 57.6 || -809.9 || 1.011<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 19 || 5 || 224.3 || 58 || -806.1 || 1.007<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 20 || 5 || 229.8 || 57.9 || -813.6 || 1.016<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 21 || 5 || 226.6 || 55.9 || -800.7 || 1<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 22 || 5 || 254.7 || 54.6 || -849.5 || 1.061<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 23 || 5 || 249.3 || 54.1 || -833.1 || 1.04<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 5 || 255.1 || 53.6 || -838.8 || 1.048<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 25 || 5 || 254.9 || 52.7 || -837.4 || 1.046<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
===Inlet Seawater Temperature===<br />
By pairing our desalination plant with a natural gas power plant and utilizing its cooling water we forgo initial heating of our inlet stream. Normally, water pumped from the ocean would be approximately 25<sup>o</sup>C and by capturing waste heat from the power plant we can reduce utilities with our water inlet of 45<sup>o</sup>C. Through an economic comparison between two plants nominally at 21 flash stages, the plant with an inlet temperature at 25<sup>o</sup>C has a capital cost of $245MM and a utility cost of $77MM/yr and the same facility with an inlet water temperature at 45<sup>o</sup>C has a capital cost of only $226MM and a utility cost of $56MM/yr. As shown in Table 4 below, this $19MM savings in capital costs and $21MM/yr saving in utilities is largely due to reducing the size of the heat exchangers and lowering the steam required for heating duty on the inlet seawater respectively. Therefore our process is optimized by recovering the waste heat water from the gas fired power plant.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 4: Seawater Inlet Temperature Process Cost Optimization<br />
! Seawater Temperature <br/> (°C)<br />
! Capital Cost <br/> ($MM)<br />
! Utility Cost <br/> ($MM/yr)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 25 || 245 || 77<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 45 || 226 || 56<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Savings || 56 || 19<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
==Overall Process Economics==<br />
After optimization at fixed flow rates, the process was scaled to meet the the 67% operating percentage and final product definitions as shown in Table 1, which resulted in finalized economics shown in Table 5 below. For a table of the installed costs of each process vessel, see Appendix I. For the finalized NPV calculations, see Appendix J.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 5: Summarized Economics for 21-stage MSFD Process<br />
! Economic Parameter<br />
! Cost <br/> (USD)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Capital Cost || 345 MM<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Total Operating Cost per Year || 103 MM<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Utility Cost per Year || 59 MM<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 30-Year NPV (6% Discount) || -1035 MM<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
=Conclusions and Recommendations=<br />
==Project Viability==<br />
Table 5 above demonstrates that the process has reasonable operating and capital costs, but the 30-year NPV is negative by -1035 $MM due to the extremely low sell price capability of desalinated water as a product. Therefore, this plant would have to heavily be supported by the City of Corpus Christi to run as the product revenue will not make it self-sufficient. The acquisition of government subsidies are key operating requirements for all desalination facilities in the United States. <br />
<br />
==Additional Concerns==<br />
Large volumes of water, steam, and energy are needed to ensure the project runs as specified. While most of the water can easily be extracted from the ocean with little to consequence, the fuel used to generate the steam and electricity can have a significant environmental impact. As the plant is located next to a natural gas power plant, this fuel is better than coal with respect to environmental concerns, and utilizing energy from the power plant to preheat the feed stream for the desalination plant helps lower environmental impacts.<br />
<br />
The large amounts of high pressure steam being used represents one of the the largest safety concern in the process, because a high pressure steam release could easily cause severe burns or even death. Proper precautions and control measures must be in place to prevent accidental release. Otherwise, the process does not utilize any known toxic chemicals and is relatively safe from a chemical standpoint. The flash vessels mostly operate below atmospheric pressure, so they must be constructed as vessels that can withstand vacuum without failing.<br />
<br />
<br />
=Appendix A: Proposed Location of Desalination Plant=<br />
Pictured below is the proposed location for the desalination plant, located on Nueces Bay in Corpus Christi, adjacent to the Nueces Bay Energy Center. The plant’s proposed location is shown in the area outlined by the small circle in the upper right of the figure.<br />
<br />
[[File:NuecesBayLocation.png|center|600px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Desalination Facility Location|Figure A.1: Proposed mapped location of Nueces Bay Desalination Facility.]]<br />
[[File:ClassIWell.png|center|700px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Desalination Facility Distance to Injection Well|Figure A.2: Mapped distance from proposed location to Class I Injection Well]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix B: Feed and Product Definitions - Salinity=<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 6: Average Composition of Total Dissolved Solids in Seawater<ref> Physical and Thermodynamic Data. In: Dickson AG, Goyet C. Handbook of Methods for the Analysis of the Various Parameters of the Carbon Dioxide System in Sea Water.</ref><ref> Composition of Seawater. Water Treatment of Solutions. Available at http://www.lenntech.com/composition-seawater.htm. Accessed January 12, 2016.</ref><br />
! Compound <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! Mass Composition <br/> (kPa)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Chlorine || 55.03%<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Sodium || 30.64%<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Sulfate || 7.70%<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Magnesium || 3.66%<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Calcium || 1.17%<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Potassium || 1.12%<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Bicarbonate || 0.36%<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Bromine || 0.19%<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Other || 0.15%<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
[[File:Nueces Bay Salinity.JPG|center|700px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Salinity Tracking|Figure C.1: Salinity in Nueces Bay over the past 10 years<ref name = "SALT" />.]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix C: Process Flow Diagram=<br />
[[File:TeamF_FinalPFD.JPG|center|1200px|thumb|alt=Process Flow Diagram|Figure C.1: Process Flow Diagram]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix D: HYSYS Simulation Model=<br />
[[File:TeamF_HYSYS_Screenshot.PNG|center|1200px|thumb|alt=HYSYS Simulation Model|Figure D.1: Screenshot of HYSYS Model Simulation.]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix E: Stream Tables=<br />
A summary of some values is shown below:<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 7: Key process material streams<br />
! &nbsp;<br />
! Stream <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! Molar Flow <br/> (10<sup>5</sup> kgmole/h)<br />
! Mass Flow <br/> (10<sup>5</sup> kg/h)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Inlet <br />
| Feed Water || 454 || 83.6<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Outlet<br />
| Brine Reject || 1.90 || 36.0<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Product<br />
| Pure Water || 2.64 || 47.5<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 8: Key process energy streams<br />
! Stream <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! Heat Flow <br/> (kJ/h)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Feed Water || 1.30E+11<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Q-301 || 5.73E+06<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Q-302 || 3.09E+09<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Q-304 || 4.68E+06<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Q-303 || -1.26E+09<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Brine Reject || -5.47E+10<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Pure Water || -7.46E+10<br />
|}<br />
(Negative value denotes energy leaving process)<br />
</center><br />
<br />
=Appendix F: Heat Exchanger Sizing=<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 9: Utility Temperatures and Heat Transfer Coefficient<ref name="Towler">G.P. Towler, R. Sinnott. Chemical Engineering Design: Principles, Practice and Economics of Plant and Process Design. Elsevier, 2012.</ref><br />
! &nbsp;<br />
! HP Steam<br />
! Cooling Water<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! Temperature (°C)<br />
| 250 || 35<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! U (W/m<sup>2</sup>K)<br />
| 4000 || 1500<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 10: Internal Flash Heat Exchanger Sizing, condensing steam.<br />
! Exchanger<br />
! UA <br/> (kJ/°C-h)<br />
! U <br/> (kJ/hr/m<sup>2</sup>°C)<br />
! A <br/> (m<sup>2</sup>)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-101 || 1.47E+07 || 14400 || 1019<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-102 || 1.53E+07 || 14400 || 1059<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-103 || 1.59E+07 || 14400 || 1103<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-104 || 1.66E+07 || 14400 || 1153<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-105 || 1.74E+07 || 14400 || 1209<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-106 || 1.83E+07 || 14400 || 1272<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-107 || 1.93E+07 || 14400 || 1342<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-108 || 2.05E+07 || 14400 || 1424<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-109 || 2.19E+07 || 14400 || 1518<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-110 || 2.35E+07 || 14400 || 1629<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-111 || 2.54E+07 || 14400 || 1761<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-112 || 2.77E+07 || 14400 || 1921<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-113 || 3.05E+07 || 14400 || 2119<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-114 || 3.42E+07 || 14400 || 2372<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-115 || 3.90E+07 || 14400 || 2706<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-116 || 4.56E+07 || 14400 || 3167<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-117 || 5.55E+07 || 14400 || 3856<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-118 || 7.20E+07 || 14400 || 5000<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 11: Heat Exchanger Sizing for Process Heaters and Coolers<br />
! Exchanger<br />
! Q <br/> (kJ/h)<br />
! U <br/> (J/s/m<sup>2</sup>K)<br />
! U <br/> (kJ/hr/m<sup>2</sup>K)<br />
! LMTD <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! A <br/> (m<sup>2</sup>)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-201 || 9.67E+08 || 1500 || 5400 || 16.03 || 11165<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-202 || 1.26E+09 || 1500 || 5400 || 7.57 || 30921<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-203 || 1.88E+09 || 1500 || 5400 || 0.45 || 77366<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-302 || 3.09E+09 || 4000 || 14400 || 155 || 1385<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-303 || 1.26E+09 || 4000 || 14400 || 209.5 || 418<br />
|}<br />
The high heat transfer area in the final cooler of the heat rejection stage is due to the close approach temperature. <br />
<br/>Other cooling / pressurization techniques will be used to reduce the area.<br />
</center><br />
<br />
=Appendix G: Pressure Vessel Sizing=<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 12: Operating temperature and pressure and corresponding thickness for flash vessels<br />
! Unit<br />
! Temperature <br/> (°C)<br />
! Pressure <br/> (kPa)<br />
! Thickness <br/> (mm)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-101 || 103.6 || 110.7 || 17.14<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-102 || 102.3 || 105.7 || 16.62<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-103 || 100.9 || 100.7 || 16.10<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-104 || 99.5 || 95.7 || 15.58<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-105 || 98.0 || 90.7 || 15.06<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-106 || 96.4 || 85.7 || 14.53<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-107 || 94.8 || 80.7 || 14.01<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-108 || 93.1 || 75.7 || 13.49<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-109 || 91.3 || 70.7 || 12.97<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-110 || 89.3 || 65.7 || 12.45<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-111 || 87.3 || 60.7 || 11.93<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-112 || 85.1 || 55.7 || 11.41<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-113 || 82.7 || 50.7 || 10.89<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-114 || 80.1 || 45.7 || 10.36<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-115 || 77.3 || 40.7 || 9.84<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-116 || 74.1 || 35.7 || 9.32<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-117 || 70.6 || 30.7 || 8.80<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-118 || 66.5 || 25.7 || 8.28<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-201 || 61.7 || 20.7 || 7.76<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-202 || 55.8 || 15.7 || 7.24<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-203 || 47.9 || 10.7 || 6.72<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
=Appendix H: Expanded Economic Assumptions=<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 13: Product and raw material market prices<br />
! Parameter<br />
! Value/Unit<br />
! Unit<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Sale price of water || $0.0021 || liter || [35]<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Brine disposal || $0.0016 || barrel || [36]<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Belgard EV 2030 || $1.99 || kilogram || [41]<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Sodium Hypochlorite 12% || $4.54 || kilogram || [42]<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Lime || $0.09 || kilogram || [43]<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| CO<sub>2</sub> || $0.04 || kilogram || [44]<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
<br/><br />
Additional Economic Assumptions<br />
*6% cost of capital<br />
*Construction of plant in 2 years, 50% of full-scale production in 3rd year<br />
*35% tax rate with 5 year MACRS depreciation<br />
*5 operators per shift with 3 shifts<br />
*$50,000 salary per operator<br />
*Supervision is 25% operating labor<br />
*Direct overhead is 45% of labor & supervision<br />
*Maintenance is 3% of ISBL investment per year<br />
*Plant overhead is 65% of labor and maintenance<br />
*Screen price negligible (~$2,000)<br />
<br />
=Appendix I: Equipment Cost Summary=<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 14: Installed costs of all major process equipment, in USD.<br />
! Unit<br />
! Equipment Cost <br/> (USD)<br />
! Installed Cost <br/> (USD)<br />
! Equipment Weight <br/> (LBS)<br />
! Total Installed Weight <br/> (LBS)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-101 ||1033900 || 1716400 || 403500 || 568790<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-102 ||1065700 || 1748700 || 416500 || 581960<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-103 ||1131500 || 1835900 || 439800 || 609338<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-104 ||1206900 || 1913200 || 469800 || 639902<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-105 ||1238900 || 1945800 || 483000 || 653292<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-106 ||1315000 || 2023500 || 515400 || 686222<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-107 ||1058900 || 1741900 || 413000 || 578460<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-108 ||1447500 || 2458400 || 564900 || 796324<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-109 ||1526200 || 2540200 || 598500 || 830924<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-110 ||1656600 || 2698900 || 646400 || 883959<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-111 ||1833500 || 2900600 || 714600 || 953808<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-112 ||1974700 || 3046000 || 774000 || 1014446<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-113 ||2186200 || 3647000 || 856000 || 1154275<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-114 ||2483100 || 4018400 || 968400 || 1278580<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-115 ||2817800 || 4433900 || 1103700 || 1431085<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-116 ||3291100 || 5778100 || 1290000 || 1731000<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-117 ||4062000 || 6880400 || 1588400 || 2081273<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-118 ||5361900 || 10603700 || 2097500 || 3054252<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-201 ||1682100 || 2649700 || 633600 || 835319<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-202 ||3265400 || 5677900 || 1233000 || 1643496<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| P-301 ||8263300 || 10579300 || 593100 || 1016878<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| P-302 ||5435000 || 7740400 || 389400 || 811881<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-101 ||43800 || 221900 || 11900 || 40680<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-102 ||2070900 || 5175400 || 1051900 || 1717877<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-103 ||1759900 || 4866600 || 804500 || 1476730<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-104 ||2976300 || 6117800 || 1625400 || 2292006<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-105 ||32200 || 201500 || 8300 || 35146<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-106 ||3480300 || 6698800 || 1863900 || 2546114<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-107 ||3538500 || 6800500 || 1918700 || 2612432<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-108 ||3673200 || 6973400 || 1985400 || 2687585<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-109 ||4178000 || 7524400 || 2228400 || 2938816<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-110 ||3690700 || 6978300 || 1994800 || 2693811<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-111 ||3711900 || 6991200 || 1986700 || 2683352<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-112 ||3541500 || 6754700 || 1891600 || 2562046<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-113 ||3288600 || 6463300 || 1782100 || 2444134<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-114 ||3039500 || 6176100 || 1651800 || 2306017<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-115 ||2961900 || 5572100 || 1614900 || 2161959<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-117 ||2831600 || 5403700 || 1549900 || 2087670<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-118 ||2800000 || 5359400 || 1531200 || 2065331<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-201 ||2807200 || 5147700 || 1535700 || 2002614<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-202 ||2921700 || 5295200 || 1587700 || 2063167<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-203 ||6322000 || 9725700 || 3364500 || 4063966<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
=Appendix J: Economic NPV Analysis=<br />
[[File:Team F Economics.JPG|center|1200px|thumb|alt=Economic Analysis|Figure J.1: Screenshot of process economic analysis.]]<br />
<br />
=References=<br />
<references/></div>Kedricdaly2https://processdesign.mccormick.northwestern.edu/index.php?title=Nueces_Desalination_Center:_Production_of_Drinking_Water_by_Multi-Stage_Flash_Distillation&diff=4970Nueces Desalination Center: Production of Drinking Water by Multi-Stage Flash Distillation2016-03-07T21:34:26Z<p>Kedricdaly2: Moved Table 14 to correct appendix</p>
<hr />
<div>Team F: Rankine 672 Final Report<br />
<br />
Authors: Kedric Daly, Ben Granger, Evan Rosati, Kathleen Zhou<br />
<br />
Instructors: Fengqi You, David Wegerer<br />
<br />
March 11, 2016<br />
<br />
=Executive Summary=<br />
Desalination of seawater to drinking water is a technology of ever-increasing importance given trends of increasingly widespread water shortages around the world. Even in the United States, water shortages are becoming increasingly common in dry, highly-populated such as California and certain areas of the Gulf Coast. Our design team, Rankine 672, was tasked with evaluating the need for and designing a desalination plant to provide purified water in a place of need. Investigation revealed that the city of Corpus Christi, Texas, is a strategic location for development of a desalination facility, as surrounding region is in need of new drinking water sources and the city has expressed serious interest in contracting the development of a large-scale desalination plant. Our proposed solution is a multi-stage flash distillation desalination facility capable of producing 20,000,000 gallons (75,708 m<sup>3</sup>) of purified drinking water for the city and surrounding region per operating day.<br />
<br />
In this design, drinking water is produced from seawater feedstock through a 21-stage flash distillation process. By strategically locating the facility next to an existing natural gas power plant, the Nueces Bay Energy Center, pre-heated feed water can be taken directly from the outbound cooling systems of the power plant, allowing energy savings for our desalination plant. The process is designed for 16 hour-per-day operation, requires a seawater feed of 8250 m<sup>3</sup>/hr, and produces 4758 m<sup>3</sup>/hr of purified drinking water alongside a waste stream of 3485 m<sup>3</sup>/hr of concentrated brine. The waste stream is isolated from a recycle stream through a 9.0% purge; this results in an overall product yield of 57.7% on a volume basis. The process requires an additional pretreatment stream of 16.5 kg/hr Belgard EV 2030, which serves as an antiscalant, as well as 9.5 kg/hr chlorine, 352.1 kg/hr lime, and 418.7 kg/hr CO2 for post-treatment purposes.<br />
<br />
The overall capital cost of the plant is expected to be $345MM, with a total operating cost of $103MM/yr, $59MM/yr of which comes from utilities. Due to the low price at which the product water can be sold, the 30-year net present value of the plant, assuming a 6% discount rate, is $-1,035MM. It is thus imperative this plant be constructed with public funds because it cannot return a profit to any private investor. The growing need for water however could justify the cost, because it is important that the residents of the greater Corpus Christi area have access to drinkable water.<br />
<br />
__TOC__<br />
<br />
=Introduction=<br />
==Background==<br />
Clean drinking water is a basic human need that is becoming increasingly difficult to meet. Currently, over 1 billion people live in places where water is considered scarce<ref> Tapping the oceans. The Economist USA. http://www.economist.com/node/11484059. Accessed March 2, 2016. </ref>. Though often thought of as a problem exclusive to third-world countries, the issue is becoming more prevalent in the US as well, with water managers in 40 of 50 states anticipating water shortage conditions in some portion of their state in the next 10 years. These shortages are due to increasing demands on constant or diminishing freshwater resources, therefore, to correct the issue, a new supply must be found<ref> Water Supply in the US. EPA. http://www3.epa.gov/watersense/pubs/supply.html. Accessed March 2, 2016.</ref>. Desalination of seawater is therefore important as a new source for clean drinking water and prevent water shortages. <br />
<br />
==Project Definition==<br />
The overall goal of the project is to investigate the feasibility of a desalination plant in order to meet the needs of growing water demand. The design needs to take health, safety, and environmental concerns into account, while optimizing costs.<br />
<br />
=Design Basis=<br />
Site Location and Conditions<br />
Corpus Christi, TX was chosen as the location for the proposed desalination plant. The city is currently experiencing “Moderate Shortage Conditions”. This issue additionally comes at a time of growing demand with population growth anticipated due to new industry and Eagle Ford Group crude oil production<ref>Stage 2 Measures in the Drought Contingency Plan. Available at http://www.cctexas.com/government/water/conservation/conservation-drought-plans/stage-2-measures. Accessed January 12, 2016. </ref>.<br />
<br />
In June 2014, the city announced the Corpus Christi Desalination Demonstration Project<ref>Corpus Christi Desalination Demonstration Project. Available at http://www.cctexas.com/Assets/Departments/Water/Files/DesalFactSheet.pdf. Published June 2014. Accessed January 12, 2016. <br />
</ref> which seeks to create a demonstration desalination plant capable of producing 20,000 gallons of water per day, with plans to later build a full scale facility generating 20,000,000 gallons of water per day. The desalination demonstration project indicates a clear need for implementation of a desalination plant of this size to accommodate growth in the Corpus Christi area. <br />
<br />
Locating our plant in Corpus Christi will allow us to take advantage of the benefits of cogeneration through a partnership with the Nueces Bay Energy Center. By utilizing their outlet cooling water as a large portion of our feed for the desalination process, we can raise the temperature of our seawater feed, saving on energy costs in the multi stage flash distillation. The proposed location for the desalination plant is immediately west of the Nueces Bay Energy Center. See Appendix A for a map depicting the proposed location for the desalination plant along the coast of Nueces Bay.<br />
<br />
==Feed and Product Definitions==<br />
The proposed desalination facility’s feed and product streams are defined as shown in Table 1. Rationale for these definitions is also described below. The values reported in Table 1 are final derived numbers from HYSYS simulation modeling. <br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 1: Feed and product stream definitions<br />
! &nbsp;<br />
! Salt Concentration<br />
! Temperature <br />
! Amount<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Feed Stream <br />
| 30,500 ppm || 45°C || 8250 m<sup>3</sup>/hr<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Product Stream<br />
| ~ 0 ppm || 35°C || 4758 m<sup>3</sup>/hr<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Byproduct Stream<br />
| 69,500 ppm || 35°C || 3485 m<sup>3</sup>/hr<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
The process feed will be seawater from Nueces Bay, preheated through the cooling water system of the nearby Nueces Bay Energy Center. Based on calculations developed from NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory) data, it was estimated that the Nueces Bay Energy Center uses approximately 250 million gallons of seawater per day for process and cooling needs. Therefore, the 20 million gallon per day requirement for the desalination facility can easily be met through the power plant’s cooling water<ref>Torcellini P, Long N, Judkoff R. Consumptive Water Use for U.S. Power Consumption. NREL. 2003; TP-550-33905. <br />
</ref>. Note that we are assuming the process will operate 67% of the time (16 hours per day).<br />
<br />
Based on data acquired from two salinity-measuring stations in Nueces Bay, the average salinity of local seawater is 30.5 practical salinity units (psu)<ref>Stations Map & Real - Time Data. The Conrad Blucher Institute for Surveying and Science website. Available at http://www.cbi.tamucc.edu/cbi/data/. Updated January 2016. Accessed January 9, 2016. </ref>, thus setting the concentration of the process feed stream. This translates to a feed stream concentration of 30,500 ppm (parts per million)<ref name = "SALT">Definition and Units. CATD Salinity Expertise Center. Available at http://www.salinityremotesensing.ifremer.fr/home. Accessed January 12, 2016.</ref>. The composition of the salt attributed to this seawater salinity is shown in Table 6 in Appendix B. <br />
<br />
No data on the composition of seawater around the Corpus Christi area was available, but the composition of seawater does not change significantly in different locations. The given composition is considered accurate for our feed stream<ref>Brown E, Colling A, Park D, Phillips J, Rothery D, Wright J. Seawater : Its Composition, Properties and Behaviour. Boston: Butterworth-Heinemann, 1995.<br />
</ref>. Note that seawater salt is primarily sodium chloride - total dissolved solids are 85.7% sodium chloride by mass. As such, the dissolved solids in the feed stream is assumed in this project to be pure NaCl, making the feed composition 96.95% water and 3.05% NaCl by mass. A control system will likely be put in place to ensure feed concentration remains at this level, accounting for natural fluctuations in local seawater salinity.<br />
<br />
The largest byproduct from the process will be a brine slurry with high salt concentrations. An upper corrosion limit of 700 ppm was set for recirculated and purged brine. This undesired byproduct will be sent to a nearby Class I non-hazardous injection well facility operated by GNI Group, which is approximately 12 miles away from the proposed desalination plant location as shown in the figure in Appendix A<ref>Texas Water Code. Availabe at http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/WA/htm/WA.27.htm. Accessed January 14, 2016.<br />
</ref><ref>Google Maps. Available at https://goo.gl/maps/3xcvLZwUCe42 Accessed January 15, 2016.</ref>. Through the incorporation of a Class I injection well, the brine will not have to be treated or diluted before injection. <ref>EPA Regulations on Class I Wells. Available at http://www.epa.gov/uic/class-i-industrial-and-municipal-waste-disposal-wells. Accessed January 14, 2016.<br />
</ref><ref>List of Injection Well Facilities by Location. Available at http://www.ehso.com/cssepa/tsdfdeepwells.php. Accessed January 14, 2016.</ref><br />
<br />
There are no regulations regarding the temperature of city drinking water, so the product stream temperature has no requirements based on regulations. Outlet temperatures of 35<sup>o</sup>C are acceptable for input to the municipal water supply system. Since city water tends to be stored in non-temperature controlled tanks, the temperature will naturally cool to ambient temperature.<ref>Climate Corpus Christi- Texas. US Climate Data. Available at http://www.usclimatedata.com/climate/corpus-christi/texas/united-states/ustx0294. Accessed January 12, 2016. </ref><br />
<br />
==Pre-Treatment and Post-Treatment==<br />
For pretreatment, Belgard EV 2030 is recommended to be added at a concentration of 1.8-2.0 mg/L for a system with top brine temperature approximately 110 °C<ref name="BWA 2030">BWA Water Additives. Belgard EV2030 Technical Data Sheet. BWA Water Additives. http://www.wateradditives.com/files/products/tech_data_sheets/Belgard%20EV%202030_Technical%20Data%20Sheet_Thermal_8.5x11.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016.<br />
</ref>. Since our process is designed to operate at a slightly higher top brine temperature, 120 °C, we will design for the upper bound concentration: 2.0 mg/L of antiscalant. With a feed flow rate of 8250 m<sup>3</sup>/hr, the process therefore requires 16.5 kg/hr of Belgard EV 2030.<br />
<br />
For disinfection during post-treatment, chlorine addition typically requires a dose of roughly 2.0 mg/L as well<ref name="World Health Organization">World Health Organization. Desalination for safe water supply. http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/gdwqrevision/desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. With a pure water distillate flow rate of 4758 m<sup>3</sup>/hr, the process requires 9.5 kg/hr of chlorine as a 5%-15% sodium hypochlorite solution. Approximately 74 mg/L of lime (calcium hydroxide) and 88mg/L of CO2 should be added to the desalinated water to help prevent corrosion and increase alkalinity within acceptable ranges<ref name="Vouchkov">Vouchkov, N. Re-Mineralization of Desalinated Water. SunCam. https://s3.amazonaws.com/suncam/npdocs/118.pdf. Accessed February 18, 2016.</ref>. With a product stream flow rate of 4758 m3/hr, these concentrations correspond to 352.1 kg/hr of lime and 418.7 kg/hr of CO2. Both of these can be purchased, and it is likely that the CO2 can be procured from the neighboring natural gas power plant.<br />
<br />
==Choice of Desalination Technology==<br />
The two major technologies commonly implemented for desalination include reverse osmosis (RO), and multi-stage flash distillation (MSFD). RO utilizes high pressures to force water through a semipermeable membrane that allows for purified water to pass through, but stops organic and other wastes. Often, the pressures can reach 55 - 68 bar, which requires large pumps to maintain pressure, and introduces safety concerns to the process<ref>Stage 2 Measures in the Drought Contingency Plan. Available at http://www.cctexas.com/government/water/conservation/conservation-drought-plans/stage-2-measures. Accessed January 12, 2016. <br />
</ref>. While RO can be less energy intensive than MSFD, and the membrane can also remove contaminants, it is susceptible to feedwater quality, membrane fouling, and requires more extensive pretreatment and posttreatment than MSFD. The cost of RO is directly proportional to the feed salinity, and so it is less expensive when desalinating low salinity water.<br />
<br />
Multi-stage flash distillation is best selected for areas that have high salinity or low energy costs. The pretreatment process for MSFD is much easier when compared to RO because pretreatment often consists of simply adding anti-corrosives and antiscalants to the feed stream. The process works by heating water in vessels at different pressures to change the boiling point of the water and evaporate it as it passes through the system. After evaporation, the water condenses, leaving pure water as the effluent. MSFD costs are now roughly $1.00/m3, where this cost is mostly independent of salinity, but dependent on energy costs.<ref>Fritzman C, Lowenberg J, Wintgens T, Melin T. State-of-the-art Reverse Osmosis Desalination. Desalination. 2007; 216:1-76. <br />
</ref> In both RO and MSFD a brine is produced which then must be appropriately treated and/or disposed of.<br />
<br />
Multi-stage flash distillation was selected for this process, mainly due to the economic advantages offered by the selected location of Corpus Christi, TX. MSFD is also a well understood process that can be more easily modeled by chemical engineering software.<br />
<br />
=Technical Approach=<br />
Quantitative modeling of the process and all included optimization was conducted using the simulation software Aspen HYSYS. A variety of assumptions were developed to set up and define specific components of the process simulation itself. Within Aspen HYSYS, the NRTL Electrolyte property package was selected to model the behavior of salt water. Each stage of the MSF process is modeled as an individual flash vessel, with individual shell & tube heat exchangers used to model the distillate condensers present in each flash stage in the MSF system.<br />
<br />
The HYSYS simulation model only considers the flash portion of the overall process, allowing establishment of mass and energy balances for the system. Pretreatment and post-treatment were excluded for the HYSYS model, as these steps are simple additions or removals of small concentrations of chemical components. Although the simulation models heat exchangers outside of each flash stage, in the physical design of the plant these heat exchangers will be contained within each flash stage.<br />
<br />
One portion of the process is not modeled, which is the inlet seawater entering the heat rejection stages. As can be seen from the full process flow diagram (Appendix C), the inlet seawater in the heat rejection stage is in high excess to provide maximum cooling capacity; then a significant portion is purged to bring the stream flow rate down to what is needed for the feed stream. It is assumed that the flow rate of cooling water for those three stages is in such high excess that the cooling water does not heat up. Therefore, in the process simulation models, the inlet stream is the feed stream, which enters directly into the heat recovery portion of the process.<br />
<br />
See Appendix D for a screenshot overview of the simulation environment model.<br />
<br />
=Process Overview=<br />
==Process Flowsheet==<br />
The following diagram, Figure 1, shows a basic flowsheet for the process. Process alternatives considered for each stage are discussed below. Please see Appendix C for the full process flowsheet with finalized design decisions.<br />
<br />
[[File:BlockFlowDiagram.png|center|700px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Desalination Facility Block Flow Diagram|Figure 1: Basic block flowsheet of the multi-stage flash desalination process.]]<br />
<br />
==Major Features==<br />
As seen above, there are three primary stages of the desalination process: Pre-treatment, the multi-stage flash distillation, and post-treatment. Seawater enters the pre-treatment phase first to make the feed suitable for the rest of the process by filtering out large particles that could accumulate on pipes, deaerating the water to limit corrosion, and adding an agent to combat fouling. The water then enters the distillation process, which is broken up into two sections: heat recovery and heat rejection. <br />
<br />
In the heat recovery stage, there are 18 flash vessels, each of which separates steam from the salinated liquid water. Each flash vessel has saltwater as its inlet and two outlets: a vapor outlet (steam) that condenses into the final product of purified water and a liquid outlet composed of water with more dissolved solids than the inlet, which is the inlet stream for the next flash vessel. The pipe containing the feed is first mixed with recycled brine, then goes through the top sections of each of the flash vessels, starting with V-118 and ending up at V-101. In this way, the feed stream pipe first serves as a heat exchanger, heating the pre-treated seawater while simultaneously condensing the steam into the final product. The feed then enters a final heat exchanger where it is brought up to 103.6 °C before entering V-101 to be flashed.<br />
<br />
After exiting V-118, the final flash vessel in the heat recovery portion, the water enters the heat rejection portion, which consists of three flash vessels (V-201, V-202, V-203). The flash vessels of this section operate in the same manner as in the heat recovery section, with the exception that condensation occurs using excess cooling water instead of pre-treated seawater. This technique allows excess heat to be rejected into an excess water stream rather than the feed.<br />
<br />
The purified product stream finally enters post-treatment processing in which water is re-aerated and remineralized, disinfected, and pH is adjusted before being delivered to the city. The concentrated brine leftover at the end of the flash cycle is recycled into the feed, although a purge is required to continuously remove some salt from the system. This purged brine is disposed of by use of a Class I injection well, per regional regulations.<br />
<br />
See Appendix E to find detailed stream tables of stream specifications.<br />
<br />
==Process Alternatives==<br />
===Pretreatment===<br />
Multi-stage flash distillation requires significantly less pretreatment than reverse osmosis desalination, but helpful pretreatment techniques still exist. One very inexpensive method of pretreatment is screening/filtration, which is used to filter out large contaminants from intake seawater. Using more complicated membrane technology to accomplish large particle filtration is a possible alternative, but doing so would be much more expensive than using a standard screen or filter, so the latter choice has been selected for this process.<ref>El-Dessouky H., Alatiqi I, Ettouney H. Process synthesis: The multi-stage flash desalination system. Desalination. 1998;115(2):115-179. doi: 10.1016/S0011-9164(98)00035-6.</ref><br />
<br />
The most critical type of fouling in multi-stage flash distillation is scaling - therefore, the most critical step in the pretreatment process will be the inclusion of an anti-scalant. Alkaline scaling can be prevented by acid dosing or polyphosphate addition; however, acid dosing can result in increased corrosion and polyphosphates can lead to non-alkaline calcium phosphate fouling, so these additives will not be considered<ref name="Morris">Morris, R. The development of the multi-stage flash distillation process: A designer's viewpoint. Desalination. 1993;93(1-3):57-68. doi:10.1016/S0011-9164(93)80096-6. Availble at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0011916493800966</ref><ref>Al-Gobaisi, D. A quarter-century of seawater desalination by large multistage flash plants in Abu Dhabi (Plant performance analysis, assessment, present efforts toward enhancement and future hopes). Desalination. 1994;99(2-3):509-512. doi: 10.1016/S0011-9164(94)00196-0.</ref>. As such, a polymer-based additive is recommended for the anti-scalant for this process. The Belgard EV series is designed for use in high-temperature seawater MSF; of these, Belgard EV 2030 is the most neutral in pH<ref>NSF International. NSF Product and Service Listings: Drinking Water Treatment Chemicals - Health Effects. NSF International. http://info.nsf.org/Certified/PwsChemicals/Listings.asp?Company=00300&. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref><ref name="BWA 2030" /><ref>BWA Water Additives. Belgard EV2035 Technical Data Sheet. BWA Water Additives. http://www.wateradditives.com/files/products/tech_data_sheets/Belgard%20EV2035_Technical%20Data%20Sheet_Thermal_8.5x11.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref><ref>BioLab Water Additives. Belgard EV Antiscalant for seawater distillation plants. BioLab Water Additives. http://www.lpq.com.mx/pdf/BELGARD%20EV.PDF. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref>. As such, we have selected Belgard EV 2030 for use as an anti-scalant in our process.<br />
<br />
Corrosion control is another significant method of pretreatment in multi-stage flash distillation plants. Using a piping material that has limited susceptibility to corrosion is typically not economically viable for MSF desalination plants due their large size, so using carbon steel for most of the piping is generally used for its economic benefits despite its susceptibility to corrosion<ref name = "Morris" />. Limiting oxygen concentration is very feasible through the use of deaerators, which can remove oxygen as well as other dissolved gases from the seawater stream. Often, an external deaeration system is used<ref name = "Morris" /><ref>Edwards - Hick Hargreaves. Seawater Deaerators. Edwards - Hick Hargreaves. http://psscorp.co.th/upload/news/20110830105340.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. Given these considerations, using an external deaerator combined with a less-corrosive antiscalant like Belgard EV 2030 is much more practical for the process than using anti-corrosive piping.<br />
<br />
Excessive foam can also be an issue in some MSF distillation facilities, so antifoaming agents are sometimes employed in the pretreatment process as well. However, many plants are operated without foaming issues, and therefore do not need anti-foaming pretreatment at all. Selection of an anti-foaming agent must be carefully weighed with selected of anti-scalant to avoid issues with additive interactions [26]. At this stage in the design process, an anti-foamer will not be included due to the risk of decreasing scalant efficacy, and the likelihood that foam will not be an issue in the desalination plant.<br />
<br />
===Multistage Flash Distillation===<br />
The main objective of the design project is desalinate water. This is done with the main process of multi stage flash distillation (MSF). MSF can be developed using a numerous number of different process configurations, such as Once-Through, Simple Mixer Brine Circulation, and Multi-Stage Heat Rejection Brine Circulation processes. <br />
<br />
The most desired process for the project is the Three Stage Heat Rejection Brine Circulation as it builds on benefits of the other simpler technologies. By combining principles of heat rejection and heat recovery, the required heat transfer area of the process is greatly reduced as compared to once through processes or simple brine recycle processes. It has the highest performance ratio with the lowest specific feed flow rates, therefore greatly lowering the operating costs of the process. It is also known as the industry standard for MSF<ref name = "KSU Chapter 6">Kansas State University ChE 413. Available at: http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/Almutaz/Documents/ChE-413/Multi-stage%20Flash%20Desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. In addition, since our brine disposal technique involves the pumping of the brine into a Class I well, the high brine outlet salinity is not a drawback for our process since post treatment or dilution of the brine is not necessary.<br />
<br />
===Post Treatment===<br />
After processing the water via multi-stage flash, the water needs to be post-treated to make the water taste as consumers would expect, since distilled water is “flat” and unpleasant, as well as to protect the consumers and the piping through which the water will be passing<ref name="Clayton">Clayton R. A review of current knowledge: Desalination for water supply. Foundation for Water Research. http://www.fwr.org/desal.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. There are multiple alternatives to achieve these objectives of remineralization, aeration, corrosion control, and disinfection.<br />
<br />
Aerating and introducing some dissolved solids back into the product water are effective ways to create a quality product that is not flat, and contains flavoring that is expected of the water when delivered to the consumer. Aeration will be accomplished via an inline spray aerator which will take up less space than cascade aeration.<ref>Minnesota Rural Water Association. Aeration. http://www.mrwa.com/WaterWorksMnl/Chapter%2011%20Aeration.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref> Feed blending will be used to remineralize the water as opposed to a remineralization filter because it does not require additional equipment purchases, and can easily handle the large amounts of throughput required for the process.<ref name="Clayton" /><br />
<br />
Corrosion and pH can be controlled by adding lime (calcium hydroxide) and carbon dioxide to the water. To do so, about 74 mg/L of lime and 88mg/L of CO<sub>2</sub> should be added to the desalinated water to help prevent corrosion and increase alkalinity within acceptable ranges. Sodium hydroxide, soda ash, and sodium bicarbonate are alternatives to altering the alkalinity and pH of the product water, but lime and CO<sub>2</sub> is an industry standard <ref name="Vouchkov" />.<br />
<br />
Disinfection needs to be done to prevent microbial growth in the desalinated water and ensure the safety of the general public. Chlorine addition via chlorine gas or sodium hypochlorite is the most common and only requires a dose of 1.5 to 2.5 mg/liter. <ref name="World Health Organization" /> Other alternatives include ozonation, UV light, and chloramination. Chlorine, as a 5% - 15% sodium hypochlorite solution, is sufficient for our process and relatively inexpensive, and as such will be utilized in the process.<br />
<br />
===Transport of Brine to Well===<br />
Three major possibilities exist for transporting the brine from our desalination plant to the injection well for disposal: rail, trucking, and a pipeline. A pipeline was chosen as the most feasible and cost-effective approach. <br />
<br />
A rail line is not available at this time, and with the cost to construct a rail line at approximately $43 million per mile<ref>About Money. How Much Do Rail Transit Projects Cost to Build and Operate? 2014. Available at: http://publictransport.about.com/od/Transit_Projects/a/How-Much-Do-Rail-Transit-Projects-Cost-To-Build-And-Operate.htm. Accessed January 27, 2016. </ref>, the enormous capital cost makes rail transport infeasible for this site. For large volume operations, pipelines are cheaper than trucking. In a study of wastewater sludge produced from wastewater treatment facilities, it was found that it was more economical for facilities producing over 1200 m<sup>3</sup> per day to utilize pipelines rather than trucking.<ref>Marufuzzaman M, Eskioglu S, Hernandez R. Truck versus pipeline transportation cost analysis of wastewater sludge. Transportation Research. 2015; 74(A): 14-30. </ref> Our facility is producing nearly 3 times this volume at 3485 m<sup>3</sup> per day of brine. Furthermore, brine is a less viscous fluid than wastewater sludge, decreasing pumping costs in the pipeline and further amplifying the benefit of choosing a pipeline over an injection well.<br />
<br />
===Brine Storage===<br />
Due to the choice of a pipeline, rather than trucking, as the method of transport of brine to the injection well, brine storage is unnecessary, so storage solutions such as holding tanks were not investigated. One method of storage compatible with a pipeline is to pump the brine through an evaporation pond. This solution is attractive as it would allow the brine to concentrate, saving some costs of pumping, however, the considerable land usage of evaporation ponds leads them to only be effective for smaller plants. The largest municipal plant utilizing this method produces only 5.7 million liters per day<ref>University of Santa Cruz Center for Integrated Water Research. Concentrate Management: Evaporation Ponds. 2010. Available at: https://ciwr.ucsc.edu/sites/default/files/ICM_D5.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016. </ref>, whereas our desalination plant is proposed to produce 75.7 million liters per day. Therefore, evaporation ponds have been eliminated from consideration.<br />
<br />
==Major Specifications==<br />
===Material of Construction Selection===<br />
While saltwater and desalinated water in general can be corrosive, there are best practices within the desalination industry for material selection. With this in mind, best practice shows carbon steel lifetime can be lengthened by monitoring the oxygen concentration in the water, specifying the paint used to coat any metal, and more expensive materials can be used in areas of extremely high corrosion.<ref name = "Morris" />. By following these best practices, it is possible to save significant amounts of money through the use of carbon steel in most areas of the plant, with specific high-corrosion areas being reinforced with, or replaced with, more corrosion resistant materials, such as Cu/Ni 70/30 alloy<ref name = "KSU Chapter 6" />.<br />
<br />
===Heat Exchanger Sizing===<br />
See Appendix F for heat exchanger sizing data. Heat exchanger sizes appear reasonable for placement in the flash vessels.<br />
<br />
===Flash Vessel Sizing===<br />
The dimensions for the flash drums were obtained through literature values. The flash drums were determined to be 18x4x3 m in width, height, and length.<ref name="KSU Chapter 6" /><br />
<br />
Wall thickness was determined using the following conventions: Design pressure is 10% more than the operating pressure, design temperature is 50°F (27.8°C) higher than the operating temperature, a corrosion allowance of 3-mm and an effectiveness of 85% was derived from the assumption of a double-welded butt joint that was spot checked. See Appendix G for wall thicknesses calculated for each pressure vessel. <br />
<br />
The sizing of the vessels to be constructed will be determined after talks with a manufacturer. Due to economies of scale, it may be more cost-effective to buy 21 pressure vessels with the dimensions mentioned above and a wall thickness of 17.1-mm, the highest wall thickness required in the system.<br />
<br />
===Pipe Losses and Pressure Drop===<br />
HYSYS was used to estimate the diameter of a pipe given a specified pressure drop per 100m of pipe. It was determined that for a pressure drop of 0.1 kPa/100m of pipe, a 3.05m diameter pipe is sufficient, which is more than manageable for manufacturers. This pressure drop is mostly insignificant and will be taken care of with the safety factors included in the pumps. The significant pressure drops in our system is accounted for via losses in the flash vessels and heat exchangers, which drive the flash process. Therefore overall pipe losses are insignificant and are built into intentional design losses.<br />
<br />
=Economic Analysis=<br />
==Economic Assumptions==<br />
The sale of purified water yields a revenue stream of $49.5 million per year assuming sale to commercial entities within the city limits of Corpus Christi at $1.7915 per thousand liters.<ref>Water schedule. City of Corpus Christi Utility Business Office. http://www.cctexas.com/Assets/Departments/Financial-Services/Utilities-Business-Office/files/waterrates.pdf Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref> The primary variable costs are utilities and the brine disposal, with minimal raw materials costs due to the primary feedstock, seawater, being free, and minimal amounts of pre- and post-treatment chemicals being used. The cost of brine disposal used in this analysis was high at $2.097 per thousand liters<ref>McCurdy, R. Underground injection wells for produced water disposal. Chesapeake Energy Corporation. http://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/documents/21_McCurdy_-_UIC_Disposal_508.pdf Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref>, an estimate for brine disposal utilizing trucking as the mode of transport. As has been shown through previous analyses, a lower cost can be achieved using a direct pipeline, however, no good estimates for this cost could be found.<br />
<br />
The NPV was calculated using a 6% cost of capital, the approximate interest rate for a municipal bond.<ref>Zirbe, R.O. Jr., Han, X., Layton, D., Leshine, T. A history of discount rates and their use by government agencies. (2002). http://faculty.washington.edu/zerbe/docs/DISCOUNT%20RATE%20HISTORY-latesXIt.doc Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref> It was assumed that the plant can be built within two years, with production at half-scale in its first year. Additionally, one month of variable costs, $10.6 million, was set aside for working capital. See Appendix H for a full table of assumptions. A 30 year NPV calculation was chosen as the decision basis since 30 years is a conservative estimate for the lifetime of a desalination plant <ref>Tampa Bay Seawater Desalination Plant. American Water. http://www.amwater.com/files/tampabayseawaterdesalinationplantcasestudy6.16.09.pdf. Accessed February 25, 20216.</ref>. See below for estimates of NPV for the lifetime of the plant under various assumptions and design criteria.<br />
<br />
==Optimization and Sensitivity Analysis==<br />
Looking at the multi-stage flash process, there are a number of opportunities to optimize the process. The major process variables that were investigated were the inlet water temperature, the operating pressure drop per vessel, and the number of stages over which the process takes place. Considering these optimizations, our final process consists of 21 flash vessels (18 heat recovery and 3 heat rejection stages), each with a pressure drop of 5 kPa. See Appendix D for a screenshot of the HYSYS simulation used to model the optimized process.<br />
===Operating Pressure and Pressure Drop===<br />
Initially our process was designed to pump the inlet seawater and brine to a pressure of 2 bar and allow the pressure drop in each flash stage to end our process downstream at 1 bar to prevent complications associated with designing a system under vacuum. While this provided pumping advantages, the energy in the system was significantly higher due to vapor pressure considerations. Due to this fact, the required heat exchange area for certain exchangers proved to be infeasible (on the order of 80,000m<sup>2</sup>) due to the enormous capital and operating costs that would be associated with such a large heat exchanger.<br />
<br />
The process was optimized to operate under vacuum, requiring additional pumping requirements but much lower required heat exchange area, and therefore lower utility costs. This optimization was done by specifying the pressure of the final flash vessel to 5.7kPa, so that the temperature of the water vapor (~30<sup>o</sup>C) is within approximately 5<sup>o</sup>C of the cooling water (35<sup>o</sup>C) so that condensation can occur within a reasonable approach. This also allows our system to optimally extract pure water from the brine running through the system and reduce energy requirements for cooling the product or the recycle. Our system redesign and optimization reduced the energy in the system and reduce the same heat exchanger area requirements by more than 3 orders of magnitude to approximately 800m<sup>2</sup>. <br />
<br />
Once the process was optimized to operate in a vacuum, the pressure drop per flash stage regulated through values was then optimized. Three pressure drops per stages, 3kPa, 5kPa, and 7kPa, were tested and then an economic analysis was conducted to find the optimal value for the pressure drop. These changes had impacts on both operating and capital costs as they would change initial pumping requirements, the amount of water flowing through the process and recycle (and therefore the flash vessel sizes, heat exchanger sizing), and the efficiency of each stage.<br />
<br />
The various pressure drops (3 kPa, 5 kPa, and 7 kPa) were tested on a system nominally at 24 stages under the assumption that the results would be generalizable to systems with a different number of stages. With increasing pressure drop, we found decreased capital cost but increased utility cost. As can be seen from Table 2 below, a pressure drop of 5 kPa proved to be the best option based on 30 year NPV, with a loss of $838.8 million, a savings of $65.5 million compared to the next-best option with a pressure drop of 7 kPa.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 2: Comparison of profitability for our MSF desalination process with 24 stages with 3 different pressure drops per stage<br />
! Number of Stages <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! Pressure Drop <br/> (kPa)<br />
! Capital Cost <br/> ($MM)<br />
! Utility Cost <br/> ($MM/yr)<br />
! 30-Year NPV <br/> ($MM)<br />
! NPV Ratio <br/> (over 5kPa)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 3 || 362.3 || 39.1 || -905.8 || 1.08<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 5 || 255.1 || 53.6 || -838.8 || 1.00<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 7 || 209.5 || 72.2 || -904.3 || 1.08<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
===Number of Flash Stages===<br />
The number of stages is an important area for optimization. An increased number of stages yields better recovery of purified water, however, requires higher capital cost from the additional pressure vessel. Furthermore, with an increased amount of purified water comes increasingly concentrated brine. This must be taken into account since any brine concentration in excess of about 7% presents a more significant corrosion risk<ref name="KSU Chapter 6" />, so increased maintenance costs for the piping or higher capital costs for more corrosion-resistant materials could be necessary for brine concentrations exceeding 7%. Therefore, to recover the same amount of pure water without exceeding corrosion limitations, increasing the number of stages will reduce the overall size of each stage.<br />
<br />
Optimizing based on NPV, it was found that 21 stages is optimal, balancing the increased profits from the additional purified water additional costs of higher capital cost. See Table 3 below to compare the 30-year NPV of the process across various numbers of flash vessels.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 3: Comparison of profitability for our MSF desalination process with a 5 kPa pressure drop, 5000 m<sup>3</sup>/hr feed flow rate, with varying number of stages.<br />
! Number of Stages <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! Pressure Drop <br/> (kPa)<br />
! Capital Cost <br/> ($MM)<br />
! Utility Cost <br/> ($MM/yr)<br />
! 30-Year NPV <br/> ($MM)<br />
! NPV Ratio <br/> (over 21 Stages)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 17 || 5 || 213.9 || 58.7 || -813.8 || 1.016<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 18 || 5 || 218 || 57.6 || -809.9 || 1.011<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 19 || 5 || 224.3 || 58 || -806.1 || 1.007<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 20 || 5 || 229.8 || 57.9 || -813.6 || 1.016<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 21 || 5 || 226.6 || 55.9 || -800.7 || 1<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 22 || 5 || 254.7 || 54.6 || -849.5 || 1.061<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 23 || 5 || 249.3 || 54.1 || -833.1 || 1.04<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 5 || 255.1 || 53.6 || -838.8 || 1.048<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 25 || 5 || 254.9 || 52.7 || -837.4 || 1.046<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
===Inlet Seawater Temperature===<br />
By pairing our desalination plant with a natural gas power plant and utilizing its cooling water we forgo initial heating of our inlet stream. Normally, water pumped from the ocean would be approximately 25<sup>o</sup>C and by capturing waste heat from the power plant we can reduce utilities with our water inlet of 45<sup>o</sup>C. Through an economic comparison between two plants nominally at 21 flash stages, the plant with an inlet temperature at 25<sup>o</sup>C has a capital cost of $245MM and a utility cost of $77MM/yr and the same facility with an inlet water temperature at 45<sup>o</sup>C has a capital cost of only $226MM and a utility cost of $56MM/yr. As shown in Table 4 below, this $19MM savings in capital costs and $21MM/yr saving in utilities is largely due to reducing the size of the heat exchangers and lowering the steam required for heating duty on the inlet seawater respectively. Therefore our process is optimized by recovering the waste heat water from the gas fired power plant.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 4: Seawater Inlet Temperature Process Cost Optimization<br />
! Seawater Temperature <br/> (°C)<br />
! Capital Cost <br/> ($MM)<br />
! Utility Cost <br/> ($MM/yr)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 25 || 245 || 77<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 45 || 226 || 56<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Savings || 56 || 19<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
==Overall Process Economics==<br />
After optimization at fixed flow rates, the process was scaled to meet the the 67% operating percentage and final product definitions as shown in Table 1, which resulted in finalized economics shown in Table 5 below. For a table of the installed costs of each process vessel, see Appendix I. For the finalized NPV calculations, see Appendix J.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 5: Summarized Economics for 21-stage MSFD Process<br />
! Economic Parameter<br />
! Cost <br/> (USD)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Capital Cost || 345 MM<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Total Operating Cost per Year || 103 MM<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Utility Cost per Year || 59 MM<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 30-Year NPV (6% Discount) || -1035 MM<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
=Conclusions and Recommendations=<br />
==Project Viability==<br />
Table 5 above demonstrates that the process has reasonable operating and capital costs, but the 30-year NPV is negative by -1035 $MM due to the extremely low sell price capability of desalinated water as a product. Therefore, this plant would have to heavily be supported by the City of Corpus Christi to run as the product revenue will not make it self-sufficient. The acquisition of government subsidies are key operating requirements for all desalination facilities in the United States. <br />
<br />
==Additional Concerns==<br />
Large volumes of water, steam, and energy are needed to ensure the project runs as specified. While most of the water can easily be extracted from the ocean with little to consequence, the fuel used to generate the steam and electricity can have a significant environmental impact. As the plant is located next to a natural gas power plant, this fuel is better than coal with respect to environmental concerns, and utilizing energy from the power plant to preheat the feed stream for the desalination plant helps lower environmental impacts.<br />
<br />
The large amounts of high pressure steam being used represents one of the the largest safety concern in the process, because a high pressure steam release could easily cause severe burns or even death. Proper precautions and control measures must be in place to prevent accidental release. Otherwise, the process does not utilize any known toxic chemicals and is relatively safe from a chemical standpoint. The flash vessels mostly operate below atmospheric pressure, so they must be constructed as vessels that can withstand vacuum without failing.<br />
<br />
<br />
=Appendix A: Proposed Location of Desalination Plant=<br />
Pictured below is the proposed location for the desalination plant, located on Nueces Bay in Corpus Christi, adjacent to the Nueces Bay Energy Center. The plant’s proposed location is shown in the area outlined by the small circle in the upper right of the figure.<br />
<br />
[[File:NuecesBayLocation.png|center|600px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Desalination Facility Location|Figure A.1: Proposed mapped location of Nueces Bay Desalination Facility.]]<br />
[[File:ClassIWell.png|center|700px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Desalination Facility Distance to Injection Well|Figure A.2: Mapped distance from proposed location to Class I Injection Well]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix B: Feed and Product Definitions - Salinity=<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 6: Average Composition of Total Dissolved Solids in Seawater<ref> Physical and Thermodynamic Data. In: Dickson AG, Goyet C. Handbook of Methods for the Analysis of the Various Parameters of the Carbon Dioxide System in Sea Water.</ref><ref> Composition of Seawater. Water Treatment of Solutions. Available at http://www.lenntech.com/composition-seawater.htm. Accessed January 12, 2016.</ref><br />
! Compound <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! Mass Composition <br/> (kPa)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Chlorine || 55.03%<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Sodium || 30.64%<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Sulfate || 7.70%<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Magnesium || 3.66%<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Calcium || 1.17%<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Potassium || 1.12%<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Bicarbonate || 0.36%<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Bromine || 0.19%<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Other || 0.15%<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
[[File:Nueces Bay Salinity.JPG|center|700px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Salinity Tracking|Figure C.1: Salinity in Nueces Bay over the past 10 years<ref name = "SALT" />.]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix C: Process Flow Diagram=<br />
[[File:TeamF_FinalPFD.JPG|center|1200px|thumb|alt=Process Flow Diagram|Figure C.1: Process Flow Diagram]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix D: HYSYS Simulation Model=<br />
[[File:TeamF_HYSYS_Screenshot.PNG|center|1200px|thumb|alt=HYSYS Simulation Model|Figure D.1: Screenshot of HYSYS Model Simulation.]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix E: Stream Tables=<br />
A summary of some values is shown below:<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 7: Key process material streams<br />
! &nbsp;<br />
! Stream <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! Molar Flow <br/> (10<sup>5</sup> kgmole/h)<br />
! Mass Flow <br/> (10<sup>5</sup> kg/h)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Inlet <br />
| Feed Water || 454 || 83.6<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Outlet<br />
| Brine Reject || 1.90 || 36.0<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Product<br />
| Pure Water || 2.64 || 47.5<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 8: Key process energy streams<br />
! Stream <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! Heat Flow <br/> (kJ/h)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Feed Water || 1.30E+11<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Q-301 || 5.73E+06<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Q-302 || 3.09E+09<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Q-304 || 4.68E+06<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Q-303 || -1.26E+09<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Brine Reject || -5.47E+10<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Pure Water || -7.46E+10<br />
|}<br />
(Negative value denotes energy leaving process)<br />
</center><br />
<br />
=Appendix F: Heat Exchanger Sizing=<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 9: Utility Temperatures and Heat Transfer Coefficient<ref name="Towler">G.P. Towler, R. Sinnott. Chemical Engineering Design: Principles, Practice and Economics of Plant and Process Design. Elsevier, 2012.</ref><br />
! &nbsp;<br />
! HP Steam<br />
! Cooling Water<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! Temperature (°C)<br />
| 250 || 35<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! U (W/m<sup>2</sup>K)<br />
| 4000 || 1500<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 10: Internal Flash Heat Exchanger Sizing, condensing steam.<br />
! Exchanger<br />
! UA <br/> (kJ/°C-h)<br />
! U <br/> (kJ/hr/m<sup>2</sup>°C)<br />
! A <br/> (m<sup>2</sup>)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-101 || 1.47E+07 || 14400 || 1019<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-102 || 1.53E+07 || 14400 || 1059<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-103 || 1.59E+07 || 14400 || 1103<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-104 || 1.66E+07 || 14400 || 1153<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-105 || 1.74E+07 || 14400 || 1209<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-106 || 1.83E+07 || 14400 || 1272<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-107 || 1.93E+07 || 14400 || 1342<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-108 || 2.05E+07 || 14400 || 1424<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-109 || 2.19E+07 || 14400 || 1518<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-110 || 2.35E+07 || 14400 || 1629<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-111 || 2.54E+07 || 14400 || 1761<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-112 || 2.77E+07 || 14400 || 1921<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-113 || 3.05E+07 || 14400 || 2119<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-114 || 3.42E+07 || 14400 || 2372<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-115 || 3.90E+07 || 14400 || 2706<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-116 || 4.56E+07 || 14400 || 3167<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-117 || 5.55E+07 || 14400 || 3856<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-118 || 7.20E+07 || 14400 || 5000<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 11: Heat Exchanger Sizing for Process Heaters and Coolers<br />
! Exchanger<br />
! Q <br/> (kJ/h)<br />
! U <br/> (J/s/m<sup>2</sup>K)<br />
! U <br/> (kJ/hr/m<sup>2</sup>K)<br />
! LMTD <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! A <br/> (m<sup>2</sup>)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-201 || 9.67E+08 || 1500 || 5400 || 16.03 || 11165<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-202 || 1.26E+09 || 1500 || 5400 || 7.57 || 30921<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-203 || 1.88E+09 || 1500 || 5400 || 0.45 || 77366<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-302 || 3.09E+09 || 4000 || 14400 || 155 || 1385<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-303 || 1.26E+09 || 4000 || 14400 || 209.5 || 418<br />
|}<br />
The high heat transfer area in the final cooler of the heat rejection stage is due to the close approach temperature. <br />
<br/>Other cooling / pressurization techniques will be used to reduce the area.<br />
</center><br />
<br />
=Appendix G: Pressure Vessel Sizing=<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 12: Operating temperature and pressure and corresponding thickness for flash vessels<br />
! Unit<br />
! Temperature <br/> (°C)<br />
! Pressure <br/> (kPa)<br />
! Thickness <br/> (mm)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-101 || 103.6 || 110.7 || 17.14<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-102 || 102.3 || 105.7 || 16.62<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-103 || 100.9 || 100.7 || 16.10<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-104 || 99.5 || 95.7 || 15.58<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-105 || 98.0 || 90.7 || 15.06<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-106 || 96.4 || 85.7 || 14.53<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-107 || 94.8 || 80.7 || 14.01<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-108 || 93.1 || 75.7 || 13.49<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-109 || 91.3 || 70.7 || 12.97<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-110 || 89.3 || 65.7 || 12.45<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-111 || 87.3 || 60.7 || 11.93<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-112 || 85.1 || 55.7 || 11.41<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-113 || 82.7 || 50.7 || 10.89<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-114 || 80.1 || 45.7 || 10.36<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-115 || 77.3 || 40.7 || 9.84<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-116 || 74.1 || 35.7 || 9.32<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-117 || 70.6 || 30.7 || 8.80<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-118 || 66.5 || 25.7 || 8.28<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-201 || 61.7 || 20.7 || 7.76<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-202 || 55.8 || 15.7 || 7.24<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-203 || 47.9 || 10.7 || 6.72<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
=Appendix H: Expanded Economic Assumptions=<br />
<br />
<br />
=Appendix I: Equipment Cost Summary=<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 14: Installed costs of all major process equipment, in USD.<br />
! Unit<br />
! Equipment Cost <br/> (USD)<br />
! Installed Cost <br/> (USD)<br />
! Equipment Weight <br/> (LBS)<br />
! Total Installed Weight <br/> (LBS)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-101 ||1033900 || 1716400 || 403500 || 568790<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-102 ||1065700 || 1748700 || 416500 || 581960<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-103 ||1131500 || 1835900 || 439800 || 609338<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-104 ||1206900 || 1913200 || 469800 || 639902<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-105 ||1238900 || 1945800 || 483000 || 653292<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-106 ||1315000 || 2023500 || 515400 || 686222<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-107 ||1058900 || 1741900 || 413000 || 578460<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-108 ||1447500 || 2458400 || 564900 || 796324<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-109 ||1526200 || 2540200 || 598500 || 830924<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-110 ||1656600 || 2698900 || 646400 || 883959<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-111 ||1833500 || 2900600 || 714600 || 953808<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-112 ||1974700 || 3046000 || 774000 || 1014446<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-113 ||2186200 || 3647000 || 856000 || 1154275<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-114 ||2483100 || 4018400 || 968400 || 1278580<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-115 ||2817800 || 4433900 || 1103700 || 1431085<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-116 ||3291100 || 5778100 || 1290000 || 1731000<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-117 ||4062000 || 6880400 || 1588400 || 2081273<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-118 ||5361900 || 10603700 || 2097500 || 3054252<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-201 ||1682100 || 2649700 || 633600 || 835319<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-202 ||3265400 || 5677900 || 1233000 || 1643496<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| P-301 ||8263300 || 10579300 || 593100 || 1016878<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| P-302 ||5435000 || 7740400 || 389400 || 811881<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-101 ||43800 || 221900 || 11900 || 40680<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-102 ||2070900 || 5175400 || 1051900 || 1717877<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-103 ||1759900 || 4866600 || 804500 || 1476730<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-104 ||2976300 || 6117800 || 1625400 || 2292006<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-105 ||32200 || 201500 || 8300 || 35146<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-106 ||3480300 || 6698800 || 1863900 || 2546114<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-107 ||3538500 || 6800500 || 1918700 || 2612432<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-108 ||3673200 || 6973400 || 1985400 || 2687585<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-109 ||4178000 || 7524400 || 2228400 || 2938816<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-110 ||3690700 || 6978300 || 1994800 || 2693811<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-111 ||3711900 || 6991200 || 1986700 || 2683352<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-112 ||3541500 || 6754700 || 1891600 || 2562046<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-113 ||3288600 || 6463300 || 1782100 || 2444134<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-114 ||3039500 || 6176100 || 1651800 || 2306017<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-115 ||2961900 || 5572100 || 1614900 || 2161959<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-117 ||2831600 || 5403700 || 1549900 || 2087670<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-118 ||2800000 || 5359400 || 1531200 || 2065331<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-201 ||2807200 || 5147700 || 1535700 || 2002614<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-202 ||2921700 || 5295200 || 1587700 || 2063167<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-203 ||6322000 || 9725700 || 3364500 || 4063966<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
=Appendix J: Economic NPV Analysis=<br />
[[File:Team F Economics.JPG|center|1200px|thumb|alt=Economic Analysis|Figure J.1: Screenshot of process economic analysis.]]<br />
<br />
=References=<br />
<references/></div>Kedricdaly2https://processdesign.mccormick.northwestern.edu/index.php?title=Nueces_Desalination_Center:_Production_of_Drinking_Water_by_Multi-Stage_Flash_Distillation&diff=4969Nueces Desalination Center: Production of Drinking Water by Multi-Stage Flash Distillation2016-03-07T21:33:44Z<p>Kedricdaly2: Adding Table 14</p>
<hr />
<div>Team F: Rankine 672 Final Report<br />
<br />
Authors: Kedric Daly, Ben Granger, Evan Rosati, Kathleen Zhou<br />
<br />
Instructors: Fengqi You, David Wegerer<br />
<br />
March 11, 2016<br />
<br />
=Executive Summary=<br />
Desalination of seawater to drinking water is a technology of ever-increasing importance given trends of increasingly widespread water shortages around the world. Even in the United States, water shortages are becoming increasingly common in dry, highly-populated such as California and certain areas of the Gulf Coast. Our design team, Rankine 672, was tasked with evaluating the need for and designing a desalination plant to provide purified water in a place of need. Investigation revealed that the city of Corpus Christi, Texas, is a strategic location for development of a desalination facility, as surrounding region is in need of new drinking water sources and the city has expressed serious interest in contracting the development of a large-scale desalination plant. Our proposed solution is a multi-stage flash distillation desalination facility capable of producing 20,000,000 gallons (75,708 m<sup>3</sup>) of purified drinking water for the city and surrounding region per operating day.<br />
<br />
In this design, drinking water is produced from seawater feedstock through a 21-stage flash distillation process. By strategically locating the facility next to an existing natural gas power plant, the Nueces Bay Energy Center, pre-heated feed water can be taken directly from the outbound cooling systems of the power plant, allowing energy savings for our desalination plant. The process is designed for 16 hour-per-day operation, requires a seawater feed of 8250 m<sup>3</sup>/hr, and produces 4758 m<sup>3</sup>/hr of purified drinking water alongside a waste stream of 3485 m<sup>3</sup>/hr of concentrated brine. The waste stream is isolated from a recycle stream through a 9.0% purge; this results in an overall product yield of 57.7% on a volume basis. The process requires an additional pretreatment stream of 16.5 kg/hr Belgard EV 2030, which serves as an antiscalant, as well as 9.5 kg/hr chlorine, 352.1 kg/hr lime, and 418.7 kg/hr CO2 for post-treatment purposes.<br />
<br />
The overall capital cost of the plant is expected to be $345MM, with a total operating cost of $103MM/yr, $59MM/yr of which comes from utilities. Due to the low price at which the product water can be sold, the 30-year net present value of the plant, assuming a 6% discount rate, is $-1,035MM. It is thus imperative this plant be constructed with public funds because it cannot return a profit to any private investor. The growing need for water however could justify the cost, because it is important that the residents of the greater Corpus Christi area have access to drinkable water.<br />
<br />
__TOC__<br />
<br />
=Introduction=<br />
==Background==<br />
Clean drinking water is a basic human need that is becoming increasingly difficult to meet. Currently, over 1 billion people live in places where water is considered scarce<ref> Tapping the oceans. The Economist USA. http://www.economist.com/node/11484059. Accessed March 2, 2016. </ref>. Though often thought of as a problem exclusive to third-world countries, the issue is becoming more prevalent in the US as well, with water managers in 40 of 50 states anticipating water shortage conditions in some portion of their state in the next 10 years. These shortages are due to increasing demands on constant or diminishing freshwater resources, therefore, to correct the issue, a new supply must be found<ref> Water Supply in the US. EPA. http://www3.epa.gov/watersense/pubs/supply.html. Accessed March 2, 2016.</ref>. Desalination of seawater is therefore important as a new source for clean drinking water and prevent water shortages. <br />
<br />
==Project Definition==<br />
The overall goal of the project is to investigate the feasibility of a desalination plant in order to meet the needs of growing water demand. The design needs to take health, safety, and environmental concerns into account, while optimizing costs.<br />
<br />
=Design Basis=<br />
Site Location and Conditions<br />
Corpus Christi, TX was chosen as the location for the proposed desalination plant. The city is currently experiencing “Moderate Shortage Conditions”. This issue additionally comes at a time of growing demand with population growth anticipated due to new industry and Eagle Ford Group crude oil production<ref>Stage 2 Measures in the Drought Contingency Plan. Available at http://www.cctexas.com/government/water/conservation/conservation-drought-plans/stage-2-measures. Accessed January 12, 2016. </ref>.<br />
<br />
In June 2014, the city announced the Corpus Christi Desalination Demonstration Project<ref>Corpus Christi Desalination Demonstration Project. Available at http://www.cctexas.com/Assets/Departments/Water/Files/DesalFactSheet.pdf. Published June 2014. Accessed January 12, 2016. <br />
</ref> which seeks to create a demonstration desalination plant capable of producing 20,000 gallons of water per day, with plans to later build a full scale facility generating 20,000,000 gallons of water per day. The desalination demonstration project indicates a clear need for implementation of a desalination plant of this size to accommodate growth in the Corpus Christi area. <br />
<br />
Locating our plant in Corpus Christi will allow us to take advantage of the benefits of cogeneration through a partnership with the Nueces Bay Energy Center. By utilizing their outlet cooling water as a large portion of our feed for the desalination process, we can raise the temperature of our seawater feed, saving on energy costs in the multi stage flash distillation. The proposed location for the desalination plant is immediately west of the Nueces Bay Energy Center. See Appendix A for a map depicting the proposed location for the desalination plant along the coast of Nueces Bay.<br />
<br />
==Feed and Product Definitions==<br />
The proposed desalination facility’s feed and product streams are defined as shown in Table 1. Rationale for these definitions is also described below. The values reported in Table 1 are final derived numbers from HYSYS simulation modeling. <br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 1: Feed and product stream definitions<br />
! &nbsp;<br />
! Salt Concentration<br />
! Temperature <br />
! Amount<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Feed Stream <br />
| 30,500 ppm || 45°C || 8250 m<sup>3</sup>/hr<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Product Stream<br />
| ~ 0 ppm || 35°C || 4758 m<sup>3</sup>/hr<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Byproduct Stream<br />
| 69,500 ppm || 35°C || 3485 m<sup>3</sup>/hr<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
The process feed will be seawater from Nueces Bay, preheated through the cooling water system of the nearby Nueces Bay Energy Center. Based on calculations developed from NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory) data, it was estimated that the Nueces Bay Energy Center uses approximately 250 million gallons of seawater per day for process and cooling needs. Therefore, the 20 million gallon per day requirement for the desalination facility can easily be met through the power plant’s cooling water<ref>Torcellini P, Long N, Judkoff R. Consumptive Water Use for U.S. Power Consumption. NREL. 2003; TP-550-33905. <br />
</ref>. Note that we are assuming the process will operate 67% of the time (16 hours per day).<br />
<br />
Based on data acquired from two salinity-measuring stations in Nueces Bay, the average salinity of local seawater is 30.5 practical salinity units (psu)<ref>Stations Map & Real - Time Data. The Conrad Blucher Institute for Surveying and Science website. Available at http://www.cbi.tamucc.edu/cbi/data/. Updated January 2016. Accessed January 9, 2016. </ref>, thus setting the concentration of the process feed stream. This translates to a feed stream concentration of 30,500 ppm (parts per million)<ref name = "SALT">Definition and Units. CATD Salinity Expertise Center. Available at http://www.salinityremotesensing.ifremer.fr/home. Accessed January 12, 2016.</ref>. The composition of the salt attributed to this seawater salinity is shown in Table 6 in Appendix B. <br />
<br />
No data on the composition of seawater around the Corpus Christi area was available, but the composition of seawater does not change significantly in different locations. The given composition is considered accurate for our feed stream<ref>Brown E, Colling A, Park D, Phillips J, Rothery D, Wright J. Seawater : Its Composition, Properties and Behaviour. Boston: Butterworth-Heinemann, 1995.<br />
</ref>. Note that seawater salt is primarily sodium chloride - total dissolved solids are 85.7% sodium chloride by mass. As such, the dissolved solids in the feed stream is assumed in this project to be pure NaCl, making the feed composition 96.95% water and 3.05% NaCl by mass. A control system will likely be put in place to ensure feed concentration remains at this level, accounting for natural fluctuations in local seawater salinity.<br />
<br />
The largest byproduct from the process will be a brine slurry with high salt concentrations. An upper corrosion limit of 700 ppm was set for recirculated and purged brine. This undesired byproduct will be sent to a nearby Class I non-hazardous injection well facility operated by GNI Group, which is approximately 12 miles away from the proposed desalination plant location as shown in the figure in Appendix A<ref>Texas Water Code. Availabe at http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/WA/htm/WA.27.htm. Accessed January 14, 2016.<br />
</ref><ref>Google Maps. Available at https://goo.gl/maps/3xcvLZwUCe42 Accessed January 15, 2016.</ref>. Through the incorporation of a Class I injection well, the brine will not have to be treated or diluted before injection. <ref>EPA Regulations on Class I Wells. Available at http://www.epa.gov/uic/class-i-industrial-and-municipal-waste-disposal-wells. Accessed January 14, 2016.<br />
</ref><ref>List of Injection Well Facilities by Location. Available at http://www.ehso.com/cssepa/tsdfdeepwells.php. Accessed January 14, 2016.</ref><br />
<br />
There are no regulations regarding the temperature of city drinking water, so the product stream temperature has no requirements based on regulations. Outlet temperatures of 35<sup>o</sup>C are acceptable for input to the municipal water supply system. Since city water tends to be stored in non-temperature controlled tanks, the temperature will naturally cool to ambient temperature.<ref>Climate Corpus Christi- Texas. US Climate Data. Available at http://www.usclimatedata.com/climate/corpus-christi/texas/united-states/ustx0294. Accessed January 12, 2016. </ref><br />
<br />
==Pre-Treatment and Post-Treatment==<br />
For pretreatment, Belgard EV 2030 is recommended to be added at a concentration of 1.8-2.0 mg/L for a system with top brine temperature approximately 110 °C<ref name="BWA 2030">BWA Water Additives. Belgard EV2030 Technical Data Sheet. BWA Water Additives. http://www.wateradditives.com/files/products/tech_data_sheets/Belgard%20EV%202030_Technical%20Data%20Sheet_Thermal_8.5x11.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016.<br />
</ref>. Since our process is designed to operate at a slightly higher top brine temperature, 120 °C, we will design for the upper bound concentration: 2.0 mg/L of antiscalant. With a feed flow rate of 8250 m<sup>3</sup>/hr, the process therefore requires 16.5 kg/hr of Belgard EV 2030.<br />
<br />
For disinfection during post-treatment, chlorine addition typically requires a dose of roughly 2.0 mg/L as well<ref name="World Health Organization">World Health Organization. Desalination for safe water supply. http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/gdwqrevision/desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. With a pure water distillate flow rate of 4758 m<sup>3</sup>/hr, the process requires 9.5 kg/hr of chlorine as a 5%-15% sodium hypochlorite solution. Approximately 74 mg/L of lime (calcium hydroxide) and 88mg/L of CO2 should be added to the desalinated water to help prevent corrosion and increase alkalinity within acceptable ranges<ref name="Vouchkov">Vouchkov, N. Re-Mineralization of Desalinated Water. SunCam. https://s3.amazonaws.com/suncam/npdocs/118.pdf. Accessed February 18, 2016.</ref>. With a product stream flow rate of 4758 m3/hr, these concentrations correspond to 352.1 kg/hr of lime and 418.7 kg/hr of CO2. Both of these can be purchased, and it is likely that the CO2 can be procured from the neighboring natural gas power plant.<br />
<br />
==Choice of Desalination Technology==<br />
The two major technologies commonly implemented for desalination include reverse osmosis (RO), and multi-stage flash distillation (MSFD). RO utilizes high pressures to force water through a semipermeable membrane that allows for purified water to pass through, but stops organic and other wastes. Often, the pressures can reach 55 - 68 bar, which requires large pumps to maintain pressure, and introduces safety concerns to the process<ref>Stage 2 Measures in the Drought Contingency Plan. Available at http://www.cctexas.com/government/water/conservation/conservation-drought-plans/stage-2-measures. Accessed January 12, 2016. <br />
</ref>. While RO can be less energy intensive than MSFD, and the membrane can also remove contaminants, it is susceptible to feedwater quality, membrane fouling, and requires more extensive pretreatment and posttreatment than MSFD. The cost of RO is directly proportional to the feed salinity, and so it is less expensive when desalinating low salinity water.<br />
<br />
Multi-stage flash distillation is best selected for areas that have high salinity or low energy costs. The pretreatment process for MSFD is much easier when compared to RO because pretreatment often consists of simply adding anti-corrosives and antiscalants to the feed stream. The process works by heating water in vessels at different pressures to change the boiling point of the water and evaporate it as it passes through the system. After evaporation, the water condenses, leaving pure water as the effluent. MSFD costs are now roughly $1.00/m3, where this cost is mostly independent of salinity, but dependent on energy costs.<ref>Fritzman C, Lowenberg J, Wintgens T, Melin T. State-of-the-art Reverse Osmosis Desalination. Desalination. 2007; 216:1-76. <br />
</ref> In both RO and MSFD a brine is produced which then must be appropriately treated and/or disposed of.<br />
<br />
Multi-stage flash distillation was selected for this process, mainly due to the economic advantages offered by the selected location of Corpus Christi, TX. MSFD is also a well understood process that can be more easily modeled by chemical engineering software.<br />
<br />
=Technical Approach=<br />
Quantitative modeling of the process and all included optimization was conducted using the simulation software Aspen HYSYS. A variety of assumptions were developed to set up and define specific components of the process simulation itself. Within Aspen HYSYS, the NRTL Electrolyte property package was selected to model the behavior of salt water. Each stage of the MSF process is modeled as an individual flash vessel, with individual shell & tube heat exchangers used to model the distillate condensers present in each flash stage in the MSF system.<br />
<br />
The HYSYS simulation model only considers the flash portion of the overall process, allowing establishment of mass and energy balances for the system. Pretreatment and post-treatment were excluded for the HYSYS model, as these steps are simple additions or removals of small concentrations of chemical components. Although the simulation models heat exchangers outside of each flash stage, in the physical design of the plant these heat exchangers will be contained within each flash stage.<br />
<br />
One portion of the process is not modeled, which is the inlet seawater entering the heat rejection stages. As can be seen from the full process flow diagram (Appendix C), the inlet seawater in the heat rejection stage is in high excess to provide maximum cooling capacity; then a significant portion is purged to bring the stream flow rate down to what is needed for the feed stream. It is assumed that the flow rate of cooling water for those three stages is in such high excess that the cooling water does not heat up. Therefore, in the process simulation models, the inlet stream is the feed stream, which enters directly into the heat recovery portion of the process.<br />
<br />
See Appendix D for a screenshot overview of the simulation environment model.<br />
<br />
=Process Overview=<br />
==Process Flowsheet==<br />
The following diagram, Figure 1, shows a basic flowsheet for the process. Process alternatives considered for each stage are discussed below. Please see Appendix C for the full process flowsheet with finalized design decisions.<br />
<br />
[[File:BlockFlowDiagram.png|center|700px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Desalination Facility Block Flow Diagram|Figure 1: Basic block flowsheet of the multi-stage flash desalination process.]]<br />
<br />
==Major Features==<br />
As seen above, there are three primary stages of the desalination process: Pre-treatment, the multi-stage flash distillation, and post-treatment. Seawater enters the pre-treatment phase first to make the feed suitable for the rest of the process by filtering out large particles that could accumulate on pipes, deaerating the water to limit corrosion, and adding an agent to combat fouling. The water then enters the distillation process, which is broken up into two sections: heat recovery and heat rejection. <br />
<br />
In the heat recovery stage, there are 18 flash vessels, each of which separates steam from the salinated liquid water. Each flash vessel has saltwater as its inlet and two outlets: a vapor outlet (steam) that condenses into the final product of purified water and a liquid outlet composed of water with more dissolved solids than the inlet, which is the inlet stream for the next flash vessel. The pipe containing the feed is first mixed with recycled brine, then goes through the top sections of each of the flash vessels, starting with V-118 and ending up at V-101. In this way, the feed stream pipe first serves as a heat exchanger, heating the pre-treated seawater while simultaneously condensing the steam into the final product. The feed then enters a final heat exchanger where it is brought up to 103.6 °C before entering V-101 to be flashed.<br />
<br />
After exiting V-118, the final flash vessel in the heat recovery portion, the water enters the heat rejection portion, which consists of three flash vessels (V-201, V-202, V-203). The flash vessels of this section operate in the same manner as in the heat recovery section, with the exception that condensation occurs using excess cooling water instead of pre-treated seawater. This technique allows excess heat to be rejected into an excess water stream rather than the feed.<br />
<br />
The purified product stream finally enters post-treatment processing in which water is re-aerated and remineralized, disinfected, and pH is adjusted before being delivered to the city. The concentrated brine leftover at the end of the flash cycle is recycled into the feed, although a purge is required to continuously remove some salt from the system. This purged brine is disposed of by use of a Class I injection well, per regional regulations.<br />
<br />
See Appendix E to find detailed stream tables of stream specifications.<br />
<br />
==Process Alternatives==<br />
===Pretreatment===<br />
Multi-stage flash distillation requires significantly less pretreatment than reverse osmosis desalination, but helpful pretreatment techniques still exist. One very inexpensive method of pretreatment is screening/filtration, which is used to filter out large contaminants from intake seawater. Using more complicated membrane technology to accomplish large particle filtration is a possible alternative, but doing so would be much more expensive than using a standard screen or filter, so the latter choice has been selected for this process.<ref>El-Dessouky H., Alatiqi I, Ettouney H. Process synthesis: The multi-stage flash desalination system. Desalination. 1998;115(2):115-179. doi: 10.1016/S0011-9164(98)00035-6.</ref><br />
<br />
The most critical type of fouling in multi-stage flash distillation is scaling - therefore, the most critical step in the pretreatment process will be the inclusion of an anti-scalant. Alkaline scaling can be prevented by acid dosing or polyphosphate addition; however, acid dosing can result in increased corrosion and polyphosphates can lead to non-alkaline calcium phosphate fouling, so these additives will not be considered<ref name="Morris">Morris, R. The development of the multi-stage flash distillation process: A designer's viewpoint. Desalination. 1993;93(1-3):57-68. doi:10.1016/S0011-9164(93)80096-6. Availble at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0011916493800966</ref><ref>Al-Gobaisi, D. A quarter-century of seawater desalination by large multistage flash plants in Abu Dhabi (Plant performance analysis, assessment, present efforts toward enhancement and future hopes). Desalination. 1994;99(2-3):509-512. doi: 10.1016/S0011-9164(94)00196-0.</ref>. As such, a polymer-based additive is recommended for the anti-scalant for this process. The Belgard EV series is designed for use in high-temperature seawater MSF; of these, Belgard EV 2030 is the most neutral in pH<ref>NSF International. NSF Product and Service Listings: Drinking Water Treatment Chemicals - Health Effects. NSF International. http://info.nsf.org/Certified/PwsChemicals/Listings.asp?Company=00300&. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref><ref name="BWA 2030" /><ref>BWA Water Additives. Belgard EV2035 Technical Data Sheet. BWA Water Additives. http://www.wateradditives.com/files/products/tech_data_sheets/Belgard%20EV2035_Technical%20Data%20Sheet_Thermal_8.5x11.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref><ref>BioLab Water Additives. Belgard EV Antiscalant for seawater distillation plants. BioLab Water Additives. http://www.lpq.com.mx/pdf/BELGARD%20EV.PDF. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref>. As such, we have selected Belgard EV 2030 for use as an anti-scalant in our process.<br />
<br />
Corrosion control is another significant method of pretreatment in multi-stage flash distillation plants. Using a piping material that has limited susceptibility to corrosion is typically not economically viable for MSF desalination plants due their large size, so using carbon steel for most of the piping is generally used for its economic benefits despite its susceptibility to corrosion<ref name = "Morris" />. Limiting oxygen concentration is very feasible through the use of deaerators, which can remove oxygen as well as other dissolved gases from the seawater stream. Often, an external deaeration system is used<ref name = "Morris" /><ref>Edwards - Hick Hargreaves. Seawater Deaerators. Edwards - Hick Hargreaves. http://psscorp.co.th/upload/news/20110830105340.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. Given these considerations, using an external deaerator combined with a less-corrosive antiscalant like Belgard EV 2030 is much more practical for the process than using anti-corrosive piping.<br />
<br />
Excessive foam can also be an issue in some MSF distillation facilities, so antifoaming agents are sometimes employed in the pretreatment process as well. However, many plants are operated without foaming issues, and therefore do not need anti-foaming pretreatment at all. Selection of an anti-foaming agent must be carefully weighed with selected of anti-scalant to avoid issues with additive interactions [26]. At this stage in the design process, an anti-foamer will not be included due to the risk of decreasing scalant efficacy, and the likelihood that foam will not be an issue in the desalination plant.<br />
<br />
===Multistage Flash Distillation===<br />
The main objective of the design project is desalinate water. This is done with the main process of multi stage flash distillation (MSF). MSF can be developed using a numerous number of different process configurations, such as Once-Through, Simple Mixer Brine Circulation, and Multi-Stage Heat Rejection Brine Circulation processes. <br />
<br />
The most desired process for the project is the Three Stage Heat Rejection Brine Circulation as it builds on benefits of the other simpler technologies. By combining principles of heat rejection and heat recovery, the required heat transfer area of the process is greatly reduced as compared to once through processes or simple brine recycle processes. It has the highest performance ratio with the lowest specific feed flow rates, therefore greatly lowering the operating costs of the process. It is also known as the industry standard for MSF<ref name = "KSU Chapter 6">Kansas State University ChE 413. Available at: http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/Almutaz/Documents/ChE-413/Multi-stage%20Flash%20Desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. In addition, since our brine disposal technique involves the pumping of the brine into a Class I well, the high brine outlet salinity is not a drawback for our process since post treatment or dilution of the brine is not necessary.<br />
<br />
===Post Treatment===<br />
After processing the water via multi-stage flash, the water needs to be post-treated to make the water taste as consumers would expect, since distilled water is “flat” and unpleasant, as well as to protect the consumers and the piping through which the water will be passing<ref name="Clayton">Clayton R. A review of current knowledge: Desalination for water supply. Foundation for Water Research. http://www.fwr.org/desal.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. There are multiple alternatives to achieve these objectives of remineralization, aeration, corrosion control, and disinfection.<br />
<br />
Aerating and introducing some dissolved solids back into the product water are effective ways to create a quality product that is not flat, and contains flavoring that is expected of the water when delivered to the consumer. Aeration will be accomplished via an inline spray aerator which will take up less space than cascade aeration.<ref>Minnesota Rural Water Association. Aeration. http://www.mrwa.com/WaterWorksMnl/Chapter%2011%20Aeration.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref> Feed blending will be used to remineralize the water as opposed to a remineralization filter because it does not require additional equipment purchases, and can easily handle the large amounts of throughput required for the process.<ref name="Clayton" /><br />
<br />
Corrosion and pH can be controlled by adding lime (calcium hydroxide) and carbon dioxide to the water. To do so, about 74 mg/L of lime and 88mg/L of CO<sub>2</sub> should be added to the desalinated water to help prevent corrosion and increase alkalinity within acceptable ranges. Sodium hydroxide, soda ash, and sodium bicarbonate are alternatives to altering the alkalinity and pH of the product water, but lime and CO<sub>2</sub> is an industry standard <ref name="Vouchkov" />.<br />
<br />
Disinfection needs to be done to prevent microbial growth in the desalinated water and ensure the safety of the general public. Chlorine addition via chlorine gas or sodium hypochlorite is the most common and only requires a dose of 1.5 to 2.5 mg/liter. <ref name="World Health Organization" /> Other alternatives include ozonation, UV light, and chloramination. Chlorine, as a 5% - 15% sodium hypochlorite solution, is sufficient for our process and relatively inexpensive, and as such will be utilized in the process.<br />
<br />
===Transport of Brine to Well===<br />
Three major possibilities exist for transporting the brine from our desalination plant to the injection well for disposal: rail, trucking, and a pipeline. A pipeline was chosen as the most feasible and cost-effective approach. <br />
<br />
A rail line is not available at this time, and with the cost to construct a rail line at approximately $43 million per mile<ref>About Money. How Much Do Rail Transit Projects Cost to Build and Operate? 2014. Available at: http://publictransport.about.com/od/Transit_Projects/a/How-Much-Do-Rail-Transit-Projects-Cost-To-Build-And-Operate.htm. Accessed January 27, 2016. </ref>, the enormous capital cost makes rail transport infeasible for this site. For large volume operations, pipelines are cheaper than trucking. In a study of wastewater sludge produced from wastewater treatment facilities, it was found that it was more economical for facilities producing over 1200 m<sup>3</sup> per day to utilize pipelines rather than trucking.<ref>Marufuzzaman M, Eskioglu S, Hernandez R. Truck versus pipeline transportation cost analysis of wastewater sludge. Transportation Research. 2015; 74(A): 14-30. </ref> Our facility is producing nearly 3 times this volume at 3485 m<sup>3</sup> per day of brine. Furthermore, brine is a less viscous fluid than wastewater sludge, decreasing pumping costs in the pipeline and further amplifying the benefit of choosing a pipeline over an injection well.<br />
<br />
===Brine Storage===<br />
Due to the choice of a pipeline, rather than trucking, as the method of transport of brine to the injection well, brine storage is unnecessary, so storage solutions such as holding tanks were not investigated. One method of storage compatible with a pipeline is to pump the brine through an evaporation pond. This solution is attractive as it would allow the brine to concentrate, saving some costs of pumping, however, the considerable land usage of evaporation ponds leads them to only be effective for smaller plants. The largest municipal plant utilizing this method produces only 5.7 million liters per day<ref>University of Santa Cruz Center for Integrated Water Research. Concentrate Management: Evaporation Ponds. 2010. Available at: https://ciwr.ucsc.edu/sites/default/files/ICM_D5.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016. </ref>, whereas our desalination plant is proposed to produce 75.7 million liters per day. Therefore, evaporation ponds have been eliminated from consideration.<br />
<br />
==Major Specifications==<br />
===Material of Construction Selection===<br />
While saltwater and desalinated water in general can be corrosive, there are best practices within the desalination industry for material selection. With this in mind, best practice shows carbon steel lifetime can be lengthened by monitoring the oxygen concentration in the water, specifying the paint used to coat any metal, and more expensive materials can be used in areas of extremely high corrosion.<ref name = "Morris" />. By following these best practices, it is possible to save significant amounts of money through the use of carbon steel in most areas of the plant, with specific high-corrosion areas being reinforced with, or replaced with, more corrosion resistant materials, such as Cu/Ni 70/30 alloy<ref name = "KSU Chapter 6" />.<br />
<br />
===Heat Exchanger Sizing===<br />
See Appendix F for heat exchanger sizing data. Heat exchanger sizes appear reasonable for placement in the flash vessels.<br />
<br />
===Flash Vessel Sizing===<br />
The dimensions for the flash drums were obtained through literature values. The flash drums were determined to be 18x4x3 m in width, height, and length.<ref name="KSU Chapter 6" /><br />
<br />
Wall thickness was determined using the following conventions: Design pressure is 10% more than the operating pressure, design temperature is 50°F (27.8°C) higher than the operating temperature, a corrosion allowance of 3-mm and an effectiveness of 85% was derived from the assumption of a double-welded butt joint that was spot checked. See Appendix G for wall thicknesses calculated for each pressure vessel. <br />
<br />
The sizing of the vessels to be constructed will be determined after talks with a manufacturer. Due to economies of scale, it may be more cost-effective to buy 21 pressure vessels with the dimensions mentioned above and a wall thickness of 17.1-mm, the highest wall thickness required in the system.<br />
<br />
===Pipe Losses and Pressure Drop===<br />
HYSYS was used to estimate the diameter of a pipe given a specified pressure drop per 100m of pipe. It was determined that for a pressure drop of 0.1 kPa/100m of pipe, a 3.05m diameter pipe is sufficient, which is more than manageable for manufacturers. This pressure drop is mostly insignificant and will be taken care of with the safety factors included in the pumps. The significant pressure drops in our system is accounted for via losses in the flash vessels and heat exchangers, which drive the flash process. Therefore overall pipe losses are insignificant and are built into intentional design losses.<br />
<br />
=Economic Analysis=<br />
==Economic Assumptions==<br />
The sale of purified water yields a revenue stream of $49.5 million per year assuming sale to commercial entities within the city limits of Corpus Christi at $1.7915 per thousand liters.<ref>Water schedule. City of Corpus Christi Utility Business Office. http://www.cctexas.com/Assets/Departments/Financial-Services/Utilities-Business-Office/files/waterrates.pdf Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref> The primary variable costs are utilities and the brine disposal, with minimal raw materials costs due to the primary feedstock, seawater, being free, and minimal amounts of pre- and post-treatment chemicals being used. The cost of brine disposal used in this analysis was high at $2.097 per thousand liters<ref>McCurdy, R. Underground injection wells for produced water disposal. Chesapeake Energy Corporation. http://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/documents/21_McCurdy_-_UIC_Disposal_508.pdf Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref>, an estimate for brine disposal utilizing trucking as the mode of transport. As has been shown through previous analyses, a lower cost can be achieved using a direct pipeline, however, no good estimates for this cost could be found.<br />
<br />
The NPV was calculated using a 6% cost of capital, the approximate interest rate for a municipal bond.<ref>Zirbe, R.O. Jr., Han, X., Layton, D., Leshine, T. A history of discount rates and their use by government agencies. (2002). http://faculty.washington.edu/zerbe/docs/DISCOUNT%20RATE%20HISTORY-latesXIt.doc Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref> It was assumed that the plant can be built within two years, with production at half-scale in its first year. Additionally, one month of variable costs, $10.6 million, was set aside for working capital. See Appendix H for a full table of assumptions. A 30 year NPV calculation was chosen as the decision basis since 30 years is a conservative estimate for the lifetime of a desalination plant <ref>Tampa Bay Seawater Desalination Plant. American Water. http://www.amwater.com/files/tampabayseawaterdesalinationplantcasestudy6.16.09.pdf. Accessed February 25, 20216.</ref>. See below for estimates of NPV for the lifetime of the plant under various assumptions and design criteria.<br />
<br />
==Optimization and Sensitivity Analysis==<br />
Looking at the multi-stage flash process, there are a number of opportunities to optimize the process. The major process variables that were investigated were the inlet water temperature, the operating pressure drop per vessel, and the number of stages over which the process takes place. Considering these optimizations, our final process consists of 21 flash vessels (18 heat recovery and 3 heat rejection stages), each with a pressure drop of 5 kPa. See Appendix D for a screenshot of the HYSYS simulation used to model the optimized process.<br />
===Operating Pressure and Pressure Drop===<br />
Initially our process was designed to pump the inlet seawater and brine to a pressure of 2 bar and allow the pressure drop in each flash stage to end our process downstream at 1 bar to prevent complications associated with designing a system under vacuum. While this provided pumping advantages, the energy in the system was significantly higher due to vapor pressure considerations. Due to this fact, the required heat exchange area for certain exchangers proved to be infeasible (on the order of 80,000m<sup>2</sup>) due to the enormous capital and operating costs that would be associated with such a large heat exchanger.<br />
<br />
The process was optimized to operate under vacuum, requiring additional pumping requirements but much lower required heat exchange area, and therefore lower utility costs. This optimization was done by specifying the pressure of the final flash vessel to 5.7kPa, so that the temperature of the water vapor (~30<sup>o</sup>C) is within approximately 5<sup>o</sup>C of the cooling water (35<sup>o</sup>C) so that condensation can occur within a reasonable approach. This also allows our system to optimally extract pure water from the brine running through the system and reduce energy requirements for cooling the product or the recycle. Our system redesign and optimization reduced the energy in the system and reduce the same heat exchanger area requirements by more than 3 orders of magnitude to approximately 800m<sup>2</sup>. <br />
<br />
Once the process was optimized to operate in a vacuum, the pressure drop per flash stage regulated through values was then optimized. Three pressure drops per stages, 3kPa, 5kPa, and 7kPa, were tested and then an economic analysis was conducted to find the optimal value for the pressure drop. These changes had impacts on both operating and capital costs as they would change initial pumping requirements, the amount of water flowing through the process and recycle (and therefore the flash vessel sizes, heat exchanger sizing), and the efficiency of each stage.<br />
<br />
The various pressure drops (3 kPa, 5 kPa, and 7 kPa) were tested on a system nominally at 24 stages under the assumption that the results would be generalizable to systems with a different number of stages. With increasing pressure drop, we found decreased capital cost but increased utility cost. As can be seen from Table 2 below, a pressure drop of 5 kPa proved to be the best option based on 30 year NPV, with a loss of $838.8 million, a savings of $65.5 million compared to the next-best option with a pressure drop of 7 kPa.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 2: Comparison of profitability for our MSF desalination process with 24 stages with 3 different pressure drops per stage<br />
! Number of Stages <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! Pressure Drop <br/> (kPa)<br />
! Capital Cost <br/> ($MM)<br />
! Utility Cost <br/> ($MM/yr)<br />
! 30-Year NPV <br/> ($MM)<br />
! NPV Ratio <br/> (over 5kPa)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 3 || 362.3 || 39.1 || -905.8 || 1.08<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 5 || 255.1 || 53.6 || -838.8 || 1.00<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 7 || 209.5 || 72.2 || -904.3 || 1.08<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
===Number of Flash Stages===<br />
The number of stages is an important area for optimization. An increased number of stages yields better recovery of purified water, however, requires higher capital cost from the additional pressure vessel. Furthermore, with an increased amount of purified water comes increasingly concentrated brine. This must be taken into account since any brine concentration in excess of about 7% presents a more significant corrosion risk<ref name="KSU Chapter 6" />, so increased maintenance costs for the piping or higher capital costs for more corrosion-resistant materials could be necessary for brine concentrations exceeding 7%. Therefore, to recover the same amount of pure water without exceeding corrosion limitations, increasing the number of stages will reduce the overall size of each stage.<br />
<br />
Optimizing based on NPV, it was found that 21 stages is optimal, balancing the increased profits from the additional purified water additional costs of higher capital cost. See Table 3 below to compare the 30-year NPV of the process across various numbers of flash vessels.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 3: Comparison of profitability for our MSF desalination process with a 5 kPa pressure drop, 5000 m<sup>3</sup>/hr feed flow rate, with varying number of stages.<br />
! Number of Stages <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! Pressure Drop <br/> (kPa)<br />
! Capital Cost <br/> ($MM)<br />
! Utility Cost <br/> ($MM/yr)<br />
! 30-Year NPV <br/> ($MM)<br />
! NPV Ratio <br/> (over 21 Stages)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 17 || 5 || 213.9 || 58.7 || -813.8 || 1.016<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 18 || 5 || 218 || 57.6 || -809.9 || 1.011<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 19 || 5 || 224.3 || 58 || -806.1 || 1.007<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 20 || 5 || 229.8 || 57.9 || -813.6 || 1.016<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 21 || 5 || 226.6 || 55.9 || -800.7 || 1<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 22 || 5 || 254.7 || 54.6 || -849.5 || 1.061<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 23 || 5 || 249.3 || 54.1 || -833.1 || 1.04<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 5 || 255.1 || 53.6 || -838.8 || 1.048<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 25 || 5 || 254.9 || 52.7 || -837.4 || 1.046<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
===Inlet Seawater Temperature===<br />
By pairing our desalination plant with a natural gas power plant and utilizing its cooling water we forgo initial heating of our inlet stream. Normally, water pumped from the ocean would be approximately 25<sup>o</sup>C and by capturing waste heat from the power plant we can reduce utilities with our water inlet of 45<sup>o</sup>C. Through an economic comparison between two plants nominally at 21 flash stages, the plant with an inlet temperature at 25<sup>o</sup>C has a capital cost of $245MM and a utility cost of $77MM/yr and the same facility with an inlet water temperature at 45<sup>o</sup>C has a capital cost of only $226MM and a utility cost of $56MM/yr. As shown in Table 4 below, this $19MM savings in capital costs and $21MM/yr saving in utilities is largely due to reducing the size of the heat exchangers and lowering the steam required for heating duty on the inlet seawater respectively. Therefore our process is optimized by recovering the waste heat water from the gas fired power plant.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 4: Seawater Inlet Temperature Process Cost Optimization<br />
! Seawater Temperature <br/> (°C)<br />
! Capital Cost <br/> ($MM)<br />
! Utility Cost <br/> ($MM/yr)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 25 || 245 || 77<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 45 || 226 || 56<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Savings || 56 || 19<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
==Overall Process Economics==<br />
After optimization at fixed flow rates, the process was scaled to meet the the 67% operating percentage and final product definitions as shown in Table 1, which resulted in finalized economics shown in Table 5 below. For a table of the installed costs of each process vessel, see Appendix I. For the finalized NPV calculations, see Appendix J.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 5: Summarized Economics for 21-stage MSFD Process<br />
! Economic Parameter<br />
! Cost <br/> (USD)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Capital Cost || 345 MM<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Total Operating Cost per Year || 103 MM<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Utility Cost per Year || 59 MM<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 30-Year NPV (6% Discount) || -1035 MM<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
=Conclusions and Recommendations=<br />
==Project Viability==<br />
Table 5 above demonstrates that the process has reasonable operating and capital costs, but the 30-year NPV is negative by -1035 $MM due to the extremely low sell price capability of desalinated water as a product. Therefore, this plant would have to heavily be supported by the City of Corpus Christi to run as the product revenue will not make it self-sufficient. The acquisition of government subsidies are key operating requirements for all desalination facilities in the United States. <br />
<br />
==Additional Concerns==<br />
Large volumes of water, steam, and energy are needed to ensure the project runs as specified. While most of the water can easily be extracted from the ocean with little to consequence, the fuel used to generate the steam and electricity can have a significant environmental impact. As the plant is located next to a natural gas power plant, this fuel is better than coal with respect to environmental concerns, and utilizing energy from the power plant to preheat the feed stream for the desalination plant helps lower environmental impacts.<br />
<br />
The large amounts of high pressure steam being used represents one of the the largest safety concern in the process, because a high pressure steam release could easily cause severe burns or even death. Proper precautions and control measures must be in place to prevent accidental release. Otherwise, the process does not utilize any known toxic chemicals and is relatively safe from a chemical standpoint. The flash vessels mostly operate below atmospheric pressure, so they must be constructed as vessels that can withstand vacuum without failing.<br />
<br />
<br />
=Appendix A: Proposed Location of Desalination Plant=<br />
Pictured below is the proposed location for the desalination plant, located on Nueces Bay in Corpus Christi, adjacent to the Nueces Bay Energy Center. The plant’s proposed location is shown in the area outlined by the small circle in the upper right of the figure.<br />
<br />
[[File:NuecesBayLocation.png|center|600px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Desalination Facility Location|Figure A.1: Proposed mapped location of Nueces Bay Desalination Facility.]]<br />
[[File:ClassIWell.png|center|700px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Desalination Facility Distance to Injection Well|Figure A.2: Mapped distance from proposed location to Class I Injection Well]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix B: Feed and Product Definitions - Salinity=<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 6: Average Composition of Total Dissolved Solids in Seawater<ref> Physical and Thermodynamic Data. In: Dickson AG, Goyet C. Handbook of Methods for the Analysis of the Various Parameters of the Carbon Dioxide System in Sea Water.</ref><ref> Composition of Seawater. Water Treatment of Solutions. Available at http://www.lenntech.com/composition-seawater.htm. Accessed January 12, 2016.</ref><br />
! Compound <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! Mass Composition <br/> (kPa)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Chlorine || 55.03%<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Sodium || 30.64%<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Sulfate || 7.70%<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Magnesium || 3.66%<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Calcium || 1.17%<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Potassium || 1.12%<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Bicarbonate || 0.36%<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Bromine || 0.19%<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Other || 0.15%<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
[[File:Nueces Bay Salinity.JPG|center|700px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Salinity Tracking|Figure C.1: Salinity in Nueces Bay over the past 10 years<ref name = "SALT" />.]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix C: Process Flow Diagram=<br />
[[File:TeamF_FinalPFD.JPG|center|1200px|thumb|alt=Process Flow Diagram|Figure C.1: Process Flow Diagram]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix D: HYSYS Simulation Model=<br />
[[File:TeamF_HYSYS_Screenshot.PNG|center|1200px|thumb|alt=HYSYS Simulation Model|Figure D.1: Screenshot of HYSYS Model Simulation.]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix E: Stream Tables=<br />
A summary of some values is shown below:<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 7: Key process material streams<br />
! &nbsp;<br />
! Stream <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! Molar Flow <br/> (10<sup>5</sup> kgmole/h)<br />
! Mass Flow <br/> (10<sup>5</sup> kg/h)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Inlet <br />
| Feed Water || 454 || 83.6<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Outlet<br />
| Brine Reject || 1.90 || 36.0<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Product<br />
| Pure Water || 2.64 || 47.5<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 8: Key process energy streams<br />
! Stream <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! Heat Flow <br/> (kJ/h)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Feed Water || 1.30E+11<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Q-301 || 5.73E+06<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Q-302 || 3.09E+09<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Q-304 || 4.68E+06<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Q-303 || -1.26E+09<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Brine Reject || -5.47E+10<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Pure Water || -7.46E+10<br />
|}<br />
(Negative value denotes energy leaving process)<br />
</center><br />
<br />
=Appendix F: Heat Exchanger Sizing=<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 9: Utility Temperatures and Heat Transfer Coefficient<ref name="Towler">G.P. Towler, R. Sinnott. Chemical Engineering Design: Principles, Practice and Economics of Plant and Process Design. Elsevier, 2012.</ref><br />
! &nbsp;<br />
! HP Steam<br />
! Cooling Water<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! Temperature (°C)<br />
| 250 || 35<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! U (W/m<sup>2</sup>K)<br />
| 4000 || 1500<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 10: Internal Flash Heat Exchanger Sizing, condensing steam.<br />
! Exchanger<br />
! UA <br/> (kJ/°C-h)<br />
! U <br/> (kJ/hr/m<sup>2</sup>°C)<br />
! A <br/> (m<sup>2</sup>)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-101 || 1.47E+07 || 14400 || 1019<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-102 || 1.53E+07 || 14400 || 1059<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-103 || 1.59E+07 || 14400 || 1103<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-104 || 1.66E+07 || 14400 || 1153<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-105 || 1.74E+07 || 14400 || 1209<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-106 || 1.83E+07 || 14400 || 1272<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-107 || 1.93E+07 || 14400 || 1342<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-108 || 2.05E+07 || 14400 || 1424<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-109 || 2.19E+07 || 14400 || 1518<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-110 || 2.35E+07 || 14400 || 1629<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-111 || 2.54E+07 || 14400 || 1761<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-112 || 2.77E+07 || 14400 || 1921<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-113 || 3.05E+07 || 14400 || 2119<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-114 || 3.42E+07 || 14400 || 2372<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-115 || 3.90E+07 || 14400 || 2706<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-116 || 4.56E+07 || 14400 || 3167<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-117 || 5.55E+07 || 14400 || 3856<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-118 || 7.20E+07 || 14400 || 5000<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 11: Heat Exchanger Sizing for Process Heaters and Coolers<br />
! Exchanger<br />
! Q <br/> (kJ/h)<br />
! U <br/> (J/s/m<sup>2</sup>K)<br />
! U <br/> (kJ/hr/m<sup>2</sup>K)<br />
! LMTD <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! A <br/> (m<sup>2</sup>)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-201 || 9.67E+08 || 1500 || 5400 || 16.03 || 11165<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-202 || 1.26E+09 || 1500 || 5400 || 7.57 || 30921<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-203 || 1.88E+09 || 1500 || 5400 || 0.45 || 77366<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-302 || 3.09E+09 || 4000 || 14400 || 155 || 1385<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-303 || 1.26E+09 || 4000 || 14400 || 209.5 || 418<br />
|}<br />
The high heat transfer area in the final cooler of the heat rejection stage is due to the close approach temperature. <br />
<br/>Other cooling / pressurization techniques will be used to reduce the area.<br />
</center><br />
<br />
=Appendix G: Pressure Vessel Sizing=<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 12: Operating temperature and pressure and corresponding thickness for flash vessels<br />
! Unit<br />
! Temperature <br/> (°C)<br />
! Pressure <br/> (kPa)<br />
! Thickness <br/> (mm)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-101 || 103.6 || 110.7 || 17.14<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-102 || 102.3 || 105.7 || 16.62<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-103 || 100.9 || 100.7 || 16.10<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-104 || 99.5 || 95.7 || 15.58<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-105 || 98.0 || 90.7 || 15.06<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-106 || 96.4 || 85.7 || 14.53<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-107 || 94.8 || 80.7 || 14.01<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-108 || 93.1 || 75.7 || 13.49<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-109 || 91.3 || 70.7 || 12.97<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-110 || 89.3 || 65.7 || 12.45<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-111 || 87.3 || 60.7 || 11.93<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-112 || 85.1 || 55.7 || 11.41<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-113 || 82.7 || 50.7 || 10.89<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-114 || 80.1 || 45.7 || 10.36<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-115 || 77.3 || 40.7 || 9.84<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-116 || 74.1 || 35.7 || 9.32<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-117 || 70.6 || 30.7 || 8.80<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-118 || 66.5 || 25.7 || 8.28<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-201 || 61.7 || 20.7 || 7.76<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-202 || 55.8 || 15.7 || 7.24<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-203 || 47.9 || 10.7 || 6.72<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
=Appendix H: Expanded Economic Assumptions=<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 14: Installed costs of all major process equipment, in USD.<br />
! Unit<br />
! Equipment Cost <br/> (USD)<br />
! Installed Cost <br/> (USD)<br />
! Equipment Weight <br/> (LBS)<br />
! Total Installed Weight <br/> (LBS)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-101 ||1033900 || 1716400 || 403500 || 568790<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-102 ||1065700 || 1748700 || 416500 || 581960<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-103 ||1131500 || 1835900 || 439800 || 609338<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-104 ||1206900 || 1913200 || 469800 || 639902<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-105 ||1238900 || 1945800 || 483000 || 653292<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-106 ||1315000 || 2023500 || 515400 || 686222<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-107 ||1058900 || 1741900 || 413000 || 578460<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-108 ||1447500 || 2458400 || 564900 || 796324<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-109 ||1526200 || 2540200 || 598500 || 830924<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-110 ||1656600 || 2698900 || 646400 || 883959<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-111 ||1833500 || 2900600 || 714600 || 953808<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-112 ||1974700 || 3046000 || 774000 || 1014446<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-113 ||2186200 || 3647000 || 856000 || 1154275<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-114 ||2483100 || 4018400 || 968400 || 1278580<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-115 ||2817800 || 4433900 || 1103700 || 1431085<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-116 ||3291100 || 5778100 || 1290000 || 1731000<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-117 ||4062000 || 6880400 || 1588400 || 2081273<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-118 ||5361900 || 10603700 || 2097500 || 3054252<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-201 ||1682100 || 2649700 || 633600 || 835319<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-202 ||3265400 || 5677900 || 1233000 || 1643496<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| P-301 ||8263300 || 10579300 || 593100 || 1016878<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| P-302 ||5435000 || 7740400 || 389400 || 811881<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-101 ||43800 || 221900 || 11900 || 40680<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-102 ||2070900 || 5175400 || 1051900 || 1717877<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-103 ||1759900 || 4866600 || 804500 || 1476730<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-104 ||2976300 || 6117800 || 1625400 || 2292006<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-105 ||32200 || 201500 || 8300 || 35146<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-106 ||3480300 || 6698800 || 1863900 || 2546114<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-107 ||3538500 || 6800500 || 1918700 || 2612432<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-108 ||3673200 || 6973400 || 1985400 || 2687585<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-109 ||4178000 || 7524400 || 2228400 || 2938816<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-110 ||3690700 || 6978300 || 1994800 || 2693811<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-111 ||3711900 || 6991200 || 1986700 || 2683352<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-112 ||3541500 || 6754700 || 1891600 || 2562046<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-113 ||3288600 || 6463300 || 1782100 || 2444134<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-114 ||3039500 || 6176100 || 1651800 || 2306017<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-115 ||2961900 || 5572100 || 1614900 || 2161959<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-117 ||2831600 || 5403700 || 1549900 || 2087670<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-118 ||2800000 || 5359400 || 1531200 || 2065331<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-201 ||2807200 || 5147700 || 1535700 || 2002614<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-202 ||2921700 || 5295200 || 1587700 || 2063167<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-203 ||6322000 || 9725700 || 3364500 || 4063966<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
=Appendix I: Equipment Cost Summary=<br />
<br />
=Appendix J: Economic NPV Analysis=<br />
[[File:Team F Economics.JPG|center|1200px|thumb|alt=Economic Analysis|Figure J.1: Screenshot of process economic analysis.]]<br />
<br />
=References=<br />
<references/></div>Kedricdaly2https://processdesign.mccormick.northwestern.edu/index.php?title=Nueces_Desalination_Center:_Production_of_Drinking_Water_by_Multi-Stage_Flash_Distillation&diff=4968Nueces Desalination Center: Production of Drinking Water by Multi-Stage Flash Distillation2016-03-07T21:22:07Z<p>Kedricdaly2: Adding Table 12</p>
<hr />
<div>Team F: Rankine 672 Final Report<br />
<br />
Authors: Kedric Daly, Ben Granger, Evan Rosati, Kathleen Zhou<br />
<br />
Instructors: Fengqi You, David Wegerer<br />
<br />
March 11, 2016<br />
<br />
=Executive Summary=<br />
Desalination of seawater to drinking water is a technology of ever-increasing importance given trends of increasingly widespread water shortages around the world. Even in the United States, water shortages are becoming increasingly common in dry, highly-populated such as California and certain areas of the Gulf Coast. Our design team, Rankine 672, was tasked with evaluating the need for and designing a desalination plant to provide purified water in a place of need. Investigation revealed that the city of Corpus Christi, Texas, is a strategic location for development of a desalination facility, as surrounding region is in need of new drinking water sources and the city has expressed serious interest in contracting the development of a large-scale desalination plant. Our proposed solution is a multi-stage flash distillation desalination facility capable of producing 20,000,000 gallons (75,708 m<sup>3</sup>) of purified drinking water for the city and surrounding region per operating day.<br />
<br />
In this design, drinking water is produced from seawater feedstock through a 21-stage flash distillation process. By strategically locating the facility next to an existing natural gas power plant, the Nueces Bay Energy Center, pre-heated feed water can be taken directly from the outbound cooling systems of the power plant, allowing energy savings for our desalination plant. The process is designed for 16 hour-per-day operation, requires a seawater feed of 8250 m<sup>3</sup>/hr, and produces 4758 m<sup>3</sup>/hr of purified drinking water alongside a waste stream of 3485 m<sup>3</sup>/hr of concentrated brine. The waste stream is isolated from a recycle stream through a 9.0% purge; this results in an overall product yield of 57.7% on a volume basis. The process requires an additional pretreatment stream of 16.5 kg/hr Belgard EV 2030, which serves as an antiscalant, as well as 9.5 kg/hr chlorine, 352.1 kg/hr lime, and 418.7 kg/hr CO2 for post-treatment purposes.<br />
<br />
The overall capital cost of the plant is expected to be $345MM, with a total operating cost of $103MM/yr, $59MM/yr of which comes from utilities. Due to the low price at which the product water can be sold, the 30-year net present value of the plant, assuming a 6% discount rate, is $-1,035MM. It is thus imperative this plant be constructed with public funds because it cannot return a profit to any private investor. The growing need for water however could justify the cost, because it is important that the residents of the greater Corpus Christi area have access to drinkable water.<br />
<br />
__TOC__<br />
<br />
=Introduction=<br />
==Background==<br />
Clean drinking water is a basic human need that is becoming increasingly difficult to meet. Currently, over 1 billion people live in places where water is considered scarce<ref> Tapping the oceans. The Economist USA. http://www.economist.com/node/11484059. Accessed March 2, 2016. </ref>. Though often thought of as a problem exclusive to third-world countries, the issue is becoming more prevalent in the US as well, with water managers in 40 of 50 states anticipating water shortage conditions in some portion of their state in the next 10 years. These shortages are due to increasing demands on constant or diminishing freshwater resources, therefore, to correct the issue, a new supply must be found<ref> Water Supply in the US. EPA. http://www3.epa.gov/watersense/pubs/supply.html. Accessed March 2, 2016.</ref>. Desalination of seawater is therefore important as a new source for clean drinking water and prevent water shortages. <br />
<br />
==Project Definition==<br />
The overall goal of the project is to investigate the feasibility of a desalination plant in order to meet the needs of growing water demand. The design needs to take health, safety, and environmental concerns into account, while optimizing costs.<br />
<br />
=Design Basis=<br />
Site Location and Conditions<br />
Corpus Christi, TX was chosen as the location for the proposed desalination plant. The city is currently experiencing “Moderate Shortage Conditions”. This issue additionally comes at a time of growing demand with population growth anticipated due to new industry and Eagle Ford Group crude oil production<ref>Stage 2 Measures in the Drought Contingency Plan. Available at http://www.cctexas.com/government/water/conservation/conservation-drought-plans/stage-2-measures. Accessed January 12, 2016. </ref>.<br />
<br />
In June 2014, the city announced the Corpus Christi Desalination Demonstration Project<ref>Corpus Christi Desalination Demonstration Project. Available at http://www.cctexas.com/Assets/Departments/Water/Files/DesalFactSheet.pdf. Published June 2014. Accessed January 12, 2016. <br />
</ref> which seeks to create a demonstration desalination plant capable of producing 20,000 gallons of water per day, with plans to later build a full scale facility generating 20,000,000 gallons of water per day. The desalination demonstration project indicates a clear need for implementation of a desalination plant of this size to accommodate growth in the Corpus Christi area. <br />
<br />
Locating our plant in Corpus Christi will allow us to take advantage of the benefits of cogeneration through a partnership with the Nueces Bay Energy Center. By utilizing their outlet cooling water as a large portion of our feed for the desalination process, we can raise the temperature of our seawater feed, saving on energy costs in the multi stage flash distillation. The proposed location for the desalination plant is immediately west of the Nueces Bay Energy Center. See Appendix A for a map depicting the proposed location for the desalination plant along the coast of Nueces Bay.<br />
<br />
==Feed and Product Definitions==<br />
The proposed desalination facility’s feed and product streams are defined as shown in Table 1. Rationale for these definitions is also described below. The values reported in Table 1 are final derived numbers from HYSYS simulation modeling. <br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 1: Feed and product stream definitions<br />
! &nbsp;<br />
! Salt Concentration<br />
! Temperature <br />
! Amount<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Feed Stream <br />
| 30,500 ppm || 45°C || 8250 m<sup>3</sup>/hr<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Product Stream<br />
| ~ 0 ppm || 35°C || 4758 m<sup>3</sup>/hr<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Byproduct Stream<br />
| 69,500 ppm || 35°C || 3485 m<sup>3</sup>/hr<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
The process feed will be seawater from Nueces Bay, preheated through the cooling water system of the nearby Nueces Bay Energy Center. Based on calculations developed from NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory) data, it was estimated that the Nueces Bay Energy Center uses approximately 250 million gallons of seawater per day for process and cooling needs. Therefore, the 20 million gallon per day requirement for the desalination facility can easily be met through the power plant’s cooling water<ref>Torcellini P, Long N, Judkoff R. Consumptive Water Use for U.S. Power Consumption. NREL. 2003; TP-550-33905. <br />
</ref>. Note that we are assuming the process will operate 67% of the time (16 hours per day).<br />
<br />
Based on data acquired from two salinity-measuring stations in Nueces Bay, the average salinity of local seawater is 30.5 practical salinity units (psu)<ref>Stations Map & Real - Time Data. The Conrad Blucher Institute for Surveying and Science website. Available at http://www.cbi.tamucc.edu/cbi/data/. Updated January 2016. Accessed January 9, 2016. </ref>, thus setting the concentration of the process feed stream. This translates to a feed stream concentration of 30,500 ppm (parts per million)<ref name = "SALT">Definition and Units. CATD Salinity Expertise Center. Available at http://www.salinityremotesensing.ifremer.fr/home. Accessed January 12, 2016.</ref>. The composition of the salt attributed to this seawater salinity is shown in Table 6 in Appendix B. <br />
<br />
No data on the composition of seawater around the Corpus Christi area was available, but the composition of seawater does not change significantly in different locations. The given composition is considered accurate for our feed stream<ref>Brown E, Colling A, Park D, Phillips J, Rothery D, Wright J. Seawater : Its Composition, Properties and Behaviour. Boston: Butterworth-Heinemann, 1995.<br />
</ref>. Note that seawater salt is primarily sodium chloride - total dissolved solids are 85.7% sodium chloride by mass. As such, the dissolved solids in the feed stream is assumed in this project to be pure NaCl, making the feed composition 96.95% water and 3.05% NaCl by mass. A control system will likely be put in place to ensure feed concentration remains at this level, accounting for natural fluctuations in local seawater salinity.<br />
<br />
The largest byproduct from the process will be a brine slurry with high salt concentrations. An upper corrosion limit of 700 ppm was set for recirculated and purged brine. This undesired byproduct will be sent to a nearby Class I non-hazardous injection well facility operated by GNI Group, which is approximately 12 miles away from the proposed desalination plant location as shown in the figure in Appendix A<ref>Texas Water Code. Availabe at http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/WA/htm/WA.27.htm. Accessed January 14, 2016.<br />
</ref><ref>Google Maps. Available at https://goo.gl/maps/3xcvLZwUCe42 Accessed January 15, 2016.</ref>. Through the incorporation of a Class I injection well, the brine will not have to be treated or diluted before injection. <ref>EPA Regulations on Class I Wells. Available at http://www.epa.gov/uic/class-i-industrial-and-municipal-waste-disposal-wells. Accessed January 14, 2016.<br />
</ref><ref>List of Injection Well Facilities by Location. Available at http://www.ehso.com/cssepa/tsdfdeepwells.php. Accessed January 14, 2016.</ref><br />
<br />
There are no regulations regarding the temperature of city drinking water, so the product stream temperature has no requirements based on regulations. Outlet temperatures of 35<sup>o</sup>C are acceptable for input to the municipal water supply system. Since city water tends to be stored in non-temperature controlled tanks, the temperature will naturally cool to ambient temperature.<ref>Climate Corpus Christi- Texas. US Climate Data. Available at http://www.usclimatedata.com/climate/corpus-christi/texas/united-states/ustx0294. Accessed January 12, 2016. </ref><br />
<br />
==Pre-Treatment and Post-Treatment==<br />
For pretreatment, Belgard EV 2030 is recommended to be added at a concentration of 1.8-2.0 mg/L for a system with top brine temperature approximately 110 °C<ref name="BWA 2030">BWA Water Additives. Belgard EV2030 Technical Data Sheet. BWA Water Additives. http://www.wateradditives.com/files/products/tech_data_sheets/Belgard%20EV%202030_Technical%20Data%20Sheet_Thermal_8.5x11.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016.<br />
</ref>. Since our process is designed to operate at a slightly higher top brine temperature, 120 °C, we will design for the upper bound concentration: 2.0 mg/L of antiscalant. With a feed flow rate of 8250 m<sup>3</sup>/hr, the process therefore requires 16.5 kg/hr of Belgard EV 2030.<br />
<br />
For disinfection during post-treatment, chlorine addition typically requires a dose of roughly 2.0 mg/L as well<ref name="World Health Organization">World Health Organization. Desalination for safe water supply. http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/gdwqrevision/desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. With a pure water distillate flow rate of 4758 m<sup>3</sup>/hr, the process requires 9.5 kg/hr of chlorine as a 5%-15% sodium hypochlorite solution. Approximately 74 mg/L of lime (calcium hydroxide) and 88mg/L of CO2 should be added to the desalinated water to help prevent corrosion and increase alkalinity within acceptable ranges<ref name="Vouchkov">Vouchkov, N. Re-Mineralization of Desalinated Water. SunCam. https://s3.amazonaws.com/suncam/npdocs/118.pdf. Accessed February 18, 2016.</ref>. With a product stream flow rate of 4758 m3/hr, these concentrations correspond to 352.1 kg/hr of lime and 418.7 kg/hr of CO2. Both of these can be purchased, and it is likely that the CO2 can be procured from the neighboring natural gas power plant.<br />
<br />
==Choice of Desalination Technology==<br />
The two major technologies commonly implemented for desalination include reverse osmosis (RO), and multi-stage flash distillation (MSFD). RO utilizes high pressures to force water through a semipermeable membrane that allows for purified water to pass through, but stops organic and other wastes. Often, the pressures can reach 55 - 68 bar, which requires large pumps to maintain pressure, and introduces safety concerns to the process<ref>Stage 2 Measures in the Drought Contingency Plan. Available at http://www.cctexas.com/government/water/conservation/conservation-drought-plans/stage-2-measures. Accessed January 12, 2016. <br />
</ref>. While RO can be less energy intensive than MSFD, and the membrane can also remove contaminants, it is susceptible to feedwater quality, membrane fouling, and requires more extensive pretreatment and posttreatment than MSFD. The cost of RO is directly proportional to the feed salinity, and so it is less expensive when desalinating low salinity water.<br />
<br />
Multi-stage flash distillation is best selected for areas that have high salinity or low energy costs. The pretreatment process for MSFD is much easier when compared to RO because pretreatment often consists of simply adding anti-corrosives and antiscalants to the feed stream. The process works by heating water in vessels at different pressures to change the boiling point of the water and evaporate it as it passes through the system. After evaporation, the water condenses, leaving pure water as the effluent. MSFD costs are now roughly $1.00/m3, where this cost is mostly independent of salinity, but dependent on energy costs.<ref>Fritzman C, Lowenberg J, Wintgens T, Melin T. State-of-the-art Reverse Osmosis Desalination. Desalination. 2007; 216:1-76. <br />
</ref> In both RO and MSFD a brine is produced which then must be appropriately treated and/or disposed of.<br />
<br />
Multi-stage flash distillation was selected for this process, mainly due to the economic advantages offered by the selected location of Corpus Christi, TX. MSFD is also a well understood process that can be more easily modeled by chemical engineering software.<br />
<br />
=Technical Approach=<br />
Quantitative modeling of the process and all included optimization was conducted using the simulation software Aspen HYSYS. A variety of assumptions were developed to set up and define specific components of the process simulation itself. Within Aspen HYSYS, the NRTL Electrolyte property package was selected to model the behavior of salt water. Each stage of the MSF process is modeled as an individual flash vessel, with individual shell & tube heat exchangers used to model the distillate condensers present in each flash stage in the MSF system.<br />
<br />
The HYSYS simulation model only considers the flash portion of the overall process, allowing establishment of mass and energy balances for the system. Pretreatment and post-treatment were excluded for the HYSYS model, as these steps are simple additions or removals of small concentrations of chemical components. Although the simulation models heat exchangers outside of each flash stage, in the physical design of the plant these heat exchangers will be contained within each flash stage.<br />
<br />
One portion of the process is not modeled, which is the inlet seawater entering the heat rejection stages. As can be seen from the full process flow diagram (Appendix C), the inlet seawater in the heat rejection stage is in high excess to provide maximum cooling capacity; then a significant portion is purged to bring the stream flow rate down to what is needed for the feed stream. It is assumed that the flow rate of cooling water for those three stages is in such high excess that the cooling water does not heat up. Therefore, in the process simulation models, the inlet stream is the feed stream, which enters directly into the heat recovery portion of the process.<br />
<br />
See Appendix D for a screenshot overview of the simulation environment model.<br />
<br />
=Process Overview=<br />
==Process Flowsheet==<br />
The following diagram, Figure 1, shows a basic flowsheet for the process. Process alternatives considered for each stage are discussed below. Please see Appendix C for the full process flowsheet with finalized design decisions.<br />
<br />
[[File:BlockFlowDiagram.png|center|700px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Desalination Facility Block Flow Diagram|Figure 1: Basic block flowsheet of the multi-stage flash desalination process.]]<br />
<br />
==Major Features==<br />
As seen above, there are three primary stages of the desalination process: Pre-treatment, the multi-stage flash distillation, and post-treatment. Seawater enters the pre-treatment phase first to make the feed suitable for the rest of the process by filtering out large particles that could accumulate on pipes, deaerating the water to limit corrosion, and adding an agent to combat fouling. The water then enters the distillation process, which is broken up into two sections: heat recovery and heat rejection. <br />
<br />
In the heat recovery stage, there are 18 flash vessels, each of which separates steam from the salinated liquid water. Each flash vessel has saltwater as its inlet and two outlets: a vapor outlet (steam) that condenses into the final product of purified water and a liquid outlet composed of water with more dissolved solids than the inlet, which is the inlet stream for the next flash vessel. The pipe containing the feed is first mixed with recycled brine, then goes through the top sections of each of the flash vessels, starting with V-118 and ending up at V-101. In this way, the feed stream pipe first serves as a heat exchanger, heating the pre-treated seawater while simultaneously condensing the steam into the final product. The feed then enters a final heat exchanger where it is brought up to 103.6 °C before entering V-101 to be flashed.<br />
<br />
After exiting V-118, the final flash vessel in the heat recovery portion, the water enters the heat rejection portion, which consists of three flash vessels (V-201, V-202, V-203). The flash vessels of this section operate in the same manner as in the heat recovery section, with the exception that condensation occurs using excess cooling water instead of pre-treated seawater. This technique allows excess heat to be rejected into an excess water stream rather than the feed.<br />
<br />
The purified product stream finally enters post-treatment processing in which water is re-aerated and remineralized, disinfected, and pH is adjusted before being delivered to the city. The concentrated brine leftover at the end of the flash cycle is recycled into the feed, although a purge is required to continuously remove some salt from the system. This purged brine is disposed of by use of a Class I injection well, per regional regulations.<br />
<br />
See Appendix E to find detailed stream tables of stream specifications.<br />
<br />
==Process Alternatives==<br />
===Pretreatment===<br />
Multi-stage flash distillation requires significantly less pretreatment than reverse osmosis desalination, but helpful pretreatment techniques still exist. One very inexpensive method of pretreatment is screening/filtration, which is used to filter out large contaminants from intake seawater. Using more complicated membrane technology to accomplish large particle filtration is a possible alternative, but doing so would be much more expensive than using a standard screen or filter, so the latter choice has been selected for this process.<ref>El-Dessouky H., Alatiqi I, Ettouney H. Process synthesis: The multi-stage flash desalination system. Desalination. 1998;115(2):115-179. doi: 10.1016/S0011-9164(98)00035-6.</ref><br />
<br />
The most critical type of fouling in multi-stage flash distillation is scaling - therefore, the most critical step in the pretreatment process will be the inclusion of an anti-scalant. Alkaline scaling can be prevented by acid dosing or polyphosphate addition; however, acid dosing can result in increased corrosion and polyphosphates can lead to non-alkaline calcium phosphate fouling, so these additives will not be considered<ref name="Morris">Morris, R. The development of the multi-stage flash distillation process: A designer's viewpoint. Desalination. 1993;93(1-3):57-68. doi:10.1016/S0011-9164(93)80096-6. Availble at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0011916493800966</ref><ref>Al-Gobaisi, D. A quarter-century of seawater desalination by large multistage flash plants in Abu Dhabi (Plant performance analysis, assessment, present efforts toward enhancement and future hopes). Desalination. 1994;99(2-3):509-512. doi: 10.1016/S0011-9164(94)00196-0.</ref>. As such, a polymer-based additive is recommended for the anti-scalant for this process. The Belgard EV series is designed for use in high-temperature seawater MSF; of these, Belgard EV 2030 is the most neutral in pH<ref>NSF International. NSF Product and Service Listings: Drinking Water Treatment Chemicals - Health Effects. NSF International. http://info.nsf.org/Certified/PwsChemicals/Listings.asp?Company=00300&. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref><ref name="BWA 2030" /><ref>BWA Water Additives. Belgard EV2035 Technical Data Sheet. BWA Water Additives. http://www.wateradditives.com/files/products/tech_data_sheets/Belgard%20EV2035_Technical%20Data%20Sheet_Thermal_8.5x11.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref><ref>BioLab Water Additives. Belgard EV Antiscalant for seawater distillation plants. BioLab Water Additives. http://www.lpq.com.mx/pdf/BELGARD%20EV.PDF. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref>. As such, we have selected Belgard EV 2030 for use as an anti-scalant in our process.<br />
<br />
Corrosion control is another significant method of pretreatment in multi-stage flash distillation plants. Using a piping material that has limited susceptibility to corrosion is typically not economically viable for MSF desalination plants due their large size, so using carbon steel for most of the piping is generally used for its economic benefits despite its susceptibility to corrosion<ref name = "Morris" />. Limiting oxygen concentration is very feasible through the use of deaerators, which can remove oxygen as well as other dissolved gases from the seawater stream. Often, an external deaeration system is used<ref name = "Morris" /><ref>Edwards - Hick Hargreaves. Seawater Deaerators. Edwards - Hick Hargreaves. http://psscorp.co.th/upload/news/20110830105340.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. Given these considerations, using an external deaerator combined with a less-corrosive antiscalant like Belgard EV 2030 is much more practical for the process than using anti-corrosive piping.<br />
<br />
Excessive foam can also be an issue in some MSF distillation facilities, so antifoaming agents are sometimes employed in the pretreatment process as well. However, many plants are operated without foaming issues, and therefore do not need anti-foaming pretreatment at all. Selection of an anti-foaming agent must be carefully weighed with selected of anti-scalant to avoid issues with additive interactions [26]. At this stage in the design process, an anti-foamer will not be included due to the risk of decreasing scalant efficacy, and the likelihood that foam will not be an issue in the desalination plant.<br />
<br />
===Multistage Flash Distillation===<br />
The main objective of the design project is desalinate water. This is done with the main process of multi stage flash distillation (MSF). MSF can be developed using a numerous number of different process configurations, such as Once-Through, Simple Mixer Brine Circulation, and Multi-Stage Heat Rejection Brine Circulation processes. <br />
<br />
The most desired process for the project is the Three Stage Heat Rejection Brine Circulation as it builds on benefits of the other simpler technologies. By combining principles of heat rejection and heat recovery, the required heat transfer area of the process is greatly reduced as compared to once through processes or simple brine recycle processes. It has the highest performance ratio with the lowest specific feed flow rates, therefore greatly lowering the operating costs of the process. It is also known as the industry standard for MSF<ref name = "KSU Chapter 6">Kansas State University ChE 413. Available at: http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/Almutaz/Documents/ChE-413/Multi-stage%20Flash%20Desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. In addition, since our brine disposal technique involves the pumping of the brine into a Class I well, the high brine outlet salinity is not a drawback for our process since post treatment or dilution of the brine is not necessary.<br />
<br />
===Post Treatment===<br />
After processing the water via multi-stage flash, the water needs to be post-treated to make the water taste as consumers would expect, since distilled water is “flat” and unpleasant, as well as to protect the consumers and the piping through which the water will be passing<ref name="Clayton">Clayton R. A review of current knowledge: Desalination for water supply. Foundation for Water Research. http://www.fwr.org/desal.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. There are multiple alternatives to achieve these objectives of remineralization, aeration, corrosion control, and disinfection.<br />
<br />
Aerating and introducing some dissolved solids back into the product water are effective ways to create a quality product that is not flat, and contains flavoring that is expected of the water when delivered to the consumer. Aeration will be accomplished via an inline spray aerator which will take up less space than cascade aeration.<ref>Minnesota Rural Water Association. Aeration. http://www.mrwa.com/WaterWorksMnl/Chapter%2011%20Aeration.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref> Feed blending will be used to remineralize the water as opposed to a remineralization filter because it does not require additional equipment purchases, and can easily handle the large amounts of throughput required for the process.<ref name="Clayton" /><br />
<br />
Corrosion and pH can be controlled by adding lime (calcium hydroxide) and carbon dioxide to the water. To do so, about 74 mg/L of lime and 88mg/L of CO<sub>2</sub> should be added to the desalinated water to help prevent corrosion and increase alkalinity within acceptable ranges. Sodium hydroxide, soda ash, and sodium bicarbonate are alternatives to altering the alkalinity and pH of the product water, but lime and CO<sub>2</sub> is an industry standard <ref name="Vouchkov" />.<br />
<br />
Disinfection needs to be done to prevent microbial growth in the desalinated water and ensure the safety of the general public. Chlorine addition via chlorine gas or sodium hypochlorite is the most common and only requires a dose of 1.5 to 2.5 mg/liter. <ref name="World Health Organization" /> Other alternatives include ozonation, UV light, and chloramination. Chlorine, as a 5% - 15% sodium hypochlorite solution, is sufficient for our process and relatively inexpensive, and as such will be utilized in the process.<br />
<br />
===Transport of Brine to Well===<br />
Three major possibilities exist for transporting the brine from our desalination plant to the injection well for disposal: rail, trucking, and a pipeline. A pipeline was chosen as the most feasible and cost-effective approach. <br />
<br />
A rail line is not available at this time, and with the cost to construct a rail line at approximately $43 million per mile<ref>About Money. How Much Do Rail Transit Projects Cost to Build and Operate? 2014. Available at: http://publictransport.about.com/od/Transit_Projects/a/How-Much-Do-Rail-Transit-Projects-Cost-To-Build-And-Operate.htm. Accessed January 27, 2016. </ref>, the enormous capital cost makes rail transport infeasible for this site. For large volume operations, pipelines are cheaper than trucking. In a study of wastewater sludge produced from wastewater treatment facilities, it was found that it was more economical for facilities producing over 1200 m<sup>3</sup> per day to utilize pipelines rather than trucking.<ref>Marufuzzaman M, Eskioglu S, Hernandez R. Truck versus pipeline transportation cost analysis of wastewater sludge. Transportation Research. 2015; 74(A): 14-30. </ref> Our facility is producing nearly 3 times this volume at 3485 m<sup>3</sup> per day of brine. Furthermore, brine is a less viscous fluid than wastewater sludge, decreasing pumping costs in the pipeline and further amplifying the benefit of choosing a pipeline over an injection well.<br />
<br />
===Brine Storage===<br />
Due to the choice of a pipeline, rather than trucking, as the method of transport of brine to the injection well, brine storage is unnecessary, so storage solutions such as holding tanks were not investigated. One method of storage compatible with a pipeline is to pump the brine through an evaporation pond. This solution is attractive as it would allow the brine to concentrate, saving some costs of pumping, however, the considerable land usage of evaporation ponds leads them to only be effective for smaller plants. The largest municipal plant utilizing this method produces only 5.7 million liters per day<ref>University of Santa Cruz Center for Integrated Water Research. Concentrate Management: Evaporation Ponds. 2010. Available at: https://ciwr.ucsc.edu/sites/default/files/ICM_D5.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016. </ref>, whereas our desalination plant is proposed to produce 75.7 million liters per day. Therefore, evaporation ponds have been eliminated from consideration.<br />
<br />
==Major Specifications==<br />
===Material of Construction Selection===<br />
While saltwater and desalinated water in general can be corrosive, there are best practices within the desalination industry for material selection. With this in mind, best practice shows carbon steel lifetime can be lengthened by monitoring the oxygen concentration in the water, specifying the paint used to coat any metal, and more expensive materials can be used in areas of extremely high corrosion.<ref name = "Morris" />. By following these best practices, it is possible to save significant amounts of money through the use of carbon steel in most areas of the plant, with specific high-corrosion areas being reinforced with, or replaced with, more corrosion resistant materials, such as Cu/Ni 70/30 alloy<ref name = "KSU Chapter 6" />.<br />
<br />
===Heat Exchanger Sizing===<br />
See Appendix F for heat exchanger sizing data. Heat exchanger sizes appear reasonable for placement in the flash vessels.<br />
<br />
===Flash Vessel Sizing===<br />
The dimensions for the flash drums were obtained through literature values. The flash drums were determined to be 18x4x3 m in width, height, and length.<ref name="KSU Chapter 6" /><br />
<br />
Wall thickness was determined using the following conventions: Design pressure is 10% more than the operating pressure, design temperature is 50°F (27.8°C) higher than the operating temperature, a corrosion allowance of 3-mm and an effectiveness of 85% was derived from the assumption of a double-welded butt joint that was spot checked. See Appendix G for wall thicknesses calculated for each pressure vessel. <br />
<br />
The sizing of the vessels to be constructed will be determined after talks with a manufacturer. Due to economies of scale, it may be more cost-effective to buy 21 pressure vessels with the dimensions mentioned above and a wall thickness of 17.1-mm, the highest wall thickness required in the system.<br />
<br />
===Pipe Losses and Pressure Drop===<br />
HYSYS was used to estimate the diameter of a pipe given a specified pressure drop per 100m of pipe. It was determined that for a pressure drop of 0.1 kPa/100m of pipe, a 3.05m diameter pipe is sufficient, which is more than manageable for manufacturers. This pressure drop is mostly insignificant and will be taken care of with the safety factors included in the pumps. The significant pressure drops in our system is accounted for via losses in the flash vessels and heat exchangers, which drive the flash process. Therefore overall pipe losses are insignificant and are built into intentional design losses.<br />
<br />
=Economic Analysis=<br />
==Economic Assumptions==<br />
The sale of purified water yields a revenue stream of $49.5 million per year assuming sale to commercial entities within the city limits of Corpus Christi at $1.7915 per thousand liters.<ref>Water schedule. City of Corpus Christi Utility Business Office. http://www.cctexas.com/Assets/Departments/Financial-Services/Utilities-Business-Office/files/waterrates.pdf Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref> The primary variable costs are utilities and the brine disposal, with minimal raw materials costs due to the primary feedstock, seawater, being free, and minimal amounts of pre- and post-treatment chemicals being used. The cost of brine disposal used in this analysis was high at $2.097 per thousand liters<ref>McCurdy, R. Underground injection wells for produced water disposal. Chesapeake Energy Corporation. http://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/documents/21_McCurdy_-_UIC_Disposal_508.pdf Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref>, an estimate for brine disposal utilizing trucking as the mode of transport. As has been shown through previous analyses, a lower cost can be achieved using a direct pipeline, however, no good estimates for this cost could be found.<br />
<br />
The NPV was calculated using a 6% cost of capital, the approximate interest rate for a municipal bond.<ref>Zirbe, R.O. Jr., Han, X., Layton, D., Leshine, T. A history of discount rates and their use by government agencies. (2002). http://faculty.washington.edu/zerbe/docs/DISCOUNT%20RATE%20HISTORY-latesXIt.doc Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref> It was assumed that the plant can be built within two years, with production at half-scale in its first year. Additionally, one month of variable costs, $10.6 million, was set aside for working capital. See Appendix H for a full table of assumptions. A 30 year NPV calculation was chosen as the decision basis since 30 years is a conservative estimate for the lifetime of a desalination plant <ref>Tampa Bay Seawater Desalination Plant. American Water. http://www.amwater.com/files/tampabayseawaterdesalinationplantcasestudy6.16.09.pdf. Accessed February 25, 20216.</ref>. See below for estimates of NPV for the lifetime of the plant under various assumptions and design criteria.<br />
<br />
==Optimization and Sensitivity Analysis==<br />
Looking at the multi-stage flash process, there are a number of opportunities to optimize the process. The major process variables that were investigated were the inlet water temperature, the operating pressure drop per vessel, and the number of stages over which the process takes place. Considering these optimizations, our final process consists of 21 flash vessels (18 heat recovery and 3 heat rejection stages), each with a pressure drop of 5 kPa. See Appendix D for a screenshot of the HYSYS simulation used to model the optimized process.<br />
===Operating Pressure and Pressure Drop===<br />
Initially our process was designed to pump the inlet seawater and brine to a pressure of 2 bar and allow the pressure drop in each flash stage to end our process downstream at 1 bar to prevent complications associated with designing a system under vacuum. While this provided pumping advantages, the energy in the system was significantly higher due to vapor pressure considerations. Due to this fact, the required heat exchange area for certain exchangers proved to be infeasible (on the order of 80,000m<sup>2</sup>) due to the enormous capital and operating costs that would be associated with such a large heat exchanger.<br />
<br />
The process was optimized to operate under vacuum, requiring additional pumping requirements but much lower required heat exchange area, and therefore lower utility costs. This optimization was done by specifying the pressure of the final flash vessel to 5.7kPa, so that the temperature of the water vapor (~30<sup>o</sup>C) is within approximately 5<sup>o</sup>C of the cooling water (35<sup>o</sup>C) so that condensation can occur within a reasonable approach. This also allows our system to optimally extract pure water from the brine running through the system and reduce energy requirements for cooling the product or the recycle. Our system redesign and optimization reduced the energy in the system and reduce the same heat exchanger area requirements by more than 3 orders of magnitude to approximately 800m<sup>2</sup>. <br />
<br />
Once the process was optimized to operate in a vacuum, the pressure drop per flash stage regulated through values was then optimized. Three pressure drops per stages, 3kPa, 5kPa, and 7kPa, were tested and then an economic analysis was conducted to find the optimal value for the pressure drop. These changes had impacts on both operating and capital costs as they would change initial pumping requirements, the amount of water flowing through the process and recycle (and therefore the flash vessel sizes, heat exchanger sizing), and the efficiency of each stage.<br />
<br />
The various pressure drops (3 kPa, 5 kPa, and 7 kPa) were tested on a system nominally at 24 stages under the assumption that the results would be generalizable to systems with a different number of stages. With increasing pressure drop, we found decreased capital cost but increased utility cost. As can be seen from Table 2 below, a pressure drop of 5 kPa proved to be the best option based on 30 year NPV, with a loss of $838.8 million, a savings of $65.5 million compared to the next-best option with a pressure drop of 7 kPa.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 2: Comparison of profitability for our MSF desalination process with 24 stages with 3 different pressure drops per stage<br />
! Number of Stages <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! Pressure Drop <br/> (kPa)<br />
! Capital Cost <br/> ($MM)<br />
! Utility Cost <br/> ($MM/yr)<br />
! 30-Year NPV <br/> ($MM)<br />
! NPV Ratio <br/> (over 5kPa)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 3 || 362.3 || 39.1 || -905.8 || 1.08<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 5 || 255.1 || 53.6 || -838.8 || 1.00<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 7 || 209.5 || 72.2 || -904.3 || 1.08<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
===Number of Flash Stages===<br />
The number of stages is an important area for optimization. An increased number of stages yields better recovery of purified water, however, requires higher capital cost from the additional pressure vessel. Furthermore, with an increased amount of purified water comes increasingly concentrated brine. This must be taken into account since any brine concentration in excess of about 7% presents a more significant corrosion risk<ref name="KSU Chapter 6" />, so increased maintenance costs for the piping or higher capital costs for more corrosion-resistant materials could be necessary for brine concentrations exceeding 7%. Therefore, to recover the same amount of pure water without exceeding corrosion limitations, increasing the number of stages will reduce the overall size of each stage.<br />
<br />
Optimizing based on NPV, it was found that 21 stages is optimal, balancing the increased profits from the additional purified water additional costs of higher capital cost. See Table 3 below to compare the 30-year NPV of the process across various numbers of flash vessels.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 3: Comparison of profitability for our MSF desalination process with a 5 kPa pressure drop, 5000 m<sup>3</sup>/hr feed flow rate, with varying number of stages.<br />
! Number of Stages <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! Pressure Drop <br/> (kPa)<br />
! Capital Cost <br/> ($MM)<br />
! Utility Cost <br/> ($MM/yr)<br />
! 30-Year NPV <br/> ($MM)<br />
! NPV Ratio <br/> (over 21 Stages)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 17 || 5 || 213.9 || 58.7 || -813.8 || 1.016<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 18 || 5 || 218 || 57.6 || -809.9 || 1.011<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 19 || 5 || 224.3 || 58 || -806.1 || 1.007<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 20 || 5 || 229.8 || 57.9 || -813.6 || 1.016<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 21 || 5 || 226.6 || 55.9 || -800.7 || 1<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 22 || 5 || 254.7 || 54.6 || -849.5 || 1.061<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 23 || 5 || 249.3 || 54.1 || -833.1 || 1.04<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 5 || 255.1 || 53.6 || -838.8 || 1.048<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 25 || 5 || 254.9 || 52.7 || -837.4 || 1.046<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
===Inlet Seawater Temperature===<br />
By pairing our desalination plant with a natural gas power plant and utilizing its cooling water we forgo initial heating of our inlet stream. Normally, water pumped from the ocean would be approximately 25<sup>o</sup>C and by capturing waste heat from the power plant we can reduce utilities with our water inlet of 45<sup>o</sup>C. Through an economic comparison between two plants nominally at 21 flash stages, the plant with an inlet temperature at 25<sup>o</sup>C has a capital cost of $245MM and a utility cost of $77MM/yr and the same facility with an inlet water temperature at 45<sup>o</sup>C has a capital cost of only $226MM and a utility cost of $56MM/yr. As shown in Table 4 below, this $19MM savings in capital costs and $21MM/yr saving in utilities is largely due to reducing the size of the heat exchangers and lowering the steam required for heating duty on the inlet seawater respectively. Therefore our process is optimized by recovering the waste heat water from the gas fired power plant.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 4: Seawater Inlet Temperature Process Cost Optimization<br />
! Seawater Temperature <br/> (°C)<br />
! Capital Cost <br/> ($MM)<br />
! Utility Cost <br/> ($MM/yr)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 25 || 245 || 77<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 45 || 226 || 56<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Savings || 56 || 19<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
==Overall Process Economics==<br />
After optimization at fixed flow rates, the process was scaled to meet the the 67% operating percentage and final product definitions as shown in Table 1, which resulted in finalized economics shown in Table 5 below. For a table of the installed costs of each process vessel, see Appendix I. For the finalized NPV calculations, see Appendix J.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 5: Summarized Economics for 21-stage MSFD Process<br />
! Economic Parameter<br />
! Cost <br/> (USD)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Capital Cost || 345 MM<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Total Operating Cost per Year || 103 MM<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Utility Cost per Year || 59 MM<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 30-Year NPV (6% Discount) || -1035 MM<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
=Conclusions and Recommendations=<br />
==Project Viability==<br />
Table 5 above demonstrates that the process has reasonable operating and capital costs, but the 30-year NPV is negative by -1035 $MM due to the extremely low sell price capability of desalinated water as a product. Therefore, this plant would have to heavily be supported by the City of Corpus Christi to run as the product revenue will not make it self-sufficient. The acquisition of government subsidies are key operating requirements for all desalination facilities in the United States. <br />
<br />
==Additional Concerns==<br />
Large volumes of water, steam, and energy are needed to ensure the project runs as specified. While most of the water can easily be extracted from the ocean with little to consequence, the fuel used to generate the steam and electricity can have a significant environmental impact. As the plant is located next to a natural gas power plant, this fuel is better than coal with respect to environmental concerns, and utilizing energy from the power plant to preheat the feed stream for the desalination plant helps lower environmental impacts.<br />
<br />
The large amounts of high pressure steam being used represents one of the the largest safety concern in the process, because a high pressure steam release could easily cause severe burns or even death. Proper precautions and control measures must be in place to prevent accidental release. Otherwise, the process does not utilize any known toxic chemicals and is relatively safe from a chemical standpoint. The flash vessels mostly operate below atmospheric pressure, so they must be constructed as vessels that can withstand vacuum without failing.<br />
<br />
<br />
=Appendix A: Proposed Location of Desalination Plant=<br />
Pictured below is the proposed location for the desalination plant, located on Nueces Bay in Corpus Christi, adjacent to the Nueces Bay Energy Center. The plant’s proposed location is shown in the area outlined by the small circle in the upper right of the figure.<br />
<br />
[[File:NuecesBayLocation.png|center|600px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Desalination Facility Location|Figure A.1: Proposed mapped location of Nueces Bay Desalination Facility.]]<br />
[[File:ClassIWell.png|center|700px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Desalination Facility Distance to Injection Well|Figure A.2: Mapped distance from proposed location to Class I Injection Well]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix B: Feed and Product Definitions - Salinity=<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 6: Average Composition of Total Dissolved Solids in Seawater<ref> Physical and Thermodynamic Data. In: Dickson AG, Goyet C. Handbook of Methods for the Analysis of the Various Parameters of the Carbon Dioxide System in Sea Water.</ref><ref> Composition of Seawater. Water Treatment of Solutions. Available at http://www.lenntech.com/composition-seawater.htm. Accessed January 12, 2016.</ref><br />
! Compound <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! Mass Composition <br/> (kPa)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Chlorine || 55.03%<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Sodium || 30.64%<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Sulfate || 7.70%<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Magnesium || 3.66%<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Calcium || 1.17%<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Potassium || 1.12%<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Bicarbonate || 0.36%<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Bromine || 0.19%<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Other || 0.15%<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
[[File:Nueces Bay Salinity.JPG|center|700px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Salinity Tracking|Figure C.1: Salinity in Nueces Bay over the past 10 years<ref name = "SALT" />.]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix C: Process Flow Diagram=<br />
[[File:TeamF_FinalPFD.JPG|center|1200px|thumb|alt=Process Flow Diagram|Figure C.1: Process Flow Diagram]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix D: HYSYS Simulation Model=<br />
[[File:TeamF_HYSYS_Screenshot.PNG|center|1200px|thumb|alt=HYSYS Simulation Model|Figure D.1: Screenshot of HYSYS Model Simulation.]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix E: Stream Tables=<br />
A summary of some values is shown below:<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 7: Key process material streams<br />
! &nbsp;<br />
! Stream <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! Molar Flow <br/> (10<sup>5</sup> kgmole/h)<br />
! Mass Flow <br/> (10<sup>5</sup> kg/h)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Inlet <br />
| Feed Water || 454 || 83.6<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Outlet<br />
| Brine Reject || 1.90 || 36.0<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Product<br />
| Pure Water || 2.64 || 47.5<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 8: Key process energy streams<br />
! Stream <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! Heat Flow <br/> (kJ/h)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Feed Water || 1.30E+11<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Q-301 || 5.73E+06<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Q-302 || 3.09E+09<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Q-304 || 4.68E+06<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Q-303 || -1.26E+09<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Brine Reject || -5.47E+10<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Pure Water || -7.46E+10<br />
|}<br />
(Negative value denotes energy leaving process)<br />
</center><br />
<br />
=Appendix F: Heat Exchanger Sizing=<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 9: Utility Temperatures and Heat Transfer Coefficient<ref name="Towler">G.P. Towler, R. Sinnott. Chemical Engineering Design: Principles, Practice and Economics of Plant and Process Design. Elsevier, 2012.</ref><br />
! &nbsp;<br />
! HP Steam<br />
! Cooling Water<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! Temperature (°C)<br />
| 250 || 35<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! U (W/m<sup>2</sup>K)<br />
| 4000 || 1500<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 10: Internal Flash Heat Exchanger Sizing, condensing steam.<br />
! Exchanger<br />
! UA <br/> (kJ/°C-h)<br />
! U <br/> (kJ/hr/m<sup>2</sup>°C)<br />
! A <br/> (m<sup>2</sup>)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-101 || 1.47E+07 || 14400 || 1019<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-102 || 1.53E+07 || 14400 || 1059<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-103 || 1.59E+07 || 14400 || 1103<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-104 || 1.66E+07 || 14400 || 1153<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-105 || 1.74E+07 || 14400 || 1209<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-106 || 1.83E+07 || 14400 || 1272<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-107 || 1.93E+07 || 14400 || 1342<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-108 || 2.05E+07 || 14400 || 1424<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-109 || 2.19E+07 || 14400 || 1518<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-110 || 2.35E+07 || 14400 || 1629<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-111 || 2.54E+07 || 14400 || 1761<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-112 || 2.77E+07 || 14400 || 1921<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-113 || 3.05E+07 || 14400 || 2119<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-114 || 3.42E+07 || 14400 || 2372<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-115 || 3.90E+07 || 14400 || 2706<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-116 || 4.56E+07 || 14400 || 3167<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-117 || 5.55E+07 || 14400 || 3856<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-118 || 7.20E+07 || 14400 || 5000<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 11: Heat Exchanger Sizing for Process Heaters and Coolers<br />
! Exchanger<br />
! Q <br/> (kJ/h)<br />
! U <br/> (J/s/m<sup>2</sup>K)<br />
! U <br/> (kJ/hr/m<sup>2</sup>K)<br />
! LMTD <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! A <br/> (m<sup>2</sup>)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-201 || 9.67E+08 || 1500 || 5400 || 16.03 || 11165<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-202 || 1.26E+09 || 1500 || 5400 || 7.57 || 30921<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-203 || 1.88E+09 || 1500 || 5400 || 0.45 || 77366<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-302 || 3.09E+09 || 4000 || 14400 || 155 || 1385<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-303 || 1.26E+09 || 4000 || 14400 || 209.5 || 418<br />
|}<br />
The high heat transfer area in the final cooler of the heat rejection stage is due to the close approach temperature. <br />
<br/>Other cooling / pressurization techniques will be used to reduce the area.<br />
</center><br />
<br />
=Appendix G: Pressure Vessel Sizing=<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 12: Operating temperature and pressure and corresponding thickness for flash vessels<br />
! Unit<br />
! Temperature <br/> (°C)<br />
! Pressure <br/> (kPa)<br />
! Thickness <br/> (mm)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-101 || 103.6 || 110.7 || 17.14<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-102 || 102.3 || 105.7 || 16.62<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-103 || 100.9 || 100.7 || 16.10<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-104 || 99.5 || 95.7 || 15.58<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-105 || 98.0 || 90.7 || 15.06<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-106 || 96.4 || 85.7 || 14.53<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-107 || 94.8 || 80.7 || 14.01<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-108 || 93.1 || 75.7 || 13.49<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-109 || 91.3 || 70.7 || 12.97<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-110 || 89.3 || 65.7 || 12.45<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-111 || 87.3 || 60.7 || 11.93<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-112 || 85.1 || 55.7 || 11.41<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-113 || 82.7 || 50.7 || 10.89<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-114 || 80.1 || 45.7 || 10.36<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-115 || 77.3 || 40.7 || 9.84<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-116 || 74.1 || 35.7 || 9.32<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-117 || 70.6 || 30.7 || 8.80<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-118 || 66.5 || 25.7 || 8.28<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-201 || 61.7 || 20.7 || 7.76<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-202 || 55.8 || 15.7 || 7.24<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| V-203 || 47.9 || 10.7 || 6.72<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
=Appendix H: Expanded Economic Assumptions=<br />
<br />
=Appendix I: Equipment Cost Summary=<br />
<br />
=Appendix J: Economic NPV Analysis=<br />
[[File:Team F Economics.JPG|center|1200px|thumb|alt=Economic Analysis|Figure J.1: Screenshot of process economic analysis.]]<br />
<br />
=References=<br />
<references/></div>Kedricdaly2https://processdesign.mccormick.northwestern.edu/index.php?title=Nueces_Desalination_Center:_Production_of_Drinking_Water_by_Multi-Stage_Flash_Distillation&diff=4964Nueces Desalination Center: Production of Drinking Water by Multi-Stage Flash Distillation2016-03-07T21:16:17Z<p>Kedricdaly2: /* Appendix F: Heat Exchanger Sizing */ Added Table 11</p>
<hr />
<div>Team F: Rankine 672 Final Report<br />
<br />
Authors: Kedric Daly, Ben Granger, Evan Rosati, Kathleen Zhou<br />
<br />
Instructors: Fengqi You, David Wegerer<br />
<br />
March 11, 2016<br />
<br />
=Executive Summary=<br />
Desalination of seawater to drinking water is a technology of ever-increasing importance given trends of increasingly widespread water shortages around the world. Even in the United States, water shortages are becoming increasingly common in dry, highly-populated such as California and certain areas of the Gulf Coast. Our design team, Rankine 672, was tasked with evaluating the need for and designing a desalination plant to provide purified water in a place of need. Investigation revealed that the city of Corpus Christi, Texas, is a strategic location for development of a desalination facility, as surrounding region is in need of new drinking water sources and the city has expressed serious interest in contracting the development of a large-scale desalination plant. Our proposed solution is a multi-stage flash distillation desalination facility capable of producing 20,000,000 gallons (75,708 m<sup>3</sup>) of purified drinking water for the city and surrounding region per operating day.<br />
<br />
In this design, drinking water is produced from seawater feedstock through a 21-stage flash distillation process. By strategically locating the facility next to an existing natural gas power plant, the Nueces Bay Energy Center, pre-heated feed water can be taken directly from the outbound cooling systems of the power plant, allowing energy savings for our desalination plant. The process is designed for 16 hour-per-day operation, requires a seawater feed of 8250 m<sup>3</sup>/hr, and produces 4758 m<sup>3</sup>/hr of purified drinking water alongside a waste stream of 3485 m<sup>3</sup>/hr of concentrated brine. The waste stream is isolated from a recycle stream through a 9.0% purge; this results in an overall product yield of 57.7% on a volume basis. The process requires an additional pretreatment stream of 16.5 kg/hr Belgard EV 2030, which serves as an antiscalant, as well as 9.5 kg/hr chlorine, 352.1 kg/hr lime, and 418.7 kg/hr CO2 for post-treatment purposes.<br />
<br />
The overall capital cost of the plant is expected to be $345MM, with a total operating cost of $103MM/yr, $59MM/yr of which comes from utilities. Due to the low price at which the product water can be sold, the 30-year net present value of the plant, assuming a 6% discount rate, is $-1,035MM. It is thus imperative this plant be constructed with public funds because it cannot return a profit to any private investor. The growing need for water however could justify the cost, because it is important that the residents of the greater Corpus Christi area have access to drinkable water.<br />
<br />
__TOC__<br />
<br />
=Introduction=<br />
==Background==<br />
Clean drinking water is a basic human need that is becoming increasingly difficult to meet. Currently, over 1 billion people live in places where water is considered scarce<ref> Tapping the oceans. The Economist USA. http://www.economist.com/node/11484059. Accessed March 2, 2016. </ref>. Though often thought of as a problem exclusive to third-world countries, the issue is becoming more prevalent in the US as well, with water managers in 40 of 50 states anticipating water shortage conditions in some portion of their state in the next 10 years. These shortages are due to increasing demands on constant or diminishing freshwater resources, therefore, to correct the issue, a new supply must be found<ref> Water Supply in the US. EPA. http://www3.epa.gov/watersense/pubs/supply.html. Accessed March 2, 2016.</ref>. Desalination of seawater is therefore important as a new source for clean drinking water and prevent water shortages. <br />
<br />
==Project Definition==<br />
The overall goal of the project is to investigate the feasibility of a desalination plant in order to meet the needs of growing water demand. The design needs to take health, safety, and environmental concerns into account, while optimizing costs.<br />
<br />
=Design Basis=<br />
Site Location and Conditions<br />
Corpus Christi, TX was chosen as the location for the proposed desalination plant. The city is currently experiencing “Moderate Shortage Conditions”. This issue additionally comes at a time of growing demand with population growth anticipated due to new industry and Eagle Ford Group crude oil production<ref>Stage 2 Measures in the Drought Contingency Plan. Available at http://www.cctexas.com/government/water/conservation/conservation-drought-plans/stage-2-measures. Accessed January 12, 2016. </ref>.<br />
<br />
In June 2014, the city announced the Corpus Christi Desalination Demonstration Project<ref>Corpus Christi Desalination Demonstration Project. Available at http://www.cctexas.com/Assets/Departments/Water/Files/DesalFactSheet.pdf. Published June 2014. Accessed January 12, 2016. <br />
</ref> which seeks to create a demonstration desalination plant capable of producing 20,000 gallons of water per day, with plans to later build a full scale facility generating 20,000,000 gallons of water per day. The desalination demonstration project indicates a clear need for implementation of a desalination plant of this size to accommodate growth in the Corpus Christi area. <br />
<br />
Locating our plant in Corpus Christi will allow us to take advantage of the benefits of cogeneration through a partnership with the Nueces Bay Energy Center. By utilizing their outlet cooling water as a large portion of our feed for the desalination process, we can raise the temperature of our seawater feed, saving on energy costs in the multi stage flash distillation. The proposed location for the desalination plant is immediately west of the Nueces Bay Energy Center. See Appendix A for a map depicting the proposed location for the desalination plant along the coast of Nueces Bay.<br />
<br />
==Feed and Product Definitions==<br />
The proposed desalination facility’s feed and product streams are defined as shown in Table 1. Rationale for these definitions is also described below. The values reported in Table 1 are final derived numbers from HYSYS simulation modeling. <br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 1: Feed and product stream definitions<br />
! &nbsp;<br />
! Salt Concentration<br />
! Temperature <br />
! Amount<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Feed Stream <br />
| 30,500 ppm || 45°C || 8250 m<sup>3</sup>/hr<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Product Stream<br />
| ~ 0 ppm || 35°C || 4758 m<sup>3</sup>/hr<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Byproduct Stream<br />
| 69,500 ppm || 35°C || 3485 m<sup>3</sup>/hr<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
The process feed will be seawater from Nueces Bay, preheated through the cooling water system of the nearby Nueces Bay Energy Center. Based on calculations developed from NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory) data, it was estimated that the Nueces Bay Energy Center uses approximately 250 million gallons of seawater per day for process and cooling needs. Therefore, the 20 million gallon per day requirement for the desalination facility can easily be met through the power plant’s cooling water<ref>Torcellini P, Long N, Judkoff R. Consumptive Water Use for U.S. Power Consumption. NREL. 2003; TP-550-33905. <br />
</ref>. Note that we are assuming the process will operate 67% of the time (16 hours per day).<br />
<br />
Based on data acquired from two salinity-measuring stations in Nueces Bay, the average salinity of local seawater is 30.5 practical salinity units (psu)<ref>Stations Map & Real - Time Data. The Conrad Blucher Institute for Surveying and Science website. Available at http://www.cbi.tamucc.edu/cbi/data/. Updated January 2016. Accessed January 9, 2016. </ref>, thus setting the concentration of the process feed stream. This translates to a feed stream concentration of 30,500 ppm (parts per million)<ref>Definition and Units. CATD Salinity Expertise Center. Available at http://www.salinityremotesensing.ifremer.fr/home. Accessed January 12, 2016.</ref>. The composition of the salt attributed to this seawater salinity is shown in Table 6 in Appendix B. <br />
<br />
No data on the composition of seawater around the Corpus Christi area was available, but the composition of seawater does not change significantly in different locations. The given composition is considered accurate for our feed stream<ref>Brown E, Colling A, Park D, Phillips J, Rothery D, Wright J. Seawater : Its Composition, Properties and Behaviour. Boston: Butterworth-Heinemann, 1995.<br />
</ref>. Note that seawater salt is primarily sodium chloride - total dissolved solids are 85.7% sodium chloride by mass. As such, the dissolved solids in the feed stream is assumed in this project to be pure NaCl, making the feed composition 96.95% water and 3.05% NaCl by mass. A control system will likely be put in place to ensure feed concentration remains at this level, accounting for natural fluctuations in local seawater salinity.<br />
<br />
The largest byproduct from the process will be a brine slurry with high salt concentrations. An upper corrosion limit of 700 ppm was set for recirculated and purged brine. This undesired byproduct will be sent to a nearby Class I non-hazardous injection well facility operated by GNI Group, which is approximately 12 miles away from the proposed desalination plant location as shown in the figure in Appendix A<ref>Texas Water Code. Availabe at http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/WA/htm/WA.27.htm. Accessed January 14, 2016.<br />
</ref><ref>Google Maps. Available at https://goo.gl/maps/3xcvLZwUCe42 Accessed January 15, 2016.</ref>. Through the incorporation of a Class I injection well, the brine will not have to be treated or diluted before injection. <ref>EPA Regulations on Class I Wells. Available at http://www.epa.gov/uic/class-i-industrial-and-municipal-waste-disposal-wells. Accessed January 14, 2016.<br />
</ref><ref>List of Injection Well Facilities by Location. Available at http://www.ehso.com/cssepa/tsdfdeepwells.php. Accessed January 14, 2016.</ref><br />
<br />
There are no regulations regarding the temperature of city drinking water, so the product stream temperature has no requirements based on regulations. Outlet temperatures of 35<sup>o</sup>C are acceptable for input to the municipal water supply system. Since city water tends to be stored in non-temperature controlled tanks, the temperature will naturally cool to ambient temperature.<ref>Climate Corpus Christi- Texas. US Climate Data. Available at http://www.usclimatedata.com/climate/corpus-christi/texas/united-states/ustx0294. Accessed January 12, 2016. </ref><br />
<br />
==Pre-Treatment and Post-Treatment==<br />
For pretreatment, Belgard EV 2030 is recommended to be added at a concentration of 1.8-2.0 mg/L for a system with top brine temperature approximately 110 °C<ref name="BWA 2030">BWA Water Additives. Belgard EV2030 Technical Data Sheet. BWA Water Additives. http://www.wateradditives.com/files/products/tech_data_sheets/Belgard%20EV%202030_Technical%20Data%20Sheet_Thermal_8.5x11.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016.<br />
</ref>. Since our process is designed to operate at a slightly higher top brine temperature, 120 °C, we will design for the upper bound concentration: 2.0 mg/L of antiscalant. With a feed flow rate of 8250 m<sup>3</sup>/hr, the process therefore requires 16.5 kg/hr of Belgard EV 2030.<br />
<br />
For disinfection during post-treatment, chlorine addition typically requires a dose of roughly 2.0 mg/L as well<ref name="World Health Organization">World Health Organization. Desalination for safe water supply. http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/gdwqrevision/desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. With a pure water distillate flow rate of 4758 m<sup>3</sup>/hr, the process requires 9.5 kg/hr of chlorine as a 5%-15% sodium hypochlorite solution. Approximately 74 mg/L of lime (calcium hydroxide) and 88mg/L of CO2 should be added to the desalinated water to help prevent corrosion and increase alkalinity within acceptable ranges<ref name="Vouchkov">Vouchkov, N. Re-Mineralization of Desalinated Water. SunCam. https://s3.amazonaws.com/suncam/npdocs/118.pdf. Accessed February 18, 2016.</ref>. With a product stream flow rate of 4758 m3/hr, these concentrations correspond to 352.1 kg/hr of lime and 418.7 kg/hr of CO2. Both of these can be purchased, and it is likely that the CO2 can be procured from the neighboring natural gas power plant.<br />
<br />
==Choice of Desalination Technology==<br />
The two major technologies commonly implemented for desalination include reverse osmosis (RO), and multi-stage flash distillation (MSFD). RO utilizes high pressures to force water through a semipermeable membrane that allows for purified water to pass through, but stops organic and other wastes. Often, the pressures can reach 55 - 68 bar, which requires large pumps to maintain pressure, and introduces safety concerns to the process<ref>Stage 2 Measures in the Drought Contingency Plan. Available at http://www.cctexas.com/government/water/conservation/conservation-drought-plans/stage-2-measures. Accessed January 12, 2016. <br />
</ref>. While RO can be less energy intensive than MSFD, and the membrane can also remove contaminants, it is susceptible to feedwater quality, membrane fouling, and requires more extensive pretreatment and posttreatment than MSFD. The cost of RO is directly proportional to the feed salinity, and so it is less expensive when desalinating low salinity water.<br />
<br />
Multi-stage flash distillation is best selected for areas that have high salinity or low energy costs. The pretreatment process for MSFD is much easier when compared to RO because pretreatment often consists of simply adding anti-corrosives and antiscalants to the feed stream. The process works by heating water in vessels at different pressures to change the boiling point of the water and evaporate it as it passes through the system. After evaporation, the water condenses, leaving pure water as the effluent. MSFD costs are now roughly $1.00/m3, where this cost is mostly independent of salinity, but dependent on energy costs.<ref>Fritzman C, Lowenberg J, Wintgens T, Melin T. State-of-the-art Reverse Osmosis Desalination. Desalination. 2007; 216:1-76. <br />
</ref> In both RO and MSFD a brine is produced which then must be appropriately treated and/or disposed of.<br />
<br />
Multi-stage flash distillation was selected for this process, mainly due to the economic advantages offered by the selected location of Corpus Christi, TX. MSFD is also a well understood process that can be more easily modeled by chemical engineering software.<br />
<br />
=Technical Approach=<br />
Quantitative modeling of the process and all included optimization was conducted using the simulation software Aspen HYSYS. A variety of assumptions were developed to set up and define specific components of the process simulation itself. Within Aspen HYSYS, the NRTL Electrolyte property package was selected to model the behavior of salt water. Each stage of the MSF process is modeled as an individual flash vessel, with individual shell & tube heat exchangers used to model the distillate condensers present in each flash stage in the MSF system.<br />
<br />
The HYSYS simulation model only considers the flash portion of the overall process, allowing establishment of mass and energy balances for the system. Pretreatment and post-treatment were excluded for the HYSYS model, as these steps are simple additions or removals of small concentrations of chemical components. Although the simulation models heat exchangers outside of each flash stage, in the physical design of the plant these heat exchangers will be contained within each flash stage.<br />
<br />
One portion of the process is not modeled, which is the inlet seawater entering the heat rejection stages. As can be seen from the full process flow diagram (Appendix C), the inlet seawater in the heat rejection stage is in high excess to provide maximum cooling capacity; then a significant portion is purged to bring the stream flow rate down to what is needed for the feed stream. It is assumed that the flow rate of cooling water for those three stages is in such high excess that the cooling water does not heat up. Therefore, in the process simulation models, the inlet stream is the feed stream, which enters directly into the heat recovery portion of the process.<br />
<br />
See Appendix D for a screenshot overview of the simulation environment model.<br />
<br />
=Process Overview=<br />
==Process Flowsheet==<br />
The following diagram, Figure 1, shows a basic flowsheet for the process. Process alternatives considered for each stage are discussed below. Please see Appendix C for the full process flowsheet with finalized design decisions.<br />
<br />
[[File:BlockFlowDiagram.png|center|700px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Desalination Facility Block Flow Diagram|Figure 1: Basic block flowsheet of the multi-stage flash desalination process.]]<br />
<br />
==Major Features==<br />
As seen above, there are three primary stages of the desalination process: Pre-treatment, the multi-stage flash distillation, and post-treatment. Seawater enters the pre-treatment phase first to make the feed suitable for the rest of the process by filtering out large particles that could accumulate on pipes, deaerating the water to limit corrosion, and adding an agent to combat fouling. The water then enters the distillation process, which is broken up into two sections: heat recovery and heat rejection. <br />
<br />
In the heat recovery stage, there are 18 flash vessels, each of which separates steam from the salinated liquid water. Each flash vessel has saltwater as its inlet and two outlets: a vapor outlet (steam) that condenses into the final product of purified water and a liquid outlet composed of water with more dissolved solids than the inlet, which is the inlet stream for the next flash vessel. The pipe containing the feed is first mixed with recycled brine, then goes through the top sections of each of the flash vessels, starting with V-118 and ending up at V-101. In this way, the feed stream pipe first serves as a heat exchanger, heating the pre-treated seawater while simultaneously condensing the steam into the final product. The feed then enters a final heat exchanger where it is brought up to 103.6 °C before entering V-101 to be flashed.<br />
<br />
After exiting V-118, the final flash vessel in the heat recovery portion, the water enters the heat rejection portion, which consists of three flash vessels (V-201, V-202, V-203). The flash vessels of this section operate in the same manner as in the heat recovery section, with the exception that condensation occurs using excess cooling water instead of pre-treated seawater. This technique allows excess heat to be rejected into an excess water stream rather than the feed.<br />
<br />
The purified product stream finally enters post-treatment processing in which water is re-aerated and remineralized, disinfected, and pH is adjusted before being delivered to the city. The concentrated brine leftover at the end of the flash cycle is recycled into the feed, although a purge is required to continuously remove some salt from the system. This purged brine is disposed of by use of a Class I injection well, per regional regulations.<br />
<br />
See Appendix E to find detailed stream tables of stream specifications.<br />
<br />
==Process Alternatives==<br />
===Pretreatment===<br />
Multi-stage flash distillation requires significantly less pretreatment than reverse osmosis desalination, but helpful pretreatment techniques still exist. One very inexpensive method of pretreatment is screening/filtration, which is used to filter out large contaminants from intake seawater. Using more complicated membrane technology to accomplish large particle filtration is a possible alternative, but doing so would be much more expensive than using a standard screen or filter, so the latter choice has been selected for this process.<ref>El-Dessouky H., Alatiqi I, Ettouney H. Process synthesis: The multi-stage flash desalination system. Desalination. 1998;115(2):115-179. doi: 10.1016/S0011-9164(98)00035-6.</ref><br />
<br />
The most critical type of fouling in multi-stage flash distillation is scaling - therefore, the most critical step in the pretreatment process will be the inclusion of an anti-scalant. Alkaline scaling can be prevented by acid dosing or polyphosphate addition; however, acid dosing can result in increased corrosion and polyphosphates can lead to non-alkaline calcium phosphate fouling, so these additives will not be considered<ref name="Morris">Morris, R. The development of the multi-stage flash distillation process: A designer's viewpoint. Desalination. 1993;93(1-3):57-68. doi:10.1016/S0011-9164(93)80096-6. Availble at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0011916493800966</ref><ref>Al-Gobaisi, D. A quarter-century of seawater desalination by large multistage flash plants in Abu Dhabi (Plant performance analysis, assessment, present efforts toward enhancement and future hopes). Desalination. 1994;99(2-3):509-512. doi: 10.1016/S0011-9164(94)00196-0.</ref>. As such, a polymer-based additive is recommended for the anti-scalant for this process. The Belgard EV series is designed for use in high-temperature seawater MSF; of these, Belgard EV 2030 is the most neutral in pH<ref>NSF International. NSF Product and Service Listings: Drinking Water Treatment Chemicals - Health Effects. NSF International. http://info.nsf.org/Certified/PwsChemicals/Listings.asp?Company=00300&. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref><ref name="BWA 2030" /><ref>BWA Water Additives. Belgard EV2035 Technical Data Sheet. BWA Water Additives. http://www.wateradditives.com/files/products/tech_data_sheets/Belgard%20EV2035_Technical%20Data%20Sheet_Thermal_8.5x11.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref><ref>BioLab Water Additives. Belgard EV Antiscalant for seawater distillation plants. BioLab Water Additives. http://www.lpq.com.mx/pdf/BELGARD%20EV.PDF. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref>. As such, we have selected Belgard EV 2030 for use as an anti-scalant in our process.<br />
<br />
Corrosion control is another significant method of pretreatment in multi-stage flash distillation plants. Using a piping material that has limited susceptibility to corrosion is typically not economically viable for MSF desalination plants due their large size, so using carbon steel for most of the piping is generally used for its economic benefits despite its susceptibility to corrosion<ref name = "Morris" />. Limiting oxygen concentration is very feasible through the use of deaerators, which can remove oxygen as well as other dissolved gases from the seawater stream. Often, an external deaeration system is used<ref name = "Morris" /><ref>Edwards - Hick Hargreaves. Seawater Deaerators. Edwards - Hick Hargreaves. http://psscorp.co.th/upload/news/20110830105340.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. Given these considerations, using an external deaerator combined with a less-corrosive antiscalant like Belgard EV 2030 is much more practical for the process than using anti-corrosive piping.<br />
<br />
Excessive foam can also be an issue in some MSF distillation facilities, so antifoaming agents are sometimes employed in the pretreatment process as well. However, many plants are operated without foaming issues, and therefore do not need anti-foaming pretreatment at all. Selection of an anti-foaming agent must be carefully weighed with selected of anti-scalant to avoid issues with additive interactions [26]. At this stage in the design process, an anti-foamer will not be included due to the risk of decreasing scalant efficacy, and the likelihood that foam will not be an issue in the desalination plant.<br />
<br />
===Multistage Flash Distillation===<br />
The main objective of the design project is desalinate water. This is done with the main process of multi stage flash distillation (MSF). MSF can be developed using a numerous number of different process configurations, such as Once-Through, Simple Mixer Brine Circulation, and Multi-Stage Heat Rejection Brine Circulation processes. <br />
<br />
The most desired process for the project is the Three Stage Heat Rejection Brine Circulation as it builds on benefits of the other simpler technologies. By combining principles of heat rejection and heat recovery, the required heat transfer area of the process is greatly reduced as compared to once through processes or simple brine recycle processes. It has the highest performance ratio with the lowest specific feed flow rates, therefore greatly lowering the operating costs of the process. It is also known as the industry standard for MSF<ref name = "KSU Chapter 6">Kansas State University ChE 413. Available at: http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/Almutaz/Documents/ChE-413/Multi-stage%20Flash%20Desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. In addition, since our brine disposal technique involves the pumping of the brine into a Class I well, the high brine outlet salinity is not a drawback for our process since post treatment or dilution of the brine is not necessary.<br />
<br />
===Post Treatment===<br />
After processing the water via multi-stage flash, the water needs to be post-treated to make the water taste as consumers would expect, since distilled water is “flat” and unpleasant, as well as to protect the consumers and the piping through which the water will be passing<ref name="Clayton">Clayton R. A review of current knowledge: Desalination for water supply. Foundation for Water Research. http://www.fwr.org/desal.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. There are multiple alternatives to achieve these objectives of remineralization, aeration, corrosion control, and disinfection.<br />
<br />
Aerating and introducing some dissolved solids back into the product water are effective ways to create a quality product that is not flat, and contains flavoring that is expected of the water when delivered to the consumer. Aeration will be accomplished via an inline spray aerator which will take up less space than cascade aeration.<ref>Minnesota Rural Water Association. Aeration. http://www.mrwa.com/WaterWorksMnl/Chapter%2011%20Aeration.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref> Feed blending will be used to remineralize the water as opposed to a remineralization filter because it does not require additional equipment purchases, and can easily handle the large amounts of throughput required for the process.<ref name="Clayton" /><br />
<br />
Corrosion and pH can be controlled by adding lime (calcium hydroxide) and carbon dioxide to the water. To do so, about 74 mg/L of lime and 88mg/L of CO<sub>2</sub> should be added to the desalinated water to help prevent corrosion and increase alkalinity within acceptable ranges. Sodium hydroxide, soda ash, and sodium bicarbonate are alternatives to altering the alkalinity and pH of the product water, but lime and CO<sub>2</sub> is an industry standard <ref name="Vouchkov" />.<br />
<br />
Disinfection needs to be done to prevent microbial growth in the desalinated water and ensure the safety of the general public. Chlorine addition via chlorine gas or sodium hypochlorite is the most common and only requires a dose of 1.5 to 2.5 mg/liter. <ref name="World Health Organization" /> Other alternatives include ozonation, UV light, and chloramination. Chlorine, as a 5% - 15% sodium hypochlorite solution, is sufficient for our process and relatively inexpensive, and as such will be utilized in the process.<br />
<br />
===Transport of Brine to Well===<br />
Three major possibilities exist for transporting the brine from our desalination plant to the injection well for disposal: rail, trucking, and a pipeline. A pipeline was chosen as the most feasible and cost-effective approach. <br />
<br />
A rail line is not available at this time, and with the cost to construct a rail line at approximately $43 million per mile<ref>About Money. How Much Do Rail Transit Projects Cost to Build and Operate? 2014. Available at: http://publictransport.about.com/od/Transit_Projects/a/How-Much-Do-Rail-Transit-Projects-Cost-To-Build-And-Operate.htm. Accessed January 27, 2016. </ref>, the enormous capital cost makes rail transport infeasible for this site. For large volume operations, pipelines are cheaper than trucking. In a study of wastewater sludge produced from wastewater treatment facilities, it was found that it was more economical for facilities producing over 1200 m<sup>3</sup> per day to utilize pipelines rather than trucking.<ref>Marufuzzaman M, Eskioglu S, Hernandez R. Truck versus pipeline transportation cost analysis of wastewater sludge. Transportation Research. 2015; 74(A): 14-30. </ref> Our facility is producing nearly 3 times this volume at 3485 m<sup>3</sup> per day of brine. Furthermore, brine is a less viscous fluid than wastewater sludge, decreasing pumping costs in the pipeline and further amplifying the benefit of choosing a pipeline over an injection well.<br />
<br />
===Brine Storage===<br />
Due to the choice of a pipeline, rather than trucking, as the method of transport of brine to the injection well, brine storage is unnecessary, so storage solutions such as holding tanks were not investigated. One method of storage compatible with a pipeline is to pump the brine through an evaporation pond. This solution is attractive as it would allow the brine to concentrate, saving some costs of pumping, however, the considerable land usage of evaporation ponds leads them to only be effective for smaller plants. The largest municipal plant utilizing this method produces only 5.7 million liters per day<ref>University of Santa Cruz Center for Integrated Water Research. Concentrate Management: Evaporation Ponds. 2010. Available at: https://ciwr.ucsc.edu/sites/default/files/ICM_D5.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016. </ref>, whereas our desalination plant is proposed to produce 75.7 million liters per day. Therefore, evaporation ponds have been eliminated from consideration.<br />
<br />
==Major Specifications==<br />
===Material of Construction Selection===<br />
While saltwater and desalinated water in general can be corrosive, there are best practices within the desalination industry for material selection. With this in mind, best practice shows carbon steel lifetime can be lengthened by monitoring the oxygen concentration in the water, specifying the paint used to coat any metal, and more expensive materials can be used in areas of extremely high corrosion.<ref name = "Morris" />. By following these best practices, it is possible to save significant amounts of money through the use of carbon steel in most areas of the plant, with specific high-corrosion areas being reinforced with, or replaced with, more corrosion resistant materials, such as Cu/Ni 70/30 alloy<ref name = "KSU Chapter 6" />.<br />
<br />
===Heat Exchanger Sizing===<br />
See Appendix F for heat exchanger sizing data. Heat exchanger sizes appear reasonable for placement in the flash vessels.<br />
<br />
===Flash Vessel Sizing===<br />
The dimensions for the flash drums were obtained through literature values. The flash drums were determined to be 18x4x3 m in width, height, and length.<ref name="KSU Chapter 6" /><br />
<br />
Wall thickness was determined using the following conventions: Design pressure is 10% more than the operating pressure, design temperature is 50°F (27.8°C) higher than the operating temperature, a corrosion allowance of 3-mm and an effectiveness of 85% was derived from the assumption of a double-welded butt joint that was spot checked. See Appendix G for wall thicknesses calculated for each pressure vessel. <br />
<br />
The sizing of the vessels to be constructed will be determined after talks with a manufacturer. Due to economies of scale, it may be more cost-effective to buy 21 pressure vessels with the dimensions mentioned above and a wall thickness of 17.1-mm, the highest wall thickness required in the system.<br />
<br />
===Pipe Losses and Pressure Drop===<br />
HYSYS was used to estimate the diameter of a pipe given a specified pressure drop per 100m of pipe. It was determined that for a pressure drop of 0.1 kPa/100m of pipe, a 3.05m diameter pipe is sufficient, which is more than manageable for manufacturers. This pressure drop is mostly insignificant and will be taken care of with the safety factors included in the pumps. The significant pressure drops in our system is accounted for via losses in the flash vessels and heat exchangers, which drive the flash process. Therefore overall pipe losses are insignificant and are built into intentional design losses.<br />
<br />
=Economic Analysis=<br />
==Economic Assumptions==<br />
The sale of purified water yields a revenue stream of $49.5 million per year assuming sale to commercial entities within the city limits of Corpus Christi at $1.7915 per thousand liters.<ref>Water schedule. City of Corpus Christi Utility Business Office. http://www.cctexas.com/Assets/Departments/Financial-Services/Utilities-Business-Office/files/waterrates.pdf Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref> The primary variable costs are utilities and the brine disposal, with minimal raw materials costs due to the primary feedstock, seawater, being free, and minimal amounts of pre- and post-treatment chemicals being used. The cost of brine disposal used in this analysis was high at $2.097 per thousand liters<ref>McCurdy, R. Underground injection wells for produced water disposal. Chesapeake Energy Corporation. http://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/documents/21_McCurdy_-_UIC_Disposal_508.pdf Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref>, an estimate for brine disposal utilizing trucking as the mode of transport. As has been shown through previous analyses, a lower cost can be achieved using a direct pipeline, however, no good estimates for this cost could be found.<br />
<br />
The NPV was calculated using a 6% cost of capital, the approximate interest rate for a municipal bond.<ref>Zirbe, R.O. Jr., Han, X., Layton, D., Leshine, T. A history of discount rates and their use by government agencies. (2002). http://faculty.washington.edu/zerbe/docs/DISCOUNT%20RATE%20HISTORY-latesXIt.doc Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref> It was assumed that the plant can be built within two years, with production at half-scale in its first year. Additionally, one month of variable costs, $10.6 million, was set aside for working capital. See Appendix H for a full table of assumptions. A 30 year NPV calculation was chosen as the decision basis since 30 years is a conservative estimate for the lifetime of a desalination plant <ref>Tampa Bay Seawater Desalination Plant. American Water. http://www.amwater.com/files/tampabayseawaterdesalinationplantcasestudy6.16.09.pdf. Accessed February 25, 20216.</ref>. See below for estimates of NPV for the lifetime of the plant under various assumptions and design criteria.<br />
<br />
==Optimization and Sensitivity Analysis==<br />
Looking at the multi-stage flash process, there are a number of opportunities to optimize the process. The major process variables that were investigated were the inlet water temperature, the operating pressure drop per vessel, and the number of stages over which the process takes place. Considering these optimizations, our final process consists of 21 flash vessels (18 heat recovery and 3 heat rejection stages), each with a pressure drop of 5 kPa. See Appendix D for a screenshot of the HYSYS simulation used to model the optimized process.<br />
===Operating Pressure and Pressure Drop===<br />
Initially our process was designed to pump the inlet seawater and brine to a pressure of 2 bar and allow the pressure drop in each flash stage to end our process downstream at 1 bar to prevent complications associated with designing a system under vacuum. While this provided pumping advantages, the energy in the system was significantly higher due to vapor pressure considerations. Due to this fact, the required heat exchange area for certain exchangers proved to be infeasible (on the order of 80,000m<sup>2</sup>) due to the enormous capital and operating costs that would be associated with such a large heat exchanger.<br />
<br />
The process was optimized to operate under vacuum, requiring additional pumping requirements but much lower required heat exchange area, and therefore lower utility costs. This optimization was done by specifying the pressure of the final flash vessel to 5.7kPa, so that the temperature of the water vapor (~30<sup>o</sup>C) is within approximately 5<sup>o</sup>C of the cooling water (35<sup>o</sup>C) so that condensation can occur within a reasonable approach. This also allows our system to optimally extract pure water from the brine running through the system and reduce energy requirements for cooling the product or the recycle. Our system redesign and optimization reduced the energy in the system and reduce the same heat exchanger area requirements by more than 3 orders of magnitude to approximately 800m<sup>2</sup>. <br />
<br />
Once the process was optimized to operate in a vacuum, the pressure drop per flash stage regulated through values was then optimized. Three pressure drops per stages, 3kPa, 5kPa, and 7kPa, were tested and then an economic analysis was conducted to find the optimal value for the pressure drop. These changes had impacts on both operating and capital costs as they would change initial pumping requirements, the amount of water flowing through the process and recycle (and therefore the flash vessel sizes, heat exchanger sizing), and the efficiency of each stage.<br />
<br />
The various pressure drops (3 kPa, 5 kPa, and 7 kPa) were tested on a system nominally at 24 stages under the assumption that the results would be generalizable to systems with a different number of stages. With increasing pressure drop, we found decreased capital cost but increased utility cost. As can be seen from Table 2 below, a pressure drop of 5 kPa proved to be the best option based on 30 year NPV, with a loss of $838.8 million, a savings of $65.5 million compared to the next-best option with a pressure drop of 7 kPa.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 2: Comparison of profitability for our MSF desalination process with 24 stages with 3 different pressure drops per stage<br />
! Number of Stages <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! Pressure Drop <br/> (kPa)<br />
! Capital Cost <br/> ($MM)<br />
! Utility Cost <br/> ($MM/yr)<br />
! 30-Year NPV <br/> ($MM)<br />
! NPV Ratio <br/> (over 5kPa)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 3 || 362.3 || 39.1 || -905.8 || 1.08<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 5 || 255.1 || 53.6 || -838.8 || 1.00<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 7 || 209.5 || 72.2 || -904.3 || 1.08<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
===Number of Flash Stages===<br />
The number of stages is an important area for optimization. An increased number of stages yields better recovery of purified water, however, requires higher capital cost from the additional pressure vessel. Furthermore, with an increased amount of purified water comes increasingly concentrated brine. This must be taken into account since any brine concentration in excess of about 7% presents a more significant corrosion risk<ref name="KSU Chapter 6" />, so increased maintenance costs for the piping or higher capital costs for more corrosion-resistant materials could be necessary for brine concentrations exceeding 7%. Therefore, to recover the same amount of pure water without exceeding corrosion limitations, increasing the number of stages will reduce the overall size of each stage.<br />
<br />
Optimizing based on NPV, it was found that 21 stages is optimal, balancing the increased profits from the additional purified water additional costs of higher capital cost. See Table 3 below to compare the 30-year NPV of the process across various numbers of flash vessels.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 3: Comparison of profitability for our MSF desalination process with a 5 kPa pressure drop, 5000 m<sup>3</sup>/hr feed flow rate, with varying number of stages.<br />
! Number of Stages <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! Pressure Drop <br/> (kPa)<br />
! Capital Cost <br/> ($MM)<br />
! Utility Cost <br/> ($MM/yr)<br />
! 30-Year NPV <br/> ($MM)<br />
! NPV Ratio <br/> (over 21 Stages)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 17 || 5 || 213.9 || 58.7 || -813.8 || 1.016<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 18 || 5 || 218 || 57.6 || -809.9 || 1.011<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 19 || 5 || 224.3 || 58 || -806.1 || 1.007<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 20 || 5 || 229.8 || 57.9 || -813.6 || 1.016<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 21 || 5 || 226.6 || 55.9 || -800.7 || 1<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 22 || 5 || 254.7 || 54.6 || -849.5 || 1.061<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 23 || 5 || 249.3 || 54.1 || -833.1 || 1.04<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 5 || 255.1 || 53.6 || -838.8 || 1.048<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 25 || 5 || 254.9 || 52.7 || -837.4 || 1.046<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
===Inlet Seawater Temperature===<br />
By pairing our desalination plant with a natural gas power plant and utilizing its cooling water we forgo initial heating of our inlet stream. Normally, water pumped from the ocean would be approximately 25<sup>o</sup>C and by capturing waste heat from the power plant we can reduce utilities with our water inlet of 45<sup>o</sup>C. Through an economic comparison between two plants nominally at 21 flash stages, the plant with an inlet temperature at 25<sup>o</sup>C has a capital cost of $245MM and a utility cost of $77MM/yr and the same facility with an inlet water temperature at 45<sup>o</sup>C has a capital cost of only $226MM and a utility cost of $56MM/yr. As shown in Table 4 below, this $19MM savings in capital costs and $21MM/yr saving in utilities is largely due to reducing the size of the heat exchangers and lowering the steam required for heating duty on the inlet seawater respectively. Therefore our process is optimized by recovering the waste heat water from the gas fired power plant.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 4: Seawater Inlet Temperature Process Cost Optimization<br />
! Seawater Temperature <br/> (°C)<br />
! Capital Cost <br/> ($MM)<br />
! Utility Cost <br/> ($MM/yr)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 25 || 245 || 77<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 45 || 226 || 56<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Savings || 56 || 19<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
==Overall Process Economics==<br />
After optimization at fixed flow rates, the process was scaled to meet the the 67% operating percentage and final product definitions as shown in Table 1, which resulted in finalized economics shown in Table 5 below. For a table of the installed costs of each process vessel, see Appendix I. For the finalized NPV calculations, see Appendix J.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 5: Summarized Economics for 21-stage MSFD Process<br />
! Economic Parameter<br />
! Cost <br/> (USD)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Capital Cost || 345 MM<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Total Operating Cost per Year || 103 MM<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Utility Cost per Year || 59 MM<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 30-Year NPV (6% Discount) || -1035 MM<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
=Conclusions and Recommendations=<br />
==Project Viability==<br />
Table 5 above demonstrates that the process has reasonable operating and capital costs, but the 30-year NPV is negative by -1035 $MM due to the extremely low sell price capability of desalinated water as a product. Therefore, this plant would have to heavily be supported by the City of Corpus Christi to run as the product revenue will not make it self-sufficient. The acquisition of government subsidies are key operating requirements for all desalination facilities in the United States. <br />
<br />
==Additional Concerns==<br />
Large volumes of water, steam, and energy are needed to ensure the project runs as specified. While most of the water can easily be extracted from the ocean with little to consequence, the fuel used to generate the steam and electricity can have a significant environmental impact. As the plant is located next to a natural gas power plant, this fuel is better than coal with respect to environmental concerns, and utilizing energy from the power plant to preheat the feed stream for the desalination plant helps lower environmental impacts.<br />
<br />
The large amounts of high pressure steam being used represents one of the the largest safety concern in the process, because a high pressure steam release could easily cause severe burns or even death. Proper precautions and control measures must be in place to prevent accidental release. Otherwise, the process does not utilize any known toxic chemicals and is relatively safe from a chemical standpoint. The flash vessels mostly operate below atmospheric pressure, so they must be constructed as vessels that can withstand vacuum without failing.<br />
<br />
<br />
=Appendix A: Proposed Location of Desalination Plant=<br />
Pictured below is the proposed location for the desalination plant, located on Nueces Bay in Corpus Christi, adjacent to the Nueces Bay Energy Center. The plant’s proposed location is shown in the area outlined by the small circle in the upper right of the figure.<br />
<br />
[[File:NuecesBayLocation.png|center|600px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Desalination Facility Location|Figure A.1: Proposed mapped location of Nueces Bay Desalination Facility.]]<br />
[[File:ClassIWell.png|center|700px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Desalination Facility Distance to Injection Well|Figure A.2: Mapped distance from proposed location to Class I Injection Well]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix B: Feed and Product Definitions - Salinity=<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 6: Average Composition of Total Dissolved Solids in Seawater<ref> Physical and Thermodynamic Data. In: Dickson AG, Goyet C. Handbook of Methods for the Analysis of the Various Parameters of the Carbon Dioxide System in Sea Water.</ref><ref> Composition of Seawater. Water Treatment of Solutions. Available at http://www.lenntech.com/composition-seawater.htm. Accessed January 12, 2016.</ref><br />
! Compound <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! Mass Composition <br/> (kPa)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Chlorine || 55.03%<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Sodium || 30.64%<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Sulfate || 7.70%<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Magnesium || 3.66%<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Calcium || 1.17%<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Potassium || 1.12%<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Bicarbonate || 0.36%<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Bromine || 0.19%<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Other || 0.15%<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
[[File:Nueces Bay Salinity.JPG|center|700px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Salinity Tracking|Figure C.1: Salinity in Nueces Bay over the past 10 years<sup>6</sup>.]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix C: Process Flow Diagram=<br />
[[File:TeamF_FinalPFD.JPG|center|1200px|thumb|alt=Process Flow Diagram|Figure C.1: Process Flow Diagram]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix D: HYSYS Simulation Model=<br />
[[File:TeamF_HYSYS_Screenshot.PNG|center|1200px|thumb|alt=HYSYS Simulation Model|Figure D.1: Screenshot of HYSYS Model Simulation.]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix E: Stream Tables=<br />
A summary of some values is shown below:<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 7: Key process material streams<br />
! &nbsp;<br />
! Stream <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! Molar Flow <br/> (10<sup>5</sup> kgmole/h)<br />
! Mass Flow <br/> (10<sup>5</sup> kg/h)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Inlet <br />
| Feed Water || 454 || 83.6<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Outlet<br />
| Brine Reject || 1.90 || 36.0<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Product<br />
| Pure Water || 2.64 || 47.5<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 8: Key process energy streams<br />
! Stream <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! Heat Flow <br/> (kJ/h)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Feed Water || 1.30E+11<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Q-301 || 5.73E+06<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Q-302 || 3.09E+09<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Q-304 || 4.68E+06<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Q-303 || -1.26E+09<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Brine Reject || -5.47E+10<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Pure Water || -7.46E+10<br />
|}<br />
(Negative value denotes energy leaving process)<br />
</center><br />
<br />
=Appendix F: Heat Exchanger Sizing=<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 9: Utility Temperatures and Heat Transfer Coefficient<ref name="Towler">G.P. Towler, R. Sinnott. Chemical Engineering Design: Principles, Practice and Economics of Plant and Process Design. Elsevier, 2012.</ref><br />
! &nbsp;<br />
! HP Steam<br />
! Cooling Water<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! Temperature (°C)<br />
| 250 || 35<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! U (W/m<sup>2</sup>K)<br />
| 4000 || 1500<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 10: Internal Flash Heat Exchanger Sizing, condensing steam.<br />
! Exchanger<br />
! UA <br/> (kJ/°C-h)<br />
! U <br/> (kJ/hr/m<sup>2</sup>°C)<br />
! A <br/> (m<sup>2</sup>)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-101 || 1.47E+07 || 14400 || 1019<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-102 || 1.53E+07 || 14400 || 1059<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-103 || 1.59E+07 || 14400 || 1103<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-104 || 1.66E+07 || 14400 || 1153<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-105 || 1.74E+07 || 14400 || 1209<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-106 || 1.83E+07 || 14400 || 1272<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-107 || 1.93E+07 || 14400 || 1342<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-108 || 2.05E+07 || 14400 || 1424<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-109 || 2.19E+07 || 14400 || 1518<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-110 || 2.35E+07 || 14400 || 1629<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-111 || 2.54E+07 || 14400 || 1761<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-112 || 2.77E+07 || 14400 || 1921<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-113 || 3.05E+07 || 14400 || 2119<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-114 || 3.42E+07 || 14400 || 2372<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-115 || 3.90E+07 || 14400 || 2706<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-116 || 4.56E+07 || 14400 || 3167<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-117 || 5.55E+07 || 14400 || 3856<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-118 || 7.20E+07 || 14400 || 5000<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 11: Heat Exchanger Sizing for Process Heaters and Coolers<br />
! Exchanger<br />
! Q <br/> (kJ/h)<br />
! U <br/> (J/s/m<sup>2</sup>K)<br />
! U <br/> (kJ/hr/m<sup>2</sup>K)<br />
! LMTD <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! A <br/> (m<sup>2</sup>)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-201 || 9.67E+08 || 1500 || 5400 || 16.03 || 11165<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-202 || 1.26E+09 || 1500 || 5400 || 7.57 || 30921<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-203 || 1.88E+09 || 1500 || 5400 || 0.45 || 77366<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-302 || 3.09E+09 || 4000 || 14400 || 155 || 1385<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-303 || 1.26E+09 || 4000 || 14400 || 209.5 || 418<br />
|}<br />
The high heat transfer area in the final cooler of the heat rejection stage is due to the close approach temperature. <br />
<br/>Other cooling / pressurization techniques will be used to reduce the area.<br />
</center><br />
<br />
=Appendix G: Pressure Vessel Sizing=<br />
<br />
=Appendix H: Expanded Economic Assumptions=<br />
<br />
=Appendix I: Equipment Cost Summary=<br />
<br />
=Appendix J: Economic NPV Analysis=<br />
[[File:Team F Economics.JPG|center|1200px|thumb|alt=Economic Analysis|Figure J.1: Screenshot of process economic analysis.]]<br />
<br />
=References=<br />
<references/></div>Kedricdaly2https://processdesign.mccormick.northwestern.edu/index.php?title=Nueces_Desalination_Center:_Production_of_Drinking_Water_by_Multi-Stage_Flash_Distillation&diff=4948Nueces Desalination Center: Production of Drinking Water by Multi-Stage Flash Distillation2016-03-07T19:47:55Z<p>Kedricdaly2: /* Appendix F: Heat Exchanger Sizing */ Fixed Table 10 Title</p>
<hr />
<div>Team F: Rankine 672 Final Report<br />
<br />
Authors: Kedric Daly, Ben Granger, Evan Rosati, Kathleen Zhou<br />
<br />
Instructors: Fengqi You, David Wegerer<br />
<br />
March 11, 2016<br />
<br />
=Executive Summary=<br />
Desalination of seawater to drinking water is a technology of ever-increasing importance given trends of increasingly widespread water shortages around the world. Even in the United States, water shortages are becoming increasingly common in dry, highly-populated such as California and certain areas of the Gulf Coast. Our design team, Rankine 672, was tasked with evaluating the need for and designing a desalination plant to provide purified water in a place of need. Investigation revealed that the city of Corpus Christi, Texas, is a strategic location for development of a desalination facility, as surrounding region is in need of new drinking water sources and the city has expressed serious interest in contracting the development of a large-scale desalination plant. Our proposed solution is a multi-stage flash distillation desalination facility capable of producing 20,000,000 gallons (75,708 m<sup>3</sup>) of purified drinking water for the city and surrounding region per operating day.<br />
<br />
In this design, drinking water is produced from seawater feedstock through a 21-stage flash distillation process. By strategically locating the facility next to an existing natural gas power plant, the Nueces Bay Energy Center, pre-heated feed water can be taken directly from the outbound cooling systems of the power plant, allowing energy savings for our desalination plant. The process is designed for 16 hour-per-day operation, requires a seawater feed of 8250 m<sup>3</sup>/hr, and produces 4758 m<sup>3</sup>/hr of purified drinking water alongside a waste stream of 3485 m<sup>3</sup>/hr of concentrated brine. The waste stream is isolated from a recycle stream through a 9.0% purge; this results in an overall product yield of 57.7% on a volume basis. The process requires an additional pretreatment stream of 16.5 kg/hr Belgard EV 2030, which serves as an antiscalant, as well as 9.5 kg/hr chlorine, 352.1 kg/hr lime, and 418.7 kg/hr CO2 for post-treatment purposes.<br />
<br />
The overall capital cost of the plant is expected to be $345MM, with a total operating cost of $103MM/yr, $59MM/yr of which comes from utilities. Due to the low price at which the product water can be sold, the 30-year net present value of the plant, assuming a 6% discount rate, is $-1,035MM. It is thus imperative this plant be constructed with public funds because it cannot return a profit to any private investor. The growing need for water however could justify the cost, because it is important that the residents of the greater Corpus Christi area have access to drinkable water.<br />
<br />
__TOC__<br />
<br />
=Introduction=<br />
==Background==<br />
Clean drinking water is a basic human need that is becoming increasingly difficult to meet. Currently, over 1 billion people live in places where water is considered scarce<ref> Tapping the oceans. The Economist USA. http://www.economist.com/node/11484059. Accessed March 2, 2016. </ref>. Though often thought of as a problem exclusive to third-world countries, the issue is becoming more prevalent in the US as well, with water managers in 40 of 50 states anticipating water shortage conditions in some portion of their state in the next 10 years. These shortages are due to increasing demands on constant or diminishing freshwater resources, therefore, to correct the issue, a new supply must be found<ref> Water Supply in the US. EPA. http://www3.epa.gov/watersense/pubs/supply.html. Accessed March 2, 2016.</ref>. Desalination of seawater is therefore important as a new source for clean drinking water and prevent water shortages. <br />
<br />
==Project Definition==<br />
The overall goal of the project is to investigate the feasibility of a desalination plant in order to meet the needs of growing water demand. The design needs to take health, safety, and environmental concerns into account, while optimizing costs.<br />
<br />
=Design Basis=<br />
Site Location and Conditions<br />
Corpus Christi, TX was chosen as the location for the proposed desalination plant. The city is currently experiencing “Moderate Shortage Conditions”. This issue additionally comes at a time of growing demand with population growth anticipated due to new industry and Eagle Ford Group crude oil production<ref>Stage 2 Measures in the Drought Contingency Plan. Available at http://www.cctexas.com/government/water/conservation/conservation-drought-plans/stage-2-measures. Accessed January 12, 2016. </ref>.<br />
<br />
In June 2014, the city announced the Corpus Christi Desalination Demonstration Project<ref>Corpus Christi Desalination Demonstration Project. Available at http://www.cctexas.com/Assets/Departments/Water/Files/DesalFactSheet.pdf. Published June 2014. Accessed January 12, 2016. <br />
</ref> which seeks to create a demonstration desalination plant capable of producing 20,000 gallons of water per day, with plans to later build a full scale facility generating 20,000,000 gallons of water per day. The desalination demonstration project indicates a clear need for implementation of a desalination plant of this size to accommodate growth in the Corpus Christi area. <br />
<br />
Locating our plant in Corpus Christi will allow us to take advantage of the benefits of cogeneration through a partnership with the Nueces Bay Energy Center. By utilizing their outlet cooling water as a large portion of our feed for the desalination process, we can raise the temperature of our seawater feed, saving on energy costs in the multi stage flash distillation. The proposed location for the desalination plant is immediately west of the Nueces Bay Energy Center. See Appendix A for a map depicting the proposed location for the desalination plant along the coast of Nueces Bay.<br />
<br />
==Feed and Product Definitions==<br />
The proposed desalination facility’s feed and product streams are defined as shown in Table 1. Rationale for these definitions is also described below. The values reported in Table 1 are final derived numbers from HYSYS simulation modeling. <br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 1: Feed and product stream definitions<br />
! &nbsp;<br />
! Salt Concentration<br />
! Temperature <br />
! Amount<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Feed Stream <br />
| 30,500 ppm || 45°C || 8250 m<sup>3</sup>/hr<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Product Stream<br />
| ~ 0 ppm || 35°C || 4758 m<sup>3</sup>/hr<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Byproduct Stream<br />
| 695 ppm || 35°C || 3485 m<sup>3</sup>/hr<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
The process feed will be seawater from Nueces Bay, preheated through the cooling water system of the nearby Nueces Bay Energy Center. Based on calculations developed from NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory) data, it was estimated that the Nueces Bay Energy Center uses approximately 250 million gallons of seawater per day for process and cooling needs. Therefore, the 20 million gallon per day requirement for the desalination facility can easily be met through the power plant’s cooling water<ref>Torcellini P, Long N, Judkoff R. Consumptive Water Use for U.S. Power Consumption. NREL. 2003; TP-550-33905. <br />
</ref>. Note that we are assuming the process will operate 67% of the time (16 hours per day).<br />
<br />
Based on data acquired from two salinity-measuring stations in Nueces Bay, the average salinity of local seawater is 30.5 practical salinity units (psu)<ref>Stations Map & Real - Time Data. The Conrad Blucher Institute for Surveying and Science website. Available at http://www.cbi.tamucc.edu/cbi/data/. Updated January 2016. Accessed January 9, 2016. </ref>, thus setting the concentration of the process feed stream. This translates to a feed stream concentration of 30,500 ppm (parts per million)<ref>Definition and Units. CATD Salinity Expertise Center. Available at http://www.salinityremotesensing.ifremer.fr/home. Accessed January 12, 2016.</ref>. The composition of the salt attributed to this seawater salinity is shown in Table 6 in Appendix B. <br />
<br />
No data on the composition of seawater around the Corpus Christi area was available, but the composition of seawater does not change significantly in different locations. The given composition is considered accurate for our feed stream<ref>Brown E, Colling A, Park D, Phillips J, Rothery D, Wright J. Seawater : Its Composition, Properties and Behaviour. Boston: Butterworth-Heinemann, 1995.<br />
</ref>. Note that seawater salt is primarily sodium chloride - total dissolved solids are 85.7% sodium chloride by mass. As such, the dissolved solids in the feed stream is assumed in this project to be pure NaCl, making the feed composition 96.95% water and 3.05% NaCl by mass. A control system will likely be put in place to ensure feed concentration remains at this level, accounting for natural fluctuations in local seawater salinity.<br />
<br />
The largest byproduct from the process will be a brine slurry with high salt concentrations. An upper corrosion limit of 700 ppm was set for recirculated and purged brine. This undesired byproduct will be sent to a nearby Class I non-hazardous injection well facility operated by GNI Group, which is approximately 12 miles away from the proposed desalination plant location as shown in the figure in Appendix A<ref>Texas Water Code. Availabe at http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/WA/htm/WA.27.htm. Accessed January 14, 2016.<br />
</ref><ref>Google Maps. Available at https://goo.gl/maps/3xcvLZwUCe42 Accessed January 15, 2016.</ref>. Through the incorporation of a Class I injection well, the brine will not have to be treated or diluted before injection. <ref>EPA Regulations on Class I Wells. Available at http://www.epa.gov/uic/class-i-industrial-and-municipal-waste-disposal-wells. Accessed January 14, 2016.<br />
</ref><ref>List of Injection Well Facilities by Location. Available at http://www.ehso.com/cssepa/tsdfdeepwells.php. Accessed January 14, 2016.</ref><br />
<br />
There are no regulations regarding the temperature of city drinking water, so the product stream temperature has no requirements based on regulations. Outlet temperatures of 35<sup>o</sup>C are acceptable for input to the municipal water supply system. Since city water tends to be stored in non-temperature controlled tanks, the temperature will naturally cool to ambient temperature.<ref>Climate Corpus Christi- Texas. US Climate Data. Available at http://www.usclimatedata.com/climate/corpus-christi/texas/united-states/ustx0294. Accessed January 12, 2016. </ref><br />
<br />
==Pre-Treatment and Post-Treatment==<br />
For pretreatment, Belgard EV 2030 is recommended to be added at a concentration of 1.8-2.0 mg/L for a system with top brine temperature approximately 110 °C<ref name="BWA 2030">BWA Water Additives. Belgard EV2030 Technical Data Sheet. BWA Water Additives. http://www.wateradditives.com/files/products/tech_data_sheets/Belgard%20EV%202030_Technical%20Data%20Sheet_Thermal_8.5x11.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016.<br />
</ref>. Since our process is designed to operate at a slightly higher top brine temperature, 120 °C, we will design for the upper bound concentration: 2.0 mg/L of antiscalant. With a feed flow rate of 8250 m<sup>3</sup>/hr, the process therefore requires 16.5 kg/hr of Belgard EV 2030.<br />
<br />
For disinfection during post-treatment, chlorine addition typically requires a dose of roughly 2.0 mg/L as well<ref name="World Health Organization">World Health Organization. Desalination for safe water supply. http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/gdwqrevision/desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. With a pure water distillate flow rate of 4758 m<sup>3</sup>/hr, the process requires 9.5 kg/hr of chlorine as a 5%-15% sodium hypochlorite solution. Approximately 74 mg/L of lime (calcium hydroxide) and 88mg/L of CO2 should be added to the desalinated water to help prevent corrosion and increase alkalinity within acceptable ranges<ref name="Vouchkov">Vouchkov, N. Re-Mineralization of Desalinated Water. SunCam. https://s3.amazonaws.com/suncam/npdocs/118.pdf. Accessed February 18, 2016.</ref>. With a product stream flow rate of 4758 m3/hr, these concentrations correspond to 352.1 kg/hr of lime and 418.7 kg/hr of CO2. Both of these can be purchased, and it is likely that the CO2 can be procured from the neighboring natural gas power plant.<br />
<br />
==Choice of Desalination Technology==<br />
The two major technologies commonly implemented for desalination include reverse osmosis (RO), and multi-stage flash distillation (MSFD). RO utilizes high pressures to force water through a semipermeable membrane that allows for purified water to pass through, but stops organic and other wastes. Often, the pressures can reach 55 - 68 bar, which requires large pumps to maintain pressure, and introduces safety concerns to the process<ref>Stage 2 Measures in the Drought Contingency Plan. Available at http://www.cctexas.com/government/water/conservation/conservation-drought-plans/stage-2-measures. Accessed January 12, 2016. <br />
</ref>. While RO can be less energy intensive than MSFD, and the membrane can also remove contaminants, it is susceptible to feedwater quality, membrane fouling, and requires more extensive pretreatment and posttreatment than MSFD. The cost of RO is directly proportional to the feed salinity, and so it is less expensive when desalinating low salinity water.<br />
<br />
Multi-stage flash distillation is best selected for areas that have high salinity or low energy costs. The pretreatment process for MSFD is much easier when compared to RO because pretreatment often consists of simply adding anti-corrosives and antiscalants to the feed stream. The process works by heating water in vessels at different pressures to change the boiling point of the water and evaporate it as it passes through the system. After evaporation, the water condenses, leaving pure water as the effluent. MSFD costs are now roughly $1.00/m3, where this cost is mostly independent of salinity, but dependent on energy costs.<ref>Fritzman C, Lowenberg J, Wintgens T, Melin T. State-of-the-art Reverse Osmosis Desalination. Desalination. 2007; 216:1-76. <br />
</ref> In both RO and MSFD a brine is produced which then must be appropriately treated and/or disposed of.<br />
<br />
Multi-stage flash distillation was selected for this process, mainly due to the economic advantages offered by the selected location of Corpus Christi, TX. MSFD is also a well understood process that can be more easily modeled by chemical engineering software.<br />
<br />
=Technical Approach=<br />
Quantitative modeling of the process and all included optimization was conducted using the simulation software Aspen HYSYS. A variety of assumptions were developed to set up and define specific components of the process simulation itself. Within Aspen HYSYS, the NRTL Electrolyte property package was selected to model the behavior of salt water. Each stage of the MSF process is modeled as an individual flash vessel, with individual shell & tube heat exchangers used to model the distillate condensers present in each flash stage in the MSF system.<br />
<br />
The HYSYS simulation model only considers the flash portion of the overall process, allowing establishment of mass and energy balances for the system. Pretreatment and post-treatment were excluded for the HYSYS model, as these steps are simple additions or removals of small concentrations of chemical components. Although the simulation models heat exchangers outside of each flash stage, in the physical design of the plant these heat exchangers will be contained within each flash stage.<br />
<br />
One portion of the process is not modeled, which is the inlet seawater entering the heat rejection stages. As can be seen from the full process flow diagram (Appendix C), the inlet seawater in the heat rejection stage is in high excess to provide maximum cooling capacity; then a significant portion is purged to bring the stream flow rate down to what is needed for the feed stream. It is assumed that the flow rate of cooling water for those three stages is in such high excess that the cooling water does not heat up. Therefore, in the process simulation models, the inlet stream is the feed stream, which enters directly into the heat recovery portion of the process.<br />
<br />
See Appendix D for a screenshot overview of the simulation environment model.<br />
<br />
=Process Overview=<br />
==Process Flowsheet==<br />
The following diagram, Figure 1, shows a basic flowsheet for the process. Process alternatives considered for each stage are discussed below. Please see Appendix C for the full process flowsheet with finalized design decisions.<br />
<br />
[[File:BlockFlowDiagram.png|center|700px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Desalination Facility Block Flow Diagram|Figure 1: Basic block flowsheet of the multi-stage flash desalination process.]]<br />
<br />
==Major Features==<br />
As seen above, there are three primary stages of the desalination process: Pre-treatment, the multi-stage flash distillation, and post-treatment. Seawater enters the pre-treatment phase first to make the feed suitable for the rest of the process by filtering out large particles that could accumulate on pipes, deaerating the water to limit corrosion, and adding an agent to combat fouling. The water then enters the distillation process, which is broken up into two sections: heat recovery and heat rejection. <br />
<br />
In the heat recovery stage, there are 18 flash vessels, each of which separates steam from the salinated liquid water. Each flash vessel has saltwater as its inlet and two outlets: a vapor outlet (steam) that condenses into the final product of purified water and a liquid outlet composed of water with more dissolved solids than the inlet, which is the inlet stream for the next flash vessel. The pipe containing the feed is first mixed with recycled brine, then goes through the top sections of each of the flash vessels, starting with V-118 and ending up at V-101. In this way, the feed stream pipe first serves as a heat exchanger, heating the pre-treated seawater while simultaneously condensing the steam into the final product. The feed then enters a final heat exchanger where it is brought up to 103.6 °C before entering V-101 to be flashed.<br />
<br />
After exiting V-118, the final flash vessel in the heat recovery portion, the water enters the heat rejection portion, which consists of three flash vessels (V-201, V-202, V-203). The flash vessels of this section operate in the same manner as in the heat recovery section, with the exception that condensation occurs using excess cooling water instead of pre-treated seawater. This technique allows excess heat to be rejected into an excess water stream rather than the feed.<br />
<br />
The purified product stream finally enters post-treatment processing in which water is re-aerated and remineralized, disinfected, and pH is adjusted before being delivered to the city. The concentrated brine leftover at the end of the flash cycle is recycled into the feed, although a purge is required to continuously remove some salt from the system. This purged brine is disposed of by use of a Class I injection well, per regional regulations.<br />
<br />
See Appendix E to find detailed stream tables of stream specifications.<br />
<br />
==Process Alternatives==<br />
===Pretreatment===<br />
Multi-stage flash distillation requires significantly less pretreatment than reverse osmosis desalination, but helpful pretreatment techniques still exist. One very inexpensive method of pretreatment is screening/filtration, which is used to filter out large contaminants from intake seawater. Using more complicated membrane technology to accomplish large particle filtration is a possible alternative, but doing so would be much more expensive than using a standard screen or filter, so the latter choice has been selected for this process.<ref>El-Dessouky H., Alatiqi I, Ettouney H. Process synthesis: The multi-stage flash desalination system. Desalination. 1998;115(2):115-179. doi: 10.1016/S0011-9164(98)00035-6.</ref><br />
<br />
The most critical type of fouling in multi-stage flash distillation is scaling - therefore, the most critical step in the pretreatment process will be the inclusion of an anti-scalant. Alkaline scaling can be prevented by acid dosing or polyphosphate addition; however, acid dosing can result in increased corrosion and polyphosphates can lead to non-alkaline calcium phosphate fouling, so these additives will not be considered<ref name="Morris">Morris, R. The development of the multi-stage flash distillation process: A designer's viewpoint. Desalination. 1993;93(1-3):57-68. doi:10.1016/S0011-9164(93)80096-6. Availble at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0011916493800966</ref><ref>Al-Gobaisi, D. A quarter-century of seawater desalination by large multistage flash plants in Abu Dhabi (Plant performance analysis, assessment, present efforts toward enhancement and future hopes). Desalination. 1994;99(2-3):509-512. doi: 10.1016/S0011-9164(94)00196-0.</ref>. As such, a polymer-based additive is recommended for the anti-scalant for this process. The Belgard EV series is designed for use in high-temperature seawater MSF; of these, Belgard EV 2030 is the most neutral in pH<ref>NSF International. NSF Product and Service Listings: Drinking Water Treatment Chemicals - Health Effects. NSF International. http://info.nsf.org/Certified/PwsChemicals/Listings.asp?Company=00300&. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref><ref name="BWA 2030" /><ref>BWA Water Additives. Belgard EV2035 Technical Data Sheet. BWA Water Additives. http://www.wateradditives.com/files/products/tech_data_sheets/Belgard%20EV2035_Technical%20Data%20Sheet_Thermal_8.5x11.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref><ref>BioLab Water Additives. Belgard EV Antiscalant for seawater distillation plants. BioLab Water Additives. http://www.lpq.com.mx/pdf/BELGARD%20EV.PDF. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref>. As such, we have selected Belgard EV 2030 for use as an anti-scalant in our process.<br />
<br />
Corrosion control is another significant method of pretreatment in multi-stage flash distillation plants. Using a piping material that has limited susceptibility to corrosion is typically not economically viable for MSF desalination plants due their large size, so using carbon steel for most of the piping is generally used for its economic benefits despite its susceptibility to corrosion<ref name = "Morris" />. Limiting oxygen concentration is very feasible through the use of deaerators, which can remove oxygen as well as other dissolved gases from the seawater stream. Often, an external deaeration system is used<ref name = "Morris" /><ref>Edwards - Hick Hargreaves. Seawater Deaerators. Edwards - Hick Hargreaves. http://psscorp.co.th/upload/news/20110830105340.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. Given these considerations, using an external deaerator combined with a less-corrosive antiscalant like Belgard EV 2030 is much more practical for the process than using anti-corrosive piping.<br />
<br />
Excessive foam can also be an issue in some MSF distillation facilities, so antifoaming agents are sometimes employed in the pretreatment process as well. However, many plants are operated without foaming issues, and therefore do not need anti-foaming pretreatment at all. Selection of an anti-foaming agent must be carefully weighed with selected of anti-scalant to avoid issues with additive interactions [26]. At this stage in the design process, an anti-foamer will not be included due to the risk of decreasing scalant efficacy, and the likelihood that foam will not be an issue in the desalination plant.<br />
<br />
===Multistage Flash Distillation===<br />
The main objective of the design project is desalinate water. This is done with the main process of multi stage flash distillation (MSF). MSF can be developed using a numerous number of different process configurations, such as Once-Through, Simple Mixer Brine Circulation, and Multi-Stage Heat Rejection Brine Circulation processes. <br />
<br />
The most desired process for the project is the Three Stage Heat Rejection Brine Circulation as it builds on benefits of the other simpler technologies. By combining principles of heat rejection and heat recovery, the required heat transfer area of the process is greatly reduced as compared to once through processes or simple brine recycle processes. It has the highest performance ratio with the lowest specific feed flow rates, therefore greatly lowering the operating costs of the process. It is also known as the industry standard for MSF<ref name = "KSU Chapter 6">Kansas State University ChE 413. Available at: http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/Almutaz/Documents/ChE-413/Multi-stage%20Flash%20Desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. In addition, since our brine disposal technique involves the pumping of the brine into a Class I well, the high brine outlet salinity is not a drawback for our process since post treatment or dilution of the brine is not necessary.<br />
<br />
===Post Treatment===<br />
After processing the water via multi-stage flash, the water needs to be post-treated to make the water taste as consumers would expect, since distilled water is “flat” and unpleasant, as well as to protect the consumers and the piping through which the water will be passing<ref name="Clayton">Clayton R. A review of current knowledge: Desalination for water supply. Foundation for Water Research. http://www.fwr.org/desal.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. There are multiple alternatives to achieve these objectives of remineralization, aeration, corrosion control, and disinfection.<br />
<br />
Aerating and introducing some dissolved solids back into the product water are effective ways to create a quality product that is not flat, and contains flavoring that is expected of the water when delivered to the consumer. Aeration will be accomplished via an inline spray aerator which will take up less space than cascade aeration.<ref>Minnesota Rural Water Association. Aeration. http://www.mrwa.com/WaterWorksMnl/Chapter%2011%20Aeration.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref> Feed blending will be used to remineralize the water as opposed to a remineralization filter because it does not require additional equipment purchases, and can easily handle the large amounts of throughput required for the process.<ref name="Clayton" /><br />
<br />
Corrosion and pH can be controlled by adding lime (calcium hydroxide) and carbon dioxide to the water. To do so, about 74 mg/L of lime and 88mg/L of CO<sub>2</sub> should be added to the desalinated water to help prevent corrosion and increase alkalinity within acceptable ranges. Sodium hydroxide, soda ash, and sodium bicarbonate are alternatives to altering the alkalinity and pH of the product water, but lime and CO<sub>2</sub> is an industry standard <ref name="Vouchkov" />.<br />
<br />
Disinfection needs to be done to prevent microbial growth in the desalinated water and ensure the safety of the general public. Chlorine addition via chlorine gas or sodium hypochlorite is the most common and only requires a dose of 1.5 to 2.5 mg/liter. <ref name="World Health Organization" /> Other alternatives include ozonation, UV light, and chloramination. Chlorine, as a 5% - 15% sodium hypochlorite solution, is sufficient for our process and relatively inexpensive, and as such will be utilized in the process.<br />
<br />
===Transport of Brine to Well===<br />
Three major possibilities exist for transporting the brine from our desalination plant to the injection well for disposal: rail, trucking, and a pipeline. A pipeline was chosen as the most feasible and cost-effective approach. <br />
<br />
A rail line is not available at this time, and with the cost to construct a rail line at approximately $43 million per mile<ref>About Money. How Much Do Rail Transit Projects Cost to Build and Operate? 2014. Available at: http://publictransport.about.com/od/Transit_Projects/a/How-Much-Do-Rail-Transit-Projects-Cost-To-Build-And-Operate.htm. Accessed January 27, 2016. </ref>, the enormous capital cost makes rail transport infeasible for this site. For large volume operations, pipelines are cheaper than trucking. In a study of wastewater sludge produced from wastewater treatment facilities, it was found that it was more economical for facilities producing over 1200 m<sup>3</sup> per day to utilize pipelines rather than trucking.<ref>Marufuzzaman M, Eskioglu S, Hernandez R. Truck versus pipeline transportation cost analysis of wastewater sludge. Transportation Research. 2015; 74(A): 14-30. </ref> Our facility is producing nearly 3 times this volume at 3485 m<sup>3</sup> per day of brine. Furthermore, brine is a less viscous fluid than wastewater sludge, decreasing pumping costs in the pipeline and further amplifying the benefit of choosing a pipeline over an injection well.<br />
<br />
===Brine Storage===<br />
Due to the choice of a pipeline, rather than trucking, as the method of transport of brine to the injection well, brine storage is unnecessary, so storage solutions such as holding tanks were not investigated. One method of storage compatible with a pipeline is to pump the brine through an evaporation pond. This solution is attractive as it would allow the brine to concentrate, saving some costs of pumping, however, the considerable land usage of evaporation ponds leads them to only be effective for smaller plants. The largest municipal plant utilizing this method produces only 5.7 million liters per day<ref>University of Santa Cruz Center for Integrated Water Research. Concentrate Management: Evaporation Ponds. 2010. Available at: https://ciwr.ucsc.edu/sites/default/files/ICM_D5.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016. </ref>, whereas our desalination plant is proposed to produce 75.7 million liters per day. Therefore, evaporation ponds have been eliminated from consideration.<br />
<br />
==Major Specifications==<br />
===Material of Construction Selection===<br />
While saltwater and desalinated water in general can be corrosive, there are best practices within the desalination industry for material selection. With this in mind, best practice shows carbon steel lifetime can be lengthened by monitoring the oxygen concentration in the water, specifying the paint used to coat any metal, and more expensive materials can be used in areas of extremely high corrosion.<ref name = "Morris" />. By following these best practices, it is possible to save significant amounts of money through the use of carbon steel in most areas of the plant, with specific high-corrosion areas being reinforced with, or replaced with, more corrosion resistant materials, such as Cu/Ni 70/30 alloy<ref name = "KSU Chapter 6" />.<br />
<br />
===Heat Exchanger Sizing===<br />
See Appendix F for heat exchanger sizing data. Heat exchanger sizes appear reasonable for placement in the flash vessels.<br />
<br />
===Flash Vessel Sizing===<br />
The dimensions for the flash drums were obtained through literature values. The flash drums were determined to be 18x4x3 m in width, height, and length.<ref name="KSU Chapter 6" /><br />
<br />
Wall thickness was determined using the following conventions: Design pressure is 10% more than the operating pressure, design temperature is 50°F (27.8°C) higher than the operating temperature, a corrosion allowance of 3-mm and an effectiveness of 85% was derived from the assumption of a double-welded butt joint that was spot checked. See Appendix G for wall thicknesses calculated for each pressure vessel. <br />
<br />
The sizing of the vessels to be constructed will be determined after talks with a manufacturer. Due to economies of scale, it may be more cost-effective to buy 21 pressure vessels with the dimensions mentioned above and a wall thickness of 17.1-mm, the highest wall thickness required in the system.<br />
<br />
===Pipe Losses and Pressure Drop===<br />
HYSYS was used to estimate the diameter of a pipe given a specified pressure drop per 100m of pipe. It was determined that for a pressure drop of 0.1 kPa/100m of pipe, a 3.05m diameter pipe is sufficient, which is more than manageable for manufacturers. This pressure drop is mostly insignificant and will be taken care of with the safety factors included in the pumps. The significant pressure drops in our system is accounted for via losses in the flash vessels and heat exchangers, which drive the flash process. Therefore overall pipe losses are insignificant and are built into intentional design losses.<br />
<br />
=Economic Analysis=<br />
==Economic Assumptions==<br />
The sale of purified water yields a revenue stream of $49.5 million per year assuming sale to commercial entities within the city limits of Corpus Christi at $1.7915 per thousand liters.<ref>Water schedule. City of Corpus Christi Utility Business Office. http://www.cctexas.com/Assets/Departments/Financial-Services/Utilities-Business-Office/files/waterrates.pdf Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref> The primary variable costs are utilities and the brine disposal, with minimal raw materials costs due to the primary feedstock, seawater, being free, and minimal amounts of pre- and post-treatment chemicals being used. The cost of brine disposal used in this analysis was high at $2.097 per thousand liters<ref>McCurdy, R. Underground injection wells for produced water disposal. Chesapeake Energy Corporation. http://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/documents/21_McCurdy_-_UIC_Disposal_508.pdf Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref>, an estimate for brine disposal utilizing trucking as the mode of transport. As has been shown through previous analyses, a lower cost can be achieved using a direct pipeline, however, no good estimates for this cost could be found.<br />
<br />
The NPV was calculated using a 6% cost of capital, the approximate interest rate for a municipal bond.<ref>Zirbe, R.O. Jr., Han, X., Layton, D., Leshine, T. A history of discount rates and their use by government agencies. (2002). http://faculty.washington.edu/zerbe/docs/DISCOUNT%20RATE%20HISTORY-latesXIt.doc Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref> It was assumed that the plant can be built within two years, with production at half-scale in its first year. Additionally, one month of variable costs, $10.6 million, was set aside for working capital. See Appendix H for a full table of assumptions. A 30 year NPV calculation was chosen as the decision basis since 30 years is a conservative estimate for the lifetime of a desalination plant [38]. See below for estimates of NPV for the lifetime of the plant under various assumptions and design criteria.<br />
<br />
==Optimization and Sensitivity Analysis==<br />
Looking at the multi-stage flash process, there are a number of opportunities to optimize the process. The major process variables that were investigated were the inlet water temperature, the operating pressure drop per vessel, and the number of stages over which the process takes place. Considering these optimizations, our final process consists of 21 flash vessels (18 heat recovery and 3 heat rejection stages), each with a pressure drop of 5 kPa. See Appendix D for a screenshot of the HYSYS simulation used to model the optimized process.<br />
===Operating Pressure and Pressure Drop===<br />
Initially our process was designed to pump the inlet seawater and brine to a pressure of 2 bar and allow the pressure drop in each flash stage to end our process downstream at 1 bar to prevent complications associated with designing a system under vacuum. While this provided pumping advantages, the energy in the system was significantly higher due to vapor pressure considerations. Due to this fact, the required heat exchange area for certain exchangers proved to be infeasible (on the order of 80,000m<sup>2</sup>) due to the enormous capital and operating costs that would be associated with such a large heat exchanger.<br />
<br />
The process was optimized to operate under vacuum, requiring additional pumping requirements but much lower required heat exchange area, and therefore lower utility costs. This optimization was done by specifying the pressure of the final flash vessel to 5.7kPa, so that the temperature of the water vapor (~30<sup>o</sup>C) is within approximately 5<sup>o</sup>C of the cooling water (35<sup>o</sup>C) so that condensation can occur within a reasonable approach. This also allows our system to optimally extract pure water from the brine running through the system and reduce energy requirements for cooling the product or the recycle. Our system redesign and optimization reduced the energy in the system and reduce the same heat exchanger area requirements by more than 3 orders of magnitude to approximately 800m<sup>2</sup>. <br />
<br />
Once the process was optimized to operate in a vacuum, the pressure drop per flash stage regulated through values was then optimized. Three pressure drops per stages, 3kPa, 5kPa, and 7kPa, were tested and then an economic analysis was conducted to find the optimal value for the pressure drop. These changes had impacts on both operating and capital costs as they would change initial pumping requirements, the amount of water flowing through the process and recycle (and therefore the flash vessel sizes, heat exchanger sizing), and the efficiency of each stage.<br />
<br />
The various pressure drops (3 kPa, 5 kPa, and 7 kPa) were tested on a system nominally at 24 stages under the assumption that the results would be generalizable to systems with a different number of stages. With increasing pressure drop, we found decreased capital cost but increased utility cost. As can be seen from Table 2 below, a pressure drop of 5 kPa proved to be the best option based on 30 year NPV, with a loss of $838.8 million, a savings of $65.5 million compared to the next-best option with a pressure drop of 7 kPa.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 2: Comparison of profitability for our MSF desalination process with 24 stages with 3 different pressure drops per stage<br />
! Number of Stages <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! Pressure Drop <br/> (kPa)<br />
! Capital Cost <br/> ($MM)<br />
! Utility Cost <br/> ($MM/yr)<br />
! 30-Year NPV <br/> ($MM)<br />
! NPV Ratio <br/> (over 5kPa)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 3 || 362.3 || 39.1 || -905.8 || 1.08<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 5 || 255.1 || 53.6 || -838.8 || 1.00<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 7 || 209.5 || 72.2 || -904.3 || 1.08<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
===Number of Flash Stages===<br />
The number of stages is an important area for optimization. An increased number of stages yields better recovery of purified water, however, requires higher capital cost from the additional pressure vessel. Furthermore, with an increased amount of purified water comes increasingly concentrated brine. This must be taken into account since any brine concentration in excess of about 7% presents a more significant corrosion risk<ref name="KSU Chapter 6" />, so increased maintenance costs for the piping or higher capital costs for more corrosion-resistant materials could be necessary for brine concentrations exceeding 7%. Therefore, to recover the same amount of pure water without exceeding corrosion limitations, increasing the number of stages will reduce the overall size of each stage.<br />
<br />
Optimizing based on NPV, it was found that 21 stages is optimal, balancing the increased profits from the additional purified water additional costs of higher capital cost. See Table 3 below to compare the 30-year NPV of the process across various numbers of flash vessels.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 3: Comparison of profitability for our MSF desalination process with a 5 kPa pressure drop, 5000 m<sup>3</sup>/hr feed flow rate, with varying number of stages.<br />
! Number of Stages <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! Pressure Drop <br/> (kPa)<br />
! Capital Cost <br/> ($MM)<br />
! Utility Cost <br/> ($MM/yr)<br />
! 30-Year NPV <br/> ($MM)<br />
! NPV Ratio <br/> (over 21 Stages)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 17 || 5 || 213.9 || 58.7 || -813.8 || 1.016<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 18 || 5 || 218 || 57.6 || -809.9 || 1.011<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 19 || 5 || 224.3 || 58 || -806.1 || 1.007<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 20 || 5 || 229.8 || 57.9 || -813.6 || 1.016<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 21 || 5 || 226.6 || 55.9 || -800.7 || 1<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 22 || 5 || 254.7 || 54.6 || -849.5 || 1.061<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 23 || 5 || 249.3 || 54.1 || -833.1 || 1.04<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 5 || 255.1 || 53.6 || -838.8 || 1.048<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 25 || 5 || 254.9 || 52.7 || -837.4 || 1.046<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
===Inlet Seawater Temperature===<br />
By pairing our desalination plant with a natural gas power plant and utilizing its cooling water we forgo initial heating of our inlet stream. Normally, water pumped from the ocean would be approximately 25<sup>o</sup>C and by capturing waste heat from the power plant we can reduce utilities with our water inlet of 45<sup>o</sup>C. Through an economic comparison between two plants nominally at 21 flash stages, the plant with an inlet temperature at 25<sup>o</sup>C has a capital cost of $245MM and a utility cost of $77MM/yr and the same facility with an inlet water temperature at 45<sup>o</sup>C has a capital cost of only $226MM and a utility cost of $56MM/yr. As shown in Table 4 below, this $19MM savings in capital costs and $21MM/yr saving in utilities is largely due to reducing the size of the heat exchangers and lowering the steam required for heating duty on the inlet seawater respectively. Therefore our process is optimized by recovering the waste heat water from the gas fired power plant.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 4: Seawater Inlet Temperature Process Cost Optimization<br />
! Seawater Temperature <br/> (°C)<br />
! Capital Cost <br/> ($MM)<br />
! Utility Cost <br/> ($MM/yr)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 25 || 245 || 77<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 45 || 226 || 56<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Savings || 56 || 19<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
==Overall Process Economics==<br />
After optimization at fixed flow rates, the process was scaled to meet the the 67% operating percentage and final product definitions as shown in Table 1, which resulted in finalized economics shown in Table 5 below. For a table of the installed costs of each process vessel, see Appendix I. For the finalized NPV calculations, see Appendix J.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 5: Summarized Economics for 21-stage MSFD Process<br />
! Economic Parameter<br />
! Cost <br/> (USD)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Capital Cost || 345 MM<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Total Operating Cost per Year || 103 MM<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Utility Cost per Year || 59 MM<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 30-Year NPV (6% Discount) || -1035 MM<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
=Conclusions and Recommendations=<br />
==Project Viability==<br />
Table 5 above demonstrates that the process has reasonable operating and capital costs, but the 30-year NPV is negative by -1035 $MM due to the extremely low sell price capability of desalinated water as a product. Therefore, this plant would have to heavily be supported by the City of Corpus Christi to run as the product revenue will not make it self-sufficient. The acquisition of government subsidies are key operating requirements for all desalination facilities in the United States. <br />
<br />
==Additional Concerns==<br />
Large volumes of water, steam, and energy are needed to ensure the project runs as specified. While most of the water can easily be extracted from the ocean with little to consequence, the fuel used to generate the steam and electricity can have a significant environmental impact. As the plant is located next to a natural gas power plant, this fuel is better than coal with respect to environmental concerns, and utilizing energy from the power plant to preheat the feed stream for the desalination plant helps lower environmental impacts.<br />
<br />
The large amounts of high pressure steam being used represents one of the the largest safety concern in the process, because a high pressure steam release could easily cause severe burns or even death. Proper precautions and control measures must be in place to prevent accidental release. Otherwise, the process does not utilize any known toxic chemicals and is relatively safe from a chemical standpoint. The flash vessels mostly operate below atmospheric pressure, so they must be constructed as vessels that can withstand vacuum without failing.<br />
<br />
<br />
=Appendix A: Proposed Location of Desalination Plant=<br />
Pictured below is the proposed location for the desalination plant, located on Nueces Bay in Corpus Christi, adjacent to the Nueces Bay Energy Center. The plant’s proposed location is shown in the area outlined by the small circle in the upper right of the figure.<br />
<br />
[[File:NuecesBayLocation.png|center|600px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Desalination Facility Location|Figure A.1: Proposed mapped location of Nueces Bay Desalination Facility.]]<br />
[[File:ClassIWell.png|center|700px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Desalination Facility Distance to Injection Well|Figure A.2: Mapped distance from proposed location to Class I Injection Well]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix B: Feed and Product Definitions - Salinity=<br />
<br />
=Appendix C: Process Flow Diagram=<br />
[[File:TeamF_PFD.png|center|1200px|thumb|alt=Process Flow Diagram|Figure C.1: Process Flow Diagram]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix D: HYSYS Simulation Model=<br />
[[File:TeamF_HYSYS_Screenshot.PNG|center|1200px|thumb|alt=HYSYS Simulation Model|Figure D.1: Screenshot of HYSYS Model Simulation.]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix E: Stream Tables=<br />
See attached Excel File “HYSYS 6.0 Flowsheet summary.xlsx”<br />
<br />
A summary of some values is shown below:<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 7: Key process material streams<br />
! &nbsp;<br />
! Stream <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! Molar Flow <br/> (10<sup>5</sup> kgmole/h)<br />
! Mass Flow <br/> (10<sup>5</sup> kg/h)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Inlet <br />
| Feed Water || 454 || 83.6<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Outlet<br />
| Brine Reject || 1.90 || 36.0<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Product<br />
| Pure Water || 2.64 || 47.5<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 8: Key process energy streams<br />
! Stream <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! Heat Flow <br/> (kJ/h)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Feed Water || 1.30E+11<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Q-301 || 5.73E+06<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Q-302 || 3.09E+09<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Q-304 || 4.68E+06<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Q-303 || -1.26E+09<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Brine Reject || -5.47E+10<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Pure Water || -7.46E+10<br />
|}<br />
(Negative value denotes energy leaving process)<br />
</center><br />
<br />
=Appendix F: Heat Exchanger Sizing=<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 9: Utility Temperatures and Heat Transfer Coefficient<ref name="Towler">G.P. Towler, R. Sinnott. Chemical Engineering Design: Principles, Practice and Economics of Plant and Process Design. Elsevier, 2012.</ref><br />
! &nbsp;<br />
! HP Steam<br />
! Cooling Water<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! Temperature (°C)<br />
| 250 || 35<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! U (W/m<sup>2</sup>K)<br />
| 4000 || 1500<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 10: Internal Flash Heat Exchanger Sizing, condensing steam.<br />
! Exchanger<br />
! UA <br/> (kJ/°C-h)<br />
! U <br/> (kJ/hr/m<sup>2</sup>°C)<br />
! A <br/> (m<sup>2</sup>)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-101 || 1.47E+07 || 14400 || 1019<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-102 || 1.53E+07 || 14400 || 1059<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-103 || 1.59E+07 || 14400 || 1103<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-104 || 1.66E+07 || 14400 || 1153<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-105 || 1.74E+07 || 14400 || 1209<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-106 || 1.83E+07 || 14400 || 1272<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-107 || 1.93E+07 || 14400 || 1342<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-108 || 2.05E+07 || 14400 || 1424<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-109 || 2.19E+07 || 14400 || 1518<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-110 || 2.35E+07 || 14400 || 1629<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-111 || 2.54E+07 || 14400 || 1761<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-112 || 2.77E+07 || 14400 || 1921<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-113 || 3.05E+07 || 14400 || 2119<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-114 || 3.42E+07 || 14400 || 2372<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-115 || 3.90E+07 || 14400 || 2706<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-116 || 4.56E+07 || 14400 || 3167<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-117 || 5.55E+07 || 14400 || 3856<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-118 || 7.20E+07 || 14400 || 5000<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
=Appendix G: Pressure Vessel Sizing=<br />
<br />
=Appendix H: Expanded Economic Assumptions=<br />
<br />
=Appendix I: Equipment Cost Summary=<br />
<br />
=Appendix J: Economic NPV Analysis=<br />
<br />
=References=<br />
<references/></div>Kedricdaly2https://processdesign.mccormick.northwestern.edu/index.php?title=Nueces_Desalination_Center:_Production_of_Drinking_Water_by_Multi-Stage_Flash_Distillation&diff=4947Nueces Desalination Center: Production of Drinking Water by Multi-Stage Flash Distillation2016-03-07T19:43:51Z<p>Kedricdaly2: Adding Table 10</p>
<hr />
<div>Team F: Rankine 672 Final Report<br />
<br />
Authors: Kedric Daly, Ben Granger, Evan Rosati, Kathleen Zhou<br />
<br />
Instructors: Fengqi You, David Wegerer<br />
<br />
March 11, 2016<br />
<br />
=Executive Summary=<br />
Desalination of seawater to drinking water is a technology of ever-increasing importance given trends of increasingly widespread water shortages around the world. Even in the United States, water shortages are becoming increasingly common in dry, highly-populated such as California and certain areas of the Gulf Coast. Our design team, Rankine 672, was tasked with evaluating the need for and designing a desalination plant to provide purified water in a place of need. Investigation revealed that the city of Corpus Christi, Texas, is a strategic location for development of a desalination facility, as surrounding region is in need of new drinking water sources and the city has expressed serious interest in contracting the development of a large-scale desalination plant. Our proposed solution is a multi-stage flash distillation desalination facility capable of producing 20,000,000 gallons (75,708 m<sup>3</sup>) of purified drinking water for the city and surrounding region per operating day.<br />
<br />
In this design, drinking water is produced from seawater feedstock through a 21-stage flash distillation process. By strategically locating the facility next to an existing natural gas power plant, the Nueces Bay Energy Center, pre-heated feed water can be taken directly from the outbound cooling systems of the power plant, allowing energy savings for our desalination plant. The process is designed for 16 hour-per-day operation, requires a seawater feed of 8250 m<sup>3</sup>/hr, and produces 4758 m<sup>3</sup>/hr of purified drinking water alongside a waste stream of 3485 m<sup>3</sup>/hr of concentrated brine. The waste stream is isolated from a recycle stream through a 9.0% purge; this results in an overall product yield of 57.7% on a volume basis. The process requires an additional pretreatment stream of 16.5 kg/hr Belgard EV 2030, which serves as an antiscalant, as well as 9.5 kg/hr chlorine, 352.1 kg/hr lime, and 418.7 kg/hr CO2 for post-treatment purposes.<br />
<br />
The overall capital cost of the plant is expected to be $345MM, with a total operating cost of $103MM/yr, $59MM/yr of which comes from utilities. Due to the low price at which the product water can be sold, the 30-year net present value of the plant, assuming a 6% discount rate, is $-1,035MM. It is thus imperative this plant be constructed with public funds because it cannot return a profit to any private investor. The growing need for water however could justify the cost, because it is important that the residents of the greater Corpus Christi area have access to drinkable water.<br />
<br />
__TOC__<br />
<br />
=Introduction=<br />
==Background==<br />
Clean drinking water is a basic human need that is becoming increasingly difficult to meet. Currently, over 1 billion people live in places where water is considered scarce<ref> Tapping the oceans. The Economist USA. http://www.economist.com/node/11484059. Accessed March 2, 2016. </ref>. Though often thought of as a problem exclusive to third-world countries, the issue is becoming more prevalent in the US as well, with water managers in 40 of 50 states anticipating water shortage conditions in some portion of their state in the next 10 years. These shortages are due to increasing demands on constant or diminishing freshwater resources, therefore, to correct the issue, a new supply must be found<ref> Water Supply in the US. EPA. http://www3.epa.gov/watersense/pubs/supply.html. Accessed March 2, 2016.</ref>. Desalination of seawater is therefore important as a new source for clean drinking water and prevent water shortages. <br />
<br />
==Project Definition==<br />
The overall goal of the project is to investigate the feasibility of a desalination plant in order to meet the needs of growing water demand. The design needs to take health, safety, and environmental concerns into account, while optimizing costs.<br />
<br />
=Design Basis=<br />
Site Location and Conditions<br />
Corpus Christi, TX was chosen as the location for the proposed desalination plant. The city is currently experiencing “Moderate Shortage Conditions”. This issue additionally comes at a time of growing demand with population growth anticipated due to new industry and Eagle Ford Group crude oil production<ref>Stage 2 Measures in the Drought Contingency Plan. Available at http://www.cctexas.com/government/water/conservation/conservation-drought-plans/stage-2-measures. Accessed January 12, 2016. </ref>.<br />
<br />
In June 2014, the city announced the Corpus Christi Desalination Demonstration Project<ref>Corpus Christi Desalination Demonstration Project. Available at http://www.cctexas.com/Assets/Departments/Water/Files/DesalFactSheet.pdf. Published June 2014. Accessed January 12, 2016. <br />
</ref> which seeks to create a demonstration desalination plant capable of producing 20,000 gallons of water per day, with plans to later build a full scale facility generating 20,000,000 gallons of water per day. The desalination demonstration project indicates a clear need for implementation of a desalination plant of this size to accommodate growth in the Corpus Christi area. <br />
<br />
Locating our plant in Corpus Christi will allow us to take advantage of the benefits of cogeneration through a partnership with the Nueces Bay Energy Center. By utilizing their outlet cooling water as a large portion of our feed for the desalination process, we can raise the temperature of our seawater feed, saving on energy costs in the multi stage flash distillation. The proposed location for the desalination plant is immediately west of the Nueces Bay Energy Center. See Appendix A for a map depicting the proposed location for the desalination plant along the coast of Nueces Bay.<br />
<br />
==Feed and Product Definitions==<br />
The proposed desalination facility’s feed and product streams are defined as shown in Table 1. Rationale for these definitions is also described below. The values reported in Table 1 are final derived numbers from HYSYS simulation modeling. <br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 1: Feed and product stream definitions<br />
! &nbsp;<br />
! Salt Concentration<br />
! Temperature <br />
! Amount<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Feed Stream <br />
| 30,500 ppm || 45°C || 8250 m<sup>3</sup>/hr<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Product Stream<br />
| ~ 0 ppm || 35°C || 4758 m<sup>3</sup>/hr<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Byproduct Stream<br />
| 695 ppm || 35°C || 3485 m<sup>3</sup>/hr<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
The process feed will be seawater from Nueces Bay, preheated through the cooling water system of the nearby Nueces Bay Energy Center. Based on calculations developed from NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory) data, it was estimated that the Nueces Bay Energy Center uses approximately 250 million gallons of seawater per day for process and cooling needs. Therefore, the 20 million gallon per day requirement for the desalination facility can easily be met through the power plant’s cooling water<ref>Torcellini P, Long N, Judkoff R. Consumptive Water Use for U.S. Power Consumption. NREL. 2003; TP-550-33905. <br />
</ref>. Note that we are assuming the process will operate 67% of the time (16 hours per day).<br />
<br />
Based on data acquired from two salinity-measuring stations in Nueces Bay, the average salinity of local seawater is 30.5 practical salinity units (psu)<ref>Stations Map & Real - Time Data. The Conrad Blucher Institute for Surveying and Science website. Available at http://www.cbi.tamucc.edu/cbi/data/. Updated January 2016. Accessed January 9, 2016. </ref>, thus setting the concentration of the process feed stream. This translates to a feed stream concentration of 30,500 ppm (parts per million)<ref>Definition and Units. CATD Salinity Expertise Center. Available at http://www.salinityremotesensing.ifremer.fr/home. Accessed January 12, 2016.</ref>. The composition of the salt attributed to this seawater salinity is shown in Table 6 in Appendix B. <br />
<br />
No data on the composition of seawater around the Corpus Christi area was available, but the composition of seawater does not change significantly in different locations. The given composition is considered accurate for our feed stream<ref>Brown E, Colling A, Park D, Phillips J, Rothery D, Wright J. Seawater : Its Composition, Properties and Behaviour. Boston: Butterworth-Heinemann, 1995.<br />
</ref>. Note that seawater salt is primarily sodium chloride - total dissolved solids are 85.7% sodium chloride by mass. As such, the dissolved solids in the feed stream is assumed in this project to be pure NaCl, making the feed composition 96.95% water and 3.05% NaCl by mass. A control system will likely be put in place to ensure feed concentration remains at this level, accounting for natural fluctuations in local seawater salinity.<br />
<br />
The largest byproduct from the process will be a brine slurry with high salt concentrations. An upper corrosion limit of 700 ppm was set for recirculated and purged brine. This undesired byproduct will be sent to a nearby Class I non-hazardous injection well facility operated by GNI Group, which is approximately 12 miles away from the proposed desalination plant location as shown in the figure in Appendix A<ref>Texas Water Code. Availabe at http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/WA/htm/WA.27.htm. Accessed January 14, 2016.<br />
</ref><ref>Google Maps. Available at https://goo.gl/maps/3xcvLZwUCe42 Accessed January 15, 2016.</ref>. Through the incorporation of a Class I injection well, the brine will not have to be treated or diluted before injection. <ref>EPA Regulations on Class I Wells. Available at http://www.epa.gov/uic/class-i-industrial-and-municipal-waste-disposal-wells. Accessed January 14, 2016.<br />
</ref><ref>List of Injection Well Facilities by Location. Available at http://www.ehso.com/cssepa/tsdfdeepwells.php. Accessed January 14, 2016.</ref><br />
<br />
There are no regulations regarding the temperature of city drinking water, so the product stream temperature has no requirements based on regulations. Outlet temperatures of 35<sup>o</sup>C are acceptable for input to the municipal water supply system. Since city water tends to be stored in non-temperature controlled tanks, the temperature will naturally cool to ambient temperature.<ref>Climate Corpus Christi- Texas. US Climate Data. Available at http://www.usclimatedata.com/climate/corpus-christi/texas/united-states/ustx0294. Accessed January 12, 2016. </ref><br />
<br />
==Pre-Treatment and Post-Treatment==<br />
For pretreatment, Belgard EV 2030 is recommended to be added at a concentration of 1.8-2.0 mg/L for a system with top brine temperature approximately 110 °C<ref name="BWA 2030">BWA Water Additives. Belgard EV2030 Technical Data Sheet. BWA Water Additives. http://www.wateradditives.com/files/products/tech_data_sheets/Belgard%20EV%202030_Technical%20Data%20Sheet_Thermal_8.5x11.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016.<br />
</ref>. Since our process is designed to operate at a slightly higher top brine temperature, 120 °C, we will design for the upper bound concentration: 2.0 mg/L of antiscalant. With a feed flow rate of 8250 m<sup>3</sup>/hr, the process therefore requires 16.5 kg/hr of Belgard EV 2030.<br />
<br />
For disinfection during post-treatment, chlorine addition typically requires a dose of roughly 2.0 mg/L as well<ref name="World Health Organization">World Health Organization. Desalination for safe water supply. http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/gdwqrevision/desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. With a pure water distillate flow rate of 4758 m<sup>3</sup>/hr, the process requires 9.5 kg/hr of chlorine as a 5%-15% sodium hypochlorite solution. Approximately 74 mg/L of lime (calcium hydroxide) and 88mg/L of CO2 should be added to the desalinated water to help prevent corrosion and increase alkalinity within acceptable ranges<ref name="Vouchkov">Vouchkov, N. Re-Mineralization of Desalinated Water. SunCam. https://s3.amazonaws.com/suncam/npdocs/118.pdf. Accessed February 18, 2016.</ref>. With a product stream flow rate of 4758 m3/hr, these concentrations correspond to 352.1 kg/hr of lime and 418.7 kg/hr of CO2. Both of these can be purchased, and it is likely that the CO2 can be procured from the neighboring natural gas power plant.<br />
<br />
==Choice of Desalination Technology==<br />
The two major technologies commonly implemented for desalination include reverse osmosis (RO), and multi-stage flash distillation (MSFD). RO utilizes high pressures to force water through a semipermeable membrane that allows for purified water to pass through, but stops organic and other wastes. Often, the pressures can reach 55 - 68 bar, which requires large pumps to maintain pressure, and introduces safety concerns to the process<ref>Stage 2 Measures in the Drought Contingency Plan. Available at http://www.cctexas.com/government/water/conservation/conservation-drought-plans/stage-2-measures. Accessed January 12, 2016. <br />
</ref>. While RO can be less energy intensive than MSFD, and the membrane can also remove contaminants, it is susceptible to feedwater quality, membrane fouling, and requires more extensive pretreatment and posttreatment than MSFD. The cost of RO is directly proportional to the feed salinity, and so it is less expensive when desalinating low salinity water.<br />
<br />
Multi-stage flash distillation is best selected for areas that have high salinity or low energy costs. The pretreatment process for MSFD is much easier when compared to RO because pretreatment often consists of simply adding anti-corrosives and antiscalants to the feed stream. The process works by heating water in vessels at different pressures to change the boiling point of the water and evaporate it as it passes through the system. After evaporation, the water condenses, leaving pure water as the effluent. MSFD costs are now roughly $1.00/m3, where this cost is mostly independent of salinity, but dependent on energy costs.<ref>Fritzman C, Lowenberg J, Wintgens T, Melin T. State-of-the-art Reverse Osmosis Desalination. Desalination. 2007; 216:1-76. <br />
</ref> In both RO and MSFD a brine is produced which then must be appropriately treated and/or disposed of.<br />
<br />
Multi-stage flash distillation was selected for this process, mainly due to the economic advantages offered by the selected location of Corpus Christi, TX. MSFD is also a well understood process that can be more easily modeled by chemical engineering software.<br />
<br />
=Technical Approach=<br />
Quantitative modeling of the process and all included optimization was conducted using the simulation software Aspen HYSYS. A variety of assumptions were developed to set up and define specific components of the process simulation itself. Within Aspen HYSYS, the NRTL Electrolyte property package was selected to model the behavior of salt water. Each stage of the MSF process is modeled as an individual flash vessel, with individual shell & tube heat exchangers used to model the distillate condensers present in each flash stage in the MSF system.<br />
<br />
The HYSYS simulation model only considers the flash portion of the overall process, allowing establishment of mass and energy balances for the system. Pretreatment and post-treatment were excluded for the HYSYS model, as these steps are simple additions or removals of small concentrations of chemical components. Although the simulation models heat exchangers outside of each flash stage, in the physical design of the plant these heat exchangers will be contained within each flash stage.<br />
<br />
One portion of the process is not modeled, which is the inlet seawater entering the heat rejection stages. As can be seen from the full process flow diagram (Appendix C), the inlet seawater in the heat rejection stage is in high excess to provide maximum cooling capacity; then a significant portion is purged to bring the stream flow rate down to what is needed for the feed stream. It is assumed that the flow rate of cooling water for those three stages is in such high excess that the cooling water does not heat up. Therefore, in the process simulation models, the inlet stream is the feed stream, which enters directly into the heat recovery portion of the process.<br />
<br />
See Appendix D for a screenshot overview of the simulation environment model.<br />
<br />
=Process Overview=<br />
==Process Flowsheet==<br />
The following diagram, Figure 1, shows a basic flowsheet for the process. Process alternatives considered for each stage are discussed below. Please see Appendix C for the full process flowsheet with finalized design decisions.<br />
<br />
[[File:BlockFlowDiagram.png|center|700px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Desalination Facility Block Flow Diagram|Figure 1: Basic block flowsheet of the multi-stage flash desalination process.]]<br />
<br />
==Major Features==<br />
As seen above, there are three primary stages of the desalination process: Pre-treatment, the multi-stage flash distillation, and post-treatment. Seawater enters the pre-treatment phase first to make the feed suitable for the rest of the process by filtering out large particles that could accumulate on pipes, deaerating the water to limit corrosion, and adding an agent to combat fouling. The water then enters the distillation process, which is broken up into two sections: heat recovery and heat rejection. <br />
<br />
In the heat recovery stage, there are 18 flash vessels, each of which separates steam from the salinated liquid water. Each flash vessel has saltwater as its inlet and two outlets: a vapor outlet (steam) that condenses into the final product of purified water and a liquid outlet composed of water with more dissolved solids than the inlet, which is the inlet stream for the next flash vessel. The pipe containing the feed is first mixed with recycled brine, then goes through the top sections of each of the flash vessels, starting with V-118 and ending up at V-101. In this way, the feed stream pipe first serves as a heat exchanger, heating the pre-treated seawater while simultaneously condensing the steam into the final product. The feed then enters a final heat exchanger where it is brought up to 103.6 °C before entering V-101 to be flashed.<br />
<br />
After exiting V-118, the final flash vessel in the heat recovery portion, the water enters the heat rejection portion, which consists of three flash vessels (V-201, V-202, V-203). The flash vessels of this section operate in the same manner as in the heat recovery section, with the exception that condensation occurs using excess cooling water instead of pre-treated seawater. This technique allows excess heat to be rejected into an excess water stream rather than the feed.<br />
<br />
The purified product stream finally enters post-treatment processing in which water is re-aerated and remineralized, disinfected, and pH is adjusted before being delivered to the city. The concentrated brine leftover at the end of the flash cycle is recycled into the feed, although a purge is required to continuously remove some salt from the system. This purged brine is disposed of by use of a Class I injection well, per regional regulations.<br />
<br />
See Appendix E to find detailed stream tables of stream specifications.<br />
<br />
==Process Alternatives==<br />
===Pretreatment===<br />
Multi-stage flash distillation requires significantly less pretreatment than reverse osmosis desalination, but helpful pretreatment techniques still exist. One very inexpensive method of pretreatment is screening/filtration, which is used to filter out large contaminants from intake seawater. Using more complicated membrane technology to accomplish large particle filtration is a possible alternative, but doing so would be much more expensive than using a standard screen or filter, so the latter choice has been selected for this process.<ref>El-Dessouky H., Alatiqi I, Ettouney H. Process synthesis: The multi-stage flash desalination system. Desalination. 1998;115(2):115-179. doi: 10.1016/S0011-9164(98)00035-6.</ref><br />
<br />
The most critical type of fouling in multi-stage flash distillation is scaling - therefore, the most critical step in the pretreatment process will be the inclusion of an anti-scalant. Alkaline scaling can be prevented by acid dosing or polyphosphate addition; however, acid dosing can result in increased corrosion and polyphosphates can lead to non-alkaline calcium phosphate fouling, so these additives will not be considered<ref name="Morris">Morris, R. The development of the multi-stage flash distillation process: A designer's viewpoint. Desalination. 1993;93(1-3):57-68. doi:10.1016/S0011-9164(93)80096-6. Availble at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0011916493800966</ref><ref>Al-Gobaisi, D. A quarter-century of seawater desalination by large multistage flash plants in Abu Dhabi (Plant performance analysis, assessment, present efforts toward enhancement and future hopes). Desalination. 1994;99(2-3):509-512. doi: 10.1016/S0011-9164(94)00196-0.</ref>. As such, a polymer-based additive is recommended for the anti-scalant for this process. The Belgard EV series is designed for use in high-temperature seawater MSF; of these, Belgard EV 2030 is the most neutral in pH<ref>NSF International. NSF Product and Service Listings: Drinking Water Treatment Chemicals - Health Effects. NSF International. http://info.nsf.org/Certified/PwsChemicals/Listings.asp?Company=00300&. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref><ref name="BWA 2030" /><ref>BWA Water Additives. Belgard EV2035 Technical Data Sheet. BWA Water Additives. http://www.wateradditives.com/files/products/tech_data_sheets/Belgard%20EV2035_Technical%20Data%20Sheet_Thermal_8.5x11.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref><ref>BioLab Water Additives. Belgard EV Antiscalant for seawater distillation plants. BioLab Water Additives. http://www.lpq.com.mx/pdf/BELGARD%20EV.PDF. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref>. As such, we have selected Belgard EV 2030 for use as an anti-scalant in our process.<br />
<br />
Corrosion control is another significant method of pretreatment in multi-stage flash distillation plants. Using a piping material that has limited susceptibility to corrosion is typically not economically viable for MSF desalination plants due their large size, so using carbon steel for most of the piping is generally used for its economic benefits despite its susceptibility to corrosion<ref name = "Morris" />. Limiting oxygen concentration is very feasible through the use of deaerators, which can remove oxygen as well as other dissolved gases from the seawater stream. Often, an external deaeration system is used<ref name = "Morris" /><ref>Edwards - Hick Hargreaves. Seawater Deaerators. Edwards - Hick Hargreaves. http://psscorp.co.th/upload/news/20110830105340.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. Given these considerations, using an external deaerator combined with a less-corrosive antiscalant like Belgard EV 2030 is much more practical for the process than using anti-corrosive piping.<br />
<br />
Excessive foam can also be an issue in some MSF distillation facilities, so antifoaming agents are sometimes employed in the pretreatment process as well. However, many plants are operated without foaming issues, and therefore do not need anti-foaming pretreatment at all. Selection of an anti-foaming agent must be carefully weighed with selected of anti-scalant to avoid issues with additive interactions [26]. At this stage in the design process, an anti-foamer will not be included due to the risk of decreasing scalant efficacy, and the likelihood that foam will not be an issue in the desalination plant.<br />
<br />
===Multistage Flash Distillation===<br />
The main objective of the design project is desalinate water. This is done with the main process of multi stage flash distillation (MSF). MSF can be developed using a numerous number of different process configurations, such as Once-Through, Simple Mixer Brine Circulation, and Multi-Stage Heat Rejection Brine Circulation processes. <br />
<br />
The most desired process for the project is the Three Stage Heat Rejection Brine Circulation as it builds on benefits of the other simpler technologies. By combining principles of heat rejection and heat recovery, the required heat transfer area of the process is greatly reduced as compared to once through processes or simple brine recycle processes. It has the highest performance ratio with the lowest specific feed flow rates, therefore greatly lowering the operating costs of the process. It is also known as the industry standard for MSF<ref name = "KSU Chapter 6">Kansas State University ChE 413. Available at: http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/Almutaz/Documents/ChE-413/Multi-stage%20Flash%20Desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. In addition, since our brine disposal technique involves the pumping of the brine into a Class I well, the high brine outlet salinity is not a drawback for our process since post treatment or dilution of the brine is not necessary.<br />
<br />
===Post Treatment===<br />
After processing the water via multi-stage flash, the water needs to be post-treated to make the water taste as consumers would expect, since distilled water is “flat” and unpleasant, as well as to protect the consumers and the piping through which the water will be passing<ref name="Clayton">Clayton R. A review of current knowledge: Desalination for water supply. Foundation for Water Research. http://www.fwr.org/desal.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. There are multiple alternatives to achieve these objectives of remineralization, aeration, corrosion control, and disinfection.<br />
<br />
Aerating and introducing some dissolved solids back into the product water are effective ways to create a quality product that is not flat, and contains flavoring that is expected of the water when delivered to the consumer. Aeration will be accomplished via an inline spray aerator which will take up less space than cascade aeration.<ref>Minnesota Rural Water Association. Aeration. http://www.mrwa.com/WaterWorksMnl/Chapter%2011%20Aeration.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref> Feed blending will be used to remineralize the water as opposed to a remineralization filter because it does not require additional equipment purchases, and can easily handle the large amounts of throughput required for the process.<ref name="Clayton" /><br />
<br />
Corrosion and pH can be controlled by adding lime (calcium hydroxide) and carbon dioxide to the water. To do so, about 74 mg/L of lime and 88mg/L of CO<sub>2</sub> should be added to the desalinated water to help prevent corrosion and increase alkalinity within acceptable ranges. Sodium hydroxide, soda ash, and sodium bicarbonate are alternatives to altering the alkalinity and pH of the product water, but lime and CO<sub>2</sub> is an industry standard <ref name="Vouchkov" />.<br />
<br />
Disinfection needs to be done to prevent microbial growth in the desalinated water and ensure the safety of the general public. Chlorine addition via chlorine gas or sodium hypochlorite is the most common and only requires a dose of 1.5 to 2.5 mg/liter. <ref name="World Health Organization" /> Other alternatives include ozonation, UV light, and chloramination. Chlorine, as a 5% - 15% sodium hypochlorite solution, is sufficient for our process and relatively inexpensive, and as such will be utilized in the process.<br />
<br />
===Transport of Brine to Well===<br />
Three major possibilities exist for transporting the brine from our desalination plant to the injection well for disposal: rail, trucking, and a pipeline. A pipeline was chosen as the most feasible and cost-effective approach. <br />
<br />
A rail line is not available at this time, and with the cost to construct a rail line at approximately $43 million per mile<ref>About Money. How Much Do Rail Transit Projects Cost to Build and Operate? 2014. Available at: http://publictransport.about.com/od/Transit_Projects/a/How-Much-Do-Rail-Transit-Projects-Cost-To-Build-And-Operate.htm. Accessed January 27, 2016. </ref>, the enormous capital cost makes rail transport infeasible for this site. For large volume operations, pipelines are cheaper than trucking. In a study of wastewater sludge produced from wastewater treatment facilities, it was found that it was more economical for facilities producing over 1200 m<sup>3</sup> per day to utilize pipelines rather than trucking.<ref>Marufuzzaman M, Eskioglu S, Hernandez R. Truck versus pipeline transportation cost analysis of wastewater sludge. Transportation Research. 2015; 74(A): 14-30. </ref> Our facility is producing nearly 3 times this volume at 3485 m<sup>3</sup> per day of brine. Furthermore, brine is a less viscous fluid than wastewater sludge, decreasing pumping costs in the pipeline and further amplifying the benefit of choosing a pipeline over an injection well.<br />
<br />
===Brine Storage===<br />
Due to the choice of a pipeline, rather than trucking, as the method of transport of brine to the injection well, brine storage is unnecessary, so storage solutions such as holding tanks were not investigated. One method of storage compatible with a pipeline is to pump the brine through an evaporation pond. This solution is attractive as it would allow the brine to concentrate, saving some costs of pumping, however, the considerable land usage of evaporation ponds leads them to only be effective for smaller plants. The largest municipal plant utilizing this method produces only 5.7 million liters per day<ref>University of Santa Cruz Center for Integrated Water Research. Concentrate Management: Evaporation Ponds. 2010. Available at: https://ciwr.ucsc.edu/sites/default/files/ICM_D5.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016. </ref>, whereas our desalination plant is proposed to produce 75.7 million liters per day. Therefore, evaporation ponds have been eliminated from consideration.<br />
<br />
==Major Specifications==<br />
===Material of Construction Selection===<br />
While saltwater and desalinated water in general can be corrosive, there are best practices within the desalination industry for material selection. With this in mind, best practice shows carbon steel lifetime can be lengthened by monitoring the oxygen concentration in the water, specifying the paint used to coat any metal, and more expensive materials can be used in areas of extremely high corrosion.<ref name = "Morris" />. By following these best practices, it is possible to save significant amounts of money through the use of carbon steel in most areas of the plant, with specific high-corrosion areas being reinforced with, or replaced with, more corrosion resistant materials, such as Cu/Ni 70/30 alloy<ref name = "KSU Chapter 6" />.<br />
<br />
===Heat Exchanger Sizing===<br />
See Appendix F for heat exchanger sizing data. Heat exchanger sizes appear reasonable for placement in the flash vessels.<br />
<br />
===Flash Vessel Sizing===<br />
The dimensions for the flash drums were obtained through literature values. The flash drums were determined to be 18x4x3 m in width, height, and length.<ref name="KSU Chapter 6" /><br />
<br />
Wall thickness was determined using the following conventions: Design pressure is 10% more than the operating pressure, design temperature is 50°F (27.8°C) higher than the operating temperature, a corrosion allowance of 3-mm and an effectiveness of 85% was derived from the assumption of a double-welded butt joint that was spot checked. See Appendix G for wall thicknesses calculated for each pressure vessel. <br />
<br />
The sizing of the vessels to be constructed will be determined after talks with a manufacturer. Due to economies of scale, it may be more cost-effective to buy 21 pressure vessels with the dimensions mentioned above and a wall thickness of 17.1-mm, the highest wall thickness required in the system.<br />
<br />
===Pipe Losses and Pressure Drop===<br />
HYSYS was used to estimate the diameter of a pipe given a specified pressure drop per 100m of pipe. It was determined that for a pressure drop of 0.1 kPa/100m of pipe, a 3.05m diameter pipe is sufficient, which is more than manageable for manufacturers. This pressure drop is mostly insignificant and will be taken care of with the safety factors included in the pumps. The significant pressure drops in our system is accounted for via losses in the flash vessels and heat exchangers, which drive the flash process. Therefore overall pipe losses are insignificant and are built into intentional design losses.<br />
<br />
=Economic Analysis=<br />
==Economic Assumptions==<br />
The sale of purified water yields a revenue stream of $49.5 million per year assuming sale to commercial entities within the city limits of Corpus Christi at $1.7915 per thousand liters.<ref>Water schedule. City of Corpus Christi Utility Business Office. http://www.cctexas.com/Assets/Departments/Financial-Services/Utilities-Business-Office/files/waterrates.pdf Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref> The primary variable costs are utilities and the brine disposal, with minimal raw materials costs due to the primary feedstock, seawater, being free, and minimal amounts of pre- and post-treatment chemicals being used. The cost of brine disposal used in this analysis was high at $2.097 per thousand liters<ref>McCurdy, R. Underground injection wells for produced water disposal. Chesapeake Energy Corporation. http://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/documents/21_McCurdy_-_UIC_Disposal_508.pdf Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref>, an estimate for brine disposal utilizing trucking as the mode of transport. As has been shown through previous analyses, a lower cost can be achieved using a direct pipeline, however, no good estimates for this cost could be found.<br />
<br />
The NPV was calculated using a 6% cost of capital, the approximate interest rate for a municipal bond.<ref>Zirbe, R.O. Jr., Han, X., Layton, D., Leshine, T. A history of discount rates and their use by government agencies. (2002). http://faculty.washington.edu/zerbe/docs/DISCOUNT%20RATE%20HISTORY-latesXIt.doc Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref> It was assumed that the plant can be built within two years, with production at half-scale in its first year. Additionally, one month of variable costs, $10.6 million, was set aside for working capital. See Appendix H for a full table of assumptions. A 30 year NPV calculation was chosen as the decision basis since 30 years is a conservative estimate for the lifetime of a desalination plant [38]. See below for estimates of NPV for the lifetime of the plant under various assumptions and design criteria.<br />
<br />
==Optimization and Sensitivity Analysis==<br />
Looking at the multi-stage flash process, there are a number of opportunities to optimize the process. The major process variables that were investigated were the inlet water temperature, the operating pressure drop per vessel, and the number of stages over which the process takes place. Considering these optimizations, our final process consists of 21 flash vessels (18 heat recovery and 3 heat rejection stages), each with a pressure drop of 5 kPa. See Appendix D for a screenshot of the HYSYS simulation used to model the optimized process.<br />
===Operating Pressure and Pressure Drop===<br />
Initially our process was designed to pump the inlet seawater and brine to a pressure of 2 bar and allow the pressure drop in each flash stage to end our process downstream at 1 bar to prevent complications associated with designing a system under vacuum. While this provided pumping advantages, the energy in the system was significantly higher due to vapor pressure considerations. Due to this fact, the required heat exchange area for certain exchangers proved to be infeasible (on the order of 80,000m<sup>2</sup>) due to the enormous capital and operating costs that would be associated with such a large heat exchanger.<br />
<br />
The process was optimized to operate under vacuum, requiring additional pumping requirements but much lower required heat exchange area, and therefore lower utility costs. This optimization was done by specifying the pressure of the final flash vessel to 5.7kPa, so that the temperature of the water vapor (~30<sup>o</sup>C) is within approximately 5<sup>o</sup>C of the cooling water (35<sup>o</sup>C) so that condensation can occur within a reasonable approach. This also allows our system to optimally extract pure water from the brine running through the system and reduce energy requirements for cooling the product or the recycle. Our system redesign and optimization reduced the energy in the system and reduce the same heat exchanger area requirements by more than 3 orders of magnitude to approximately 800m<sup>2</sup>. <br />
<br />
Once the process was optimized to operate in a vacuum, the pressure drop per flash stage regulated through values was then optimized. Three pressure drops per stages, 3kPa, 5kPa, and 7kPa, were tested and then an economic analysis was conducted to find the optimal value for the pressure drop. These changes had impacts on both operating and capital costs as they would change initial pumping requirements, the amount of water flowing through the process and recycle (and therefore the flash vessel sizes, heat exchanger sizing), and the efficiency of each stage.<br />
<br />
The various pressure drops (3 kPa, 5 kPa, and 7 kPa) were tested on a system nominally at 24 stages under the assumption that the results would be generalizable to systems with a different number of stages. With increasing pressure drop, we found decreased capital cost but increased utility cost. As can be seen from Table 2 below, a pressure drop of 5 kPa proved to be the best option based on 30 year NPV, with a loss of $838.8 million, a savings of $65.5 million compared to the next-best option with a pressure drop of 7 kPa.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 2: Comparison of profitability for our MSF desalination process with 24 stages with 3 different pressure drops per stage<br />
! Number of Stages <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! Pressure Drop <br/> (kPa)<br />
! Capital Cost <br/> ($MM)<br />
! Utility Cost <br/> ($MM/yr)<br />
! 30-Year NPV <br/> ($MM)<br />
! NPV Ratio <br/> (over 5kPa)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 3 || 362.3 || 39.1 || -905.8 || 1.08<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 5 || 255.1 || 53.6 || -838.8 || 1.00<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 7 || 209.5 || 72.2 || -904.3 || 1.08<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
===Number of Flash Stages===<br />
The number of stages is an important area for optimization. An increased number of stages yields better recovery of purified water, however, requires higher capital cost from the additional pressure vessel. Furthermore, with an increased amount of purified water comes increasingly concentrated brine. This must be taken into account since any brine concentration in excess of about 7% presents a more significant corrosion risk<ref name="KSU Chapter 6" />, so increased maintenance costs for the piping or higher capital costs for more corrosion-resistant materials could be necessary for brine concentrations exceeding 7%. Therefore, to recover the same amount of pure water without exceeding corrosion limitations, increasing the number of stages will reduce the overall size of each stage.<br />
<br />
Optimizing based on NPV, it was found that 21 stages is optimal, balancing the increased profits from the additional purified water additional costs of higher capital cost. See Table 3 below to compare the 30-year NPV of the process across various numbers of flash vessels.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 3: Comparison of profitability for our MSF desalination process with a 5 kPa pressure drop, 5000 m<sup>3</sup>/hr feed flow rate, with varying number of stages.<br />
! Number of Stages <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! Pressure Drop <br/> (kPa)<br />
! Capital Cost <br/> ($MM)<br />
! Utility Cost <br/> ($MM/yr)<br />
! 30-Year NPV <br/> ($MM)<br />
! NPV Ratio <br/> (over 21 Stages)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 17 || 5 || 213.9 || 58.7 || -813.8 || 1.016<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 18 || 5 || 218 || 57.6 || -809.9 || 1.011<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 19 || 5 || 224.3 || 58 || -806.1 || 1.007<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 20 || 5 || 229.8 || 57.9 || -813.6 || 1.016<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 21 || 5 || 226.6 || 55.9 || -800.7 || 1<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 22 || 5 || 254.7 || 54.6 || -849.5 || 1.061<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 23 || 5 || 249.3 || 54.1 || -833.1 || 1.04<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 5 || 255.1 || 53.6 || -838.8 || 1.048<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 25 || 5 || 254.9 || 52.7 || -837.4 || 1.046<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
===Inlet Seawater Temperature===<br />
By pairing our desalination plant with a natural gas power plant and utilizing its cooling water we forgo initial heating of our inlet stream. Normally, water pumped from the ocean would be approximately 25<sup>o</sup>C and by capturing waste heat from the power plant we can reduce utilities with our water inlet of 45<sup>o</sup>C. Through an economic comparison between two plants nominally at 21 flash stages, the plant with an inlet temperature at 25<sup>o</sup>C has a capital cost of $245MM and a utility cost of $77MM/yr and the same facility with an inlet water temperature at 45<sup>o</sup>C has a capital cost of only $226MM and a utility cost of $56MM/yr. As shown in Table 4 below, this $19MM savings in capital costs and $21MM/yr saving in utilities is largely due to reducing the size of the heat exchangers and lowering the steam required for heating duty on the inlet seawater respectively. Therefore our process is optimized by recovering the waste heat water from the gas fired power plant.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 4: Seawater Inlet Temperature Process Cost Optimization<br />
! Seawater Temperature <br/> (°C)<br />
! Capital Cost <br/> ($MM)<br />
! Utility Cost <br/> ($MM/yr)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 25 || 245 || 77<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 45 || 226 || 56<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Savings || 56 || 19<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
==Overall Process Economics==<br />
After optimization at fixed flow rates, the process was scaled to meet the the 67% operating percentage and final product definitions as shown in Table 1, which resulted in finalized economics shown in Table 5 below. For a table of the installed costs of each process vessel, see Appendix I. For the finalized NPV calculations, see Appendix J.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 5: Summarized Economics for 21-stage MSFD Process<br />
! Economic Parameter<br />
! Cost <br/> (USD)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Capital Cost || 345 MM<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Total Operating Cost per Year || 103 MM<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Utility Cost per Year || 59 MM<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 30-Year NPV (6% Discount) || -1035 MM<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
=Conclusions and Recommendations=<br />
==Project Viability==<br />
Table 5 above demonstrates that the process has reasonable operating and capital costs, but the 30-year NPV is negative by -1035 $MM due to the extremely low sell price capability of desalinated water as a product. Therefore, this plant would have to heavily be supported by the City of Corpus Christi to run as the product revenue will not make it self-sufficient. The acquisition of government subsidies are key operating requirements for all desalination facilities in the United States. <br />
<br />
==Additional Concerns==<br />
Large volumes of water, steam, and energy are needed to ensure the project runs as specified. While most of the water can easily be extracted from the ocean with little to consequence, the fuel used to generate the steam and electricity can have a significant environmental impact. As the plant is located next to a natural gas power plant, this fuel is better than coal with respect to environmental concerns, and utilizing energy from the power plant to preheat the feed stream for the desalination plant helps lower environmental impacts.<br />
<br />
The large amounts of high pressure steam being used represents one of the the largest safety concern in the process, because a high pressure steam release could easily cause severe burns or even death. Proper precautions and control measures must be in place to prevent accidental release. Otherwise, the process does not utilize any known toxic chemicals and is relatively safe from a chemical standpoint. The flash vessels mostly operate below atmospheric pressure, so they must be constructed as vessels that can withstand vacuum without failing.<br />
<br />
<br />
=Appendix A: Proposed Location of Desalination Plant=<br />
Pictured below is the proposed location for the desalination plant, located on Nueces Bay in Corpus Christi, adjacent to the Nueces Bay Energy Center. The plant’s proposed location is shown in the area outlined by the small circle in the upper right of the figure.<br />
<br />
[[File:NuecesBayLocation.png|center|600px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Desalination Facility Location|Figure A.1: Proposed mapped location of Nueces Bay Desalination Facility.]]<br />
[[File:ClassIWell.png|center|700px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Desalination Facility Distance to Injection Well|Figure A.2: Mapped distance from proposed location to Class I Injection Well]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix B: Feed and Product Definitions - Salinity=<br />
<br />
=Appendix C: Process Flow Diagram=<br />
[[File:TeamF_PFD.png|center|1200px|thumb|alt=Process Flow Diagram|Figure C.1: Process Flow Diagram]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix D: HYSYS Simulation Model=<br />
[[File:TeamF_HYSYS_Screenshot.PNG|center|1200px|thumb|alt=HYSYS Simulation Model|Figure D.1: Screenshot of HYSYS Model Simulation.]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix E: Stream Tables=<br />
See attached Excel File “HYSYS 6.0 Flowsheet summary.xlsx”<br />
<br />
A summary of some values is shown below:<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 7: Key process material streams<br />
! &nbsp;<br />
! Stream <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! Molar Flow <br/> (10<sup>5</sup> kgmole/h)<br />
! Mass Flow <br/> (10<sup>5</sup> kg/h)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Inlet <br />
| Feed Water || 454 || 83.6<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Outlet<br />
| Brine Reject || 1.90 || 36.0<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Product<br />
| Pure Water || 2.64 || 47.5<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 8: Key process energy streams<br />
! Stream <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! Heat Flow <br/> (kJ/h)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Feed Water || 1.30E+11<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Q-301 || 5.73E+06<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Q-302 || 3.09E+09<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Q-304 || 4.68E+06<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Q-303 || -1.26E+09<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Brine Reject || -5.47E+10<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Pure Water || -7.46E+10<br />
|}<br />
(Negative value denotes energy leaving process)<br />
</center><br />
<br />
=Appendix F: Heat Exchanger Sizing=<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 9: Utility Temperatures and Heat Transfer Coefficient<ref name="Towler">G.P. Towler, R. Sinnott. Chemical Engineering Design: Principles, Practice and Economics of Plant and Process Design. Elsevier, 2012.</ref><br />
! &nbsp;<br />
! HP Steam<br />
! Cooling Water<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! Temperature (°C)<br />
| 250 || 35<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! U (W/m<sup>2</sup>K)<br />
| 4000 || 1500<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 10: Table 10: Internal Flash Heat Exchanger Sizing, condensing steam.<br />
! Exchanger<br />
! UA <br/> (kJ/°C-h)<br />
! U <br/> (kJ/hr/m<sup>2</sup>°C)<br />
! A <br/> (m<sup>2</sup>)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-101 || 1.47E+07 || 14400 || 1019<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-102 || 1.53E+07 || 14400 || 1059<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-103 || 1.59E+07 || 14400 || 1103<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-104 || 1.66E+07 || 14400 || 1153<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-105 || 1.74E+07 || 14400 || 1209<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-106 || 1.83E+07 || 14400 || 1272<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-107 || 1.93E+07 || 14400 || 1342<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-108 || 2.05E+07 || 14400 || 1424<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-109 || 2.19E+07 || 14400 || 1518<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-110 || 2.35E+07 || 14400 || 1629<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-111 || 2.54E+07 || 14400 || 1761<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-112 || 2.77E+07 || 14400 || 1921<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-113 || 3.05E+07 || 14400 || 2119<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-114 || 3.42E+07 || 14400 || 2372<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-115 || 3.90E+07 || 14400 || 2706<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-116 || 4.56E+07 || 14400 || 3167<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-117 || 5.55E+07 || 14400 || 3856<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| E-118 || 7.20E+07 || 14400 || 5000<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
=Appendix G: Pressure Vessel Sizing=<br />
<br />
=Appendix H: Expanded Economic Assumptions=<br />
<br />
=Appendix I: Equipment Cost Summary=<br />
<br />
=Appendix J: Economic NPV Analysis=<br />
<br />
=References=<br />
<references/></div>Kedricdaly2https://processdesign.mccormick.northwestern.edu/index.php?title=Nueces_Desalination_Center:_Production_of_Drinking_Water_by_Multi-Stage_Flash_Distillation&diff=4946Nueces Desalination Center: Production of Drinking Water by Multi-Stage Flash Distillation2016-03-07T18:38:33Z<p>Kedricdaly2: Adding Table 9</p>
<hr />
<div>Team F: Rankine 672 Final Report<br />
<br />
Authors: Kedric Daly, Ben Granger, Evan Rosati, Kathleen Zhou<br />
<br />
Instructors: Fengqi You, David Wegerer<br />
<br />
March 11, 2016<br />
<br />
=Executive Summary=<br />
Desalination of seawater to drinking water is a technology of ever-increasing importance given trends of increasingly widespread water shortages around the world. Even in the United States, water shortages are becoming increasingly common in dry, highly-populated such as California and certain areas of the Gulf Coast. Our design team, Rankine 672, was tasked with evaluating the need for and designing a desalination plant to provide purified water in a place of need. Investigation revealed that the city of Corpus Christi, Texas, is a strategic location for development of a desalination facility, as surrounding region is in need of new drinking water sources and the city has expressed serious interest in contracting the development of a large-scale desalination plant. Our proposed solution is a multi-stage flash distillation desalination facility capable of producing 20,000,000 gallons (75,708 m<sup>3</sup>) of purified drinking water for the city and surrounding region per operating day.<br />
<br />
In this design, drinking water is produced from seawater feedstock through a 21-stage flash distillation process. By strategically locating the facility next to an existing natural gas power plant, the Nueces Bay Energy Center, pre-heated feed water can be taken directly from the outbound cooling systems of the power plant, allowing energy savings for our desalination plant. The process is designed for 16 hour-per-day operation, requires a seawater feed of 8250 m<sup>3</sup>/hr, and produces 4758 m<sup>3</sup>/hr of purified drinking water alongside a waste stream of 3485 m<sup>3</sup>/hr of concentrated brine. The waste stream is isolated from a recycle stream through a 9.0% purge; this results in an overall product yield of 57.7% on a volume basis. The process requires an additional pretreatment stream of 16.5 kg/hr Belgard EV 2030, which serves as an antiscalant, as well as 9.5 kg/hr chlorine, 352.1 kg/hr lime, and 418.7 kg/hr CO2 for post-treatment purposes.<br />
<br />
The overall capital cost of the plant is expected to be $345MM, with a total operating cost of $103MM/yr, $59MM/yr of which comes from utilities. Due to the low price at which the product water can be sold, the 30-year net present value of the plant, assuming a 6% discount rate, is $-1,035MM. It is thus imperative this plant be constructed with public funds because it cannot return a profit to any private investor. The growing need for water however could justify the cost, because it is important that the residents of the greater Corpus Christi area have access to drinkable water.<br />
<br />
__TOC__<br />
<br />
=Introduction=<br />
==Background==<br />
Clean drinking water is a basic human need that is becoming increasingly difficult to meet. Currently, over 1 billion people live in places where water is considered scarce<ref> Tapping the oceans. The Economist USA. http://www.economist.com/node/11484059. Accessed March 2, 2016. </ref>. Though often thought of as a problem exclusive to third-world countries, the issue is becoming more prevalent in the US as well, with water managers in 40 of 50 states anticipating water shortage conditions in some portion of their state in the next 10 years. These shortages are due to increasing demands on constant or diminishing freshwater resources, therefore, to correct the issue, a new supply must be found<ref> Water Supply in the US. EPA. http://www3.epa.gov/watersense/pubs/supply.html. Accessed March 2, 2016.</ref>. Desalination of seawater is therefore important as a new source for clean drinking water and prevent water shortages. <br />
<br />
==Project Definition==<br />
The overall goal of the project is to investigate the feasibility of a desalination plant in order to meet the needs of growing water demand. The design needs to take health, safety, and environmental concerns into account, while optimizing costs.<br />
<br />
=Design Basis=<br />
Site Location and Conditions<br />
Corpus Christi, TX was chosen as the location for the proposed desalination plant. The city is currently experiencing “Moderate Shortage Conditions”. This issue additionally comes at a time of growing demand with population growth anticipated due to new industry and Eagle Ford Group crude oil production<ref>Stage 2 Measures in the Drought Contingency Plan. Available at http://www.cctexas.com/government/water/conservation/conservation-drought-plans/stage-2-measures. Accessed January 12, 2016. </ref>.<br />
<br />
In June 2014, the city announced the Corpus Christi Desalination Demonstration Project<ref>Corpus Christi Desalination Demonstration Project. Available at http://www.cctexas.com/Assets/Departments/Water/Files/DesalFactSheet.pdf. Published June 2014. Accessed January 12, 2016. <br />
</ref> which seeks to create a demonstration desalination plant capable of producing 20,000 gallons of water per day, with plans to later build a full scale facility generating 20,000,000 gallons of water per day. The desalination demonstration project indicates a clear need for implementation of a desalination plant of this size to accommodate growth in the Corpus Christi area. <br />
<br />
Locating our plant in Corpus Christi will allow us to take advantage of the benefits of cogeneration through a partnership with the Nueces Bay Energy Center. By utilizing their outlet cooling water as a large portion of our feed for the desalination process, we can raise the temperature of our seawater feed, saving on energy costs in the multi stage flash distillation. The proposed location for the desalination plant is immediately west of the Nueces Bay Energy Center. See Appendix A for a map depicting the proposed location for the desalination plant along the coast of Nueces Bay.<br />
<br />
==Feed and Product Definitions==<br />
The proposed desalination facility’s feed and product streams are defined as shown in Table 1. Rationale for these definitions is also described below. The values reported in Table 1 are final derived numbers from HYSYS simulation modeling. <br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 1: Feed and product stream definitions<br />
! &nbsp;<br />
! Salt Concentration<br />
! Temperature <br />
! Amount<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Feed Stream <br />
| 30,500 ppm || 45°C || 8250 m<sup>3</sup>/hr<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Product Stream<br />
| ~ 0 ppm || 35°C || 4758 m<sup>3</sup>/hr<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Byproduct Stream<br />
| 695 ppm || 35°C || 3485 m<sup>3</sup>/hr<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
The process feed will be seawater from Nueces Bay, preheated through the cooling water system of the nearby Nueces Bay Energy Center. Based on calculations developed from NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory) data, it was estimated that the Nueces Bay Energy Center uses approximately 250 million gallons of seawater per day for process and cooling needs. Therefore, the 20 million gallon per day requirement for the desalination facility can easily be met through the power plant’s cooling water<ref>Torcellini P, Long N, Judkoff R. Consumptive Water Use for U.S. Power Consumption. NREL. 2003; TP-550-33905. <br />
</ref>. Note that we are assuming the process will operate 67% of the time (16 hours per day).<br />
<br />
Based on data acquired from two salinity-measuring stations in Nueces Bay, the average salinity of local seawater is 30.5 practical salinity units (psu)<ref>Stations Map & Real - Time Data. The Conrad Blucher Institute for Surveying and Science website. Available at http://www.cbi.tamucc.edu/cbi/data/. Updated January 2016. Accessed January 9, 2016. </ref>, thus setting the concentration of the process feed stream. This translates to a feed stream concentration of 30,500 ppm (parts per million)<ref>Definition and Units. CATD Salinity Expertise Center. Available at http://www.salinityremotesensing.ifremer.fr/home. Accessed January 12, 2016.</ref>. The composition of the salt attributed to this seawater salinity is shown in Table 6 in Appendix B. <br />
<br />
No data on the composition of seawater around the Corpus Christi area was available, but the composition of seawater does not change significantly in different locations. The given composition is considered accurate for our feed stream<ref>Brown E, Colling A, Park D, Phillips J, Rothery D, Wright J. Seawater : Its Composition, Properties and Behaviour. Boston: Butterworth-Heinemann, 1995.<br />
</ref>. Note that seawater salt is primarily sodium chloride - total dissolved solids are 85.7% sodium chloride by mass. As such, the dissolved solids in the feed stream is assumed in this project to be pure NaCl, making the feed composition 96.95% water and 3.05% NaCl by mass. A control system will likely be put in place to ensure feed concentration remains at this level, accounting for natural fluctuations in local seawater salinity.<br />
<br />
The largest byproduct from the process will be a brine slurry with high salt concentrations. An upper corrosion limit of 700 ppm was set for recirculated and purged brine. This undesired byproduct will be sent to a nearby Class I non-hazardous injection well facility operated by GNI Group, which is approximately 12 miles away from the proposed desalination plant location as shown in the figure in Appendix A<ref>Texas Water Code. Availabe at http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/WA/htm/WA.27.htm. Accessed January 14, 2016.<br />
</ref><ref>Google Maps. Available at https://goo.gl/maps/3xcvLZwUCe42 Accessed January 15, 2016.</ref>. Through the incorporation of a Class I injection well, the brine will not have to be treated or diluted before injection. <ref>EPA Regulations on Class I Wells. Available at http://www.epa.gov/uic/class-i-industrial-and-municipal-waste-disposal-wells. Accessed January 14, 2016.<br />
</ref><ref>List of Injection Well Facilities by Location. Available at http://www.ehso.com/cssepa/tsdfdeepwells.php. Accessed January 14, 2016.</ref><br />
<br />
There are no regulations regarding the temperature of city drinking water, so the product stream temperature has no requirements based on regulations. Outlet temperatures of 35<sup>o</sup>C are acceptable for input to the municipal water supply system. Since city water tends to be stored in non-temperature controlled tanks, the temperature will naturally cool to ambient temperature.<ref>Climate Corpus Christi- Texas. US Climate Data. Available at http://www.usclimatedata.com/climate/corpus-christi/texas/united-states/ustx0294. Accessed January 12, 2016. </ref><br />
<br />
==Pre-Treatment and Post-Treatment==<br />
For pretreatment, Belgard EV 2030 is recommended to be added at a concentration of 1.8-2.0 mg/L for a system with top brine temperature approximately 110 °C<ref name="BWA 2030">BWA Water Additives. Belgard EV2030 Technical Data Sheet. BWA Water Additives. http://www.wateradditives.com/files/products/tech_data_sheets/Belgard%20EV%202030_Technical%20Data%20Sheet_Thermal_8.5x11.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016.<br />
</ref>. Since our process is designed to operate at a slightly higher top brine temperature, 120 °C, we will design for the upper bound concentration: 2.0 mg/L of antiscalant. With a feed flow rate of 8250 m<sup>3</sup>/hr, the process therefore requires 16.5 kg/hr of Belgard EV 2030.<br />
<br />
For disinfection during post-treatment, chlorine addition typically requires a dose of roughly 2.0 mg/L as well<ref name="World Health Organization">World Health Organization. Desalination for safe water supply. http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/gdwqrevision/desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. With a pure water distillate flow rate of 4758 m<sup>3</sup>/hr, the process requires 9.5 kg/hr of chlorine as a 5%-15% sodium hypochlorite solution. Approximately 74 mg/L of lime (calcium hydroxide) and 88mg/L of CO2 should be added to the desalinated water to help prevent corrosion and increase alkalinity within acceptable ranges<ref name="Vouchkov">Vouchkov, N. Re-Mineralization of Desalinated Water. SunCam. https://s3.amazonaws.com/suncam/npdocs/118.pdf. Accessed February 18, 2016.</ref>. With a product stream flow rate of 4758 m3/hr, these concentrations correspond to 352.1 kg/hr of lime and 418.7 kg/hr of CO2. Both of these can be purchased, and it is likely that the CO2 can be procured from the neighboring natural gas power plant.<br />
<br />
==Choice of Desalination Technology==<br />
The two major technologies commonly implemented for desalination include reverse osmosis (RO), and multi-stage flash distillation (MSFD). RO utilizes high pressures to force water through a semipermeable membrane that allows for purified water to pass through, but stops organic and other wastes. Often, the pressures can reach 55 - 68 bar, which requires large pumps to maintain pressure, and introduces safety concerns to the process<ref>Stage 2 Measures in the Drought Contingency Plan. Available at http://www.cctexas.com/government/water/conservation/conservation-drought-plans/stage-2-measures. Accessed January 12, 2016. <br />
</ref>. While RO can be less energy intensive than MSFD, and the membrane can also remove contaminants, it is susceptible to feedwater quality, membrane fouling, and requires more extensive pretreatment and posttreatment than MSFD. The cost of RO is directly proportional to the feed salinity, and so it is less expensive when desalinating low salinity water.<br />
<br />
Multi-stage flash distillation is best selected for areas that have high salinity or low energy costs. The pretreatment process for MSFD is much easier when compared to RO because pretreatment often consists of simply adding anti-corrosives and antiscalants to the feed stream. The process works by heating water in vessels at different pressures to change the boiling point of the water and evaporate it as it passes through the system. After evaporation, the water condenses, leaving pure water as the effluent. MSFD costs are now roughly $1.00/m3, where this cost is mostly independent of salinity, but dependent on energy costs.<ref>Fritzman C, Lowenberg J, Wintgens T, Melin T. State-of-the-art Reverse Osmosis Desalination. Desalination. 2007; 216:1-76. <br />
</ref> In both RO and MSFD a brine is produced which then must be appropriately treated and/or disposed of.<br />
<br />
Multi-stage flash distillation was selected for this process, mainly due to the economic advantages offered by the selected location of Corpus Christi, TX. MSFD is also a well understood process that can be more easily modeled by chemical engineering software.<br />
<br />
=Technical Approach=<br />
Quantitative modeling of the process and all included optimization was conducted using the simulation software Aspen HYSYS. A variety of assumptions were developed to set up and define specific components of the process simulation itself. Within Aspen HYSYS, the NRTL Electrolyte property package was selected to model the behavior of salt water. Each stage of the MSF process is modeled as an individual flash vessel, with individual shell & tube heat exchangers used to model the distillate condensers present in each flash stage in the MSF system.<br />
<br />
The HYSYS simulation model only considers the flash portion of the overall process, allowing establishment of mass and energy balances for the system. Pretreatment and post-treatment were excluded for the HYSYS model, as these steps are simple additions or removals of small concentrations of chemical components. Although the simulation models heat exchangers outside of each flash stage, in the physical design of the plant these heat exchangers will be contained within each flash stage.<br />
<br />
One portion of the process is not modeled, which is the inlet seawater entering the heat rejection stages. As can be seen from the full process flow diagram (Appendix C), the inlet seawater in the heat rejection stage is in high excess to provide maximum cooling capacity; then a significant portion is purged to bring the stream flow rate down to what is needed for the feed stream. It is assumed that the flow rate of cooling water for those three stages is in such high excess that the cooling water does not heat up. Therefore, in the process simulation models, the inlet stream is the feed stream, which enters directly into the heat recovery portion of the process.<br />
<br />
See Appendix D for a screenshot overview of the simulation environment model.<br />
<br />
=Process Overview=<br />
==Process Flowsheet==<br />
The following diagram, Figure 1, shows a basic flowsheet for the process. Process alternatives considered for each stage are discussed below. Please see Appendix C for the full process flowsheet with finalized design decisions.<br />
<br />
[[File:BlockFlowDiagram.png|center|700px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Desalination Facility Block Flow Diagram|Figure 1: Basic block flowsheet of the multi-stage flash desalination process.]]<br />
<br />
==Major Features==<br />
As seen above, there are three primary stages of the desalination process: Pre-treatment, the multi-stage flash distillation, and post-treatment. Seawater enters the pre-treatment phase first to make the feed suitable for the rest of the process by filtering out large particles that could accumulate on pipes, deaerating the water to limit corrosion, and adding an agent to combat fouling. The water then enters the distillation process, which is broken up into two sections: heat recovery and heat rejection. <br />
<br />
In the heat recovery stage, there are 18 flash vessels, each of which separates steam from the salinated liquid water. Each flash vessel has saltwater as its inlet and two outlets: a vapor outlet (steam) that condenses into the final product of purified water and a liquid outlet composed of water with more dissolved solids than the inlet, which is the inlet stream for the next flash vessel. The pipe containing the feed is first mixed with recycled brine, then goes through the top sections of each of the flash vessels, starting with V-118 and ending up at V-101. In this way, the feed stream pipe first serves as a heat exchanger, heating the pre-treated seawater while simultaneously condensing the steam into the final product. The feed then enters a final heat exchanger where it is brought up to 103.6 °C before entering V-101 to be flashed.<br />
<br />
After exiting V-118, the final flash vessel in the heat recovery portion, the water enters the heat rejection portion, which consists of three flash vessels (V-201, V-202, V-203). The flash vessels of this section operate in the same manner as in the heat recovery section, with the exception that condensation occurs using excess cooling water instead of pre-treated seawater. This technique allows excess heat to be rejected into an excess water stream rather than the feed.<br />
<br />
The purified product stream finally enters post-treatment processing in which water is re-aerated and remineralized, disinfected, and pH is adjusted before being delivered to the city. The concentrated brine leftover at the end of the flash cycle is recycled into the feed, although a purge is required to continuously remove some salt from the system. This purged brine is disposed of by use of a Class I injection well, per regional regulations.<br />
<br />
See Appendix E to find detailed stream tables of stream specifications.<br />
<br />
==Process Alternatives==<br />
===Pretreatment===<br />
Multi-stage flash distillation requires significantly less pretreatment than reverse osmosis desalination, but helpful pretreatment techniques still exist. One very inexpensive method of pretreatment is screening/filtration, which is used to filter out large contaminants from intake seawater. Using more complicated membrane technology to accomplish large particle filtration is a possible alternative, but doing so would be much more expensive than using a standard screen or filter, so the latter choice has been selected for this process.<ref>El-Dessouky H., Alatiqi I, Ettouney H. Process synthesis: The multi-stage flash desalination system. Desalination. 1998;115(2):115-179. doi: 10.1016/S0011-9164(98)00035-6.</ref><br />
<br />
The most critical type of fouling in multi-stage flash distillation is scaling - therefore, the most critical step in the pretreatment process will be the inclusion of an anti-scalant. Alkaline scaling can be prevented by acid dosing or polyphosphate addition; however, acid dosing can result in increased corrosion and polyphosphates can lead to non-alkaline calcium phosphate fouling, so these additives will not be considered<ref name="Morris">Morris, R. The development of the multi-stage flash distillation process: A designer's viewpoint. Desalination. 1993;93(1-3):57-68. doi:10.1016/S0011-9164(93)80096-6. Availble at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0011916493800966</ref><ref>Al-Gobaisi, D. A quarter-century of seawater desalination by large multistage flash plants in Abu Dhabi (Plant performance analysis, assessment, present efforts toward enhancement and future hopes). Desalination. 1994;99(2-3):509-512. doi: 10.1016/S0011-9164(94)00196-0.</ref>. As such, a polymer-based additive is recommended for the anti-scalant for this process. The Belgard EV series is designed for use in high-temperature seawater MSF; of these, Belgard EV 2030 is the most neutral in pH<ref>NSF International. NSF Product and Service Listings: Drinking Water Treatment Chemicals - Health Effects. NSF International. http://info.nsf.org/Certified/PwsChemicals/Listings.asp?Company=00300&. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref><ref name="BWA 2030" /><ref>BWA Water Additives. Belgard EV2035 Technical Data Sheet. BWA Water Additives. http://www.wateradditives.com/files/products/tech_data_sheets/Belgard%20EV2035_Technical%20Data%20Sheet_Thermal_8.5x11.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref><ref>BioLab Water Additives. Belgard EV Antiscalant for seawater distillation plants. BioLab Water Additives. http://www.lpq.com.mx/pdf/BELGARD%20EV.PDF. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref>. As such, we have selected Belgard EV 2030 for use as an anti-scalant in our process.<br />
<br />
Corrosion control is another significant method of pretreatment in multi-stage flash distillation plants. Using a piping material that has limited susceptibility to corrosion is typically not economically viable for MSF desalination plants due their large size, so using carbon steel for most of the piping is generally used for its economic benefits despite its susceptibility to corrosion<ref name = "Morris" />. Limiting oxygen concentration is very feasible through the use of deaerators, which can remove oxygen as well as other dissolved gases from the seawater stream. Often, an external deaeration system is used<ref name = "Morris" /><ref>Edwards - Hick Hargreaves. Seawater Deaerators. Edwards - Hick Hargreaves. http://psscorp.co.th/upload/news/20110830105340.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. Given these considerations, using an external deaerator combined with a less-corrosive antiscalant like Belgard EV 2030 is much more practical for the process than using anti-corrosive piping.<br />
<br />
Excessive foam can also be an issue in some MSF distillation facilities, so antifoaming agents are sometimes employed in the pretreatment process as well. However, many plants are operated without foaming issues, and therefore do not need anti-foaming pretreatment at all. Selection of an anti-foaming agent must be carefully weighed with selected of anti-scalant to avoid issues with additive interactions [26]. At this stage in the design process, an anti-foamer will not be included due to the risk of decreasing scalant efficacy, and the likelihood that foam will not be an issue in the desalination plant.<br />
<br />
===Multistage Flash Distillation===<br />
The main objective of the design project is desalinate water. This is done with the main process of multi stage flash distillation (MSF). MSF can be developed using a numerous number of different process configurations, such as Once-Through, Simple Mixer Brine Circulation, and Multi-Stage Heat Rejection Brine Circulation processes. <br />
<br />
The most desired process for the project is the Three Stage Heat Rejection Brine Circulation as it builds on benefits of the other simpler technologies. By combining principles of heat rejection and heat recovery, the required heat transfer area of the process is greatly reduced as compared to once through processes or simple brine recycle processes. It has the highest performance ratio with the lowest specific feed flow rates, therefore greatly lowering the operating costs of the process. It is also known as the industry standard for MSF<ref name = "KSU Chapter 6">Kansas State University ChE 413. Available at: http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/Almutaz/Documents/ChE-413/Multi-stage%20Flash%20Desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. In addition, since our brine disposal technique involves the pumping of the brine into a Class I well, the high brine outlet salinity is not a drawback for our process since post treatment or dilution of the brine is not necessary.<br />
<br />
===Post Treatment===<br />
After processing the water via multi-stage flash, the water needs to be post-treated to make the water taste as consumers would expect, since distilled water is “flat” and unpleasant, as well as to protect the consumers and the piping through which the water will be passing<ref name="Clayton">Clayton R. A review of current knowledge: Desalination for water supply. Foundation for Water Research. http://www.fwr.org/desal.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. There are multiple alternatives to achieve these objectives of remineralization, aeration, corrosion control, and disinfection.<br />
<br />
Aerating and introducing some dissolved solids back into the product water are effective ways to create a quality product that is not flat, and contains flavoring that is expected of the water when delivered to the consumer. Aeration will be accomplished via an inline spray aerator which will take up less space than cascade aeration.<ref>Minnesota Rural Water Association. Aeration. http://www.mrwa.com/WaterWorksMnl/Chapter%2011%20Aeration.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref> Feed blending will be used to remineralize the water as opposed to a remineralization filter because it does not require additional equipment purchases, and can easily handle the large amounts of throughput required for the process.<ref name="Clayton" /><br />
<br />
Corrosion and pH can be controlled by adding lime (calcium hydroxide) and carbon dioxide to the water. To do so, about 74 mg/L of lime and 88mg/L of CO<sub>2</sub> should be added to the desalinated water to help prevent corrosion and increase alkalinity within acceptable ranges. Sodium hydroxide, soda ash, and sodium bicarbonate are alternatives to altering the alkalinity and pH of the product water, but lime and CO<sub>2</sub> is an industry standard <ref name="Vouchkov" />.<br />
<br />
Disinfection needs to be done to prevent microbial growth in the desalinated water and ensure the safety of the general public. Chlorine addition via chlorine gas or sodium hypochlorite is the most common and only requires a dose of 1.5 to 2.5 mg/liter. <ref name="World Health Organization" /> Other alternatives include ozonation, UV light, and chloramination. Chlorine, as a 5% - 15% sodium hypochlorite solution, is sufficient for our process and relatively inexpensive, and as such will be utilized in the process.<br />
<br />
===Transport of Brine to Well===<br />
Three major possibilities exist for transporting the brine from our desalination plant to the injection well for disposal: rail, trucking, and a pipeline. A pipeline was chosen as the most feasible and cost-effective approach. <br />
<br />
A rail line is not available at this time, and with the cost to construct a rail line at approximately $43 million per mile<ref>About Money. How Much Do Rail Transit Projects Cost to Build and Operate? 2014. Available at: http://publictransport.about.com/od/Transit_Projects/a/How-Much-Do-Rail-Transit-Projects-Cost-To-Build-And-Operate.htm. Accessed January 27, 2016. </ref>, the enormous capital cost makes rail transport infeasible for this site. For large volume operations, pipelines are cheaper than trucking. In a study of wastewater sludge produced from wastewater treatment facilities, it was found that it was more economical for facilities producing over 1200 m<sup>3</sup> per day to utilize pipelines rather than trucking.<ref>Marufuzzaman M, Eskioglu S, Hernandez R. Truck versus pipeline transportation cost analysis of wastewater sludge. Transportation Research. 2015; 74(A): 14-30. </ref> Our facility is producing nearly 3 times this volume at 3485 m<sup>3</sup> per day of brine. Furthermore, brine is a less viscous fluid than wastewater sludge, decreasing pumping costs in the pipeline and further amplifying the benefit of choosing a pipeline over an injection well.<br />
<br />
===Brine Storage===<br />
Due to the choice of a pipeline, rather than trucking, as the method of transport of brine to the injection well, brine storage is unnecessary, so storage solutions such as holding tanks were not investigated. One method of storage compatible with a pipeline is to pump the brine through an evaporation pond. This solution is attractive as it would allow the brine to concentrate, saving some costs of pumping, however, the considerable land usage of evaporation ponds leads them to only be effective for smaller plants. The largest municipal plant utilizing this method produces only 5.7 million liters per day<ref>University of Santa Cruz Center for Integrated Water Research. Concentrate Management: Evaporation Ponds. 2010. Available at: https://ciwr.ucsc.edu/sites/default/files/ICM_D5.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016. </ref>, whereas our desalination plant is proposed to produce 75.7 million liters per day. Therefore, evaporation ponds have been eliminated from consideration.<br />
<br />
==Major Specifications==<br />
===Material of Construction Selection===<br />
While saltwater and desalinated water in general can be corrosive, there are best practices within the desalination industry for material selection. With this in mind, best practice shows carbon steel lifetime can be lengthened by monitoring the oxygen concentration in the water, specifying the paint used to coat any metal, and more expensive materials can be used in areas of extremely high corrosion.<ref name = "Morris" />. By following these best practices, it is possible to save significant amounts of money through the use of carbon steel in most areas of the plant, with specific high-corrosion areas being reinforced with, or replaced with, more corrosion resistant materials, such as Cu/Ni 70/30 alloy<ref name = "KSU Chapter 6" />.<br />
<br />
===Heat Exchanger Sizing===<br />
See Appendix F for heat exchanger sizing data. Heat exchanger sizes appear reasonable for placement in the flash vessels.<br />
<br />
===Flash Vessel Sizing===<br />
The dimensions for the flash drums were obtained through literature values. The flash drums were determined to be 18x4x3 m in width, height, and length.<ref name="KSU Chapter 6" /><br />
<br />
Wall thickness was determined using the following conventions: Design pressure is 10% more than the operating pressure, design temperature is 50°F (27.8°C) higher than the operating temperature, a corrosion allowance of 3-mm and an effectiveness of 85% was derived from the assumption of a double-welded butt joint that was spot checked. See Appendix G for wall thicknesses calculated for each pressure vessel. <br />
<br />
The sizing of the vessels to be constructed will be determined after talks with a manufacturer. Due to economies of scale, it may be more cost-effective to buy 21 pressure vessels with the dimensions mentioned above and a wall thickness of 17.1-mm, the highest wall thickness required in the system.<br />
<br />
===Pipe Losses and Pressure Drop===<br />
HYSYS was used to estimate the diameter of a pipe given a specified pressure drop per 100m of pipe. It was determined that for a pressure drop of 0.1 kPa/100m of pipe, a 3.05m diameter pipe is sufficient, which is more than manageable for manufacturers. This pressure drop is mostly insignificant and will be taken care of with the safety factors included in the pumps. The significant pressure drops in our system is accounted for via losses in the flash vessels and heat exchangers, which drive the flash process. Therefore overall pipe losses are insignificant and are built into intentional design losses.<br />
<br />
=Economic Analysis=<br />
==Economic Assumptions==<br />
The sale of purified water yields a revenue stream of $49.5 million per year assuming sale to commercial entities within the city limits of Corpus Christi at $1.7915 per thousand liters.<ref>Water schedule. City of Corpus Christi Utility Business Office. http://www.cctexas.com/Assets/Departments/Financial-Services/Utilities-Business-Office/files/waterrates.pdf Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref> The primary variable costs are utilities and the brine disposal, with minimal raw materials costs due to the primary feedstock, seawater, being free, and minimal amounts of pre- and post-treatment chemicals being used. The cost of brine disposal used in this analysis was high at $2.097 per thousand liters<ref>McCurdy, R. Underground injection wells for produced water disposal. Chesapeake Energy Corporation. http://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/documents/21_McCurdy_-_UIC_Disposal_508.pdf Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref>, an estimate for brine disposal utilizing trucking as the mode of transport. As has been shown through previous analyses, a lower cost can be achieved using a direct pipeline, however, no good estimates for this cost could be found.<br />
<br />
The NPV was calculated using a 6% cost of capital, the approximate interest rate for a municipal bond.<ref>Zirbe, R.O. Jr., Han, X., Layton, D., Leshine, T. A history of discount rates and their use by government agencies. (2002). http://faculty.washington.edu/zerbe/docs/DISCOUNT%20RATE%20HISTORY-latesXIt.doc Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref> It was assumed that the plant can be built within two years, with production at half-scale in its first year. Additionally, one month of variable costs, $10.6 million, was set aside for working capital. See Appendix H for a full table of assumptions. A 30 year NPV calculation was chosen as the decision basis since 30 years is a conservative estimate for the lifetime of a desalination plant [38]. See below for estimates of NPV for the lifetime of the plant under various assumptions and design criteria.<br />
<br />
==Optimization and Sensitivity Analysis==<br />
Looking at the multi-stage flash process, there are a number of opportunities to optimize the process. The major process variables that were investigated were the inlet water temperature, the operating pressure drop per vessel, and the number of stages over which the process takes place. Considering these optimizations, our final process consists of 21 flash vessels (18 heat recovery and 3 heat rejection stages), each with a pressure drop of 5 kPa. See Appendix D for a screenshot of the HYSYS simulation used to model the optimized process.<br />
===Operating Pressure and Pressure Drop===<br />
Initially our process was designed to pump the inlet seawater and brine to a pressure of 2 bar and allow the pressure drop in each flash stage to end our process downstream at 1 bar to prevent complications associated with designing a system under vacuum. While this provided pumping advantages, the energy in the system was significantly higher due to vapor pressure considerations. Due to this fact, the required heat exchange area for certain exchangers proved to be infeasible (on the order of 80,000m<sup>2</sup>) due to the enormous capital and operating costs that would be associated with such a large heat exchanger.<br />
<br />
The process was optimized to operate under vacuum, requiring additional pumping requirements but much lower required heat exchange area, and therefore lower utility costs. This optimization was done by specifying the pressure of the final flash vessel to 5.7kPa, so that the temperature of the water vapor (~30<sup>o</sup>C) is within approximately 5<sup>o</sup>C of the cooling water (35<sup>o</sup>C) so that condensation can occur within a reasonable approach. This also allows our system to optimally extract pure water from the brine running through the system and reduce energy requirements for cooling the product or the recycle. Our system redesign and optimization reduced the energy in the system and reduce the same heat exchanger area requirements by more than 3 orders of magnitude to approximately 800m<sup>2</sup>. <br />
<br />
Once the process was optimized to operate in a vacuum, the pressure drop per flash stage regulated through values was then optimized. Three pressure drops per stages, 3kPa, 5kPa, and 7kPa, were tested and then an economic analysis was conducted to find the optimal value for the pressure drop. These changes had impacts on both operating and capital costs as they would change initial pumping requirements, the amount of water flowing through the process and recycle (and therefore the flash vessel sizes, heat exchanger sizing), and the efficiency of each stage.<br />
<br />
The various pressure drops (3 kPa, 5 kPa, and 7 kPa) were tested on a system nominally at 24 stages under the assumption that the results would be generalizable to systems with a different number of stages. With increasing pressure drop, we found decreased capital cost but increased utility cost. As can be seen from Table 2 below, a pressure drop of 5 kPa proved to be the best option based on 30 year NPV, with a loss of $838.8 million, a savings of $65.5 million compared to the next-best option with a pressure drop of 7 kPa.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 2: Comparison of profitability for our MSF desalination process with 24 stages with 3 different pressure drops per stage<br />
! Number of Stages <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! Pressure Drop <br/> (kPa)<br />
! Capital Cost <br/> ($MM)<br />
! Utility Cost <br/> ($MM/yr)<br />
! 30-Year NPV <br/> ($MM)<br />
! NPV Ratio <br/> (over 5kPa)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 3 || 362.3 || 39.1 || -905.8 || 1.08<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 5 || 255.1 || 53.6 || -838.8 || 1.00<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 7 || 209.5 || 72.2 || -904.3 || 1.08<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
===Number of Flash Stages===<br />
The number of stages is an important area for optimization. An increased number of stages yields better recovery of purified water, however, requires higher capital cost from the additional pressure vessel. Furthermore, with an increased amount of purified water comes increasingly concentrated brine. This must be taken into account since any brine concentration in excess of about 7% presents a more significant corrosion risk<ref name="KSU Chapter 6" />, so increased maintenance costs for the piping or higher capital costs for more corrosion-resistant materials could be necessary for brine concentrations exceeding 7%. Therefore, to recover the same amount of pure water without exceeding corrosion limitations, increasing the number of stages will reduce the overall size of each stage.<br />
<br />
Optimizing based on NPV, it was found that 21 stages is optimal, balancing the increased profits from the additional purified water additional costs of higher capital cost. See Table 3 below to compare the 30-year NPV of the process across various numbers of flash vessels.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 3: Comparison of profitability for our MSF desalination process with a 5 kPa pressure drop, 5000 m<sup>3</sup>/hr feed flow rate, with varying number of stages.<br />
! Number of Stages <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! Pressure Drop <br/> (kPa)<br />
! Capital Cost <br/> ($MM)<br />
! Utility Cost <br/> ($MM/yr)<br />
! 30-Year NPV <br/> ($MM)<br />
! NPV Ratio <br/> (over 21 Stages)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 17 || 5 || 213.9 || 58.7 || -813.8 || 1.016<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 18 || 5 || 218 || 57.6 || -809.9 || 1.011<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 19 || 5 || 224.3 || 58 || -806.1 || 1.007<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 20 || 5 || 229.8 || 57.9 || -813.6 || 1.016<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 21 || 5 || 226.6 || 55.9 || -800.7 || 1<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 22 || 5 || 254.7 || 54.6 || -849.5 || 1.061<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 23 || 5 || 249.3 || 54.1 || -833.1 || 1.04<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 5 || 255.1 || 53.6 || -838.8 || 1.048<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 25 || 5 || 254.9 || 52.7 || -837.4 || 1.046<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
===Inlet Seawater Temperature===<br />
By pairing our desalination plant with a natural gas power plant and utilizing its cooling water we forgo initial heating of our inlet stream. Normally, water pumped from the ocean would be approximately 25<sup>o</sup>C and by capturing waste heat from the power plant we can reduce utilities with our water inlet of 45<sup>o</sup>C. Through an economic comparison between two plants nominally at 21 flash stages, the plant with an inlet temperature at 25<sup>o</sup>C has a capital cost of $245MM and a utility cost of $77MM/yr and the same facility with an inlet water temperature at 45<sup>o</sup>C has a capital cost of only $226MM and a utility cost of $56MM/yr. As shown in Table 4 below, this $19MM savings in capital costs and $21MM/yr saving in utilities is largely due to reducing the size of the heat exchangers and lowering the steam required for heating duty on the inlet seawater respectively. Therefore our process is optimized by recovering the waste heat water from the gas fired power plant.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 4: Seawater Inlet Temperature Process Cost Optimization<br />
! Seawater Temperature <br/> (°C)<br />
! Capital Cost <br/> ($MM)<br />
! Utility Cost <br/> ($MM/yr)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 25 || 245 || 77<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 45 || 226 || 56<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Savings || 56 || 19<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
==Overall Process Economics==<br />
After optimization at fixed flow rates, the process was scaled to meet the the 67% operating percentage and final product definitions as shown in Table 1, which resulted in finalized economics shown in Table 5 below. For a table of the installed costs of each process vessel, see Appendix I. For the finalized NPV calculations, see Appendix J.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 5: Summarized Economics for 21-stage MSFD Process<br />
! Economic Parameter<br />
! Cost <br/> (USD)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Capital Cost || 345 MM<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Total Operating Cost per Year || 103 MM<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Utility Cost per Year || 59 MM<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 30-Year NPV (6% Discount) || -1035 MM<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
=Conclusions and Recommendations=<br />
==Project Viability==<br />
Table 5 above demonstrates that the process has reasonable operating and capital costs, but the 30-year NPV is negative by -1035 $MM due to the extremely low sell price capability of desalinated water as a product. Therefore, this plant would have to heavily be supported by the City of Corpus Christi to run as the product revenue will not make it self-sufficient. The acquisition of government subsidies are key operating requirements for all desalination facilities in the United States. <br />
<br />
==Additional Concerns==<br />
Large volumes of water, steam, and energy are needed to ensure the project runs as specified. While most of the water can easily be extracted from the ocean with little to consequence, the fuel used to generate the steam and electricity can have a significant environmental impact. As the plant is located next to a natural gas power plant, this fuel is better than coal with respect to environmental concerns, and utilizing energy from the power plant to preheat the feed stream for the desalination plant helps lower environmental impacts.<br />
<br />
The large amounts of high pressure steam being used represents one of the the largest safety concern in the process, because a high pressure steam release could easily cause severe burns or even death. Proper precautions and control measures must be in place to prevent accidental release. Otherwise, the process does not utilize any known toxic chemicals and is relatively safe from a chemical standpoint. The flash vessels mostly operate below atmospheric pressure, so they must be constructed as vessels that can withstand vacuum without failing.<br />
<br />
<br />
=Appendix A: Proposed Location of Desalination Plant=<br />
Pictured below is the proposed location for the desalination plant, located on Nueces Bay in Corpus Christi, adjacent to the Nueces Bay Energy Center. The plant’s proposed location is shown in the area outlined by the small circle in the upper right of the figure.<br />
<br />
[[File:NuecesBayLocation.png|center|600px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Desalination Facility Location|Figure A.1: Proposed mapped location of Nueces Bay Desalination Facility.]]<br />
[[File:ClassIWell.png|center|700px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Desalination Facility Distance to Injection Well|Figure A.2: Mapped distance from proposed location to Class I Injection Well]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix B: Feed and Product Definitions - Salinity=<br />
<br />
=Appendix C: Process Flow Diagram=<br />
[[File:TeamF_PFD.png|center|1200px|thumb|alt=Process Flow Diagram|Figure C.1: Process Flow Diagram]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix D: HYSYS Simulation Model=<br />
[[File:TeamF_HYSYS_Screenshot.PNG|center|1200px|thumb|alt=HYSYS Simulation Model|Figure D.1: Screenshot of HYSYS Model Simulation.]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix E: Stream Tables=<br />
See attached Excel File “HYSYS 6.0 Flowsheet summary.xlsx”<br />
<br />
A summary of some values is shown below:<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 7: Key process material streams<br />
! &nbsp;<br />
! Stream <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! Molar Flow <br/> (10<sup>5</sup> kgmole/h)<br />
! Mass Flow <br/> (10<sup>5</sup> kg/h)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Inlet <br />
| Feed Water || 454 || 83.6<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Outlet<br />
| Brine Reject || 1.90 || 36.0<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Product<br />
| Pure Water || 2.64 || 47.5<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 8: Key process energy streams<br />
! Stream <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! Heat Flow <br/> (kJ/h)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Feed Water || 1.30E+11<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Q-301 || 5.73E+06<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Q-302 || 3.09E+09<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Q-304 || 4.68E+06<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Q-303 || -1.26E+09<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Brine Reject || -5.47E+10<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Pure Water || -7.46E+10<br />
|}<br />
(Negative value denotes energy leaving process)<br />
</center><br />
<br />
=Appendix F: Heat Exchanger Sizing=<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 9: Utility Temperatures and Heat Transfer Coefficient<ref name="Towler">G.P. Towler, R. Sinnott. Chemical Engineering Design: Principles, Practice and Economics of Plant and Process Design. Elsevier, 2012.</ref><br />
! &nbsp;<br />
! HP Steam<br />
! Cooling Water<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! Temperature (°C)<br />
| 250 || 35<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! U (W/m<sup>2</sup>K)<br />
| 4000 || 1500<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
=Appendix G: Pressure Vessel Sizing=<br />
<br />
=Appendix H: Expanded Economic Assumptions=<br />
<br />
=Appendix I: Equipment Cost Summary=<br />
<br />
=Appendix J: Economic NPV Analysis=<br />
<br />
=References=<br />
<references/></div>Kedricdaly2https://processdesign.mccormick.northwestern.edu/index.php?title=Nueces_Desalination_Center:_Production_of_Drinking_Water_by_Multi-Stage_Flash_Distillation&diff=4945Nueces Desalination Center: Production of Drinking Water by Multi-Stage Flash Distillation2016-03-07T18:29:04Z<p>Kedricdaly2: Adding Table 7 and 8</p>
<hr />
<div>Team F: Rankine 672 Final Report<br />
<br />
Authors: Kedric Daly, Ben Granger, Evan Rosati, Kathleen Zhou<br />
<br />
Instructors: Fengqi You, David Wegerer<br />
<br />
March 11, 2016<br />
<br />
=Executive Summary=<br />
Desalination of seawater to drinking water is a technology of ever-increasing importance given trends of increasingly widespread water shortages around the world. Even in the United States, water shortages are becoming increasingly common in dry, highly-populated such as California and certain areas of the Gulf Coast. Our design team, Rankine 672, was tasked with evaluating the need for and designing a desalination plant to provide purified water in a place of need. Investigation revealed that the city of Corpus Christi, Texas, is a strategic location for development of a desalination facility, as surrounding region is in need of new drinking water sources and the city has expressed serious interest in contracting the development of a large-scale desalination plant. Our proposed solution is a multi-stage flash distillation desalination facility capable of producing 20,000,000 gallons (75,708 m<sup>3</sup>) of purified drinking water for the city and surrounding region per operating day.<br />
<br />
In this design, drinking water is produced from seawater feedstock through a 21-stage flash distillation process. By strategically locating the facility next to an existing natural gas power plant, the Nueces Bay Energy Center, pre-heated feed water can be taken directly from the outbound cooling systems of the power plant, allowing energy savings for our desalination plant. The process is designed for 16 hour-per-day operation, requires a seawater feed of 8250 m<sup>3</sup>/hr, and produces 4758 m<sup>3</sup>/hr of purified drinking water alongside a waste stream of 3485 m<sup>3</sup>/hr of concentrated brine. The waste stream is isolated from a recycle stream through a 9.0% purge; this results in an overall product yield of 57.7% on a volume basis. The process requires an additional pretreatment stream of 16.5 kg/hr Belgard EV 2030, which serves as an antiscalant, as well as 9.5 kg/hr chlorine, 352.1 kg/hr lime, and 418.7 kg/hr CO2 for post-treatment purposes.<br />
<br />
The overall capital cost of the plant is expected to be $345MM, with a total operating cost of $103MM/yr, $59MM/yr of which comes from utilities. Due to the low price at which the product water can be sold, the 30-year net present value of the plant, assuming a 6% discount rate, is $-1,035MM. It is thus imperative this plant be constructed with public funds because it cannot return a profit to any private investor. The growing need for water however could justify the cost, because it is important that the residents of the greater Corpus Christi area have access to drinkable water.<br />
<br />
__TOC__<br />
<br />
=Introduction=<br />
==Background==<br />
Clean drinking water is a basic human need that is becoming increasingly difficult to meet. Currently, over 1 billion people live in places where water is considered scarce<ref> Tapping the oceans. The Economist USA. http://www.economist.com/node/11484059. Accessed March 2, 2016. </ref>. Though often thought of as a problem exclusive to third-world countries, the issue is becoming more prevalent in the US as well, with water managers in 40 of 50 states anticipating water shortage conditions in some portion of their state in the next 10 years. These shortages are due to increasing demands on constant or diminishing freshwater resources, therefore, to correct the issue, a new supply must be found<ref> Water Supply in the US. EPA. http://www3.epa.gov/watersense/pubs/supply.html. Accessed March 2, 2016.</ref>. Desalination of seawater is therefore important as a new source for clean drinking water and prevent water shortages. <br />
<br />
==Project Definition==<br />
The overall goal of the project is to investigate the feasibility of a desalination plant in order to meet the needs of growing water demand. The design needs to take health, safety, and environmental concerns into account, while optimizing costs.<br />
<br />
=Design Basis=<br />
Site Location and Conditions<br />
Corpus Christi, TX was chosen as the location for the proposed desalination plant. The city is currently experiencing “Moderate Shortage Conditions”. This issue additionally comes at a time of growing demand with population growth anticipated due to new industry and Eagle Ford Group crude oil production<ref>Stage 2 Measures in the Drought Contingency Plan. Available at http://www.cctexas.com/government/water/conservation/conservation-drought-plans/stage-2-measures. Accessed January 12, 2016. </ref>.<br />
<br />
In June 2014, the city announced the Corpus Christi Desalination Demonstration Project<ref>Corpus Christi Desalination Demonstration Project. Available at http://www.cctexas.com/Assets/Departments/Water/Files/DesalFactSheet.pdf. Published June 2014. Accessed January 12, 2016. <br />
</ref> which seeks to create a demonstration desalination plant capable of producing 20,000 gallons of water per day, with plans to later build a full scale facility generating 20,000,000 gallons of water per day. The desalination demonstration project indicates a clear need for implementation of a desalination plant of this size to accommodate growth in the Corpus Christi area. <br />
<br />
Locating our plant in Corpus Christi will allow us to take advantage of the benefits of cogeneration through a partnership with the Nueces Bay Energy Center. By utilizing their outlet cooling water as a large portion of our feed for the desalination process, we can raise the temperature of our seawater feed, saving on energy costs in the multi stage flash distillation. The proposed location for the desalination plant is immediately west of the Nueces Bay Energy Center. See Appendix A for a map depicting the proposed location for the desalination plant along the coast of Nueces Bay.<br />
<br />
==Feed and Product Definitions==<br />
The proposed desalination facility’s feed and product streams are defined as shown in Table 1. Rationale for these definitions is also described below. The values reported in Table 1 are final derived numbers from HYSYS simulation modeling. <br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 1: Feed and product stream definitions<br />
! &nbsp;<br />
! Salt Concentration<br />
! Temperature <br />
! Amount<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Feed Stream <br />
| 30,500 ppm || 45°C || 8250 m<sup>3</sup>/hr<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Product Stream<br />
| ~ 0 ppm || 35°C || 4758 m<sup>3</sup>/hr<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Byproduct Stream<br />
| 695 ppm || 35°C || 3485 m<sup>3</sup>/hr<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
The process feed will be seawater from Nueces Bay, preheated through the cooling water system of the nearby Nueces Bay Energy Center. Based on calculations developed from NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory) data, it was estimated that the Nueces Bay Energy Center uses approximately 250 million gallons of seawater per day for process and cooling needs. Therefore, the 20 million gallon per day requirement for the desalination facility can easily be met through the power plant’s cooling water<ref>Torcellini P, Long N, Judkoff R. Consumptive Water Use for U.S. Power Consumption. NREL. 2003; TP-550-33905. <br />
</ref>. Note that we are assuming the process will operate 67% of the time (16 hours per day).<br />
<br />
Based on data acquired from two salinity-measuring stations in Nueces Bay, the average salinity of local seawater is 30.5 practical salinity units (psu)<ref>Stations Map & Real - Time Data. The Conrad Blucher Institute for Surveying and Science website. Available at http://www.cbi.tamucc.edu/cbi/data/. Updated January 2016. Accessed January 9, 2016. </ref>, thus setting the concentration of the process feed stream. This translates to a feed stream concentration of 30,500 ppm (parts per million)<ref>Definition and Units. CATD Salinity Expertise Center. Available at http://www.salinityremotesensing.ifremer.fr/home. Accessed January 12, 2016.</ref>. The composition of the salt attributed to this seawater salinity is shown in Table 6 in Appendix B. <br />
<br />
No data on the composition of seawater around the Corpus Christi area was available, but the composition of seawater does not change significantly in different locations. The given composition is considered accurate for our feed stream<ref>Brown E, Colling A, Park D, Phillips J, Rothery D, Wright J. Seawater : Its Composition, Properties and Behaviour. Boston: Butterworth-Heinemann, 1995.<br />
</ref>. Note that seawater salt is primarily sodium chloride - total dissolved solids are 85.7% sodium chloride by mass. As such, the dissolved solids in the feed stream is assumed in this project to be pure NaCl, making the feed composition 96.95% water and 3.05% NaCl by mass. A control system will likely be put in place to ensure feed concentration remains at this level, accounting for natural fluctuations in local seawater salinity.<br />
<br />
The largest byproduct from the process will be a brine slurry with high salt concentrations. An upper corrosion limit of 700 ppm was set for recirculated and purged brine. This undesired byproduct will be sent to a nearby Class I non-hazardous injection well facility operated by GNI Group, which is approximately 12 miles away from the proposed desalination plant location as shown in the figure in Appendix A<ref>Texas Water Code. Availabe at http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/WA/htm/WA.27.htm. Accessed January 14, 2016.<br />
</ref><ref>Google Maps. Available at https://goo.gl/maps/3xcvLZwUCe42 Accessed January 15, 2016.</ref>. Through the incorporation of a Class I injection well, the brine will not have to be treated or diluted before injection. <ref>EPA Regulations on Class I Wells. Available at http://www.epa.gov/uic/class-i-industrial-and-municipal-waste-disposal-wells. Accessed January 14, 2016.<br />
</ref><ref>List of Injection Well Facilities by Location. Available at http://www.ehso.com/cssepa/tsdfdeepwells.php. Accessed January 14, 2016.</ref><br />
<br />
There are no regulations regarding the temperature of city drinking water, so the product stream temperature has no requirements based on regulations. Outlet temperatures of 35<sup>o</sup>C are acceptable for input to the municipal water supply system. Since city water tends to be stored in non-temperature controlled tanks, the temperature will naturally cool to ambient temperature.<ref>Climate Corpus Christi- Texas. US Climate Data. Available at http://www.usclimatedata.com/climate/corpus-christi/texas/united-states/ustx0294. Accessed January 12, 2016. </ref><br />
<br />
==Pre-Treatment and Post-Treatment==<br />
For pretreatment, Belgard EV 2030 is recommended to be added at a concentration of 1.8-2.0 mg/L for a system with top brine temperature approximately 110 °C<ref name="BWA 2030">BWA Water Additives. Belgard EV2030 Technical Data Sheet. BWA Water Additives. http://www.wateradditives.com/files/products/tech_data_sheets/Belgard%20EV%202030_Technical%20Data%20Sheet_Thermal_8.5x11.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016.<br />
</ref>. Since our process is designed to operate at a slightly higher top brine temperature, 120 °C, we will design for the upper bound concentration: 2.0 mg/L of antiscalant. With a feed flow rate of 8250 m<sup>3</sup>/hr, the process therefore requires 16.5 kg/hr of Belgard EV 2030.<br />
<br />
For disinfection during post-treatment, chlorine addition typically requires a dose of roughly 2.0 mg/L as well<ref name="World Health Organization">World Health Organization. Desalination for safe water supply. http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/gdwqrevision/desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. With a pure water distillate flow rate of 4758 m<sup>3</sup>/hr, the process requires 9.5 kg/hr of chlorine as a 5%-15% sodium hypochlorite solution. Approximately 74 mg/L of lime (calcium hydroxide) and 88mg/L of CO2 should be added to the desalinated water to help prevent corrosion and increase alkalinity within acceptable ranges<ref name="Vouchkov">Vouchkov, N. Re-Mineralization of Desalinated Water. SunCam. https://s3.amazonaws.com/suncam/npdocs/118.pdf. Accessed February 18, 2016.</ref>. With a product stream flow rate of 4758 m3/hr, these concentrations correspond to 352.1 kg/hr of lime and 418.7 kg/hr of CO2. Both of these can be purchased, and it is likely that the CO2 can be procured from the neighboring natural gas power plant.<br />
<br />
==Choice of Desalination Technology==<br />
The two major technologies commonly implemented for desalination include reverse osmosis (RO), and multi-stage flash distillation (MSFD). RO utilizes high pressures to force water through a semipermeable membrane that allows for purified water to pass through, but stops organic and other wastes. Often, the pressures can reach 55 - 68 bar, which requires large pumps to maintain pressure, and introduces safety concerns to the process<ref>Stage 2 Measures in the Drought Contingency Plan. Available at http://www.cctexas.com/government/water/conservation/conservation-drought-plans/stage-2-measures. Accessed January 12, 2016. <br />
</ref>. While RO can be less energy intensive than MSFD, and the membrane can also remove contaminants, it is susceptible to feedwater quality, membrane fouling, and requires more extensive pretreatment and posttreatment than MSFD. The cost of RO is directly proportional to the feed salinity, and so it is less expensive when desalinating low salinity water.<br />
<br />
Multi-stage flash distillation is best selected for areas that have high salinity or low energy costs. The pretreatment process for MSFD is much easier when compared to RO because pretreatment often consists of simply adding anti-corrosives and antiscalants to the feed stream. The process works by heating water in vessels at different pressures to change the boiling point of the water and evaporate it as it passes through the system. After evaporation, the water condenses, leaving pure water as the effluent. MSFD costs are now roughly $1.00/m3, where this cost is mostly independent of salinity, but dependent on energy costs.<ref>Fritzman C, Lowenberg J, Wintgens T, Melin T. State-of-the-art Reverse Osmosis Desalination. Desalination. 2007; 216:1-76. <br />
</ref> In both RO and MSFD a brine is produced which then must be appropriately treated and/or disposed of.<br />
<br />
Multi-stage flash distillation was selected for this process, mainly due to the economic advantages offered by the selected location of Corpus Christi, TX. MSFD is also a well understood process that can be more easily modeled by chemical engineering software.<br />
<br />
=Technical Approach=<br />
Quantitative modeling of the process and all included optimization was conducted using the simulation software Aspen HYSYS. A variety of assumptions were developed to set up and define specific components of the process simulation itself. Within Aspen HYSYS, the NRTL Electrolyte property package was selected to model the behavior of salt water. Each stage of the MSF process is modeled as an individual flash vessel, with individual shell & tube heat exchangers used to model the distillate condensers present in each flash stage in the MSF system.<br />
<br />
The HYSYS simulation model only considers the flash portion of the overall process, allowing establishment of mass and energy balances for the system. Pretreatment and post-treatment were excluded for the HYSYS model, as these steps are simple additions or removals of small concentrations of chemical components. Although the simulation models heat exchangers outside of each flash stage, in the physical design of the plant these heat exchangers will be contained within each flash stage.<br />
<br />
One portion of the process is not modeled, which is the inlet seawater entering the heat rejection stages. As can be seen from the full process flow diagram (Appendix C), the inlet seawater in the heat rejection stage is in high excess to provide maximum cooling capacity; then a significant portion is purged to bring the stream flow rate down to what is needed for the feed stream. It is assumed that the flow rate of cooling water for those three stages is in such high excess that the cooling water does not heat up. Therefore, in the process simulation models, the inlet stream is the feed stream, which enters directly into the heat recovery portion of the process.<br />
<br />
See Appendix D for a screenshot overview of the simulation environment model.<br />
<br />
=Process Overview=<br />
==Process Flowsheet==<br />
The following diagram, Figure 1, shows a basic flowsheet for the process. Process alternatives considered for each stage are discussed below. Please see Appendix C for the full process flowsheet with finalized design decisions.<br />
<br />
[[File:BlockFlowDiagram.png|center|700px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Desalination Facility Block Flow Diagram|Figure 1: Basic block flowsheet of the multi-stage flash desalination process.]]<br />
<br />
==Major Features==<br />
As seen above, there are three primary stages of the desalination process: Pre-treatment, the multi-stage flash distillation, and post-treatment. Seawater enters the pre-treatment phase first to make the feed suitable for the rest of the process by filtering out large particles that could accumulate on pipes, deaerating the water to limit corrosion, and adding an agent to combat fouling. The water then enters the distillation process, which is broken up into two sections: heat recovery and heat rejection. <br />
<br />
In the heat recovery stage, there are 18 flash vessels, each of which separates steam from the salinated liquid water. Each flash vessel has saltwater as its inlet and two outlets: a vapor outlet (steam) that condenses into the final product of purified water and a liquid outlet composed of water with more dissolved solids than the inlet, which is the inlet stream for the next flash vessel. The pipe containing the feed is first mixed with recycled brine, then goes through the top sections of each of the flash vessels, starting with V-118 and ending up at V-101. In this way, the feed stream pipe first serves as a heat exchanger, heating the pre-treated seawater while simultaneously condensing the steam into the final product. The feed then enters a final heat exchanger where it is brought up to 103.6 °C before entering V-101 to be flashed.<br />
<br />
After exiting V-118, the final flash vessel in the heat recovery portion, the water enters the heat rejection portion, which consists of three flash vessels (V-201, V-202, V-203). The flash vessels of this section operate in the same manner as in the heat recovery section, with the exception that condensation occurs using excess cooling water instead of pre-treated seawater. This technique allows excess heat to be rejected into an excess water stream rather than the feed.<br />
<br />
The purified product stream finally enters post-treatment processing in which water is re-aerated and remineralized, disinfected, and pH is adjusted before being delivered to the city. The concentrated brine leftover at the end of the flash cycle is recycled into the feed, although a purge is required to continuously remove some salt from the system. This purged brine is disposed of by use of a Class I injection well, per regional regulations.<br />
<br />
See Appendix E to find detailed stream tables of stream specifications.<br />
<br />
==Process Alternatives==<br />
===Pretreatment===<br />
Multi-stage flash distillation requires significantly less pretreatment than reverse osmosis desalination, but helpful pretreatment techniques still exist. One very inexpensive method of pretreatment is screening/filtration, which is used to filter out large contaminants from intake seawater. Using more complicated membrane technology to accomplish large particle filtration is a possible alternative, but doing so would be much more expensive than using a standard screen or filter, so the latter choice has been selected for this process.<ref>El-Dessouky H., Alatiqi I, Ettouney H. Process synthesis: The multi-stage flash desalination system. Desalination. 1998;115(2):115-179. doi: 10.1016/S0011-9164(98)00035-6.</ref><br />
<br />
The most critical type of fouling in multi-stage flash distillation is scaling - therefore, the most critical step in the pretreatment process will be the inclusion of an anti-scalant. Alkaline scaling can be prevented by acid dosing or polyphosphate addition; however, acid dosing can result in increased corrosion and polyphosphates can lead to non-alkaline calcium phosphate fouling, so these additives will not be considered<ref name="Morris">Morris, R. The development of the multi-stage flash distillation process: A designer's viewpoint. Desalination. 1993;93(1-3):57-68. doi:10.1016/S0011-9164(93)80096-6. Availble at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0011916493800966</ref><ref>Al-Gobaisi, D. A quarter-century of seawater desalination by large multistage flash plants in Abu Dhabi (Plant performance analysis, assessment, present efforts toward enhancement and future hopes). Desalination. 1994;99(2-3):509-512. doi: 10.1016/S0011-9164(94)00196-0.</ref>. As such, a polymer-based additive is recommended for the anti-scalant for this process. The Belgard EV series is designed for use in high-temperature seawater MSF; of these, Belgard EV 2030 is the most neutral in pH<ref>NSF International. NSF Product and Service Listings: Drinking Water Treatment Chemicals - Health Effects. NSF International. http://info.nsf.org/Certified/PwsChemicals/Listings.asp?Company=00300&. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref><ref name="BWA 2030" /><ref>BWA Water Additives. Belgard EV2035 Technical Data Sheet. BWA Water Additives. http://www.wateradditives.com/files/products/tech_data_sheets/Belgard%20EV2035_Technical%20Data%20Sheet_Thermal_8.5x11.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref><ref>BioLab Water Additives. Belgard EV Antiscalant for seawater distillation plants. BioLab Water Additives. http://www.lpq.com.mx/pdf/BELGARD%20EV.PDF. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref>. As such, we have selected Belgard EV 2030 for use as an anti-scalant in our process.<br />
<br />
Corrosion control is another significant method of pretreatment in multi-stage flash distillation plants. Using a piping material that has limited susceptibility to corrosion is typically not economically viable for MSF desalination plants due their large size, so using carbon steel for most of the piping is generally used for its economic benefits despite its susceptibility to corrosion<ref name = "Morris" />. Limiting oxygen concentration is very feasible through the use of deaerators, which can remove oxygen as well as other dissolved gases from the seawater stream. Often, an external deaeration system is used<ref name = "Morris" /><ref>Edwards - Hick Hargreaves. Seawater Deaerators. Edwards - Hick Hargreaves. http://psscorp.co.th/upload/news/20110830105340.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. Given these considerations, using an external deaerator combined with a less-corrosive antiscalant like Belgard EV 2030 is much more practical for the process than using anti-corrosive piping.<br />
<br />
Excessive foam can also be an issue in some MSF distillation facilities, so antifoaming agents are sometimes employed in the pretreatment process as well. However, many plants are operated without foaming issues, and therefore do not need anti-foaming pretreatment at all. Selection of an anti-foaming agent must be carefully weighed with selected of anti-scalant to avoid issues with additive interactions [26]. At this stage in the design process, an anti-foamer will not be included due to the risk of decreasing scalant efficacy, and the likelihood that foam will not be an issue in the desalination plant.<br />
<br />
===Multistage Flash Distillation===<br />
The main objective of the design project is desalinate water. This is done with the main process of multi stage flash distillation (MSF). MSF can be developed using a numerous number of different process configurations, such as Once-Through, Simple Mixer Brine Circulation, and Multi-Stage Heat Rejection Brine Circulation processes. <br />
<br />
The most desired process for the project is the Three Stage Heat Rejection Brine Circulation as it builds on benefits of the other simpler technologies. By combining principles of heat rejection and heat recovery, the required heat transfer area of the process is greatly reduced as compared to once through processes or simple brine recycle processes. It has the highest performance ratio with the lowest specific feed flow rates, therefore greatly lowering the operating costs of the process. It is also known as the industry standard for MSF<ref name = "KSU Chapter 6">Kansas State University ChE 413. Available at: http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/Almutaz/Documents/ChE-413/Multi-stage%20Flash%20Desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. In addition, since our brine disposal technique involves the pumping of the brine into a Class I well, the high brine outlet salinity is not a drawback for our process since post treatment or dilution of the brine is not necessary.<br />
<br />
===Post Treatment===<br />
After processing the water via multi-stage flash, the water needs to be post-treated to make the water taste as consumers would expect, since distilled water is “flat” and unpleasant, as well as to protect the consumers and the piping through which the water will be passing<ref name="Clayton">Clayton R. A review of current knowledge: Desalination for water supply. Foundation for Water Research. http://www.fwr.org/desal.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. There are multiple alternatives to achieve these objectives of remineralization, aeration, corrosion control, and disinfection.<br />
<br />
Aerating and introducing some dissolved solids back into the product water are effective ways to create a quality product that is not flat, and contains flavoring that is expected of the water when delivered to the consumer. Aeration will be accomplished via an inline spray aerator which will take up less space than cascade aeration.<ref>Minnesota Rural Water Association. Aeration. http://www.mrwa.com/WaterWorksMnl/Chapter%2011%20Aeration.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref> Feed blending will be used to remineralize the water as opposed to a remineralization filter because it does not require additional equipment purchases, and can easily handle the large amounts of throughput required for the process.<ref name="Clayton" /><br />
<br />
Corrosion and pH can be controlled by adding lime (calcium hydroxide) and carbon dioxide to the water. To do so, about 74 mg/L of lime and 88mg/L of CO<sub>2</sub> should be added to the desalinated water to help prevent corrosion and increase alkalinity within acceptable ranges. Sodium hydroxide, soda ash, and sodium bicarbonate are alternatives to altering the alkalinity and pH of the product water, but lime and CO<sub>2</sub> is an industry standard <ref name="Vouchkov" />.<br />
<br />
Disinfection needs to be done to prevent microbial growth in the desalinated water and ensure the safety of the general public. Chlorine addition via chlorine gas or sodium hypochlorite is the most common and only requires a dose of 1.5 to 2.5 mg/liter. <ref name="World Health Organization" /> Other alternatives include ozonation, UV light, and chloramination. Chlorine, as a 5% - 15% sodium hypochlorite solution, is sufficient for our process and relatively inexpensive, and as such will be utilized in the process.<br />
<br />
===Transport of Brine to Well===<br />
Three major possibilities exist for transporting the brine from our desalination plant to the injection well for disposal: rail, trucking, and a pipeline. A pipeline was chosen as the most feasible and cost-effective approach. <br />
<br />
A rail line is not available at this time, and with the cost to construct a rail line at approximately $43 million per mile<ref>About Money. How Much Do Rail Transit Projects Cost to Build and Operate? 2014. Available at: http://publictransport.about.com/od/Transit_Projects/a/How-Much-Do-Rail-Transit-Projects-Cost-To-Build-And-Operate.htm. Accessed January 27, 2016. </ref>, the enormous capital cost makes rail transport infeasible for this site. For large volume operations, pipelines are cheaper than trucking. In a study of wastewater sludge produced from wastewater treatment facilities, it was found that it was more economical for facilities producing over 1200 m<sup>3</sup> per day to utilize pipelines rather than trucking.<ref>Marufuzzaman M, Eskioglu S, Hernandez R. Truck versus pipeline transportation cost analysis of wastewater sludge. Transportation Research. 2015; 74(A): 14-30. </ref> Our facility is producing nearly 3 times this volume at 3485 m<sup>3</sup> per day of brine. Furthermore, brine is a less viscous fluid than wastewater sludge, decreasing pumping costs in the pipeline and further amplifying the benefit of choosing a pipeline over an injection well.<br />
<br />
===Brine Storage===<br />
Due to the choice of a pipeline, rather than trucking, as the method of transport of brine to the injection well, brine storage is unnecessary, so storage solutions such as holding tanks were not investigated. One method of storage compatible with a pipeline is to pump the brine through an evaporation pond. This solution is attractive as it would allow the brine to concentrate, saving some costs of pumping, however, the considerable land usage of evaporation ponds leads them to only be effective for smaller plants. The largest municipal plant utilizing this method produces only 5.7 million liters per day<ref>University of Santa Cruz Center for Integrated Water Research. Concentrate Management: Evaporation Ponds. 2010. Available at: https://ciwr.ucsc.edu/sites/default/files/ICM_D5.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016. </ref>, whereas our desalination plant is proposed to produce 75.7 million liters per day. Therefore, evaporation ponds have been eliminated from consideration.<br />
<br />
==Major Specifications==<br />
===Material of Construction Selection===<br />
While saltwater and desalinated water in general can be corrosive, there are best practices within the desalination industry for material selection. With this in mind, best practice shows carbon steel lifetime can be lengthened by monitoring the oxygen concentration in the water, specifying the paint used to coat any metal, and more expensive materials can be used in areas of extremely high corrosion.<ref name = "Morris" />. By following these best practices, it is possible to save significant amounts of money through the use of carbon steel in most areas of the plant, with specific high-corrosion areas being reinforced with, or replaced with, more corrosion resistant materials, such as Cu/Ni 70/30 alloy<ref name = "KSU Chapter 6" />.<br />
<br />
===Heat Exchanger Sizing===<br />
See Appendix F for heat exchanger sizing data. Heat exchanger sizes appear reasonable for placement in the flash vessels.<br />
<br />
===Flash Vessel Sizing===<br />
The dimensions for the flash drums were obtained through literature values. The flash drums were determined to be 18x4x3 m in width, height, and length.<ref name="KSU Chapter 6" /><br />
<br />
Wall thickness was determined using the following conventions: Design pressure is 10% more than the operating pressure, design temperature is 50°F (27.8°C) higher than the operating temperature, a corrosion allowance of 3-mm and an effectiveness of 85% was derived from the assumption of a double-welded butt joint that was spot checked. See Appendix G for wall thicknesses calculated for each pressure vessel. <br />
<br />
The sizing of the vessels to be constructed will be determined after talks with a manufacturer. Due to economies of scale, it may be more cost-effective to buy 21 pressure vessels with the dimensions mentioned above and a wall thickness of 17.1-mm, the highest wall thickness required in the system.<br />
<br />
===Pipe Losses and Pressure Drop===<br />
HYSYS was used to estimate the diameter of a pipe given a specified pressure drop per 100m of pipe. It was determined that for a pressure drop of 0.1 kPa/100m of pipe, a 3.05m diameter pipe is sufficient, which is more than manageable for manufacturers. This pressure drop is mostly insignificant and will be taken care of with the safety factors included in the pumps. The significant pressure drops in our system is accounted for via losses in the flash vessels and heat exchangers, which drive the flash process. Therefore overall pipe losses are insignificant and are built into intentional design losses.<br />
<br />
=Economic Analysis=<br />
==Economic Assumptions==<br />
The sale of purified water yields a revenue stream of $49.5 million per year assuming sale to commercial entities within the city limits of Corpus Christi at $1.7915 per thousand liters.<ref>Water schedule. City of Corpus Christi Utility Business Office. http://www.cctexas.com/Assets/Departments/Financial-Services/Utilities-Business-Office/files/waterrates.pdf Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref> The primary variable costs are utilities and the brine disposal, with minimal raw materials costs due to the primary feedstock, seawater, being free, and minimal amounts of pre- and post-treatment chemicals being used. The cost of brine disposal used in this analysis was high at $2.097 per thousand liters<ref>McCurdy, R. Underground injection wells for produced water disposal. Chesapeake Energy Corporation. http://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/documents/21_McCurdy_-_UIC_Disposal_508.pdf Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref>, an estimate for brine disposal utilizing trucking as the mode of transport. As has been shown through previous analyses, a lower cost can be achieved using a direct pipeline, however, no good estimates for this cost could be found.<br />
<br />
The NPV was calculated using a 6% cost of capital, the approximate interest rate for a municipal bond.<ref>Zirbe, R.O. Jr., Han, X., Layton, D., Leshine, T. A history of discount rates and their use by government agencies. (2002). http://faculty.washington.edu/zerbe/docs/DISCOUNT%20RATE%20HISTORY-latesXIt.doc Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref> It was assumed that the plant can be built within two years, with production at half-scale in its first year. Additionally, one month of variable costs, $10.6 million, was set aside for working capital. See Appendix H for a full table of assumptions. A 30 year NPV calculation was chosen as the decision basis since 30 years is a conservative estimate for the lifetime of a desalination plant [38]. See below for estimates of NPV for the lifetime of the plant under various assumptions and design criteria.<br />
<br />
==Optimization and Sensitivity Analysis==<br />
Looking at the multi-stage flash process, there are a number of opportunities to optimize the process. The major process variables that were investigated were the inlet water temperature, the operating pressure drop per vessel, and the number of stages over which the process takes place. Considering these optimizations, our final process consists of 21 flash vessels (18 heat recovery and 3 heat rejection stages), each with a pressure drop of 5 kPa. See Appendix D for a screenshot of the HYSYS simulation used to model the optimized process.<br />
===Operating Pressure and Pressure Drop===<br />
Initially our process was designed to pump the inlet seawater and brine to a pressure of 2 bar and allow the pressure drop in each flash stage to end our process downstream at 1 bar to prevent complications associated with designing a system under vacuum. While this provided pumping advantages, the energy in the system was significantly higher due to vapor pressure considerations. Due to this fact, the required heat exchange area for certain exchangers proved to be infeasible (on the order of 80,000m<sup>2</sup>) due to the enormous capital and operating costs that would be associated with such a large heat exchanger.<br />
<br />
The process was optimized to operate under vacuum, requiring additional pumping requirements but much lower required heat exchange area, and therefore lower utility costs. This optimization was done by specifying the pressure of the final flash vessel to 5.7kPa, so that the temperature of the water vapor (~30<sup>o</sup>C) is within approximately 5<sup>o</sup>C of the cooling water (35<sup>o</sup>C) so that condensation can occur within a reasonable approach. This also allows our system to optimally extract pure water from the brine running through the system and reduce energy requirements for cooling the product or the recycle. Our system redesign and optimization reduced the energy in the system and reduce the same heat exchanger area requirements by more than 3 orders of magnitude to approximately 800m<sup>2</sup>. <br />
<br />
Once the process was optimized to operate in a vacuum, the pressure drop per flash stage regulated through values was then optimized. Three pressure drops per stages, 3kPa, 5kPa, and 7kPa, were tested and then an economic analysis was conducted to find the optimal value for the pressure drop. These changes had impacts on both operating and capital costs as they would change initial pumping requirements, the amount of water flowing through the process and recycle (and therefore the flash vessel sizes, heat exchanger sizing), and the efficiency of each stage.<br />
<br />
The various pressure drops (3 kPa, 5 kPa, and 7 kPa) were tested on a system nominally at 24 stages under the assumption that the results would be generalizable to systems with a different number of stages. With increasing pressure drop, we found decreased capital cost but increased utility cost. As can be seen from Table 2 below, a pressure drop of 5 kPa proved to be the best option based on 30 year NPV, with a loss of $838.8 million, a savings of $65.5 million compared to the next-best option with a pressure drop of 7 kPa.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 2: Comparison of profitability for our MSF desalination process with 24 stages with 3 different pressure drops per stage<br />
! Number of Stages <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! Pressure Drop <br/> (kPa)<br />
! Capital Cost <br/> ($MM)<br />
! Utility Cost <br/> ($MM/yr)<br />
! 30-Year NPV <br/> ($MM)<br />
! NPV Ratio <br/> (over 5kPa)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 3 || 362.3 || 39.1 || -905.8 || 1.08<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 5 || 255.1 || 53.6 || -838.8 || 1.00<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 7 || 209.5 || 72.2 || -904.3 || 1.08<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
===Number of Flash Stages===<br />
The number of stages is an important area for optimization. An increased number of stages yields better recovery of purified water, however, requires higher capital cost from the additional pressure vessel. Furthermore, with an increased amount of purified water comes increasingly concentrated brine. This must be taken into account since any brine concentration in excess of about 7% presents a more significant corrosion risk<ref name="KSU Chapter 6" />, so increased maintenance costs for the piping or higher capital costs for more corrosion-resistant materials could be necessary for brine concentrations exceeding 7%. Therefore, to recover the same amount of pure water without exceeding corrosion limitations, increasing the number of stages will reduce the overall size of each stage.<br />
<br />
Optimizing based on NPV, it was found that 21 stages is optimal, balancing the increased profits from the additional purified water additional costs of higher capital cost. See Table 3 below to compare the 30-year NPV of the process across various numbers of flash vessels.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 3: Comparison of profitability for our MSF desalination process with a 5 kPa pressure drop, 5000 m<sup>3</sup>/hr feed flow rate, with varying number of stages.<br />
! Number of Stages <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! Pressure Drop <br/> (kPa)<br />
! Capital Cost <br/> ($MM)<br />
! Utility Cost <br/> ($MM/yr)<br />
! 30-Year NPV <br/> ($MM)<br />
! NPV Ratio <br/> (over 21 Stages)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 17 || 5 || 213.9 || 58.7 || -813.8 || 1.016<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 18 || 5 || 218 || 57.6 || -809.9 || 1.011<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 19 || 5 || 224.3 || 58 || -806.1 || 1.007<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 20 || 5 || 229.8 || 57.9 || -813.6 || 1.016<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 21 || 5 || 226.6 || 55.9 || -800.7 || 1<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 22 || 5 || 254.7 || 54.6 || -849.5 || 1.061<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 23 || 5 || 249.3 || 54.1 || -833.1 || 1.04<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 5 || 255.1 || 53.6 || -838.8 || 1.048<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 25 || 5 || 254.9 || 52.7 || -837.4 || 1.046<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
===Inlet Seawater Temperature===<br />
By pairing our desalination plant with a natural gas power plant and utilizing its cooling water we forgo initial heating of our inlet stream. Normally, water pumped from the ocean would be approximately 25<sup>o</sup>C and by capturing waste heat from the power plant we can reduce utilities with our water inlet of 45<sup>o</sup>C. Through an economic comparison between two plants nominally at 21 flash stages, the plant with an inlet temperature at 25<sup>o</sup>C has a capital cost of $245MM and a utility cost of $77MM/yr and the same facility with an inlet water temperature at 45<sup>o</sup>C has a capital cost of only $226MM and a utility cost of $56MM/yr. As shown in Table 4 below, this $19MM savings in capital costs and $21MM/yr saving in utilities is largely due to reducing the size of the heat exchangers and lowering the steam required for heating duty on the inlet seawater respectively. Therefore our process is optimized by recovering the waste heat water from the gas fired power plant.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 4: Seawater Inlet Temperature Process Cost Optimization<br />
! Seawater Temperature <br/> (°C)<br />
! Capital Cost <br/> ($MM)<br />
! Utility Cost <br/> ($MM/yr)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 25 || 245 || 77<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 45 || 226 || 56<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Savings || 56 || 19<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
==Overall Process Economics==<br />
After optimization at fixed flow rates, the process was scaled to meet the the 67% operating percentage and final product definitions as shown in Table 1, which resulted in finalized economics shown in Table 5 below. For a table of the installed costs of each process vessel, see Appendix I. For the finalized NPV calculations, see Appendix J.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 5: Summarized Economics for 21-stage MSFD Process<br />
! Economic Parameter<br />
! Cost <br/> (USD)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Capital Cost || 345 MM<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Total Operating Cost per Year || 103 MM<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Utility Cost per Year || 59 MM<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 30-Year NPV (6% Discount) || -1035 MM<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
=Conclusions and Recommendations=<br />
==Project Viability==<br />
Table 5 above demonstrates that the process has reasonable operating and capital costs, but the 30-year NPV is negative by -1035 $MM due to the extremely low sell price capability of desalinated water as a product. Therefore, this plant would have to heavily be supported by the City of Corpus Christi to run as the product revenue will not make it self-sufficient. The acquisition of government subsidies are key operating requirements for all desalination facilities in the United States. <br />
<br />
==Additional Concerns==<br />
Large volumes of water, steam, and energy are needed to ensure the project runs as specified. While most of the water can easily be extracted from the ocean with little to consequence, the fuel used to generate the steam and electricity can have a significant environmental impact. As the plant is located next to a natural gas power plant, this fuel is better than coal with respect to environmental concerns, and utilizing energy from the power plant to preheat the feed stream for the desalination plant helps lower environmental impacts.<br />
<br />
The large amounts of high pressure steam being used represents one of the the largest safety concern in the process, because a high pressure steam release could easily cause severe burns or even death. Proper precautions and control measures must be in place to prevent accidental release. Otherwise, the process does not utilize any known toxic chemicals and is relatively safe from a chemical standpoint. The flash vessels mostly operate below atmospheric pressure, so they must be constructed as vessels that can withstand vacuum without failing.<br />
<br />
<br />
=Appendix A: Proposed Location of Desalination Plant=<br />
Pictured below is the proposed location for the desalination plant, located on Nueces Bay in Corpus Christi, adjacent to the Nueces Bay Energy Center. The plant’s proposed location is shown in the area outlined by the small circle in the upper right of the figure.<br />
<br />
[[File:NuecesBayLocation.png|center|600px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Desalination Facility Location|Figure A.1: Proposed mapped location of Nueces Bay Desalination Facility.]]<br />
[[File:ClassIWell.png|center|700px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Desalination Facility Distance to Injection Well|Figure A.2: Mapped distance from proposed location to Class I Injection Well]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix B: Feed and Product Definitions - Salinity=<br />
<br />
=Appendix C: Process Flow Diagram=<br />
[[File:TeamF_PFD.png|center|1200px|thumb|alt=Process Flow Diagram|Figure C.1: Process Flow Diagram]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix D: HYSYS Simulation Model=<br />
[[File:TeamF_HYSYS_Screenshot.PNG|center|1200px|thumb|alt=HYSYS Simulation Model|Figure D.1: Screenshot of HYSYS Model Simulation.]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix E: Stream Tables=<br />
See attached Excel File “HYSYS 6.0 Flowsheet summary.xlsx”<br />
<br />
A summary of some values is shown below:<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 7: Key process material streams<br />
! &nbsp;<br />
! Stream <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! Molar Flow <br/> (10<sup>5</sup> kgmole/h)<br />
! Mass Flow <br/> (10<sup>5</sup> kg/h)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Inlet <br />
| Feed Water || 454 || 83.6<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Outlet<br />
| Brine Reject || 1.90 || 36.0<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Product<br />
| Pure Water || 2.64 || 47.5<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 8: Key process energy streams<br />
! Stream <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! Heat Flow <br/> (kJ/h)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Feed Water || 1.30E+11<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Q-301 || 5.73E+06<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Q-302 || 3.09E+09<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Q-304 || 4.68E+06<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Q-303 || -1.26E+09<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Brine Reject || -5.47E+10<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Pure Water || -7.46E+10<br />
|}<br />
(Negative value denotes energy leaving process)<br />
</center><br />
<br />
=Appendix F: Heat Exchanger Sizing=<br />
<br />
=Appendix G: Pressure Vessel Sizing=<br />
<br />
=Appendix H: Expanded Economic Assumptions=<br />
<br />
=Appendix I: Equipment Cost Summary=<br />
<br />
=Appendix J: Economic NPV Analysis=<br />
<br />
=References=<br />
<references/></div>Kedricdaly2https://processdesign.mccormick.northwestern.edu/index.php?title=Nueces_Desalination_Center:_Production_of_Drinking_Water_by_Multi-Stage_Flash_Distillation&diff=4944Nueces Desalination Center: Production of Drinking Water by Multi-Stage Flash Distillation2016-03-07T18:11:44Z<p>Kedricdaly2: Updated Clayton References</p>
<hr />
<div>Team F: Rankine 672 Final Report<br />
<br />
Authors: Kedric Daly, Ben Granger, Evan Rosati, Kathleen Zhou<br />
<br />
Instructors: Fengqi You, David Wegerer<br />
<br />
March 11, 2016<br />
<br />
=Executive Summary=<br />
Desalination of seawater to drinking water is a technology of ever-increasing importance given trends of increasingly widespread water shortages around the world. Even in the United States, water shortages are becoming increasingly common in dry, highly-populated such as California and certain areas of the Gulf Coast. Our design team, Rankine 672, was tasked with evaluating the need for and designing a desalination plant to provide purified water in a place of need. Investigation revealed that the city of Corpus Christi, Texas, is a strategic location for development of a desalination facility, as surrounding region is in need of new drinking water sources and the city has expressed serious interest in contracting the development of a large-scale desalination plant. Our proposed solution is a multi-stage flash distillation desalination facility capable of producing 20,000,000 gallons (75,708 m<sup>3</sup>) of purified drinking water for the city and surrounding region per operating day.<br />
<br />
In this design, drinking water is produced from seawater feedstock through a 21-stage flash distillation process. By strategically locating the facility next to an existing natural gas power plant, the Nueces Bay Energy Center, pre-heated feed water can be taken directly from the outbound cooling systems of the power plant, allowing energy savings for our desalination plant. The process is designed for 16 hour-per-day operation, requires a seawater feed of 8250 m<sup>3</sup>/hr, and produces 4758 m<sup>3</sup>/hr of purified drinking water alongside a waste stream of 3485 m<sup>3</sup>/hr of concentrated brine. The waste stream is isolated from a recycle stream through a 9.0% purge; this results in an overall product yield of 57.7% on a volume basis. The process requires an additional pretreatment stream of 16.5 kg/hr Belgard EV 2030, which serves as an antiscalant, as well as 9.5 kg/hr chlorine, 352.1 kg/hr lime, and 418.7 kg/hr CO2 for post-treatment purposes.<br />
<br />
The overall capital cost of the plant is expected to be $345MM, with a total operating cost of $103MM/yr, $59MM/yr of which comes from utilities. Due to the low price at which the product water can be sold, the 30-year net present value of the plant, assuming a 6% discount rate, is $-1,035MM. It is thus imperative this plant be constructed with public funds because it cannot return a profit to any private investor. The growing need for water however could justify the cost, because it is important that the residents of the greater Corpus Christi area have access to drinkable water.<br />
<br />
__TOC__<br />
<br />
=Introduction=<br />
==Background==<br />
Clean drinking water is a basic human need that is becoming increasingly difficult to meet. Currently, over 1 billion people live in places where water is considered scarce<ref> Tapping the oceans. The Economist USA. http://www.economist.com/node/11484059. Accessed March 2, 2016. </ref>. Though often thought of as a problem exclusive to third-world countries, the issue is becoming more prevalent in the US as well, with water managers in 40 of 50 states anticipating water shortage conditions in some portion of their state in the next 10 years. These shortages are due to increasing demands on constant or diminishing freshwater resources, therefore, to correct the issue, a new supply must be found<ref> Water Supply in the US. EPA. http://www3.epa.gov/watersense/pubs/supply.html. Accessed March 2, 2016.</ref>. Desalination of seawater is therefore important as a new source for clean drinking water and prevent water shortages. <br />
<br />
==Project Definition==<br />
The overall goal of the project is to investigate the feasibility of a desalination plant in order to meet the needs of growing water demand. The design needs to take health, safety, and environmental concerns into account, while optimizing costs.<br />
<br />
=Design Basis=<br />
Site Location and Conditions<br />
Corpus Christi, TX was chosen as the location for the proposed desalination plant. The city is currently experiencing “Moderate Shortage Conditions”. This issue additionally comes at a time of growing demand with population growth anticipated due to new industry and Eagle Ford Group crude oil production<ref>Stage 2 Measures in the Drought Contingency Plan. Available at http://www.cctexas.com/government/water/conservation/conservation-drought-plans/stage-2-measures. Accessed January 12, 2016. </ref>.<br />
<br />
In June 2014, the city announced the Corpus Christi Desalination Demonstration Project<ref>Corpus Christi Desalination Demonstration Project. Available at http://www.cctexas.com/Assets/Departments/Water/Files/DesalFactSheet.pdf. Published June 2014. Accessed January 12, 2016. <br />
</ref> which seeks to create a demonstration desalination plant capable of producing 20,000 gallons of water per day, with plans to later build a full scale facility generating 20,000,000 gallons of water per day. The desalination demonstration project indicates a clear need for implementation of a desalination plant of this size to accommodate growth in the Corpus Christi area. <br />
<br />
Locating our plant in Corpus Christi will allow us to take advantage of the benefits of cogeneration through a partnership with the Nueces Bay Energy Center. By utilizing their outlet cooling water as a large portion of our feed for the desalination process, we can raise the temperature of our seawater feed, saving on energy costs in the multi stage flash distillation. The proposed location for the desalination plant is immediately west of the Nueces Bay Energy Center. See Appendix A for a map depicting the proposed location for the desalination plant along the coast of Nueces Bay.<br />
<br />
==Feed and Product Definitions==<br />
The proposed desalination facility’s feed and product streams are defined as shown in Table 1. Rationale for these definitions is also described below. The values reported in Table 1 are final derived numbers from HYSYS simulation modeling. <br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 1: Feed and product stream definitions<br />
! &nbsp;<br />
! Salt Concentration<br />
! Temperature <br />
! Amount<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Feed Stream <br />
| 30,500 ppm || 45°C || 8250 m<sup>3</sup>/hr<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Product Stream<br />
| ~ 0 ppm || 35°C || 4758 m<sup>3</sup>/hr<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Byproduct Stream<br />
| 695 ppm || 35°C || 3485 m<sup>3</sup>/hr<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
The process feed will be seawater from Nueces Bay, preheated through the cooling water system of the nearby Nueces Bay Energy Center. Based on calculations developed from NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory) data, it was estimated that the Nueces Bay Energy Center uses approximately 250 million gallons of seawater per day for process and cooling needs. Therefore, the 20 million gallon per day requirement for the desalination facility can easily be met through the power plant’s cooling water<ref>Torcellini P, Long N, Judkoff R. Consumptive Water Use for U.S. Power Consumption. NREL. 2003; TP-550-33905. <br />
</ref>. Note that we are assuming the process will operate 67% of the time (16 hours per day).<br />
<br />
Based on data acquired from two salinity-measuring stations in Nueces Bay, the average salinity of local seawater is 30.5 practical salinity units (psu)<ref>Stations Map & Real - Time Data. The Conrad Blucher Institute for Surveying and Science website. Available at http://www.cbi.tamucc.edu/cbi/data/. Updated January 2016. Accessed January 9, 2016. </ref>, thus setting the concentration of the process feed stream. This translates to a feed stream concentration of 30,500 ppm (parts per million)<ref>Definition and Units. CATD Salinity Expertise Center. Available at http://www.salinityremotesensing.ifremer.fr/home. Accessed January 12, 2016.</ref>. The composition of the salt attributed to this seawater salinity is shown in Table 6 in Appendix B. <br />
<br />
No data on the composition of seawater around the Corpus Christi area was available, but the composition of seawater does not change significantly in different locations. The given composition is considered accurate for our feed stream<ref>Brown E, Colling A, Park D, Phillips J, Rothery D, Wright J. Seawater : Its Composition, Properties and Behaviour. Boston: Butterworth-Heinemann, 1995.<br />
</ref>. Note that seawater salt is primarily sodium chloride - total dissolved solids are 85.7% sodium chloride by mass. As such, the dissolved solids in the feed stream is assumed in this project to be pure NaCl, making the feed composition 96.95% water and 3.05% NaCl by mass. A control system will likely be put in place to ensure feed concentration remains at this level, accounting for natural fluctuations in local seawater salinity.<br />
<br />
The largest byproduct from the process will be a brine slurry with high salt concentrations. An upper corrosion limit of 700 ppm was set for recirculated and purged brine. This undesired byproduct will be sent to a nearby Class I non-hazardous injection well facility operated by GNI Group, which is approximately 12 miles away from the proposed desalination plant location as shown in the figure in Appendix A<ref>Texas Water Code. Availabe at http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/WA/htm/WA.27.htm. Accessed January 14, 2016.<br />
</ref><ref>Google Maps. Available at https://goo.gl/maps/3xcvLZwUCe42 Accessed January 15, 2016.</ref>. Through the incorporation of a Class I injection well, the brine will not have to be treated or diluted before injection. <ref>EPA Regulations on Class I Wells. Available at http://www.epa.gov/uic/class-i-industrial-and-municipal-waste-disposal-wells. Accessed January 14, 2016.<br />
</ref><ref>List of Injection Well Facilities by Location. Available at http://www.ehso.com/cssepa/tsdfdeepwells.php. Accessed January 14, 2016.</ref><br />
<br />
There are no regulations regarding the temperature of city drinking water, so the product stream temperature has no requirements based on regulations. Outlet temperatures of 35<sup>o</sup>C are acceptable for input to the municipal water supply system. Since city water tends to be stored in non-temperature controlled tanks, the temperature will naturally cool to ambient temperature.<ref>Climate Corpus Christi- Texas. US Climate Data. Available at http://www.usclimatedata.com/climate/corpus-christi/texas/united-states/ustx0294. Accessed January 12, 2016. </ref><br />
<br />
==Pre-Treatment and Post-Treatment==<br />
For pretreatment, Belgard EV 2030 is recommended to be added at a concentration of 1.8-2.0 mg/L for a system with top brine temperature approximately 110 °C<ref name="BWA 2030">BWA Water Additives. Belgard EV2030 Technical Data Sheet. BWA Water Additives. http://www.wateradditives.com/files/products/tech_data_sheets/Belgard%20EV%202030_Technical%20Data%20Sheet_Thermal_8.5x11.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016.<br />
</ref>. Since our process is designed to operate at a slightly higher top brine temperature, 120 °C, we will design for the upper bound concentration: 2.0 mg/L of antiscalant. With a feed flow rate of 8250 m<sup>3</sup>/hr, the process therefore requires 16.5 kg/hr of Belgard EV 2030.<br />
<br />
For disinfection during post-treatment, chlorine addition typically requires a dose of roughly 2.0 mg/L as well<ref name="World Health Organization">World Health Organization. Desalination for safe water supply. http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/gdwqrevision/desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. With a pure water distillate flow rate of 4758 m<sup>3</sup>/hr, the process requires 9.5 kg/hr of chlorine as a 5%-15% sodium hypochlorite solution. Approximately 74 mg/L of lime (calcium hydroxide) and 88mg/L of CO2 should be added to the desalinated water to help prevent corrosion and increase alkalinity within acceptable ranges<ref name="Vouchkov">Vouchkov, N. Re-Mineralization of Desalinated Water. SunCam. https://s3.amazonaws.com/suncam/npdocs/118.pdf. Accessed February 18, 2016.</ref>. With a product stream flow rate of 4758 m3/hr, these concentrations correspond to 352.1 kg/hr of lime and 418.7 kg/hr of CO2. Both of these can be purchased, and it is likely that the CO2 can be procured from the neighboring natural gas power plant.<br />
<br />
==Choice of Desalination Technology==<br />
The two major technologies commonly implemented for desalination include reverse osmosis (RO), and multi-stage flash distillation (MSFD). RO utilizes high pressures to force water through a semipermeable membrane that allows for purified water to pass through, but stops organic and other wastes. Often, the pressures can reach 55 - 68 bar, which requires large pumps to maintain pressure, and introduces safety concerns to the process<ref>Stage 2 Measures in the Drought Contingency Plan. Available at http://www.cctexas.com/government/water/conservation/conservation-drought-plans/stage-2-measures. Accessed January 12, 2016. <br />
</ref>. While RO can be less energy intensive than MSFD, and the membrane can also remove contaminants, it is susceptible to feedwater quality, membrane fouling, and requires more extensive pretreatment and posttreatment than MSFD. The cost of RO is directly proportional to the feed salinity, and so it is less expensive when desalinating low salinity water.<br />
<br />
Multi-stage flash distillation is best selected for areas that have high salinity or low energy costs. The pretreatment process for MSFD is much easier when compared to RO because pretreatment often consists of simply adding anti-corrosives and antiscalants to the feed stream. The process works by heating water in vessels at different pressures to change the boiling point of the water and evaporate it as it passes through the system. After evaporation, the water condenses, leaving pure water as the effluent. MSFD costs are now roughly $1.00/m3, where this cost is mostly independent of salinity, but dependent on energy costs.<ref>Fritzman C, Lowenberg J, Wintgens T, Melin T. State-of-the-art Reverse Osmosis Desalination. Desalination. 2007; 216:1-76. <br />
</ref> In both RO and MSFD a brine is produced which then must be appropriately treated and/or disposed of.<br />
<br />
Multi-stage flash distillation was selected for this process, mainly due to the economic advantages offered by the selected location of Corpus Christi, TX. MSFD is also a well understood process that can be more easily modeled by chemical engineering software.<br />
<br />
=Technical Approach=<br />
Quantitative modeling of the process and all included optimization was conducted using the simulation software Aspen HYSYS. A variety of assumptions were developed to set up and define specific components of the process simulation itself. Within Aspen HYSYS, the NRTL Electrolyte property package was selected to model the behavior of salt water. Each stage of the MSF process is modeled as an individual flash vessel, with individual shell & tube heat exchangers used to model the distillate condensers present in each flash stage in the MSF system.<br />
<br />
The HYSYS simulation model only considers the flash portion of the overall process, allowing establishment of mass and energy balances for the system. Pretreatment and post-treatment were excluded for the HYSYS model, as these steps are simple additions or removals of small concentrations of chemical components. Although the simulation models heat exchangers outside of each flash stage, in the physical design of the plant these heat exchangers will be contained within each flash stage.<br />
<br />
One portion of the process is not modeled, which is the inlet seawater entering the heat rejection stages. As can be seen from the full process flow diagram (Appendix C), the inlet seawater in the heat rejection stage is in high excess to provide maximum cooling capacity; then a significant portion is purged to bring the stream flow rate down to what is needed for the feed stream. It is assumed that the flow rate of cooling water for those three stages is in such high excess that the cooling water does not heat up. Therefore, in the process simulation models, the inlet stream is the feed stream, which enters directly into the heat recovery portion of the process.<br />
<br />
See Appendix D for a screenshot overview of the simulation environment model.<br />
<br />
=Process Overview=<br />
==Process Flowsheet==<br />
The following diagram, Figure 1, shows a basic flowsheet for the process. Process alternatives considered for each stage are discussed below. Please see Appendix C for the full process flowsheet with finalized design decisions.<br />
<br />
[[File:BlockFlowDiagram.png|center|700px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Desalination Facility Block Flow Diagram|Figure 1: Basic block flowsheet of the multi-stage flash desalination process.]]<br />
<br />
==Major Features==<br />
As seen above, there are three primary stages of the desalination process: Pre-treatment, the multi-stage flash distillation, and post-treatment. Seawater enters the pre-treatment phase first to make the feed suitable for the rest of the process by filtering out large particles that could accumulate on pipes, deaerating the water to limit corrosion, and adding an agent to combat fouling. The water then enters the distillation process, which is broken up into two sections: heat recovery and heat rejection. <br />
<br />
In the heat recovery stage, there are 18 flash vessels, each of which separates steam from the salinated liquid water. Each flash vessel has saltwater as its inlet and two outlets: a vapor outlet (steam) that condenses into the final product of purified water and a liquid outlet composed of water with more dissolved solids than the inlet, which is the inlet stream for the next flash vessel. The pipe containing the feed is first mixed with recycled brine, then goes through the top sections of each of the flash vessels, starting with V-118 and ending up at V-101. In this way, the feed stream pipe first serves as a heat exchanger, heating the pre-treated seawater while simultaneously condensing the steam into the final product. The feed then enters a final heat exchanger where it is brought up to 103.6 °C before entering V-101 to be flashed.<br />
<br />
After exiting V-118, the final flash vessel in the heat recovery portion, the water enters the heat rejection portion, which consists of three flash vessels (V-201, V-202, V-203). The flash vessels of this section operate in the same manner as in the heat recovery section, with the exception that condensation occurs using excess cooling water instead of pre-treated seawater. This technique allows excess heat to be rejected into an excess water stream rather than the feed.<br />
<br />
The purified product stream finally enters post-treatment processing in which water is re-aerated and remineralized, disinfected, and pH is adjusted before being delivered to the city. The concentrated brine leftover at the end of the flash cycle is recycled into the feed, although a purge is required to continuously remove some salt from the system. This purged brine is disposed of by use of a Class I injection well, per regional regulations.<br />
<br />
See Appendix E to find detailed stream tables of stream specifications.<br />
<br />
==Process Alternatives==<br />
===Pretreatment===<br />
Multi-stage flash distillation requires significantly less pretreatment than reverse osmosis desalination, but helpful pretreatment techniques still exist. One very inexpensive method of pretreatment is screening/filtration, which is used to filter out large contaminants from intake seawater. Using more complicated membrane technology to accomplish large particle filtration is a possible alternative, but doing so would be much more expensive than using a standard screen or filter, so the latter choice has been selected for this process.<ref>El-Dessouky H., Alatiqi I, Ettouney H. Process synthesis: The multi-stage flash desalination system. Desalination. 1998;115(2):115-179. doi: 10.1016/S0011-9164(98)00035-6.</ref><br />
<br />
The most critical type of fouling in multi-stage flash distillation is scaling - therefore, the most critical step in the pretreatment process will be the inclusion of an anti-scalant. Alkaline scaling can be prevented by acid dosing or polyphosphate addition; however, acid dosing can result in increased corrosion and polyphosphates can lead to non-alkaline calcium phosphate fouling, so these additives will not be considered<ref name="Morris">Morris, R. The development of the multi-stage flash distillation process: A designer's viewpoint. Desalination. 1993;93(1-3):57-68. doi:10.1016/S0011-9164(93)80096-6. Availble at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0011916493800966</ref><ref>Al-Gobaisi, D. A quarter-century of seawater desalination by large multistage flash plants in Abu Dhabi (Plant performance analysis, assessment, present efforts toward enhancement and future hopes). Desalination. 1994;99(2-3):509-512. doi: 10.1016/S0011-9164(94)00196-0.</ref>. As such, a polymer-based additive is recommended for the anti-scalant for this process. The Belgard EV series is designed for use in high-temperature seawater MSF; of these, Belgard EV 2030 is the most neutral in pH<ref>NSF International. NSF Product and Service Listings: Drinking Water Treatment Chemicals - Health Effects. NSF International. http://info.nsf.org/Certified/PwsChemicals/Listings.asp?Company=00300&. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref><ref name="BWA 2030" /><ref>BWA Water Additives. Belgard EV2035 Technical Data Sheet. BWA Water Additives. http://www.wateradditives.com/files/products/tech_data_sheets/Belgard%20EV2035_Technical%20Data%20Sheet_Thermal_8.5x11.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref><ref>BioLab Water Additives. Belgard EV Antiscalant for seawater distillation plants. BioLab Water Additives. http://www.lpq.com.mx/pdf/BELGARD%20EV.PDF. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref>. As such, we have selected Belgard EV 2030 for use as an anti-scalant in our process.<br />
<br />
Corrosion control is another significant method of pretreatment in multi-stage flash distillation plants. Using a piping material that has limited susceptibility to corrosion is typically not economically viable for MSF desalination plants due their large size, so using carbon steel for most of the piping is generally used for its economic benefits despite its susceptibility to corrosion<ref name = "Morris" />. Limiting oxygen concentration is very feasible through the use of deaerators, which can remove oxygen as well as other dissolved gases from the seawater stream. Often, an external deaeration system is used<ref name = "Morris" /><ref>Edwards - Hick Hargreaves. Seawater Deaerators. Edwards - Hick Hargreaves. http://psscorp.co.th/upload/news/20110830105340.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. Given these considerations, using an external deaerator combined with a less-corrosive antiscalant like Belgard EV 2030 is much more practical for the process than using anti-corrosive piping.<br />
<br />
Excessive foam can also be an issue in some MSF distillation facilities, so antifoaming agents are sometimes employed in the pretreatment process as well. However, many plants are operated without foaming issues, and therefore do not need anti-foaming pretreatment at all. Selection of an anti-foaming agent must be carefully weighed with selected of anti-scalant to avoid issues with additive interactions [26]. At this stage in the design process, an anti-foamer will not be included due to the risk of decreasing scalant efficacy, and the likelihood that foam will not be an issue in the desalination plant.<br />
<br />
===Multistage Flash Distillation===<br />
The main objective of the design project is desalinate water. This is done with the main process of multi stage flash distillation (MSF). MSF can be developed using a numerous number of different process configurations, such as Once-Through, Simple Mixer Brine Circulation, and Multi-Stage Heat Rejection Brine Circulation processes. <br />
<br />
The most desired process for the project is the Three Stage Heat Rejection Brine Circulation as it builds on benefits of the other simpler technologies. By combining principles of heat rejection and heat recovery, the required heat transfer area of the process is greatly reduced as compared to once through processes or simple brine recycle processes. It has the highest performance ratio with the lowest specific feed flow rates, therefore greatly lowering the operating costs of the process. It is also known as the industry standard for MSF<ref name = "KSU Chapter 6">Kansas State University ChE 413. Available at: http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/Almutaz/Documents/ChE-413/Multi-stage%20Flash%20Desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. In addition, since our brine disposal technique involves the pumping of the brine into a Class I well, the high brine outlet salinity is not a drawback for our process since post treatment or dilution of the brine is not necessary.<br />
<br />
===Post Treatment===<br />
After processing the water via multi-stage flash, the water needs to be post-treated to make the water taste as consumers would expect, since distilled water is “flat” and unpleasant, as well as to protect the consumers and the piping through which the water will be passing<ref name="Clayton">Clayton R. A review of current knowledge: Desalination for water supply. Foundation for Water Research. http://www.fwr.org/desal.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. There are multiple alternatives to achieve these objectives of remineralization, aeration, corrosion control, and disinfection.<br />
<br />
Aerating and introducing some dissolved solids back into the product water are effective ways to create a quality product that is not flat, and contains flavoring that is expected of the water when delivered to the consumer. Aeration will be accomplished via an inline spray aerator which will take up less space than cascade aeration.<ref>Minnesota Rural Water Association. Aeration. http://www.mrwa.com/WaterWorksMnl/Chapter%2011%20Aeration.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref> Feed blending will be used to remineralize the water as opposed to a remineralization filter because it does not require additional equipment purchases, and can easily handle the large amounts of throughput required for the process.<ref name="Clayton" /><br />
<br />
Corrosion and pH can be controlled by adding lime (calcium hydroxide) and carbon dioxide to the water. To do so, about 74 mg/L of lime and 88mg/L of CO<sub>2</sub> should be added to the desalinated water to help prevent corrosion and increase alkalinity within acceptable ranges. Sodium hydroxide, soda ash, and sodium bicarbonate are alternatives to altering the alkalinity and pH of the product water, but lime and CO<sub>2</sub> is an industry standard <ref name="Vouchkov" />.<br />
<br />
Disinfection needs to be done to prevent microbial growth in the desalinated water and ensure the safety of the general public. Chlorine addition via chlorine gas or sodium hypochlorite is the most common and only requires a dose of 1.5 to 2.5 mg/liter. <ref name="World Health Organization" /> Other alternatives include ozonation, UV light, and chloramination. Chlorine, as a 5% - 15% sodium hypochlorite solution, is sufficient for our process and relatively inexpensive, and as such will be utilized in the process.<br />
<br />
===Transport of Brine to Well===<br />
Three major possibilities exist for transporting the brine from our desalination plant to the injection well for disposal: rail, trucking, and a pipeline. A pipeline was chosen as the most feasible and cost-effective approach. <br />
<br />
A rail line is not available at this time, and with the cost to construct a rail line at approximately $43 million per mile<ref>About Money. How Much Do Rail Transit Projects Cost to Build and Operate? 2014. Available at: http://publictransport.about.com/od/Transit_Projects/a/How-Much-Do-Rail-Transit-Projects-Cost-To-Build-And-Operate.htm. Accessed January 27, 2016. </ref>, the enormous capital cost makes rail transport infeasible for this site. For large volume operations, pipelines are cheaper than trucking. In a study of wastewater sludge produced from wastewater treatment facilities, it was found that it was more economical for facilities producing over 1200 m<sup>3</sup> per day to utilize pipelines rather than trucking.<ref>Marufuzzaman M, Eskioglu S, Hernandez R. Truck versus pipeline transportation cost analysis of wastewater sludge. Transportation Research. 2015; 74(A): 14-30. </ref> Our facility is producing nearly 3 times this volume at 3485 m<sup>3</sup> per day of brine. Furthermore, brine is a less viscous fluid than wastewater sludge, decreasing pumping costs in the pipeline and further amplifying the benefit of choosing a pipeline over an injection well.<br />
<br />
===Brine Storage===<br />
Due to the choice of a pipeline, rather than trucking, as the method of transport of brine to the injection well, brine storage is unnecessary, so storage solutions such as holding tanks were not investigated. One method of storage compatible with a pipeline is to pump the brine through an evaporation pond. This solution is attractive as it would allow the brine to concentrate, saving some costs of pumping, however, the considerable land usage of evaporation ponds leads them to only be effective for smaller plants. The largest municipal plant utilizing this method produces only 5.7 million liters per day<ref>University of Santa Cruz Center for Integrated Water Research. Concentrate Management: Evaporation Ponds. 2010. Available at: https://ciwr.ucsc.edu/sites/default/files/ICM_D5.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016. </ref>, whereas our desalination plant is proposed to produce 75.7 million liters per day. Therefore, evaporation ponds have been eliminated from consideration.<br />
<br />
==Major Specifications==<br />
===Material of Construction Selection===<br />
While saltwater and desalinated water in general can be corrosive, there are best practices within the desalination industry for material selection. With this in mind, best practice shows carbon steel lifetime can be lengthened by monitoring the oxygen concentration in the water, specifying the paint used to coat any metal, and more expensive materials can be used in areas of extremely high corrosion.<ref name = "Morris" />. By following these best practices, it is possible to save significant amounts of money through the use of carbon steel in most areas of the plant, with specific high-corrosion areas being reinforced with, or replaced with, more corrosion resistant materials, such as Cu/Ni 70/30 alloy<ref name = "KSU Chapter 6" />.<br />
<br />
===Heat Exchanger Sizing===<br />
See Appendix F for heat exchanger sizing data. Heat exchanger sizes appear reasonable for placement in the flash vessels.<br />
<br />
===Flash Vessel Sizing===<br />
The dimensions for the flash drums were obtained through literature values. The flash drums were determined to be 18x4x3 m in width, height, and length.<ref name="KSU Chapter 6" /><br />
<br />
Wall thickness was determined using the following conventions: Design pressure is 10% more than the operating pressure, design temperature is 50°F (27.8°C) higher than the operating temperature, a corrosion allowance of 3-mm and an effectiveness of 85% was derived from the assumption of a double-welded butt joint that was spot checked. See Appendix G for wall thicknesses calculated for each pressure vessel. <br />
<br />
The sizing of the vessels to be constructed will be determined after talks with a manufacturer. Due to economies of scale, it may be more cost-effective to buy 21 pressure vessels with the dimensions mentioned above and a wall thickness of 17.1-mm, the highest wall thickness required in the system.<br />
<br />
===Pipe Losses and Pressure Drop===<br />
HYSYS was used to estimate the diameter of a pipe given a specified pressure drop per 100m of pipe. It was determined that for a pressure drop of 0.1 kPa/100m of pipe, a 3.05m diameter pipe is sufficient, which is more than manageable for manufacturers. This pressure drop is mostly insignificant and will be taken care of with the safety factors included in the pumps. The significant pressure drops in our system is accounted for via losses in the flash vessels and heat exchangers, which drive the flash process. Therefore overall pipe losses are insignificant and are built into intentional design losses.<br />
<br />
=Economic Analysis=<br />
==Economic Assumptions==<br />
The sale of purified water yields a revenue stream of $49.5 million per year assuming sale to commercial entities within the city limits of Corpus Christi at $1.7915 per thousand liters.<ref>Water schedule. City of Corpus Christi Utility Business Office. http://www.cctexas.com/Assets/Departments/Financial-Services/Utilities-Business-Office/files/waterrates.pdf Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref> The primary variable costs are utilities and the brine disposal, with minimal raw materials costs due to the primary feedstock, seawater, being free, and minimal amounts of pre- and post-treatment chemicals being used. The cost of brine disposal used in this analysis was high at $2.097 per thousand liters<ref>McCurdy, R. Underground injection wells for produced water disposal. Chesapeake Energy Corporation. http://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/documents/21_McCurdy_-_UIC_Disposal_508.pdf Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref>, an estimate for brine disposal utilizing trucking as the mode of transport. As has been shown through previous analyses, a lower cost can be achieved using a direct pipeline, however, no good estimates for this cost could be found.<br />
<br />
The NPV was calculated using a 6% cost of capital, the approximate interest rate for a municipal bond.<ref>Zirbe, R.O. Jr., Han, X., Layton, D., Leshine, T. A history of discount rates and their use by government agencies. (2002). http://faculty.washington.edu/zerbe/docs/DISCOUNT%20RATE%20HISTORY-latesXIt.doc Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref> It was assumed that the plant can be built within two years, with production at half-scale in its first year. Additionally, one month of variable costs, $10.6 million, was set aside for working capital. See Appendix H for a full table of assumptions. A 30 year NPV calculation was chosen as the decision basis since 30 years is a conservative estimate for the lifetime of a desalination plant [38]. See below for estimates of NPV for the lifetime of the plant under various assumptions and design criteria.<br />
<br />
==Optimization and Sensitivity Analysis==<br />
Looking at the multi-stage flash process, there are a number of opportunities to optimize the process. The major process variables that were investigated were the inlet water temperature, the operating pressure drop per vessel, and the number of stages over which the process takes place. Considering these optimizations, our final process consists of 21 flash vessels (18 heat recovery and 3 heat rejection stages), each with a pressure drop of 5 kPa. See Appendix D for a screenshot of the HYSYS simulation used to model the optimized process.<br />
===Operating Pressure and Pressure Drop===<br />
Initially our process was designed to pump the inlet seawater and brine to a pressure of 2 bar and allow the pressure drop in each flash stage to end our process downstream at 1 bar to prevent complications associated with designing a system under vacuum. While this provided pumping advantages, the energy in the system was significantly higher due to vapor pressure considerations. Due to this fact, the required heat exchange area for certain exchangers proved to be infeasible (on the order of 80,000m<sup>2</sup>) due to the enormous capital and operating costs that would be associated with such a large heat exchanger.<br />
<br />
The process was optimized to operate under vacuum, requiring additional pumping requirements but much lower required heat exchange area, and therefore lower utility costs. This optimization was done by specifying the pressure of the final flash vessel to 5.7kPa, so that the temperature of the water vapor (~30<sup>o</sup>C) is within approximately 5<sup>o</sup>C of the cooling water (35<sup>o</sup>C) so that condensation can occur within a reasonable approach. This also allows our system to optimally extract pure water from the brine running through the system and reduce energy requirements for cooling the product or the recycle. Our system redesign and optimization reduced the energy in the system and reduce the same heat exchanger area requirements by more than 3 orders of magnitude to approximately 800m<sup>2</sup>. <br />
<br />
Once the process was optimized to operate in a vacuum, the pressure drop per flash stage regulated through values was then optimized. Three pressure drops per stages, 3kPa, 5kPa, and 7kPa, were tested and then an economic analysis was conducted to find the optimal value for the pressure drop. These changes had impacts on both operating and capital costs as they would change initial pumping requirements, the amount of water flowing through the process and recycle (and therefore the flash vessel sizes, heat exchanger sizing), and the efficiency of each stage.<br />
<br />
The various pressure drops (3 kPa, 5 kPa, and 7 kPa) were tested on a system nominally at 24 stages under the assumption that the results would be generalizable to systems with a different number of stages. With increasing pressure drop, we found decreased capital cost but increased utility cost. As can be seen from Table 2 below, a pressure drop of 5 kPa proved to be the best option based on 30 year NPV, with a loss of $838.8 million, a savings of $65.5 million compared to the next-best option with a pressure drop of 7 kPa.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 2: Comparison of profitability for our MSF desalination process with 24 stages with 3 different pressure drops per stage<br />
! Number of Stages <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! Pressure Drop <br/> (kPa)<br />
! Capital Cost <br/> ($MM)<br />
! Utility Cost <br/> ($MM/yr)<br />
! 30-Year NPV <br/> ($MM)<br />
! NPV Ratio <br/> (over 5kPa)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 3 || 362.3 || 39.1 || -905.8 || 1.08<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 5 || 255.1 || 53.6 || -838.8 || 1.00<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 7 || 209.5 || 72.2 || -904.3 || 1.08<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
===Number of Flash Stages===<br />
The number of stages is an important area for optimization. An increased number of stages yields better recovery of purified water, however, requires higher capital cost from the additional pressure vessel. Furthermore, with an increased amount of purified water comes increasingly concentrated brine. This must be taken into account since any brine concentration in excess of about 7% presents a more significant corrosion risk<ref name="KSU Chapter 6" />, so increased maintenance costs for the piping or higher capital costs for more corrosion-resistant materials could be necessary for brine concentrations exceeding 7%. Therefore, to recover the same amount of pure water without exceeding corrosion limitations, increasing the number of stages will reduce the overall size of each stage.<br />
<br />
Optimizing based on NPV, it was found that 21 stages is optimal, balancing the increased profits from the additional purified water additional costs of higher capital cost. See Table 3 below to compare the 30-year NPV of the process across various numbers of flash vessels.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 3: Comparison of profitability for our MSF desalination process with a 5 kPa pressure drop, 5000 m<sup>3</sup>/hr feed flow rate, with varying number of stages.<br />
! Number of Stages <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! Pressure Drop <br/> (kPa)<br />
! Capital Cost <br/> ($MM)<br />
! Utility Cost <br/> ($MM/yr)<br />
! 30-Year NPV <br/> ($MM)<br />
! NPV Ratio <br/> (over 21 Stages)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 17 || 5 || 213.9 || 58.7 || -813.8 || 1.016<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 18 || 5 || 218 || 57.6 || -809.9 || 1.011<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 19 || 5 || 224.3 || 58 || -806.1 || 1.007<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 20 || 5 || 229.8 || 57.9 || -813.6 || 1.016<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 21 || 5 || 226.6 || 55.9 || -800.7 || 1<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 22 || 5 || 254.7 || 54.6 || -849.5 || 1.061<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 23 || 5 || 249.3 || 54.1 || -833.1 || 1.04<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 5 || 255.1 || 53.6 || -838.8 || 1.048<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 25 || 5 || 254.9 || 52.7 || -837.4 || 1.046<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
===Inlet Seawater Temperature===<br />
By pairing our desalination plant with a natural gas power plant and utilizing its cooling water we forgo initial heating of our inlet stream. Normally, water pumped from the ocean would be approximately 25<sup>o</sup>C and by capturing waste heat from the power plant we can reduce utilities with our water inlet of 45<sup>o</sup>C. Through an economic comparison between two plants nominally at 21 flash stages, the plant with an inlet temperature at 25<sup>o</sup>C has a capital cost of $245MM and a utility cost of $77MM/yr and the same facility with an inlet water temperature at 45<sup>o</sup>C has a capital cost of only $226MM and a utility cost of $56MM/yr. As shown in Table 4 below, this $19MM savings in capital costs and $21MM/yr saving in utilities is largely due to reducing the size of the heat exchangers and lowering the steam required for heating duty on the inlet seawater respectively. Therefore our process is optimized by recovering the waste heat water from the gas fired power plant.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 4: Seawater Inlet Temperature Process Cost Optimization<br />
! Seawater Temperature <br/> (°C)<br />
! Capital Cost <br/> ($MM)<br />
! Utility Cost <br/> ($MM/yr)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 25 || 245 || 77<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 45 || 226 || 56<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Savings || 56 || 19<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
==Overall Process Economics==<br />
After optimization at fixed flow rates, the process was scaled to meet the the 67% operating percentage and final product definitions as shown in Table 1, which resulted in finalized economics shown in Table 5 below. For a table of the installed costs of each process vessel, see Appendix I. For the finalized NPV calculations, see Appendix J.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 5: Summarized Economics for 21-stage MSFD Process<br />
! Economic Parameter<br />
! Cost <br/> (USD)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Capital Cost || 345 MM<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Total Operating Cost per Year || 103 MM<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Utility Cost per Year || 59 MM<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 30-Year NPV (6% Discount) || -1035 MM<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
=Conclusions and Recommendations=<br />
==Project Viability==<br />
Table 5 above demonstrates that the process has reasonable operating and capital costs, but the 30-year NPV is negative by -1035 $MM due to the extremely low sell price capability of desalinated water as a product. Therefore, this plant would have to heavily be supported by the City of Corpus Christi to run as the product revenue will not make it self-sufficient. The acquisition of government subsidies are key operating requirements for all desalination facilities in the United States. <br />
<br />
==Additional Concerns==<br />
Large volumes of water, steam, and energy are needed to ensure the project runs as specified. While most of the water can easily be extracted from the ocean with little to consequence, the fuel used to generate the steam and electricity can have a significant environmental impact. As the plant is located next to a natural gas power plant, this fuel is better than coal with respect to environmental concerns, and utilizing energy from the power plant to preheat the feed stream for the desalination plant helps lower environmental impacts.<br />
<br />
The large amounts of high pressure steam being used represents one of the the largest safety concern in the process, because a high pressure steam release could easily cause severe burns or even death. Proper precautions and control measures must be in place to prevent accidental release. Otherwise, the process does not utilize any known toxic chemicals and is relatively safe from a chemical standpoint. The flash vessels mostly operate below atmospheric pressure, so they must be constructed as vessels that can withstand vacuum without failing.<br />
<br />
<br />
=Appendix A: Proposed Location of Desalination Plant=<br />
Pictured below is the proposed location for the desalination plant, located on Nueces Bay in Corpus Christi, adjacent to the Nueces Bay Energy Center. The plant’s proposed location is shown in the area outlined by the small circle in the upper right of the figure.<br />
<br />
[[File:NuecesBayLocation.png|center|600px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Desalination Facility Location|Figure A.1: Proposed mapped location of Nueces Bay Desalination Facility.]]<br />
[[File:ClassIWell.png|center|700px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Desalination Facility Distance to Injection Well|Figure A.2: Mapped distance from proposed location to Class I Injection Well]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix B: Feed and Product Definitions - Salinity=<br />
<br />
=Appendix C: Process Flow Diagram=<br />
[[File:TeamF_PFD.png|center|1200px|thumb|alt=Process Flow Diagram|Figure C.1: Process Flow Diagram]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix D: HYSYS Simulation Model=<br />
[[File:TeamF_HYSYS_Screenshot.PNG|center|1200px|thumb|alt=HYSYS Simulation Model|Figure D.1: Screenshot of HYSYS Model Simulation.]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix E: Stream Tables=<br />
<br />
=Appendix F: Heat Exchanger Sizing=<br />
<br />
=Appendix G: Pressure Vessel Sizing=<br />
<br />
=Appendix H: Expanded Economic Assumptions=<br />
<br />
=Appendix I: Equipment Cost Summary=<br />
<br />
=Appendix J: Economic NPV Analysis=<br />
<br />
=References=<br />
<references/></div>Kedricdaly2https://processdesign.mccormick.northwestern.edu/index.php?title=Nueces_Desalination_Center:_Production_of_Drinking_Water_by_Multi-Stage_Flash_Distillation&diff=4943Nueces Desalination Center: Production of Drinking Water by Multi-Stage Flash Distillation2016-03-07T15:47:48Z<p>Kedricdaly2: </p>
<hr />
<div>Team F: Rankine 672 Final Report<br />
<br />
Authors: Kedric Daly, Ben Granger, Evan Rosati, Kathleen Zhou<br />
<br />
Instructors: Fengqi You, David Wegerer<br />
<br />
March 11, 2016<br />
<br />
=Executive Summary=<br />
Desalination of seawater to drinking water is a technology of ever-increasing importance given trends of increasingly widespread water shortages around the world. Even in the United States, water shortages are becoming increasingly common in dry, highly-populated such as California and certain areas of the Gulf Coast. Our design team, Rankine 672, was tasked with evaluating the need for and designing a desalination plant to provide purified water in a place of need. Investigation revealed that the city of Corpus Christi, Texas, is a strategic location for development of a desalination facility, as surrounding region is in need of new drinking water sources and the city has expressed serious interest in contracting the development of a large-scale desalination plant. Our proposed solution is a multi-stage flash distillation desalination facility capable of producing 20,000,000 gallons (75,708 m<sup>3</sup>) of purified drinking water for the city and surrounding region per operating day.<br />
<br />
In this design, drinking water is produced from seawater feedstock through a 21-stage flash distillation process. By strategically locating the facility next to an existing natural gas power plant, the Nueces Bay Energy Center, pre-heated feed water can be taken directly from the outbound cooling systems of the power plant, allowing energy savings for our desalination plant. The process is designed for 16 hour-per-day operation, requires a seawater feed of 8250 m<sup>3</sup>/hr, and produces 4758 m<sup>3</sup>/hr of purified drinking water alongside a waste stream of 3485 m<sup>3</sup>/hr of concentrated brine. The waste stream is isolated from a recycle stream through a 9.0% purge; this results in an overall product yield of 57.7% on a volume basis. The process requires an additional pretreatment stream of 16.5 kg/hr Belgard EV 2030, which serves as an antiscalant, as well as 9.5 kg/hr chlorine, 352.1 kg/hr lime, and 418.7 kg/hr CO2 for post-treatment purposes.<br />
<br />
The overall capital cost of the plant is expected to be $345MM, with a total operating cost of $103MM/yr, $59MM/yr of which comes from utilities. Due to the low price at which the product water can be sold, the 30-year net present value of the plant, assuming a 6% discount rate, is $-1,035MM. It is thus imperative this plant be constructed with public funds because it cannot return a profit to any private investor. The growing need for water however could justify the cost, because it is important that the residents of the greater Corpus Christi area have access to drinkable water.<br />
<br />
__TOC__<br />
<br />
=Introduction=<br />
==Background==<br />
Clean drinking water is a basic human need that is becoming increasingly difficult to meet. Currently, over 1 billion people live in places where water is considered scarce<ref> Tapping the oceans. The Economist USA. http://www.economist.com/node/11484059. Accessed March 2, 2016. </ref>. Though often thought of as a problem exclusive to third-world countries, the issue is becoming more prevalent in the US as well, with water managers in 40 of 50 states anticipating water shortage conditions in some portion of their state in the next 10 years. These shortages are due to increasing demands on constant or diminishing freshwater resources, therefore, to correct the issue, a new supply must be found<ref> Water Supply in the US. EPA. http://www3.epa.gov/watersense/pubs/supply.html. Accessed March 2, 2016.</ref>. Desalination of seawater is therefore important as a new source for clean drinking water and prevent water shortages. <br />
<br />
==Project Definition==<br />
The overall goal of the project is to investigate the feasibility of a desalination plant in order to meet the needs of growing water demand. The design needs to take health, safety, and environmental concerns into account, while optimizing costs.<br />
<br />
=Design Basis=<br />
Site Location and Conditions<br />
Corpus Christi, TX was chosen as the location for the proposed desalination plant. The city is currently experiencing “Moderate Shortage Conditions”. This issue additionally comes at a time of growing demand with population growth anticipated due to new industry and Eagle Ford Group crude oil production<ref>Stage 2 Measures in the Drought Contingency Plan. Available at http://www.cctexas.com/government/water/conservation/conservation-drought-plans/stage-2-measures. Accessed January 12, 2016. </ref>.<br />
<br />
In June 2014, the city announced the Corpus Christi Desalination Demonstration Project<ref>Corpus Christi Desalination Demonstration Project. Available at http://www.cctexas.com/Assets/Departments/Water/Files/DesalFactSheet.pdf. Published June 2014. Accessed January 12, 2016. <br />
</ref> which seeks to create a demonstration desalination plant capable of producing 20,000 gallons of water per day, with plans to later build a full scale facility generating 20,000,000 gallons of water per day. The desalination demonstration project indicates a clear need for implementation of a desalination plant of this size to accommodate growth in the Corpus Christi area. <br />
<br />
Locating our plant in Corpus Christi will allow us to take advantage of the benefits of cogeneration through a partnership with the Nueces Bay Energy Center. By utilizing their outlet cooling water as a large portion of our feed for the desalination process, we can raise the temperature of our seawater feed, saving on energy costs in the multi stage flash distillation. The proposed location for the desalination plant is immediately west of the Nueces Bay Energy Center. See Appendix A for a map depicting the proposed location for the desalination plant along the coast of Nueces Bay.<br />
<br />
==Feed and Product Definitions==<br />
The proposed desalination facility’s feed and product streams are defined as shown in Table 1. Rationale for these definitions is also described below. The values reported in Table 1 are final derived numbers from HYSYS simulation modeling. <br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 1: Feed and product stream definitions<br />
! &nbsp;<br />
! Salt Concentration<br />
! Temperature <br />
! Amount<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Feed Stream <br />
| 30,500 ppm || 45°C || 8250 m<sup>3</sup>/hr<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Product Stream<br />
| ~ 0 ppm || 35°C || 4758 m<sup>3</sup>/hr<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Byproduct Stream<br />
| 695 ppm || 35°C || 3485 m<sup>3</sup>/hr<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
The process feed will be seawater from Nueces Bay, preheated through the cooling water system of the nearby Nueces Bay Energy Center. Based on calculations developed from NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory) data, it was estimated that the Nueces Bay Energy Center uses approximately 250 million gallons of seawater per day for process and cooling needs. Therefore, the 20 million gallon per day requirement for the desalination facility can easily be met through the power plant’s cooling water<ref>Torcellini P, Long N, Judkoff R. Consumptive Water Use for U.S. Power Consumption. NREL. 2003; TP-550-33905. <br />
</ref>. Note that we are assuming the process will operate 67% of the time (16 hours per day).<br />
<br />
Based on data acquired from two salinity-measuring stations in Nueces Bay, the average salinity of local seawater is 30.5 practical salinity units (psu)<ref>Stations Map & Real - Time Data. The Conrad Blucher Institute for Surveying and Science website. Available at http://www.cbi.tamucc.edu/cbi/data/. Updated January 2016. Accessed January 9, 2016. </ref>, thus setting the concentration of the process feed stream. This translates to a feed stream concentration of 30,500 ppm (parts per million)<ref>Definition and Units. CATD Salinity Expertise Center. Available at http://www.salinityremotesensing.ifremer.fr/home. Accessed January 12, 2016.</ref>. The composition of the salt attributed to this seawater salinity is shown in Table 6 in Appendix B. <br />
<br />
No data on the composition of seawater around the Corpus Christi area was available, but the composition of seawater does not change significantly in different locations. The given composition is considered accurate for our feed stream<ref>Brown E, Colling A, Park D, Phillips J, Rothery D, Wright J. Seawater : Its Composition, Properties and Behaviour. Boston: Butterworth-Heinemann, 1995.<br />
</ref>. Note that seawater salt is primarily sodium chloride - total dissolved solids are 85.7% sodium chloride by mass. As such, the dissolved solids in the feed stream is assumed in this project to be pure NaCl, making the feed composition 96.95% water and 3.05% NaCl by mass. A control system will likely be put in place to ensure feed concentration remains at this level, accounting for natural fluctuations in local seawater salinity.<br />
<br />
The largest byproduct from the process will be a brine slurry with high salt concentrations. An upper corrosion limit of 700 ppm was set for recirculated and purged brine. This undesired byproduct will be sent to a nearby Class I non-hazardous injection well facility operated by GNI Group, which is approximately 12 miles away from the proposed desalination plant location as shown in the figure in Appendix A<ref>Texas Water Code. Availabe at http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/WA/htm/WA.27.htm. Accessed January 14, 2016.<br />
</ref><ref>Google Maps. Available at https://goo.gl/maps/3xcvLZwUCe42 Accessed January 15, 2016.</ref>. Through the incorporation of a Class I injection well, the brine will not have to be treated or diluted before injection. <ref>EPA Regulations on Class I Wells. Available at http://www.epa.gov/uic/class-i-industrial-and-municipal-waste-disposal-wells. Accessed January 14, 2016.<br />
</ref><ref>List of Injection Well Facilities by Location. Available at http://www.ehso.com/cssepa/tsdfdeepwells.php. Accessed January 14, 2016.</ref><br />
<br />
There are no regulations regarding the temperature of city drinking water, so the product stream temperature has no requirements based on regulations. Outlet temperatures of 35<sup>o</sup>C are acceptable for input to the municipal water supply system. Since city water tends to be stored in non-temperature controlled tanks, the temperature will naturally cool to ambient temperature.<ref>Climate Corpus Christi- Texas. US Climate Data. Available at http://www.usclimatedata.com/climate/corpus-christi/texas/united-states/ustx0294. Accessed January 12, 2016. </ref><br />
<br />
==Pre-Treatment and Post-Treatment==<br />
For pretreatment, Belgard EV 2030 is recommended to be added at a concentration of 1.8-2.0 mg/L for a system with top brine temperature approximately 110 °C<ref name="BWA 2030">BWA Water Additives. Belgard EV2030 Technical Data Sheet. BWA Water Additives. http://www.wateradditives.com/files/products/tech_data_sheets/Belgard%20EV%202030_Technical%20Data%20Sheet_Thermal_8.5x11.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016.<br />
</ref>. Since our process is designed to operate at a slightly higher top brine temperature, 120 °C, we will design for the upper bound concentration: 2.0 mg/L of antiscalant. With a feed flow rate of 8250 m<sup>3</sup>/hr, the process therefore requires 16.5 kg/hr of Belgard EV 2030.<br />
<br />
For disinfection during post-treatment, chlorine addition typically requires a dose of roughly 2.0 mg/L as well<ref name="World Health Organization">World Health Organization. Desalination for safe water supply. http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/gdwqrevision/desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. With a pure water distillate flow rate of 4758 m<sup>3</sup>/hr, the process requires 9.5 kg/hr of chlorine as a 5%-15% sodium hypochlorite solution. Approximately 74 mg/L of lime (calcium hydroxide) and 88mg/L of CO2 should be added to the desalinated water to help prevent corrosion and increase alkalinity within acceptable ranges<ref name="Vouchkov">Vouchkov, N. Re-Mineralization of Desalinated Water. SunCam. https://s3.amazonaws.com/suncam/npdocs/118.pdf. Accessed February 18, 2016.</ref>. With a product stream flow rate of 4758 m3/hr, these concentrations correspond to 352.1 kg/hr of lime and 418.7 kg/hr of CO2. Both of these can be purchased, and it is likely that the CO2 can be procured from the neighboring natural gas power plant.<br />
<br />
==Choice of Desalination Technology==<br />
The two major technologies commonly implemented for desalination include reverse osmosis (RO), and multi-stage flash distillation (MSFD). RO utilizes high pressures to force water through a semipermeable membrane that allows for purified water to pass through, but stops organic and other wastes. Often, the pressures can reach 55 - 68 bar, which requires large pumps to maintain pressure, and introduces safety concerns to the process<ref>Stage 2 Measures in the Drought Contingency Plan. Available at http://www.cctexas.com/government/water/conservation/conservation-drought-plans/stage-2-measures. Accessed January 12, 2016. <br />
</ref>. While RO can be less energy intensive than MSFD, and the membrane can also remove contaminants, it is susceptible to feedwater quality, membrane fouling, and requires more extensive pretreatment and posttreatment than MSFD. The cost of RO is directly proportional to the feed salinity, and so it is less expensive when desalinating low salinity water.<br />
<br />
Multi-stage flash distillation is best selected for areas that have high salinity or low energy costs. The pretreatment process for MSFD is much easier when compared to RO because pretreatment often consists of simply adding anti-corrosives and antiscalants to the feed stream. The process works by heating water in vessels at different pressures to change the boiling point of the water and evaporate it as it passes through the system. After evaporation, the water condenses, leaving pure water as the effluent. MSFD costs are now roughly $1.00/m3, where this cost is mostly independent of salinity, but dependent on energy costs.<ref>Fritzman C, Lowenberg J, Wintgens T, Melin T. State-of-the-art Reverse Osmosis Desalination. Desalination. 2007; 216:1-76. <br />
</ref> In both RO and MSFD a brine is produced which then must be appropriately treated and/or disposed of.<br />
<br />
Multi-stage flash distillation was selected for this process, mainly due to the economic advantages offered by the selected location of Corpus Christi, TX. MSFD is also a well understood process that can be more easily modeled by chemical engineering software.<br />
<br />
=Technical Approach=<br />
Quantitative modeling of the process and all included optimization was conducted using the simulation software Aspen HYSYS. A variety of assumptions were developed to set up and define specific components of the process simulation itself. Within Aspen HYSYS, the NRTL Electrolyte property package was selected to model the behavior of salt water. Each stage of the MSF process is modeled as an individual flash vessel, with individual shell & tube heat exchangers used to model the distillate condensers present in each flash stage in the MSF system.<br />
<br />
The HYSYS simulation model only considers the flash portion of the overall process, allowing establishment of mass and energy balances for the system. Pretreatment and post-treatment were excluded for the HYSYS model, as these steps are simple additions or removals of small concentrations of chemical components. Although the simulation models heat exchangers outside of each flash stage, in the physical design of the plant these heat exchangers will be contained within each flash stage.<br />
<br />
One portion of the process is not modeled, which is the inlet seawater entering the heat rejection stages. As can be seen from the full process flow diagram (Appendix C), the inlet seawater in the heat rejection stage is in high excess to provide maximum cooling capacity; then a significant portion is purged to bring the stream flow rate down to what is needed for the feed stream. It is assumed that the flow rate of cooling water for those three stages is in such high excess that the cooling water does not heat up. Therefore, in the process simulation models, the inlet stream is the feed stream, which enters directly into the heat recovery portion of the process.<br />
<br />
See Appendix D for a screenshot overview of the simulation environment model.<br />
<br />
=Process Overview=<br />
==Process Flowsheet==<br />
The following diagram, Figure 1, shows a basic flowsheet for the process. Process alternatives considered for each stage are discussed below. Please see Appendix C for the full process flowsheet with finalized design decisions.<br />
<br />
[[File:BlockFlowDiagram.png|center|700px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Desalination Facility Block Flow Diagram|Figure 1: Basic block flowsheet of the multi-stage flash desalination process.]]<br />
<br />
==Major Features==<br />
As seen above, there are three primary stages of the desalination process: Pre-treatment, the multi-stage flash distillation, and post-treatment. Seawater enters the pre-treatment phase first to make the feed suitable for the rest of the process by filtering out large particles that could accumulate on pipes, deaerating the water to limit corrosion, and adding an agent to combat fouling. The water then enters the distillation process, which is broken up into two sections: heat recovery and heat rejection. <br />
<br />
In the heat recovery stage, there are 18 flash vessels, each of which separates steam from the salinated liquid water. Each flash vessel has saltwater as its inlet and two outlets: a vapor outlet (steam) that condenses into the final product of purified water and a liquid outlet composed of water with more dissolved solids than the inlet, which is the inlet stream for the next flash vessel. The pipe containing the feed is first mixed with recycled brine, then goes through the top sections of each of the flash vessels, starting with V-118 and ending up at V-101. In this way, the feed stream pipe first serves as a heat exchanger, heating the pre-treated seawater while simultaneously condensing the steam into the final product. The feed then enters a final heat exchanger where it is brought up to 103.6 °C before entering V-101 to be flashed.<br />
<br />
After exiting V-118, the final flash vessel in the heat recovery portion, the water enters the heat rejection portion, which consists of three flash vessels (V-201, V-202, V-203). The flash vessels of this section operate in the same manner as in the heat recovery section, with the exception that condensation occurs using excess cooling water instead of pre-treated seawater. This technique allows excess heat to be rejected into an excess water stream rather than the feed.<br />
<br />
The purified product stream finally enters post-treatment processing in which water is re-aerated and remineralized, disinfected, and pH is adjusted before being delivered to the city. The concentrated brine leftover at the end of the flash cycle is recycled into the feed, although a purge is required to continuously remove some salt from the system. This purged brine is disposed of by use of a Class I injection well, per regional regulations.<br />
<br />
See Appendix E to find detailed stream tables of stream specifications.<br />
<br />
==Process Alternatives==<br />
===Pretreatment===<br />
Multi-stage flash distillation requires significantly less pretreatment than reverse osmosis desalination, but helpful pretreatment techniques still exist. One very inexpensive method of pretreatment is screening/filtration, which is used to filter out large contaminants from intake seawater. Using more complicated membrane technology to accomplish large particle filtration is a possible alternative, but doing so would be much more expensive than using a standard screen or filter, so the latter choice has been selected for this process.<ref>El-Dessouky H., Alatiqi I, Ettouney H. Process synthesis: The multi-stage flash desalination system. Desalination. 1998;115(2):115-179. doi: 10.1016/S0011-9164(98)00035-6.</ref><br />
<br />
The most critical type of fouling in multi-stage flash distillation is scaling - therefore, the most critical step in the pretreatment process will be the inclusion of an anti-scalant. Alkaline scaling can be prevented by acid dosing or polyphosphate addition; however, acid dosing can result in increased corrosion and polyphosphates can lead to non-alkaline calcium phosphate fouling, so these additives will not be considered<ref name="Morris">Morris, R. The development of the multi-stage flash distillation process: A designer's viewpoint. Desalination. 1993;93(1-3):57-68. doi:10.1016/S0011-9164(93)80096-6. Availble at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0011916493800966</ref><ref>Al-Gobaisi, D. A quarter-century of seawater desalination by large multistage flash plants in Abu Dhabi (Plant performance analysis, assessment, present efforts toward enhancement and future hopes). Desalination. 1994;99(2-3):509-512. doi: 10.1016/S0011-9164(94)00196-0.</ref>. As such, a polymer-based additive is recommended for the anti-scalant for this process. The Belgard EV series is designed for use in high-temperature seawater MSF; of these, Belgard EV 2030 is the most neutral in pH<ref>NSF International. NSF Product and Service Listings: Drinking Water Treatment Chemicals - Health Effects. NSF International. http://info.nsf.org/Certified/PwsChemicals/Listings.asp?Company=00300&. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref><ref name="BWA 2030" /><ref>BWA Water Additives. Belgard EV2035 Technical Data Sheet. BWA Water Additives. http://www.wateradditives.com/files/products/tech_data_sheets/Belgard%20EV2035_Technical%20Data%20Sheet_Thermal_8.5x11.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref><ref>BioLab Water Additives. Belgard EV Antiscalant for seawater distillation plants. BioLab Water Additives. http://www.lpq.com.mx/pdf/BELGARD%20EV.PDF. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref>. As such, we have selected Belgard EV 2030 for use as an anti-scalant in our process.<br />
<br />
Corrosion control is another significant method of pretreatment in multi-stage flash distillation plants. Using a piping material that has limited susceptibility to corrosion is typically not economically viable for MSF desalination plants due their large size, so using carbon steel for most of the piping is generally used for its economic benefits despite its susceptibility to corrosion<ref name = "Morris" />. Limiting oxygen concentration is very feasible through the use of deaerators, which can remove oxygen as well as other dissolved gases from the seawater stream. Often, an external deaeration system is used<ref name = "Morris" /><ref>Edwards - Hick Hargreaves. Seawater Deaerators. Edwards - Hick Hargreaves. http://psscorp.co.th/upload/news/20110830105340.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. Given these considerations, using an external deaerator combined with a less-corrosive antiscalant like Belgard EV 2030 is much more practical for the process than using anti-corrosive piping.<br />
<br />
Excessive foam can also be an issue in some MSF distillation facilities, so antifoaming agents are sometimes employed in the pretreatment process as well. However, many plants are operated without foaming issues, and therefore do not need anti-foaming pretreatment at all. Selection of an anti-foaming agent must be carefully weighed with selected of anti-scalant to avoid issues with additive interactions [26]. At this stage in the design process, an anti-foamer will not be included due to the risk of decreasing scalant efficacy, and the likelihood that foam will not be an issue in the desalination plant.<br />
<br />
===Multistage Flash Distillation===<br />
The main objective of the design project is desalinate water. This is done with the main process of multi stage flash distillation (MSF). MSF can be developed using a numerous number of different process configurations, such as Once-Through, Simple Mixer Brine Circulation, and Multi-Stage Heat Rejection Brine Circulation processes. <br />
<br />
The most desired process for the project is the Three Stage Heat Rejection Brine Circulation as it builds on benefits of the other simpler technologies. By combining principles of heat rejection and heat recovery, the required heat transfer area of the process is greatly reduced as compared to once through processes or simple brine recycle processes. It has the highest performance ratio with the lowest specific feed flow rates, therefore greatly lowering the operating costs of the process. It is also known as the industry standard for MSF<ref name = "KSU Chapter 6">Kansas State University ChE 413. Available at: http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/Almutaz/Documents/ChE-413/Multi-stage%20Flash%20Desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. In addition, since our brine disposal technique involves the pumping of the brine into a Class I well, the high brine outlet salinity is not a drawback for our process since post treatment or dilution of the brine is not necessary.<br />
<br />
===Post Treatment===<br />
After processing the water via multi-stage flash, the water needs to be post-treated to make the water taste as consumers would expect, since distilled water is “flat” and unpleasant, as well as to protect the consumers and the piping through which the water will be passing<ref>Clayton R. A review of current knowledge: Desalination for water supply. Foundation for Water Research. http://www.fwr.org/desal.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. There are multiple alternatives to achieve these objectives of remineralization, aeration, corrosion control, and disinfection.<br />
<br />
Aerating and introducing some dissolved solids back into the product water are effective ways to create a quality product that is not flat, and contains flavoring that is expected of the water when delivered to the consumer. Aeration will be accomplished via an inline spray aerator which will take up less space than cascade aeration.<ref>Minnesota Rural Water Association. Aeration. http://www.mrwa.com/WaterWorksMnl/Chapter%2011%20Aeration.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref> Feed blending will be used to remineralize the water as opposed to a remineralization filter because it does not require additional equipment purchases, and can easily handle the large amounts of throughput required for the process.<ref>Clayton R. A review of current knowledge: Desalination for water supply. Foundation for Water Research. http://www.fwr.org/desal.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref><br />
<br />
Corrosion and pH can be controlled by adding lime (calcium hydroxide) and carbon dioxide to the water. To do so, about 74 mg/L of lime and 88mg/L of CO<sub>2</sub> should be added to the desalinated water to help prevent corrosion and increase alkalinity within acceptable ranges. Sodium hydroxide, soda ash, and sodium bicarbonate are alternatives to altering the alkalinity and pH of the product water, but lime and CO<sub>2</sub> is an industry standard <ref name="Vouchkov" />.<br />
<br />
Disinfection needs to be done to prevent microbial growth in the desalinated water and ensure the safety of the general public. Chlorine addition via chlorine gas or sodium hypochlorite is the most common and only requires a dose of 1.5 to 2.5 mg/liter. <ref name="World Health Organization" /> Other alternatives include ozonation, UV light, and chloramination. Chlorine, as a 5% - 15% sodium hypochlorite solution, is sufficient for our process and relatively inexpensive, and as such will be utilized in the process.<br />
<br />
===Transport of Brine to Well===<br />
Three major possibilities exist for transporting the brine from our desalination plant to the injection well for disposal: rail, trucking, and a pipeline. A pipeline was chosen as the most feasible and cost-effective approach. <br />
<br />
A rail line is not available at this time, and with the cost to construct a rail line at approximately $43 million per mile<ref>About Money. How Much Do Rail Transit Projects Cost to Build and Operate? 2014. Available at: http://publictransport.about.com/od/Transit_Projects/a/How-Much-Do-Rail-Transit-Projects-Cost-To-Build-And-Operate.htm. Accessed January 27, 2016. </ref>, the enormous capital cost makes rail transport infeasible for this site. For large volume operations, pipelines are cheaper than trucking. In a study of wastewater sludge produced from wastewater treatment facilities, it was found that it was more economical for facilities producing over 1200 m<sup>3</sup> per day to utilize pipelines rather than trucking.<ref>Marufuzzaman M, Eskioglu S, Hernandez R. Truck versus pipeline transportation cost analysis of wastewater sludge. Transportation Research. 2015; 74(A): 14-30. </ref> Our facility is producing nearly 3 times this volume at 3485 m<sup>3</sup> per day of brine. Furthermore, brine is a less viscous fluid than wastewater sludge, decreasing pumping costs in the pipeline and further amplifying the benefit of choosing a pipeline over an injection well.<br />
<br />
===Brine Storage===<br />
Due to the choice of a pipeline, rather than trucking, as the method of transport of brine to the injection well, brine storage is unnecessary, so storage solutions such as holding tanks were not investigated. One method of storage compatible with a pipeline is to pump the brine through an evaporation pond. This solution is attractive as it would allow the brine to concentrate, saving some costs of pumping, however, the considerable land usage of evaporation ponds leads them to only be effective for smaller plants. The largest municipal plant utilizing this method produces only 5.7 million liters per day<ref>University of Santa Cruz Center for Integrated Water Research. Concentrate Management: Evaporation Ponds. 2010. Available at: https://ciwr.ucsc.edu/sites/default/files/ICM_D5.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016. </ref>, whereas our desalination plant is proposed to produce 75.7 million liters per day. Therefore, evaporation ponds have been eliminated from consideration.<br />
<br />
==Major Specifications==<br />
===Material of Construction Selection===<br />
While saltwater and desalinated water in general can be corrosive, there are best practices within the desalination industry for material selection. With this in mind, best practice shows carbon steel lifetime can be lengthened by monitoring the oxygen concentration in the water, specifying the paint used to coat any metal, and more expensive materials can be used in areas of extremely high corrosion.<ref name = "Morris" />. By following these best practices, it is possible to save significant amounts of money through the use of carbon steel in most areas of the plant, with specific high-corrosion areas being reinforced with, or replaced with, more corrosion resistant materials, such as Cu/Ni 70/30 alloy<ref name = "KSU Chapter 6" />.<br />
<br />
===Heat Exchanger Sizing===<br />
See Appendix F for heat exchanger sizing data. Heat exchanger sizes appear reasonable for placement in the flash vessels.<br />
<br />
===Flash Vessel Sizing===<br />
The dimensions for the flash drums were obtained through literature values. The flash drums were determined to be 18x4x3 m in width, height, and length.<ref name="KSU Chapter 6" /><br />
<br />
Wall thickness was determined using the following conventions: Design pressure is 10% more than the operating pressure, design temperature is 50°F (27.8°C) higher than the operating temperature, a corrosion allowance of 3-mm and an effectiveness of 85% was derived from the assumption of a double-welded butt joint that was spot checked. See Appendix G for wall thicknesses calculated for each pressure vessel. <br />
<br />
The sizing of the vessels to be constructed will be determined after talks with a manufacturer. Due to economies of scale, it may be more cost-effective to buy 21 pressure vessels with the dimensions mentioned above and a wall thickness of 17.1-mm, the highest wall thickness required in the system.<br />
<br />
===Pipe Losses and Pressure Drop===<br />
HYSYS was used to estimate the diameter of a pipe given a specified pressure drop per 100m of pipe. It was determined that for a pressure drop of 0.1 kPa/100m of pipe, a 3.05m diameter pipe is sufficient, which is more than manageable for manufacturers. This pressure drop is mostly insignificant and will be taken care of with the safety factors included in the pumps. The significant pressure drops in our system is accounted for via losses in the flash vessels and heat exchangers, which drive the flash process. Therefore overall pipe losses are insignificant and are built into intentional design losses.<br />
<br />
=Economic Analysis=<br />
==Economic Assumptions==<br />
The sale of purified water yields a revenue stream of $49.5 million per year assuming sale to commercial entities within the city limits of Corpus Christi at $1.7915 per thousand liters.<ref>Water schedule. City of Corpus Christi Utility Business Office. http://www.cctexas.com/Assets/Departments/Financial-Services/Utilities-Business-Office/files/waterrates.pdf Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref> The primary variable costs are utilities and the brine disposal, with minimal raw materials costs due to the primary feedstock, seawater, being free, and minimal amounts of pre- and post-treatment chemicals being used. The cost of brine disposal used in this analysis was high at $2.097 per thousand liters<ref>McCurdy, R. Underground injection wells for produced water disposal. Chesapeake Energy Corporation. http://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/documents/21_McCurdy_-_UIC_Disposal_508.pdf Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref>, an estimate for brine disposal utilizing trucking as the mode of transport. As has been shown through previous analyses, a lower cost can be achieved using a direct pipeline, however, no good estimates for this cost could be found.<br />
<br />
The NPV was calculated using a 6% cost of capital, the approximate interest rate for a municipal bond.<ref>Zirbe, R.O. Jr., Han, X., Layton, D., Leshine, T. A history of discount rates and their use by government agencies. (2002). http://faculty.washington.edu/zerbe/docs/DISCOUNT%20RATE%20HISTORY-latesXIt.doc Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref> It was assumed that the plant can be built within two years, with production at half-scale in its first year. Additionally, one month of variable costs, $10.6 million, was set aside for working capital. See Appendix H for a full table of assumptions. A 30 year NPV calculation was chosen as the decision basis since 30 years is a conservative estimate for the lifetime of a desalination plant [38]. See below for estimates of NPV for the lifetime of the plant under various assumptions and design criteria.<br />
<br />
==Optimization and Sensitivity Analysis==<br />
Looking at the multi-stage flash process, there are a number of opportunities to optimize the process. The major process variables that were investigated were the inlet water temperature, the operating pressure drop per vessel, and the number of stages over which the process takes place. Considering these optimizations, our final process consists of 21 flash vessels (18 heat recovery and 3 heat rejection stages), each with a pressure drop of 5 kPa. See Appendix D for a screenshot of the HYSYS simulation used to model the optimized process.<br />
===Operating Pressure and Pressure Drop===<br />
Initially our process was designed to pump the inlet seawater and brine to a pressure of 2 bar and allow the pressure drop in each flash stage to end our process downstream at 1 bar to prevent complications associated with designing a system under vacuum. While this provided pumping advantages, the energy in the system was significantly higher due to vapor pressure considerations. Due to this fact, the required heat exchange area for certain exchangers proved to be infeasible (on the order of 80,000m<sup>2</sup>) due to the enormous capital and operating costs that would be associated with such a large heat exchanger.<br />
<br />
The process was optimized to operate under vacuum, requiring additional pumping requirements but much lower required heat exchange area, and therefore lower utility costs. This optimization was done by specifying the pressure of the final flash vessel to 5.7kPa, so that the temperature of the water vapor (~30<sup>o</sup>C) is within approximately 5<sup>o</sup>C of the cooling water (35<sup>o</sup>C) so that condensation can occur within a reasonable approach. This also allows our system to optimally extract pure water from the brine running through the system and reduce energy requirements for cooling the product or the recycle. Our system redesign and optimization reduced the energy in the system and reduce the same heat exchanger area requirements by more than 3 orders of magnitude to approximately 800m<sup>2</sup>. <br />
<br />
Once the process was optimized to operate in a vacuum, the pressure drop per flash stage regulated through values was then optimized. Three pressure drops per stages, 3kPa, 5kPa, and 7kPa, were tested and then an economic analysis was conducted to find the optimal value for the pressure drop. These changes had impacts on both operating and capital costs as they would change initial pumping requirements, the amount of water flowing through the process and recycle (and therefore the flash vessel sizes, heat exchanger sizing), and the efficiency of each stage.<br />
<br />
The various pressure drops (3 kPa, 5 kPa, and 7 kPa) were tested on a system nominally at 24 stages under the assumption that the results would be generalizable to systems with a different number of stages. With increasing pressure drop, we found decreased capital cost but increased utility cost. As can be seen from Table 2 below, a pressure drop of 5 kPa proved to be the best option based on 30 year NPV, with a loss of $838.8 million, a savings of $65.5 million compared to the next-best option with a pressure drop of 7 kPa.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 2: Comparison of profitability for our MSF desalination process with 24 stages with 3 different pressure drops per stage<br />
! Number of Stages <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! Pressure Drop <br/> (kPa)<br />
! Capital Cost <br/> ($MM)<br />
! Utility Cost <br/> ($MM/yr)<br />
! 30-Year NPV <br/> ($MM)<br />
! NPV Ratio <br/> (over 5kPa)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 3 || 362.3 || 39.1 || -905.8 || 1.08<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 5 || 255.1 || 53.6 || -838.8 || 1.00<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 7 || 209.5 || 72.2 || -904.3 || 1.08<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
===Number of Flash Stages===<br />
The number of stages is an important area for optimization. An increased number of stages yields better recovery of purified water, however, requires higher capital cost from the additional pressure vessel. Furthermore, with an increased amount of purified water comes increasingly concentrated brine. This must be taken into account since any brine concentration in excess of about 7% presents a more significant corrosion risk<ref name="KSU Chapter 6" />, so increased maintenance costs for the piping or higher capital costs for more corrosion-resistant materials could be necessary for brine concentrations exceeding 7%. Therefore, to recover the same amount of pure water without exceeding corrosion limitations, increasing the number of stages will reduce the overall size of each stage.<br />
<br />
Optimizing based on NPV, it was found that 21 stages is optimal, balancing the increased profits from the additional purified water additional costs of higher capital cost. See Table 3 below to compare the 30-year NPV of the process across various numbers of flash vessels.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 3: Comparison of profitability for our MSF desalination process with a 5 kPa pressure drop, 5000 m<sup>3</sup>/hr feed flow rate, with varying number of stages.<br />
! Number of Stages <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! Pressure Drop <br/> (kPa)<br />
! Capital Cost <br/> ($MM)<br />
! Utility Cost <br/> ($MM/yr)<br />
! 30-Year NPV <br/> ($MM)<br />
! NPV Ratio <br/> (over 21 Stages)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 17 || 5 || 213.9 || 58.7 || -813.8 || 1.016<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 18 || 5 || 218 || 57.6 || -809.9 || 1.011<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 19 || 5 || 224.3 || 58 || -806.1 || 1.007<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 20 || 5 || 229.8 || 57.9 || -813.6 || 1.016<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 21 || 5 || 226.6 || 55.9 || -800.7 || 1<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 22 || 5 || 254.7 || 54.6 || -849.5 || 1.061<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 23 || 5 || 249.3 || 54.1 || -833.1 || 1.04<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 5 || 255.1 || 53.6 || -838.8 || 1.048<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 25 || 5 || 254.9 || 52.7 || -837.4 || 1.046<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
===Inlet Seawater Temperature===<br />
By pairing our desalination plant with a natural gas power plant and utilizing its cooling water we forgo initial heating of our inlet stream. Normally, water pumped from the ocean would be approximately 25<sup>o</sup>C and by capturing waste heat from the power plant we can reduce utilities with our water inlet of 45<sup>o</sup>C. Through an economic comparison between two plants nominally at 21 flash stages, the plant with an inlet temperature at 25<sup>o</sup>C has a capital cost of $245MM and a utility cost of $77MM/yr and the same facility with an inlet water temperature at 45<sup>o</sup>C has a capital cost of only $226MM and a utility cost of $56MM/yr. As shown in Table 4 below, this $19MM savings in capital costs and $21MM/yr saving in utilities is largely due to reducing the size of the heat exchangers and lowering the steam required for heating duty on the inlet seawater respectively. Therefore our process is optimized by recovering the waste heat water from the gas fired power plant.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 4: Seawater Inlet Temperature Process Cost Optimization<br />
! Seawater Temperature <br/> (°C)<br />
! Capital Cost <br/> ($MM)<br />
! Utility Cost <br/> ($MM/yr)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 25 || 245 || 77<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 45 || 226 || 56<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Savings || 56 || 19<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
==Overall Process Economics==<br />
After optimization at fixed flow rates, the process was scaled to meet the the 67% operating percentage and final product definitions as shown in Table 1, which resulted in finalized economics shown in Table 5 below. For a table of the installed costs of each process vessel, see Appendix I. For the finalized NPV calculations, see Appendix J.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 5: Summarized Economics for 21-stage MSFD Process<br />
! Economic Parameter<br />
! Cost <br/> (USD)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Capital Cost || 345 MM<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Total Operating Cost per Year || 103 MM<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Utility Cost per Year || 59 MM<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 30-Year NPV (6% Discount) || -1035 MM<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
=Conclusions and Recommendations=<br />
==Project Viability==<br />
Table 5 above demonstrates that the process has reasonable operating and capital costs, but the 30-year NPV is negative by -1035 $MM due to the extremely low sell price capability of desalinated water as a product. Therefore, this plant would have to heavily be supported by the City of Corpus Christi to run as the product revenue will not make it self-sufficient. The acquisition of government subsidies are key operating requirements for all desalination facilities in the United States. <br />
<br />
==Additional Concerns==<br />
Large volumes of water, steam, and energy are needed to ensure the project runs as specified. While most of the water can easily be extracted from the ocean with little to consequence, the fuel used to generate the steam and electricity can have a significant environmental impact. As the plant is located next to a natural gas power plant, this fuel is better than coal with respect to environmental concerns, and utilizing energy from the power plant to preheat the feed stream for the desalination plant helps lower environmental impacts.<br />
<br />
The large amounts of high pressure steam being used represents one of the the largest safety concern in the process, because a high pressure steam release could easily cause severe burns or even death. Proper precautions and control measures must be in place to prevent accidental release. Otherwise, the process does not utilize any known toxic chemicals and is relatively safe from a chemical standpoint. The flash vessels mostly operate below atmospheric pressure, so they must be constructed as vessels that can withstand vacuum without failing.<br />
<br />
<br />
=Appendix A: Proposed Location of Desalination Plant=<br />
Pictured below is the proposed location for the desalination plant, located on Nueces Bay in Corpus Christi, adjacent to the Nueces Bay Energy Center. The plant’s proposed location is shown in the area outlined by the small circle in the upper right of the figure.<br />
<br />
[[File:NuecesBayLocation.png|center|600px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Desalination Facility Location|Figure A.1: Proposed mapped location of Nueces Bay Desalination Facility.]]<br />
[[File:ClassIWell.png|center|700px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Desalination Facility Distance to Injection Well|Figure A.2: Mapped distance from proposed location to Class I Injection Well]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix B: Feed and Product Definitions - Salinity=<br />
<br />
=Appendix C: Process Flow Diagram=<br />
[[File:TeamF_PFD.png|center|1200px|thumb|alt=Process Flow Diagram|Figure C.1: Process Flow Diagram]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix D: HYSYS Simulation Model=<br />
[[File:TeamF_HYSYS_Screenshot.PNG|center|1200px|thumb|alt=HYSYS Simulation Model|Figure D.1: Screenshot of HYSYS Model Simulation.]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix E: Stream Tables=<br />
<br />
=Appendix F: Heat Exchanger Sizing=<br />
<br />
=Appendix G: Pressure Vessel Sizing=<br />
<br />
=Appendix H: Expanded Economic Assumptions=<br />
<br />
=Appendix I: Equipment Cost Summary=<br />
<br />
=Appendix J: Economic NPV Analysis=<br />
<br />
=References=<br />
<references/></div>Kedricdaly2https://processdesign.mccormick.northwestern.edu/index.php?title=Nueces_Desalination_Center:_Production_of_Drinking_Water_by_Multi-Stage_Flash_Distillation&diff=4942Nueces Desalination Center: Production of Drinking Water by Multi-Stage Flash Distillation2016-03-07T15:21:54Z<p>Kedricdaly2: BWA 2030 References updated</p>
<hr />
<div>Team F: Rankine 672 Final Report<br />
<br />
Authors: Kedric Daly, Ben Granger, Evan Rosati, Kathleen Zhou<br />
<br />
Instructors: Fengqi You, David Wegerer<br />
<br />
March 11, 2016<br />
<br />
=Executive Summary=<br />
Desalination of seawater to drinking water is a technology of ever-increasing importance given trends of increasingly widespread water shortages around the world. Even in the United States, water shortages are becoming increasingly common in dry, highly-populated such as California and certain areas of the Gulf Coast. Our design team, Rankine 672, was tasked with evaluating the need for and designing a desalination plant to provide purified water in a place of need. Investigation revealed that the city of Corpus Christi, Texas, is a strategic location for development of a desalination facility, as surrounding region is in need of new drinking water sources and the city has expressed serious interest in contracting the development of a large-scale desalination plant. Our proposed solution is a multi-stage flash distillation desalination facility capable of producing 20,000,000 gallons (75,708 m<sup>3</sup>) of purified drinking water for the city and surrounding region per operating day.<br />
<br />
In this design, drinking water is produced from seawater feedstock through a 21-stage flash distillation process. By strategically locating the facility next to an existing natural gas power plant, the Nueces Bay Energy Center, pre-heated feed water can be taken directly from the outbound cooling systems of the power plant, allowing energy savings for our desalination plant. The process is designed for 16 hour-per-day operation, requires a seawater feed of 8250 m<sup>3</sup>/hr, and produces 4758 m<sup>3</sup>/hr of purified drinking water alongside a waste stream of 3485 m<sup>3</sup>/hr of concentrated brine. The waste stream is isolated from a recycle stream through a 9.0% purge; this results in an overall product yield of 57.7% on a volume basis. The process requires an additional pretreatment stream of 16.5 kg/hr Belgard EV 2030, which serves as an antiscalant, as well as 9.5 kg/hr chlorine, 352.1 kg/hr lime, and 418.7 kg/hr CO2 for post-treatment purposes.<br />
<br />
The overall capital cost of the plant is expected to be $345MM, with a total operating cost of $103MM/yr, $59MM/yr of which comes from utilities. Due to the low price at which the product water can be sold, the 30-year net present value of the plant, assuming a 6% discount rate, is $-1,035MM. It is thus imperative this plant be constructed with public funds because it cannot return a profit to any private investor. The growing need for water however could justify the cost, because it is important that the residents of the greater Corpus Christi area have access to drinkable water.<br />
<br />
__TOC__<br />
<br />
=Introduction=<br />
==Background==<br />
Clean drinking water is a basic human need that is becoming increasingly difficult to meet. Currently, over 1 billion people live in places where water is considered scarce<ref> Tapping the oceans. The Economist USA. http://www.economist.com/node/11484059. Accessed March 2, 2016. </ref>. Though often thought of as a problem exclusive to third-world countries, the issue is becoming more prevalent in the US as well, with water managers in 40 of 50 states anticipating water shortage conditions in some portion of their state in the next 10 years. These shortages are due to increasing demands on constant or diminishing freshwater resources, therefore, to correct the issue, a new supply must be found<ref> Water Supply in the US. EPA. http://www3.epa.gov/watersense/pubs/supply.html. Accessed March 2, 2016.</ref>. Desalination of seawater is therefore important as a new source for clean drinking water and prevent water shortages. <br />
<br />
==Project Definition==<br />
The overall goal of the project is to investigate the feasibility of a desalination plant in order to meet the needs of growing water demand. The design needs to take health, safety, and environmental concerns into account, while optimizing costs.<br />
<br />
=Design Basis=<br />
Site Location and Conditions<br />
Corpus Christi, TX was chosen as the location for the proposed desalination plant. The city is currently experiencing “Moderate Shortage Conditions”. This issue additionally comes at a time of growing demand with population growth anticipated due to new industry and Eagle Ford Group crude oil production<ref>Stage 2 Measures in the Drought Contingency Plan. Available at http://www.cctexas.com/government/water/conservation/conservation-drought-plans/stage-2-measures. Accessed January 12, 2016. </ref>.<br />
<br />
In June 2014, the city announced the Corpus Christi Desalination Demonstration Project<ref>Corpus Christi Desalination Demonstration Project. Available at http://www.cctexas.com/Assets/Departments/Water/Files/DesalFactSheet.pdf. Published June 2014. Accessed January 12, 2016. <br />
</ref> which seeks to create a demonstration desalination plant capable of producing 20,000 gallons of water per day, with plans to later build a full scale facility generating 20,000,000 gallons of water per day. The desalination demonstration project indicates a clear need for implementation of a desalination plant of this size to accommodate growth in the Corpus Christi area. <br />
<br />
Locating our plant in Corpus Christi will allow us to take advantage of the benefits of cogeneration through a partnership with the Nueces Bay Energy Center. By utilizing their outlet cooling water as a large portion of our feed for the desalination process, we can raise the temperature of our seawater feed, saving on energy costs in the multi stage flash distillation. The proposed location for the desalination plant is immediately west of the Nueces Bay Energy Center. See Appendix A for a map depicting the proposed location for the desalination plant along the coast of Nueces Bay.<br />
<br />
==Feed and Product Definitions==<br />
The proposed desalination facility’s feed and product streams are defined as shown in Table 1. Rationale for these definitions is also described below. The values reported in Table 1 are final derived numbers from HYSYS simulation modeling. <br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 1: Feed and product stream definitions<br />
! &nbsp;<br />
! Salt Concentration<br />
! Temperature <br />
! Amount<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Feed Stream <br />
| 30,500 ppm || 45°C || 8250 m<sup>3</sup>/hr<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Product Stream<br />
| ~ 0 ppm || 35°C || 4758 m<sup>3</sup>/hr<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Byproduct Stream<br />
| 695 ppm || 35°C || 3485 m<sup>3</sup>/hr<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
The process feed will be seawater from Nueces Bay, preheated through the cooling water system of the nearby Nueces Bay Energy Center. Based on calculations developed from NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory) data, it was estimated that the Nueces Bay Energy Center uses approximately 250 million gallons of seawater per day for process and cooling needs. Therefore, the 20 million gallon per day requirement for the desalination facility can easily be met through the power plant’s cooling water<ref>Torcellini P, Long N, Judkoff R. Consumptive Water Use for U.S. Power Consumption. NREL. 2003; TP-550-33905. <br />
</ref>. Note that we are assuming the process will operate 67% of the time (16 hours per day).<br />
<br />
Based on data acquired from two salinity-measuring stations in Nueces Bay, the average salinity of local seawater is 30.5 practical salinity units (psu)<ref>Stations Map & Real - Time Data. The Conrad Blucher Institute for Surveying and Science website. Available at http://www.cbi.tamucc.edu/cbi/data/. Updated January 2016. Accessed January 9, 2016. </ref>, thus setting the concentration of the process feed stream. This translates to a feed stream concentration of 30,500 ppm (parts per million)<ref>Definition and Units. CATD Salinity Expertise Center. Available at http://www.salinityremotesensing.ifremer.fr/home. Accessed January 12, 2016.</ref>. The composition of the salt attributed to this seawater salinity is shown in Table 6 in Appendix B. <br />
<br />
No data on the composition of seawater around the Corpus Christi area was available, but the composition of seawater does not change significantly in different locations. The given composition is considered accurate for our feed stream<ref>Brown E, Colling A, Park D, Phillips J, Rothery D, Wright J. Seawater : Its Composition, Properties and Behaviour. Boston: Butterworth-Heinemann, 1995.<br />
</ref>. Note that seawater salt is primarily sodium chloride - total dissolved solids are 85.7% sodium chloride by mass. As such, the dissolved solids in the feed stream is assumed in this project to be pure NaCl, making the feed composition 96.95% water and 3.05% NaCl by mass. A control system will likely be put in place to ensure feed concentration remains at this level, accounting for natural fluctuations in local seawater salinity.<br />
<br />
The largest byproduct from the process will be a brine slurry with high salt concentrations. An upper corrosion limit of 700 ppm was set for recirculated and purged brine. This undesired byproduct will be sent to a nearby Class I non-hazardous injection well facility operated by GNI Group, which is approximately 12 miles away from the proposed desalination plant location as shown in the figure in Appendix A<ref>Texas Water Code. Availabe at http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/WA/htm/WA.27.htm. Accessed January 14, 2016.<br />
</ref><ref>Google Maps. Available at https://goo.gl/maps/3xcvLZwUCe42 Accessed January 15, 2016.</ref>. Through the incorporation of a Class I injection well, the brine will not have to be treated or diluted before injection. <ref>EPA Regulations on Class I Wells. Available at http://www.epa.gov/uic/class-i-industrial-and-municipal-waste-disposal-wells. Accessed January 14, 2016.<br />
</ref><ref>List of Injection Well Facilities by Location. Available at http://www.ehso.com/cssepa/tsdfdeepwells.php. Accessed January 14, 2016.</ref><br />
<br />
There are no regulations regarding the temperature of city drinking water, so the product stream temperature has no requirements based on regulations. Outlet temperatures of 35<sup>o</sup>C are acceptable for input to the municipal water supply system. Since city water tends to be stored in non-temperature controlled tanks, the temperature will naturally cool to ambient temperature.<ref>Climate Corpus Christi- Texas. US Climate Data. Available at http://www.usclimatedata.com/climate/corpus-christi/texas/united-states/ustx0294. Accessed January 12, 2016. </ref><br />
<br />
==Pre-Treatment and Post-Treatment==<br />
For pretreatment, Belgard EV 2030 is recommended to be added at a concentration of 1.8-2.0 mg/L for a system with top brine temperature approximately 110 °C<ref name="BWA 2030">BWA Water Additives. Belgard EV2030 Technical Data Sheet. BWA Water Additives. http://www.wateradditives.com/files/products/tech_data_sheets/Belgard%20EV%202030_Technical%20Data%20Sheet_Thermal_8.5x11.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016.<br />
</ref>. Since our process is designed to operate at a slightly higher top brine temperature, 120 °C, we will design for the upper bound concentration: 2.0 mg/L of antiscalant. With a feed flow rate of 8250 m<sup>3</sup>/hr, the process therefore requires 16.5 kg/hr of Belgard EV 2030.<br />
<br />
For disinfection during post-treatment, chlorine addition typically requires a dose of roughly 2.0 mg/L as well<ref name="World Health Organization">World Health Organization. Desalination for safe water supply. http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/gdwqrevision/desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. With a pure water distillate flow rate of 4758 m<sup>3</sup>/hr, the process requires 9.5 kg/hr of chlorine gas. Approximately 74 mg/L of lime (calcium hydroxide) and 88mg/L of CO2 should be added to the desalinated water to help prevent corrosion and increase alkalinity within acceptable ranges<ref name="Vouchkov">Vouchkov, N. Re-Mineralization of Desalinated Water. SunCam. https://s3.amazonaws.com/suncam/npdocs/118.pdf. Accessed February 18, 2016.</ref>. With a product stream flow rate of 4758 m3/hr, these concentrations correspond to 352.1 kg/hr of lime and 418.7 kg/hr of CO2. Both of these can be purchased, and it is likely that the CO2 can be procured from the neighboring natural gas power plant.<br />
<br />
==Choice of Desalination Technology==<br />
The two major technologies commonly implemented for desalination include reverse osmosis (RO), and multi-stage flash distillation (MSFD). RO utilizes high pressures to force water through a semipermeable membrane that allows for purified water to pass through, but stops organic and other wastes. Often, the pressures can reach 55 - 68 bar, which requires large pumps to maintain pressure, and introduces safety concerns to the process<ref>Stage 2 Measures in the Drought Contingency Plan. Available at http://www.cctexas.com/government/water/conservation/conservation-drought-plans/stage-2-measures. Accessed January 12, 2016. <br />
</ref>. While RO can be less energy intensive than MSFD, and the membrane can also remove contaminants, it is susceptible to feedwater quality, membrane fouling, and requires more extensive pretreatment and posttreatment than MSFD. The cost of RO is directly proportional to the feed salinity, and so it is less expensive when desalinating low salinity water.<br />
<br />
Multi-stage flash distillation is best selected for areas that have high salinity or low energy costs. The pretreatment process for MSFD is much easier when compared to RO because pretreatment often consists of simply adding anti-corrosives and antiscalants to the feed stream. The process works by heating water in vessels at different pressures to change the boiling point of the water and evaporate it as it passes through the system. After evaporation, the water condenses, leaving pure water as the effluent. MSFD costs are now roughly $1.00/m3, where this cost is mostly independent of salinity, but dependent on energy costs.<ref>Fritzman C, Lowenberg J, Wintgens T, Melin T. State-of-the-art Reverse Osmosis Desalination. Desalination. 2007; 216:1-76. <br />
</ref> In both RO and MSFD a brine is produced which then must be appropriately treated and/or disposed of.<br />
<br />
Multi-stage flash distillation was selected for this process, mainly due to the economic advantages offered by the selected location of Corpus Christi, TX. MSFD is also a well understood process that can be more easily modeled by chemical engineering software.<br />
<br />
=Technical Approach=<br />
Quantitative modeling of the process and all included optimization was conducted using the simulation software Aspen HYSYS. A variety of assumptions were developed to set up and define specific components of the process simulation itself. Within Aspen HYSYS, the NRTL Electrolyte property package was selected to model the behavior of salt water. Each stage of the MSF process is modeled as an individual flash vessel, with individual shell & tube heat exchangers used to model the distillate condensers present in each flash stage in the MSF system.<br />
<br />
The HYSYS simulation model only considers the flash portion of the overall process, allowing establishment of mass and energy balances for the system. Pretreatment and post-treatment were excluded for the HYSYS model, as these steps are simple additions or removals of small concentrations of chemical components. Although the simulation models heat exchangers outside of each flash stage, in the physical design of the plant these heat exchangers will be contained within each flash stage.<br />
<br />
One portion of the process is not modeled, which is the inlet seawater entering the heat rejection stages. As can be seen from the full process flow diagram (Appendix C), the inlet seawater in the heat rejection stage is in high excess to provide maximum cooling capacity; then a significant portion is purged to bring the stream flow rate down to what is needed for the feed stream. It is assumed that the flow rate of cooling water for those three stages is in such high excess that the cooling water does not heat up. Therefore, in the process simulation models, the inlet stream is the feed stream, which enters directly into the heat recovery portion of the process.<br />
<br />
See Appendix D for a screenshot overview of the simulation environment model.<br />
<br />
=Process Overview=<br />
==Process Flowsheet==<br />
The following diagram, Figure 1, shows a basic flowsheet for the process. Process alternatives considered for each stage are discussed below. Please see Appendix C for the full process flowsheet with finalized design decisions.<br />
<br />
[[File:BlockFlowDiagram.png|center|700px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Desalination Facility Block Flow Diagram|Figure 1: Basic block flowsheet of the multi-stage flash desalination process.]]<br />
<br />
==Major Features==<br />
As seen above, there are three primary stages of the desalination process: Pre-treatment, the multi-stage flash distillation, and post-treatment. Seawater enters the pre-treatment phase first to make the feed suitable for the rest of the process by filtering out large particles that could accumulate on pipes, deaerating the water to limit corrosion, and adding an agent to combat fouling. The water then enters the distillation process, which is broken up into two sections: heat recovery and heat rejection. <br />
<br />
In the heat recovery stage, there are 18 flash vessels, each of which separates steam from the salinated liquid water. Each flash vessel has saltwater as its inlet and two outlets: a vapor outlet (steam) that condenses into the final product of purified water and a liquid outlet composed of water with more dissolved solids than the inlet, which is the inlet stream for the next flash vessel. The pipe containing the feed is first mixed with recycled brine, then goes through the top sections of each of the flash vessels, starting with V-118 and ending up at V-101. In this way, the feed stream pipe first serves as a heat exchanger, heating the pre-treated seawater while simultaneously condensing the steam into the final product. The feed then enters a final heat exchanger where it is brought up to 103.6 °C before entering V-101 to be flashed.<br />
<br />
After exiting V-118, the final flash vessel in the heat recovery portion, the water enters the heat rejection portion, which consists of three flash vessels (V-201, V-202, V-203). The flash vessels of this section operate in the same manner as in the heat recovery section, with the exception that condensation occurs using excess cooling water instead of pre-treated seawater. This technique allows excess heat to be rejected into an excess water stream rather than the feed.<br />
<br />
The purified product stream finally enters post-treatment processing in which water is re-aerated and remineralized, disinfected, and pH is adjusted before being delivered to the city. The concentrated brine leftover at the end of the flash cycle is recycled into the feed, although a purge is required to continuously remove some salt from the system. This purged brine is disposed of by use of a Class I injection well, per regional regulations.<br />
<br />
See Appendix E to find detailed stream tables of stream specifications.<br />
<br />
==Process Alternatives==<br />
===Pretreatment===<br />
Multi-stage flash distillation requires significantly less pretreatment than reverse osmosis desalination, but helpful pretreatment techniques still exist. One very inexpensive method of pretreatment is screening/filtration, which is used to filter out large contaminants from intake seawater. Using more complicated membrane technology to accomplish large particle filtration is a possible alternative, but doing so would be much more expensive than using a standard screen or filter, so the latter choice has been selected for this process.<ref>El-Dessouky H., Alatiqi I, Ettouney H. Process synthesis: The multi-stage flash desalination system. Desalination. 1998;115(2):115-179. doi: 10.1016/S0011-9164(98)00035-6.</ref><br />
<br />
The most critical type of fouling in multi-stage flash distillation is scaling - therefore, the most critical step in the pretreatment process will be the inclusion of an anti-scalant. Alkaline scaling can be prevented by acid dosing or polyphosphate addition; however, acid dosing can result in increased corrosion and polyphosphates can lead to non-alkaline calcium phosphate fouling, so these additives will not be considered<ref name="Morris">Morris, R. The development of the multi-stage flash distillation process: A designer's viewpoint. Desalination. 1993;93(1-3):57-68. doi:10.1016/S0011-9164(93)80096-6. Availble at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0011916493800966</ref><ref>Al-Gobaisi, D. A quarter-century of seawater desalination by large multistage flash plants in Abu Dhabi (Plant performance analysis, assessment, present efforts toward enhancement and future hopes). Desalination. 1994;99(2-3):509-512. doi: 10.1016/S0011-9164(94)00196-0.</ref>. As such, a polymer-based additive is recommended for the anti-scalant for this process. The Belgard EV series is designed for use in high-temperature seawater MSF; of these, Belgard EV 2030 is the most neutral in pH<ref>NSF International. NSF Product and Service Listings: Drinking Water Treatment Chemicals - Health Effects. NSF International. http://info.nsf.org/Certified/PwsChemicals/Listings.asp?Company=00300&. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref><ref name="BWA 2030" /><ref>BWA Water Additives. Belgard EV2035 Technical Data Sheet. BWA Water Additives. http://www.wateradditives.com/files/products/tech_data_sheets/Belgard%20EV2035_Technical%20Data%20Sheet_Thermal_8.5x11.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref><ref>BioLab Water Additives. Belgard EV Antiscalant for seawater distillation plants. BioLab Water Additives. http://www.lpq.com.mx/pdf/BELGARD%20EV.PDF. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref>. As such, we have selected Belgard EV 2030 for use as an anti-scalant in our process.<br />
<br />
Corrosion control is another significant method of pretreatment in multi-stage flash distillation plants. Using a piping material that has limited susceptibility to corrosion is typically not economically viable for MSF desalination plants due their large size, so using carbon steel for most of the piping is generally used for its economic benefits despite its susceptibility to corrosion<ref name = "Morris" />. Limiting oxygen concentration is very feasible through the use of deaerators, which can remove oxygen as well as other dissolved gases from the seawater stream. Often, an external deaeration system is used<ref name = "Morris" /><ref>Edwards - Hick Hargreaves. Seawater Deaerators. Edwards - Hick Hargreaves. http://psscorp.co.th/upload/news/20110830105340.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. Given these considerations, using an external deaerator combined with a less-corrosive antiscalant like Belgard EV 2030 is much more practical for the process than using anti-corrosive piping.<br />
<br />
Excessive foam can also be an issue in some MSF distillation facilities, so antifoaming agents are sometimes employed in the pretreatment process as well. However, many plants are operated without foaming issues, and therefore do not need anti-foaming pretreatment at all. Selection of an anti-foaming agent must be carefully weighed with selected of anti-scalant to avoid issues with additive interactions [26]. At this stage in the design process, an anti-foamer will not be included due to the risk of decreasing scalant efficacy, and the likelihood that foam will not be an issue in the desalination plant.<br />
<br />
===Multistage Flash Distillation===<br />
The main objective of the design project is desalinate water. This is done with the main process of multi stage flash distillation (MSF). MSF can be developed using a numerous number of different process configurations, such as Once-Through, Simple Mixer Brine Circulation, and Multi-Stage Heat Rejection Brine Circulation processes. <br />
<br />
The most desired process for the project is the Three Stage Heat Rejection Brine Circulation as it builds on benefits of the other simpler technologies. By combining principles of heat rejection and heat recovery, the required heat transfer area of the process is greatly reduced as compared to once through processes or simple brine recycle processes. It has the highest performance ratio with the lowest specific feed flow rates, therefore greatly lowering the operating costs of the process. It is also known as the industry standard for MSF<ref name = "KSU Chapter 6">Kansas State University ChE 413. Available at: http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/Almutaz/Documents/ChE-413/Multi-stage%20Flash%20Desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. In addition, since our brine disposal technique involves the pumping of the brine into a Class I well, the high brine outlet salinity is not a drawback for our process since post treatment or dilution of the brine is not necessary.<br />
<br />
===Post Treatment===<br />
After processing the water via multi-stage flash, the water needs to be post-treated to make the water taste as consumers would expect, since distilled water is “flat” and unpleasant, as well as to protect the consumers and the piping through which the water will be passing<ref>Clayton R. A review of current knowledge: Desalination for water supply. Foundation for Water Research. http://www.fwr.org/desal.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. There are multiple alternatives to achieve these objectives of remineralization, aeration, corrosion control, and disinfection.<br />
<br />
Aerating and introducing some dissolved solids back into the product water are effective ways to create a quality product that is not flat, and contains flavoring that is expected of the water when delivered to the consumer. Aeration will be accomplished via an inline spray aerator which will take up less space than cascade aeration.<ref>Minnesota Rural Water Association. Aeration. http://www.mrwa.com/WaterWorksMnl/Chapter%2011%20Aeration.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref> Feed blending will be used to remineralize the water as opposed to a remineralization filter because it does not require additional equipment purchases, and can easily handle the large amounts of throughput required for the process.<ref>Clayton R. A review of current knowledge: Desalination for water supply. Foundation for Water Research. http://www.fwr.org/desal.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref><br />
<br />
Corrosion and pH can be controlled by adding lime (calcium hydroxide) and carbon dioxide to the water. To do so, about 74 mg/L of lime and 88mg/L of CO<sub>2</sub> should be added to the desalinated water to help prevent corrosion and increase alkalinity within acceptable ranges. Sodium hydroxide, soda ash, and sodium bicarbonate are alternatives to altering the alkalinity and pH of the product water, but lime and CO<sub>2</sub> is an industry standard <ref name="Vouchkov" />.<br />
<br />
Disinfection needs to be done to prevent microbial growth in the desalinated water and ensure the safety of the general public. Chlorine addition via chlorine gas or sodium hypochlorite is the most common and only requires a dose of 1.5 to 2.5 mg/liter. <ref name="World Health Organization" /> Other alternatives include ozonation, UV light, and chloramination. Chlorine, as a 5% - 15% sodium hypochlorite solution, is sufficient for our process and relatively inexpensive, and as such will be utilized in the process.<br />
<br />
===Transport of Brine to Well===<br />
Three major possibilities exist for transporting the brine from our desalination plant to the injection well for disposal: rail, trucking, and a pipeline. A pipeline was chosen as the most feasible and cost-effective approach. <br />
<br />
A rail line is not available at this time, and with the cost to construct a rail line at approximately $43 million per mile<ref>About Money. How Much Do Rail Transit Projects Cost to Build and Operate? 2014. Available at: http://publictransport.about.com/od/Transit_Projects/a/How-Much-Do-Rail-Transit-Projects-Cost-To-Build-And-Operate.htm. Accessed January 27, 2016. </ref>, the enormous capital cost makes rail transport infeasible for this site. For large volume operations, pipelines are cheaper than trucking. In a study of wastewater sludge produced from wastewater treatment facilities, it was found that it was more economical for facilities producing over 1200 m<sup>3</sup> per day to utilize pipelines rather than trucking.<ref>Marufuzzaman M, Eskioglu S, Hernandez R. Truck versus pipeline transportation cost analysis of wastewater sludge. Transportation Research. 2015; 74(A): 14-30. </ref> Our facility is producing nearly 3 times this volume at 3485 m<sup>3</sup> per day of brine. Furthermore, brine is a less viscous fluid than wastewater sludge, decreasing pumping costs in the pipeline and further amplifying the benefit of choosing a pipeline over an injection well.<br />
<br />
===Brine Storage===<br />
Due to the choice of a pipeline, rather than trucking, as the method of transport of brine to the injection well, brine storage is unnecessary, so storage solutions such as holding tanks were not investigated. One method of storage compatible with a pipeline is to pump the brine through an evaporation pond. This solution is attractive as it would allow the brine to concentrate, saving some costs of pumping, however, the considerable land usage of evaporation ponds leads them to only be effective for smaller plants. The largest municipal plant utilizing this method produces only 5.7 million liters per day<ref>University of Santa Cruz Center for Integrated Water Research. Concentrate Management: Evaporation Ponds. 2010. Available at: https://ciwr.ucsc.edu/sites/default/files/ICM_D5.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016. </ref>, whereas our desalination plant is proposed to produce 75.7 million liters per day. Therefore, evaporation ponds have been eliminated from consideration.<br />
<br />
==Major Specifications==<br />
===Material of Construction Selection===<br />
While saltwater and desalinated water in general can be corrosive, there are best practices within the desalination industry for material selection. With this in mind, best practice shows carbon steel lifetime can be lengthened by monitoring the oxygen concentration in the water, specifying the paint used to coat any metal, and more expensive materials can be used in areas of extremely high corrosion.<ref name = "Morris" />. By following these best practices, it is possible to save significant amounts of money through the use of carbon steel in most areas of the plant, with specific high-corrosion areas being reinforced with, or replaced with, more corrosion resistant materials, such as Cu/Ni 70/30 alloy<ref name = "KSU Chapter 6" />.<br />
<br />
===Heat Exchanger Sizing===<br />
See Appendix F for heat exchanger sizing data. Heat exchanger sizes appear reasonable for placement in the flash vessels.<br />
<br />
===Flash Vessel Sizing===<br />
The dimensions for the flash drums were obtained through literature values. The flash drums were determined to be 18x4x3 m in width, height, and length.<ref name="KSU Chapter 6" /><br />
<br />
Wall thickness was determined using the following conventions: Design pressure is 10% more than the operating pressure, design temperature is 50°F (27.8°C) higher than the operating temperature, a corrosion allowance of 3-mm and an effectiveness of 85% was derived from the assumption of a double-welded butt joint that was spot checked. See Appendix G for wall thicknesses calculated for each pressure vessel. <br />
<br />
The sizing of the vessels to be constructed will be determined after talks with a manufacturer. Due to economies of scale, it may be more cost-effective to buy 21 pressure vessels with the dimensions mentioned above and a wall thickness of 17.1-mm, the highest wall thickness required in the system.<br />
<br />
===Pipe Losses and Pressure Drop===<br />
HYSYS was used to estimate the diameter of a pipe given a specified pressure drop per 100m of pipe. It was determined that for a pressure drop of 0.1 kPa/100m of pipe, a 3.05m diameter pipe is sufficient, which is more than manageable for manufacturers. This pressure drop is mostly insignificant and will be taken care of with the safety factors included in the pumps. The significant pressure drops in our system is accounted for via losses in the flash vessels and heat exchangers, which drive the flash process. Therefore overall pipe losses are insignificant and are built into intentional design losses.<br />
<br />
=Economic Analysis=<br />
==Economic Assumptions==<br />
The sale of purified water yields a revenue stream of $49.5 million per year assuming sale to commercial entities within the city limits of Corpus Christi at $1.7915 per thousand liters.<ref>Water schedule. City of Corpus Christi Utility Business Office. http://www.cctexas.com/Assets/Departments/Financial-Services/Utilities-Business-Office/files/waterrates.pdf Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref> The primary variable costs are utilities and the brine disposal, with minimal raw materials costs due to the primary feedstock, seawater, being free, and minimal amounts of pre- and post-treatment chemicals being used. The cost of brine disposal used in this analysis was high at $2.097 per thousand liters<ref>McCurdy, R. Underground injection wells for produced water disposal. Chesapeake Energy Corporation. http://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/documents/21_McCurdy_-_UIC_Disposal_508.pdf Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref>, an estimate for brine disposal utilizing trucking as the mode of transport. As has been shown through previous analyses, a lower cost can be achieved using a direct pipeline, however, no good estimates for this cost could be found.<br />
<br />
The NPV was calculated using a 6% cost of capital, the approximate interest rate for a municipal bond.<ref>Zirbe, R.O. Jr., Han, X., Layton, D., Leshine, T. A history of discount rates and their use by government agencies. (2002). http://faculty.washington.edu/zerbe/docs/DISCOUNT%20RATE%20HISTORY-latesXIt.doc Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref> It was assumed that the plant can be built within two years, with production at half-scale in its first year. Additionally, one month of variable costs, $10.6 million, was set aside for working capital. See Appendix H for a full table of assumptions. A 30 year NPV calculation was chosen as the decision basis since 30 years is a conservative estimate for the lifetime of a desalination plant [38]. See below for estimates of NPV for the lifetime of the plant under various assumptions and design criteria.<br />
<br />
==Optimization and Sensitivity Analysis==<br />
Looking at the multi-stage flash process, there are a number of opportunities to optimize the process. The major process variables that were investigated were the inlet water temperature, the operating pressure drop per vessel, and the number of stages over which the process takes place. Considering these optimizations, our final process consists of 21 flash vessels (18 heat recovery and 3 heat rejection stages), each with a pressure drop of 5 kPa. See Appendix D for a screenshot of the HYSYS simulation used to model the optimized process.<br />
===Operating Pressure and Pressure Drop===<br />
Initially our process was designed to pump the inlet seawater and brine to a pressure of 2 bar and allow the pressure drop in each flash stage to end our process downstream at 1 bar to prevent complications associated with designing a system under vacuum. While this provided pumping advantages, the energy in the system was significantly higher due to vapor pressure considerations. Due to this fact, the required heat exchange area for certain exchangers proved to be infeasible (on the order of 80,000m<sup>2</sup>) due to the enormous capital and operating costs that would be associated with such a large heat exchanger.<br />
<br />
The process was optimized to operate under vacuum, requiring additional pumping requirements but much lower required heat exchange area, and therefore lower utility costs. This optimization was done by specifying the pressure of the final flash vessel to 5.7kPa, so that the temperature of the water vapor (~30<sup>o</sup>C) is within approximately 5<sup>o</sup>C of the cooling water (35<sup>o</sup>C) so that condensation can occur within a reasonable approach. This also allows our system to optimally extract pure water from the brine running through the system and reduce energy requirements for cooling the product or the recycle. Our system redesign and optimization reduced the energy in the system and reduce the same heat exchanger area requirements by more than 3 orders of magnitude to approximately 800m<sup>2</sup>. <br />
<br />
Once the process was optimized to operate in a vacuum, the pressure drop per flash stage regulated through values was then optimized. Three pressure drops per stages, 3kPa, 5kPa, and 7kPa, were tested and then an economic analysis was conducted to find the optimal value for the pressure drop. These changes had impacts on both operating and capital costs as they would change initial pumping requirements, the amount of water flowing through the process and recycle (and therefore the flash vessel sizes, heat exchanger sizing), and the efficiency of each stage.<br />
<br />
The various pressure drops (3 kPa, 5 kPa, and 7 kPa) were tested on a system nominally at 24 stages under the assumption that the results would be generalizable to systems with a different number of stages. With increasing pressure drop, we found decreased capital cost but increased utility cost. As can be seen from Table 2 below, a pressure drop of 5 kPa proved to be the best option based on 30 year NPV, with a loss of $838.8 million, a savings of $65.5 million compared to the next-best option with a pressure drop of 7 kPa.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 2: Comparison of profitability for our MSF desalination process with 24 stages with 3 different pressure drops per stage<br />
! Number of Stages <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! Pressure Drop <br/> (kPa)<br />
! Capital Cost <br/> ($MM)<br />
! Utility Cost <br/> ($MM/yr)<br />
! 30-Year NPV <br/> ($MM)<br />
! NPV Ratio <br/> (over 5kPa)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 3 || 362.3 || 39.1 || -905.8 || 1.08<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 5 || 255.1 || 53.6 || -838.8 || 1.00<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 7 || 209.5 || 72.2 || -904.3 || 1.08<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
===Number of Flash Stages===<br />
The number of stages is an important area for optimization. An increased number of stages yields better recovery of purified water, however, requires higher capital cost from the additional pressure vessel. Furthermore, with an increased amount of purified water comes increasingly concentrated brine. This must be taken into account since any brine concentration in excess of about 7% presents a more significant corrosion risk<ref name="KSU Chapter 6" />, so increased maintenance costs for the piping or higher capital costs for more corrosion-resistant materials could be necessary for brine concentrations exceeding 7%. Therefore, to recover the same amount of pure water without exceeding corrosion limitations, increasing the number of stages will reduce the overall size of each stage.<br />
<br />
Optimizing based on NPV, it was found that 21 stages is optimal, balancing the increased profits from the additional purified water additional costs of higher capital cost. See Table 3 below to compare the 30-year NPV of the process across various numbers of flash vessels.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 3: Comparison of profitability for our MSF desalination process with a 5 kPa pressure drop, 5000 m<sup>3</sup>/hr feed flow rate, with varying number of stages.<br />
! Number of Stages <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! Pressure Drop <br/> (kPa)<br />
! Capital Cost <br/> ($MM)<br />
! Utility Cost <br/> ($MM/yr)<br />
! 30-Year NPV <br/> ($MM)<br />
! NPV Ratio <br/> (over 21 Stages)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 17 || 5 || 213.9 || 58.7 || -813.8 || 1.016<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 18 || 5 || 218 || 57.6 || -809.9 || 1.011<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 19 || 5 || 224.3 || 58 || -806.1 || 1.007<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 20 || 5 || 229.8 || 57.9 || -813.6 || 1.016<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 21 || 5 || 226.6 || 55.9 || -800.7 || 1<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 22 || 5 || 254.7 || 54.6 || -849.5 || 1.061<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 23 || 5 || 249.3 || 54.1 || -833.1 || 1.04<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 5 || 255.1 || 53.6 || -838.8 || 1.048<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 25 || 5 || 254.9 || 52.7 || -837.4 || 1.046<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
===Inlet Seawater Temperature===<br />
By pairing our desalination plant with a natural gas power plant and utilizing its cooling water we forgo initial heating of our inlet stream. Normally, water pumped from the ocean would be approximately 25<sup>o</sup>C and by capturing waste heat from the power plant we can reduce utilities with our water inlet of 45<sup>o</sup>C. Through an economic comparison between two plants nominally at 21 flash stages, the plant with an inlet temperature at 25<sup>o</sup>C has a capital cost of $245MM and a utility cost of $77MM/yr and the same facility with an inlet water temperature at 45<sup>o</sup>C has a capital cost of only $226MM and a utility cost of $56MM/yr. As shown in Table 4 below, this $19MM savings in capital costs and $21MM/yr saving in utilities is largely due to reducing the size of the heat exchangers and lowering the steam required for heating duty on the inlet seawater respectively. Therefore our process is optimized by recovering the waste heat water from the gas fired power plant.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 4: Seawater Inlet Temperature Process Cost Optimization<br />
! Seawater Temperature <br/> (°C)<br />
! Capital Cost <br/> ($MM)<br />
! Utility Cost <br/> ($MM/yr)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 25 || 245 || 77<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 45 || 226 || 56<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Savings || 56 || 19<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
==Overall Process Economics==<br />
After optimization at fixed flow rates, the process was scaled to meet the the 67% operating percentage and final product definitions as shown in Table 1, which resulted in finalized economics shown in Table 5 below. For a table of the installed costs of each process vessel, see Appendix I. For the finalized NPV calculations, see Appendix J.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 5: Summarized Economics for 21-stage MSFD Process<br />
! Economic Parameter<br />
! Cost <br/> (USD)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Capital Cost || 345 MM<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Total Operating Cost per Year || 103 MM<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Utility Cost per Year || 59 MM<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 30-Year NPV (6% Discount) || -1035 MM<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
=Conclusions and Recommendations=<br />
==Project Viability==<br />
Table 5 above demonstrates that the process has reasonable operating and capital costs, but the 30-year NPV is negative by -1035 $MM due to the extremely low sell price capability of desalinated water as a product. Therefore, this plant would have to heavily be supported by the City of Corpus Christi to run as the product revenue will not make it self-sufficient. The acquisition of government subsidies are key operating requirements for all desalination facilities in the United States. <br />
<br />
==Additional Concerns==<br />
Large volumes of water, steam, and energy are needed to ensure the project runs as specified. While most of the water can easily be extracted from the ocean with little to consequence, the fuel used to generate the steam and electricity can have a significant environmental impact. As the plant is located next to a natural gas power plant, this fuel is better than coal with respect to environmental concerns, and utilizing energy from the power plant to preheat the feed stream for the desalination plant helps lower environmental impacts.<br />
<br />
The large amounts of high pressure steam being used represents one of the the largest safety concern in the process, because a high pressure steam release could easily cause severe burns or even death. Proper precautions and control measures must be in place to prevent accidental release. Otherwise, the process does not utilize any known toxic chemicals and is relatively safe from a chemical standpoint. The flash vessels mostly operate below atmospheric pressure, so they must be constructed as vessels that can withstand vacuum without failing.<br />
<br />
<br />
=Appendix A: Proposed Location of Desalination Plant=<br />
Pictured below is the proposed location for the desalination plant, located on Nueces Bay in Corpus Christi, adjacent to the Nueces Bay Energy Center. The plant’s proposed location is shown in the area outlined by the small circle in the upper right of the figure.<br />
<br />
[[File:NuecesBayLocation.png|center|600px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Desalination Facility Location|Figure A.1: Proposed mapped location of Nueces Bay Desalination Facility.]]<br />
[[File:ClassIWell.png|center|700px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Desalination Facility Distance to Injection Well|Figure A.2: Mapped distance from proposed location to Class I Injection Well]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix B: Feed and Product Definitions - Salinity=<br />
<br />
=Appendix C: Process Flow Diagram=<br />
[[File:TeamF_PFD.png|center|1200px|thumb|alt=Process Flow Diagram|Figure C.1: Process Flow Diagram]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix D: HYSYS Simulation Model=<br />
[[File:TeamF_HYSYS_Screenshot.PNG|center|1200px|thumb|alt=HYSYS Simulation Model|Figure D.1: Screenshot of HYSYS Model Simulation.]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix E: Stream Tables=<br />
<br />
=Appendix F: Heat Exchanger Sizing=<br />
<br />
=Appendix G: Pressure Vessel Sizing=<br />
<br />
=Appendix H: Expanded Economic Assumptions=<br />
<br />
=Appendix I: Equipment Cost Summary=<br />
<br />
=Appendix J: Economic NPV Analysis=<br />
<br />
=References=<br />
<references/></div>Kedricdaly2https://processdesign.mccormick.northwestern.edu/index.php?title=Nueces_Desalination_Center:_Production_of_Drinking_Water_by_Multi-Stage_Flash_Distillation&diff=4941Nueces Desalination Center: Production of Drinking Water by Multi-Stage Flash Distillation2016-03-07T15:19:16Z<p>Kedricdaly2: Updated World Health Organization references</p>
<hr />
<div>Team F: Rankine 672 Final Report<br />
<br />
Authors: Kedric Daly, Ben Granger, Evan Rosati, Kathleen Zhou<br />
<br />
Instructors: Fengqi You, David Wegerer<br />
<br />
March 11, 2016<br />
<br />
=Executive Summary=<br />
Desalination of seawater to drinking water is a technology of ever-increasing importance given trends of increasingly widespread water shortages around the world. Even in the United States, water shortages are becoming increasingly common in dry, highly-populated such as California and certain areas of the Gulf Coast. Our design team, Rankine 672, was tasked with evaluating the need for and designing a desalination plant to provide purified water in a place of need. Investigation revealed that the city of Corpus Christi, Texas, is a strategic location for development of a desalination facility, as surrounding region is in need of new drinking water sources and the city has expressed serious interest in contracting the development of a large-scale desalination plant. Our proposed solution is a multi-stage flash distillation desalination facility capable of producing 20,000,000 gallons (75,708 m<sup>3</sup>) of purified drinking water for the city and surrounding region per operating day.<br />
<br />
In this design, drinking water is produced from seawater feedstock through a 21-stage flash distillation process. By strategically locating the facility next to an existing natural gas power plant, the Nueces Bay Energy Center, pre-heated feed water can be taken directly from the outbound cooling systems of the power plant, allowing energy savings for our desalination plant. The process is designed for 16 hour-per-day operation, requires a seawater feed of 8250 m<sup>3</sup>/hr, and produces 4758 m<sup>3</sup>/hr of purified drinking water alongside a waste stream of 3485 m<sup>3</sup>/hr of concentrated brine. The waste stream is isolated from a recycle stream through a 9.0% purge; this results in an overall product yield of 57.7% on a volume basis. The process requires an additional pretreatment stream of 16.5 kg/hr Belgard EV 2030, which serves as an antiscalant, as well as 9.5 kg/hr chlorine, 352.1 kg/hr lime, and 418.7 kg/hr CO2 for post-treatment purposes.<br />
<br />
The overall capital cost of the plant is expected to be $345MM, with a total operating cost of $103MM/yr, $59MM/yr of which comes from utilities. Due to the low price at which the product water can be sold, the 30-year net present value of the plant, assuming a 6% discount rate, is $-1,035MM. It is thus imperative this plant be constructed with public funds because it cannot return a profit to any private investor. The growing need for water however could justify the cost, because it is important that the residents of the greater Corpus Christi area have access to drinkable water.<br />
<br />
__TOC__<br />
<br />
=Introduction=<br />
==Background==<br />
Clean drinking water is a basic human need that is becoming increasingly difficult to meet. Currently, over 1 billion people live in places where water is considered scarce<ref> Tapping the oceans. The Economist USA. http://www.economist.com/node/11484059. Accessed March 2, 2016. </ref>. Though often thought of as a problem exclusive to third-world countries, the issue is becoming more prevalent in the US as well, with water managers in 40 of 50 states anticipating water shortage conditions in some portion of their state in the next 10 years. These shortages are due to increasing demands on constant or diminishing freshwater resources, therefore, to correct the issue, a new supply must be found<ref> Water Supply in the US. EPA. http://www3.epa.gov/watersense/pubs/supply.html. Accessed March 2, 2016.</ref>. Desalination of seawater is therefore important as a new source for clean drinking water and prevent water shortages. <br />
<br />
==Project Definition==<br />
The overall goal of the project is to investigate the feasibility of a desalination plant in order to meet the needs of growing water demand. The design needs to take health, safety, and environmental concerns into account, while optimizing costs.<br />
<br />
=Design Basis=<br />
Site Location and Conditions<br />
Corpus Christi, TX was chosen as the location for the proposed desalination plant. The city is currently experiencing “Moderate Shortage Conditions”. This issue additionally comes at a time of growing demand with population growth anticipated due to new industry and Eagle Ford Group crude oil production<ref>Stage 2 Measures in the Drought Contingency Plan. Available at http://www.cctexas.com/government/water/conservation/conservation-drought-plans/stage-2-measures. Accessed January 12, 2016. </ref>.<br />
<br />
In June 2014, the city announced the Corpus Christi Desalination Demonstration Project<ref>Corpus Christi Desalination Demonstration Project. Available at http://www.cctexas.com/Assets/Departments/Water/Files/DesalFactSheet.pdf. Published June 2014. Accessed January 12, 2016. <br />
</ref> which seeks to create a demonstration desalination plant capable of producing 20,000 gallons of water per day, with plans to later build a full scale facility generating 20,000,000 gallons of water per day. The desalination demonstration project indicates a clear need for implementation of a desalination plant of this size to accommodate growth in the Corpus Christi area. <br />
<br />
Locating our plant in Corpus Christi will allow us to take advantage of the benefits of cogeneration through a partnership with the Nueces Bay Energy Center. By utilizing their outlet cooling water as a large portion of our feed for the desalination process, we can raise the temperature of our seawater feed, saving on energy costs in the multi stage flash distillation. The proposed location for the desalination plant is immediately west of the Nueces Bay Energy Center. See Appendix A for a map depicting the proposed location for the desalination plant along the coast of Nueces Bay.<br />
<br />
==Feed and Product Definitions==<br />
The proposed desalination facility’s feed and product streams are defined as shown in Table 1. Rationale for these definitions is also described below. The values reported in Table 1 are final derived numbers from HYSYS simulation modeling. <br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 1: Feed and product stream definitions<br />
! &nbsp;<br />
! Salt Concentration<br />
! Temperature <br />
! Amount<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Feed Stream <br />
| 30,500 ppm || 45°C || 8250 m<sup>3</sup>/hr<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Product Stream<br />
| ~ 0 ppm || 35°C || 4758 m<sup>3</sup>/hr<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Byproduct Stream<br />
| 695 ppm || 35°C || 3485 m<sup>3</sup>/hr<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
The process feed will be seawater from Nueces Bay, preheated through the cooling water system of the nearby Nueces Bay Energy Center. Based on calculations developed from NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory) data, it was estimated that the Nueces Bay Energy Center uses approximately 250 million gallons of seawater per day for process and cooling needs. Therefore, the 20 million gallon per day requirement for the desalination facility can easily be met through the power plant’s cooling water<ref>Torcellini P, Long N, Judkoff R. Consumptive Water Use for U.S. Power Consumption. NREL. 2003; TP-550-33905. <br />
</ref>. Note that we are assuming the process will operate 67% of the time (16 hours per day).<br />
<br />
Based on data acquired from two salinity-measuring stations in Nueces Bay, the average salinity of local seawater is 30.5 practical salinity units (psu)<ref>Stations Map & Real - Time Data. The Conrad Blucher Institute for Surveying and Science website. Available at http://www.cbi.tamucc.edu/cbi/data/. Updated January 2016. Accessed January 9, 2016. </ref>, thus setting the concentration of the process feed stream. This translates to a feed stream concentration of 30,500 ppm (parts per million)<ref>Definition and Units. CATD Salinity Expertise Center. Available at http://www.salinityremotesensing.ifremer.fr/home. Accessed January 12, 2016.</ref>. The composition of the salt attributed to this seawater salinity is shown in Table 6 in Appendix B. <br />
<br />
No data on the composition of seawater around the Corpus Christi area was available, but the composition of seawater does not change significantly in different locations. The given composition is considered accurate for our feed stream<ref>Brown E, Colling A, Park D, Phillips J, Rothery D, Wright J. Seawater : Its Composition, Properties and Behaviour. Boston: Butterworth-Heinemann, 1995.<br />
</ref>. Note that seawater salt is primarily sodium chloride - total dissolved solids are 85.7% sodium chloride by mass. As such, the dissolved solids in the feed stream is assumed in this project to be pure NaCl, making the feed composition 96.95% water and 3.05% NaCl by mass. A control system will likely be put in place to ensure feed concentration remains at this level, accounting for natural fluctuations in local seawater salinity.<br />
<br />
The largest byproduct from the process will be a brine slurry with high salt concentrations. An upper corrosion limit of 700 ppm was set for recirculated and purged brine. This undesired byproduct will be sent to a nearby Class I non-hazardous injection well facility operated by GNI Group, which is approximately 12 miles away from the proposed desalination plant location as shown in the figure in Appendix A<ref>Texas Water Code. Availabe at http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/WA/htm/WA.27.htm. Accessed January 14, 2016.<br />
</ref><ref>Google Maps. Available at https://goo.gl/maps/3xcvLZwUCe42 Accessed January 15, 2016.</ref>. Through the incorporation of a Class I injection well, the brine will not have to be treated or diluted before injection. <ref>EPA Regulations on Class I Wells. Available at http://www.epa.gov/uic/class-i-industrial-and-municipal-waste-disposal-wells. Accessed January 14, 2016.<br />
</ref><ref>List of Injection Well Facilities by Location. Available at http://www.ehso.com/cssepa/tsdfdeepwells.php. Accessed January 14, 2016.</ref><br />
<br />
There are no regulations regarding the temperature of city drinking water, so the product stream temperature has no requirements based on regulations. Outlet temperatures of 35<sup>o</sup>C are acceptable for input to the municipal water supply system. Since city water tends to be stored in non-temperature controlled tanks, the temperature will naturally cool to ambient temperature.<ref>Climate Corpus Christi- Texas. US Climate Data. Available at http://www.usclimatedata.com/climate/corpus-christi/texas/united-states/ustx0294. Accessed January 12, 2016. </ref><br />
<br />
==Pre-Treatment and Post-Treatment==<br />
For pretreatment, Belgard EV 2030 is recommended to be added at a concentration of 1.8-2.0 mg/L for a system with top brine temperature approximately 110 °C<ref>BWA Water Additives. Belgard EV2030 Technical Data Sheet. BWA Water Additives. http://www.wateradditives.com/files/products/tech_data_sheets/Belgard%20EV%202030_Technical%20Data%20Sheet_Thermal_8.5x11.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016.<br />
</ref>. Since our process is designed to operate at a slightly higher top brine temperature, 120 °C, we will design for the upper bound concentration: 2.0 mg/L of antiscalant. With a feed flow rate of 8250 m<sup>3</sup>/hr, the process therefore requires 16.5 kg/hr of Belgard EV 2030.<br />
<br />
For disinfection during post-treatment, chlorine addition typically requires a dose of roughly 2.0 mg/L as well<ref name="World Health Organization">World Health Organization. Desalination for safe water supply. http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/gdwqrevision/desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. With a pure water distillate flow rate of 4758 m<sup>3</sup>/hr, the process requires 9.5 kg/hr of chlorine gas. Approximately 74 mg/L of lime (calcium hydroxide) and 88mg/L of CO2 should be added to the desalinated water to help prevent corrosion and increase alkalinity within acceptable ranges<ref name="Vouchkov">Vouchkov, N. Re-Mineralization of Desalinated Water. SunCam. https://s3.amazonaws.com/suncam/npdocs/118.pdf. Accessed February 18, 2016.</ref>. With a product stream flow rate of 4758 m3/hr, these concentrations correspond to 352.1 kg/hr of lime and 418.7 kg/hr of CO2. Both of these can be purchased, and it is likely that the CO2 can be procured from the neighboring natural gas power plant.<br />
<br />
==Choice of Desalination Technology==<br />
The two major technologies commonly implemented for desalination include reverse osmosis (RO), and multi-stage flash distillation (MSFD). RO utilizes high pressures to force water through a semipermeable membrane that allows for purified water to pass through, but stops organic and other wastes. Often, the pressures can reach 55 - 68 bar, which requires large pumps to maintain pressure, and introduces safety concerns to the process<ref>Stage 2 Measures in the Drought Contingency Plan. Available at http://www.cctexas.com/government/water/conservation/conservation-drought-plans/stage-2-measures. Accessed January 12, 2016. <br />
</ref>. While RO can be less energy intensive than MSFD, and the membrane can also remove contaminants, it is susceptible to feedwater quality, membrane fouling, and requires more extensive pretreatment and posttreatment than MSFD. The cost of RO is directly proportional to the feed salinity, and so it is less expensive when desalinating low salinity water.<br />
<br />
Multi-stage flash distillation is best selected for areas that have high salinity or low energy costs. The pretreatment process for MSFD is much easier when compared to RO because pretreatment often consists of simply adding anti-corrosives and antiscalants to the feed stream. The process works by heating water in vessels at different pressures to change the boiling point of the water and evaporate it as it passes through the system. After evaporation, the water condenses, leaving pure water as the effluent. MSFD costs are now roughly $1.00/m3, where this cost is mostly independent of salinity, but dependent on energy costs.<ref>Fritzman C, Lowenberg J, Wintgens T, Melin T. State-of-the-art Reverse Osmosis Desalination. Desalination. 2007; 216:1-76. <br />
</ref> In both RO and MSFD a brine is produced which then must be appropriately treated and/or disposed of.<br />
<br />
Multi-stage flash distillation was selected for this process, mainly due to the economic advantages offered by the selected location of Corpus Christi, TX. MSFD is also a well understood process that can be more easily modeled by chemical engineering software.<br />
<br />
=Technical Approach=<br />
Quantitative modeling of the process and all included optimization was conducted using the simulation software Aspen HYSYS. A variety of assumptions were developed to set up and define specific components of the process simulation itself. Within Aspen HYSYS, the NRTL Electrolyte property package was selected to model the behavior of salt water. Each stage of the MSF process is modeled as an individual flash vessel, with individual shell & tube heat exchangers used to model the distillate condensers present in each flash stage in the MSF system.<br />
<br />
The HYSYS simulation model only considers the flash portion of the overall process, allowing establishment of mass and energy balances for the system. Pretreatment and post-treatment were excluded for the HYSYS model, as these steps are simple additions or removals of small concentrations of chemical components. Although the simulation models heat exchangers outside of each flash stage, in the physical design of the plant these heat exchangers will be contained within each flash stage.<br />
<br />
One portion of the process is not modeled, which is the inlet seawater entering the heat rejection stages. As can be seen from the full process flow diagram (Appendix C), the inlet seawater in the heat rejection stage is in high excess to provide maximum cooling capacity; then a significant portion is purged to bring the stream flow rate down to what is needed for the feed stream. It is assumed that the flow rate of cooling water for those three stages is in such high excess that the cooling water does not heat up. Therefore, in the process simulation models, the inlet stream is the feed stream, which enters directly into the heat recovery portion of the process.<br />
<br />
See Appendix D for a screenshot overview of the simulation environment model.<br />
<br />
=Process Overview=<br />
==Process Flowsheet==<br />
The following diagram, Figure 1, shows a basic flowsheet for the process. Process alternatives considered for each stage are discussed below. Please see Appendix C for the full process flowsheet with finalized design decisions.<br />
<br />
[[File:BlockFlowDiagram.png|center|700px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Desalination Facility Block Flow Diagram|Figure 1: Basic block flowsheet of the multi-stage flash desalination process.]]<br />
<br />
==Major Features==<br />
As seen above, there are three primary stages of the desalination process: Pre-treatment, the multi-stage flash distillation, and post-treatment. Seawater enters the pre-treatment phase first to make the feed suitable for the rest of the process by filtering out large particles that could accumulate on pipes, deaerating the water to limit corrosion, and adding an agent to combat fouling. The water then enters the distillation process, which is broken up into two sections: heat recovery and heat rejection. <br />
<br />
In the heat recovery stage, there are 18 flash vessels, each of which separates steam from the salinated liquid water. Each flash vessel has saltwater as its inlet and two outlets: a vapor outlet (steam) that condenses into the final product of purified water and a liquid outlet composed of water with more dissolved solids than the inlet, which is the inlet stream for the next flash vessel. The pipe containing the feed is first mixed with recycled brine, then goes through the top sections of each of the flash vessels, starting with V-118 and ending up at V-101. In this way, the feed stream pipe first serves as a heat exchanger, heating the pre-treated seawater while simultaneously condensing the steam into the final product. The feed then enters a final heat exchanger where it is brought up to 103.6 °C before entering V-101 to be flashed.<br />
<br />
After exiting V-118, the final flash vessel in the heat recovery portion, the water enters the heat rejection portion, which consists of three flash vessels (V-201, V-202, V-203). The flash vessels of this section operate in the same manner as in the heat recovery section, with the exception that condensation occurs using excess cooling water instead of pre-treated seawater. This technique allows excess heat to be rejected into an excess water stream rather than the feed.<br />
<br />
The purified product stream finally enters post-treatment processing in which water is re-aerated and remineralized, disinfected, and pH is adjusted before being delivered to the city. The concentrated brine leftover at the end of the flash cycle is recycled into the feed, although a purge is required to continuously remove some salt from the system. This purged brine is disposed of by use of a Class I injection well, per regional regulations.<br />
<br />
See Appendix E to find detailed stream tables of stream specifications.<br />
<br />
==Process Alternatives==<br />
===Pretreatment===<br />
Multi-stage flash distillation requires significantly less pretreatment than reverse osmosis desalination, but helpful pretreatment techniques still exist. One very inexpensive method of pretreatment is screening/filtration, which is used to filter out large contaminants from intake seawater. Using more complicated membrane technology to accomplish large particle filtration is a possible alternative, but doing so would be much more expensive than using a standard screen or filter, so the latter choice has been selected for this process.<ref>El-Dessouky H., Alatiqi I, Ettouney H. Process synthesis: The multi-stage flash desalination system. Desalination. 1998;115(2):115-179. doi: 10.1016/S0011-9164(98)00035-6.</ref><br />
<br />
The most critical type of fouling in multi-stage flash distillation is scaling - therefore, the most critical step in the pretreatment process will be the inclusion of an anti-scalant. Alkaline scaling can be prevented by acid dosing or polyphosphate addition; however, acid dosing can result in increased corrosion and polyphosphates can lead to non-alkaline calcium phosphate fouling, so these additives will not be considered<ref name="Morris">Morris, R. The development of the multi-stage flash distillation process: A designer's viewpoint. Desalination. 1993;93(1-3):57-68. doi:10.1016/S0011-9164(93)80096-6. Availble at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0011916493800966</ref><ref>Al-Gobaisi, D. A quarter-century of seawater desalination by large multistage flash plants in Abu Dhabi (Plant performance analysis, assessment, present efforts toward enhancement and future hopes). Desalination. 1994;99(2-3):509-512. doi: 10.1016/S0011-9164(94)00196-0.</ref>. As such, a polymer-based additive is recommended for the anti-scalant for this process. The Belgard EV series is designed for use in high-temperature seawater MSF; of these, Belgard EV 2030 is the most neutral in pH<ref>NSF International. NSF Product and Service Listings: Drinking Water Treatment Chemicals - Health Effects. NSF International. http://info.nsf.org/Certified/PwsChemicals/Listings.asp?Company=00300&. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref><ref>BWA Water Additives. Belgard EV2030 Technical Data Sheet. BWA Water Additives. http://www.wateradditives.com/files/products/tech_data_sheets/Belgard%20EV%202030_Technical%20Data%20Sheet_Thermal_8.5x11.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref><ref>BWA Water Additives. Belgard EV2035 Technical Data Sheet. BWA Water Additives. http://www.wateradditives.com/files/products/tech_data_sheets/Belgard%20EV2035_Technical%20Data%20Sheet_Thermal_8.5x11.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref><ref>BioLab Water Additives. Belgard EV Antiscalant for seawater distillation plants. BioLab Water Additives. http://www.lpq.com.mx/pdf/BELGARD%20EV.PDF. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref>. As such, we have selected Belgard EV 2030 for use as an anti-scalant in our process.<br />
<br />
Corrosion control is another significant method of pretreatment in multi-stage flash distillation plants. Using a piping material that has limited susceptibility to corrosion is typically not economically viable for MSF desalination plants due their large size, so using carbon steel for most of the piping is generally used for its economic benefits despite its susceptibility to corrosion<ref name = "Morris" />. Limiting oxygen concentration is very feasible through the use of deaerators, which can remove oxygen as well as other dissolved gases from the seawater stream. Often, an external deaeration system is used<ref name = "Morris" /><ref>Edwards - Hick Hargreaves. Seawater Deaerators. Edwards - Hick Hargreaves. http://psscorp.co.th/upload/news/20110830105340.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. Given these considerations, using an external deaerator combined with a less-corrosive antiscalant like Belgard EV 2030 is much more practical for the process than using anti-corrosive piping.<br />
<br />
Excessive foam can also be an issue in some MSF distillation facilities, so antifoaming agents are sometimes employed in the pretreatment process as well. However, many plants are operated without foaming issues, and therefore do not need anti-foaming pretreatment at all. Selection of an anti-foaming agent must be carefully weighed with selected of anti-scalant to avoid issues with additive interactions [26]. At this stage in the design process, an anti-foamer will not be included due to the risk of decreasing scalant efficacy, and the likelihood that foam will not be an issue in the desalination plant.<br />
<br />
===Multistage Flash Distillation===<br />
The main objective of the design project is desalinate water. This is done with the main process of multi stage flash distillation (MSF). MSF can be developed using a numerous number of different process configurations, such as Once-Through, Simple Mixer Brine Circulation, and Multi-Stage Heat Rejection Brine Circulation processes. <br />
<br />
The most desired process for the project is the Three Stage Heat Rejection Brine Circulation as it builds on benefits of the other simpler technologies. By combining principles of heat rejection and heat recovery, the required heat transfer area of the process is greatly reduced as compared to once through processes or simple brine recycle processes. It has the highest performance ratio with the lowest specific feed flow rates, therefore greatly lowering the operating costs of the process. It is also known as the industry standard for MSF<ref name = "KSU Chapter 6">Kansas State University ChE 413. Available at: http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/Almutaz/Documents/ChE-413/Multi-stage%20Flash%20Desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. In addition, since our brine disposal technique involves the pumping of the brine into a Class I well, the high brine outlet salinity is not a drawback for our process since post treatment or dilution of the brine is not necessary.<br />
<br />
===Post Treatment===<br />
After processing the water via multi-stage flash, the water needs to be post-treated to make the water taste as consumers would expect, since distilled water is “flat” and unpleasant, as well as to protect the consumers and the piping through which the water will be passing<ref>Clayton R. A review of current knowledge: Desalination for water supply. Foundation for Water Research. http://www.fwr.org/desal.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. There are multiple alternatives to achieve these objectives of remineralization, aeration, corrosion control, and disinfection.<br />
<br />
Aerating and introducing some dissolved solids back into the product water are effective ways to create a quality product that is not flat, and contains flavoring that is expected of the water when delivered to the consumer. Aeration will be accomplished via an inline spray aerator which will take up less space than cascade aeration.<ref>Minnesota Rural Water Association. Aeration. http://www.mrwa.com/WaterWorksMnl/Chapter%2011%20Aeration.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref> Feed blending will be used to remineralize the water as opposed to a remineralization filter because it does not require additional equipment purchases, and can easily handle the large amounts of throughput required for the process.<ref>Clayton R. A review of current knowledge: Desalination for water supply. Foundation for Water Research. http://www.fwr.org/desal.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref><br />
<br />
Corrosion and pH can be controlled by adding lime (calcium hydroxide) and carbon dioxide to the water. To do so, about 74 mg/L of lime and 88mg/L of CO<sub>2</sub> should be added to the desalinated water to help prevent corrosion and increase alkalinity within acceptable ranges. Sodium hydroxide, soda ash, and sodium bicarbonate are alternatives to altering the alkalinity and pH of the product water, but lime and CO<sub>2</sub> is an industry standard <ref name="Vouchkov" />.<br />
<br />
Disinfection needs to be done to prevent microbial growth in the desalinated water and ensure the safety of the general public. Chlorine addition via chlorine gas or sodium hypochlorite is the most common and only requires a dose of 1.5 to 2.5 mg/liter. <ref name="World Health Organization" /> Other alternatives include ozonation, UV light, and chloramination. Chlorine, as a 5% - 15% sodium hypochlorite solution, is sufficient for our process and relatively inexpensive, and as such will be utilized in the process.<br />
<br />
===Transport of Brine to Well===<br />
Three major possibilities exist for transporting the brine from our desalination plant to the injection well for disposal: rail, trucking, and a pipeline. A pipeline was chosen as the most feasible and cost-effective approach. <br />
<br />
A rail line is not available at this time, and with the cost to construct a rail line at approximately $43 million per mile<ref>About Money. How Much Do Rail Transit Projects Cost to Build and Operate? 2014. Available at: http://publictransport.about.com/od/Transit_Projects/a/How-Much-Do-Rail-Transit-Projects-Cost-To-Build-And-Operate.htm. Accessed January 27, 2016. </ref>, the enormous capital cost makes rail transport infeasible for this site. For large volume operations, pipelines are cheaper than trucking. In a study of wastewater sludge produced from wastewater treatment facilities, it was found that it was more economical for facilities producing over 1200 m<sup>3</sup> per day to utilize pipelines rather than trucking.<ref>Marufuzzaman M, Eskioglu S, Hernandez R. Truck versus pipeline transportation cost analysis of wastewater sludge. Transportation Research. 2015; 74(A): 14-30. </ref> Our facility is producing nearly 3 times this volume at 3485 m<sup>3</sup> per day of brine. Furthermore, brine is a less viscous fluid than wastewater sludge, decreasing pumping costs in the pipeline and further amplifying the benefit of choosing a pipeline over an injection well.<br />
<br />
===Brine Storage===<br />
Due to the choice of a pipeline, rather than trucking, as the method of transport of brine to the injection well, brine storage is unnecessary, so storage solutions such as holding tanks were not investigated. One method of storage compatible with a pipeline is to pump the brine through an evaporation pond. This solution is attractive as it would allow the brine to concentrate, saving some costs of pumping, however, the considerable land usage of evaporation ponds leads them to only be effective for smaller plants. The largest municipal plant utilizing this method produces only 5.7 million liters per day<ref>University of Santa Cruz Center for Integrated Water Research. Concentrate Management: Evaporation Ponds. 2010. Available at: https://ciwr.ucsc.edu/sites/default/files/ICM_D5.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016. </ref>, whereas our desalination plant is proposed to produce 75.7 million liters per day. Therefore, evaporation ponds have been eliminated from consideration.<br />
<br />
==Major Specifications==<br />
===Material of Construction Selection===<br />
While saltwater and desalinated water in general can be corrosive, there are best practices within the desalination industry for material selection. With this in mind, best practice shows carbon steel lifetime can be lengthened by monitoring the oxygen concentration in the water, specifying the paint used to coat any metal, and more expensive materials can be used in areas of extremely high corrosion.<ref name = "Morris" />. By following these best practices, it is possible to save significant amounts of money through the use of carbon steel in most areas of the plant, with specific high-corrosion areas being reinforced with, or replaced with, more corrosion resistant materials, such as Cu/Ni 70/30 alloy<ref name = "KSU Chapter 6" />.<br />
<br />
===Heat Exchanger Sizing===<br />
See Appendix F for heat exchanger sizing data. Heat exchanger sizes appear reasonable for placement in the flash vessels.<br />
<br />
===Flash Vessel Sizing===<br />
The dimensions for the flash drums were obtained through literature values. The flash drums were determined to be 18x4x3 m in width, height, and length.<ref name="KSU Chapter 6" /><br />
<br />
Wall thickness was determined using the following conventions: Design pressure is 10% more than the operating pressure, design temperature is 50°F (27.8°C) higher than the operating temperature, a corrosion allowance of 3-mm and an effectiveness of 85% was derived from the assumption of a double-welded butt joint that was spot checked. See Appendix G for wall thicknesses calculated for each pressure vessel. <br />
<br />
The sizing of the vessels to be constructed will be determined after talks with a manufacturer. Due to economies of scale, it may be more cost-effective to buy 21 pressure vessels with the dimensions mentioned above and a wall thickness of 17.1-mm, the highest wall thickness required in the system.<br />
<br />
===Pipe Losses and Pressure Drop===<br />
HYSYS was used to estimate the diameter of a pipe given a specified pressure drop per 100m of pipe. It was determined that for a pressure drop of 0.1 kPa/100m of pipe, a 3.05m diameter pipe is sufficient, which is more than manageable for manufacturers. This pressure drop is mostly insignificant and will be taken care of with the safety factors included in the pumps. The significant pressure drops in our system is accounted for via losses in the flash vessels and heat exchangers, which drive the flash process. Therefore overall pipe losses are insignificant and are built into intentional design losses.<br />
<br />
=Economic Analysis=<br />
==Economic Assumptions==<br />
The sale of purified water yields a revenue stream of $49.5 million per year assuming sale to commercial entities within the city limits of Corpus Christi at $1.7915 per thousand liters.<ref>Water schedule. City of Corpus Christi Utility Business Office. http://www.cctexas.com/Assets/Departments/Financial-Services/Utilities-Business-Office/files/waterrates.pdf Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref> The primary variable costs are utilities and the brine disposal, with minimal raw materials costs due to the primary feedstock, seawater, being free, and minimal amounts of pre- and post-treatment chemicals being used. The cost of brine disposal used in this analysis was high at $2.097 per thousand liters<ref>McCurdy, R. Underground injection wells for produced water disposal. Chesapeake Energy Corporation. http://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/documents/21_McCurdy_-_UIC_Disposal_508.pdf Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref>, an estimate for brine disposal utilizing trucking as the mode of transport. As has been shown through previous analyses, a lower cost can be achieved using a direct pipeline, however, no good estimates for this cost could be found.<br />
<br />
The NPV was calculated using a 6% cost of capital, the approximate interest rate for a municipal bond.<ref>Zirbe, R.O. Jr., Han, X., Layton, D., Leshine, T. A history of discount rates and their use by government agencies. (2002). http://faculty.washington.edu/zerbe/docs/DISCOUNT%20RATE%20HISTORY-latesXIt.doc Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref> It was assumed that the plant can be built within two years, with production at half-scale in its first year. Additionally, one month of variable costs, $10.6 million, was set aside for working capital. See Appendix H for a full table of assumptions. A 30 year NPV calculation was chosen as the decision basis since 30 years is a conservative estimate for the lifetime of a desalination plant [38]. See below for estimates of NPV for the lifetime of the plant under various assumptions and design criteria.<br />
<br />
==Optimization and Sensitivity Analysis==<br />
Looking at the multi-stage flash process, there are a number of opportunities to optimize the process. The major process variables that were investigated were the inlet water temperature, the operating pressure drop per vessel, and the number of stages over which the process takes place. Considering these optimizations, our final process consists of 21 flash vessels (18 heat recovery and 3 heat rejection stages), each with a pressure drop of 5 kPa. See Appendix D for a screenshot of the HYSYS simulation used to model the optimized process.<br />
===Operating Pressure and Pressure Drop===<br />
Initially our process was designed to pump the inlet seawater and brine to a pressure of 2 bar and allow the pressure drop in each flash stage to end our process downstream at 1 bar to prevent complications associated with designing a system under vacuum. While this provided pumping advantages, the energy in the system was significantly higher due to vapor pressure considerations. Due to this fact, the required heat exchange area for certain exchangers proved to be infeasible (on the order of 80,000m<sup>2</sup>) due to the enormous capital and operating costs that would be associated with such a large heat exchanger.<br />
<br />
The process was optimized to operate under vacuum, requiring additional pumping requirements but much lower required heat exchange area, and therefore lower utility costs. This optimization was done by specifying the pressure of the final flash vessel to 5.7kPa, so that the temperature of the water vapor (~30<sup>o</sup>C) is within approximately 5<sup>o</sup>C of the cooling water (35<sup>o</sup>C) so that condensation can occur within a reasonable approach. This also allows our system to optimally extract pure water from the brine running through the system and reduce energy requirements for cooling the product or the recycle. Our system redesign and optimization reduced the energy in the system and reduce the same heat exchanger area requirements by more than 3 orders of magnitude to approximately 800m<sup>2</sup>. <br />
<br />
Once the process was optimized to operate in a vacuum, the pressure drop per flash stage regulated through values was then optimized. Three pressure drops per stages, 3kPa, 5kPa, and 7kPa, were tested and then an economic analysis was conducted to find the optimal value for the pressure drop. These changes had impacts on both operating and capital costs as they would change initial pumping requirements, the amount of water flowing through the process and recycle (and therefore the flash vessel sizes, heat exchanger sizing), and the efficiency of each stage.<br />
<br />
The various pressure drops (3 kPa, 5 kPa, and 7 kPa) were tested on a system nominally at 24 stages under the assumption that the results would be generalizable to systems with a different number of stages. With increasing pressure drop, we found decreased capital cost but increased utility cost. As can be seen from Table 2 below, a pressure drop of 5 kPa proved to be the best option based on 30 year NPV, with a loss of $838.8 million, a savings of $65.5 million compared to the next-best option with a pressure drop of 7 kPa.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 2: Comparison of profitability for our MSF desalination process with 24 stages with 3 different pressure drops per stage<br />
! Number of Stages <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! Pressure Drop <br/> (kPa)<br />
! Capital Cost <br/> ($MM)<br />
! Utility Cost <br/> ($MM/yr)<br />
! 30-Year NPV <br/> ($MM)<br />
! NPV Ratio <br/> (over 5kPa)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 3 || 362.3 || 39.1 || -905.8 || 1.08<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 5 || 255.1 || 53.6 || -838.8 || 1.00<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 7 || 209.5 || 72.2 || -904.3 || 1.08<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
===Number of Flash Stages===<br />
The number of stages is an important area for optimization. An increased number of stages yields better recovery of purified water, however, requires higher capital cost from the additional pressure vessel. Furthermore, with an increased amount of purified water comes increasingly concentrated brine. This must be taken into account since any brine concentration in excess of about 7% presents a more significant corrosion risk<ref name="KSU Chapter 6" />, so increased maintenance costs for the piping or higher capital costs for more corrosion-resistant materials could be necessary for brine concentrations exceeding 7%. Therefore, to recover the same amount of pure water without exceeding corrosion limitations, increasing the number of stages will reduce the overall size of each stage.<br />
<br />
Optimizing based on NPV, it was found that 21 stages is optimal, balancing the increased profits from the additional purified water additional costs of higher capital cost. See Table 3 below to compare the 30-year NPV of the process across various numbers of flash vessels.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 3: Comparison of profitability for our MSF desalination process with a 5 kPa pressure drop, 5000 m<sup>3</sup>/hr feed flow rate, with varying number of stages.<br />
! Number of Stages <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! Pressure Drop <br/> (kPa)<br />
! Capital Cost <br/> ($MM)<br />
! Utility Cost <br/> ($MM/yr)<br />
! 30-Year NPV <br/> ($MM)<br />
! NPV Ratio <br/> (over 21 Stages)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 17 || 5 || 213.9 || 58.7 || -813.8 || 1.016<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 18 || 5 || 218 || 57.6 || -809.9 || 1.011<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 19 || 5 || 224.3 || 58 || -806.1 || 1.007<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 20 || 5 || 229.8 || 57.9 || -813.6 || 1.016<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 21 || 5 || 226.6 || 55.9 || -800.7 || 1<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 22 || 5 || 254.7 || 54.6 || -849.5 || 1.061<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 23 || 5 || 249.3 || 54.1 || -833.1 || 1.04<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 5 || 255.1 || 53.6 || -838.8 || 1.048<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 25 || 5 || 254.9 || 52.7 || -837.4 || 1.046<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
===Inlet Seawater Temperature===<br />
By pairing our desalination plant with a natural gas power plant and utilizing its cooling water we forgo initial heating of our inlet stream. Normally, water pumped from the ocean would be approximately 25<sup>o</sup>C and by capturing waste heat from the power plant we can reduce utilities with our water inlet of 45<sup>o</sup>C. Through an economic comparison between two plants nominally at 21 flash stages, the plant with an inlet temperature at 25<sup>o</sup>C has a capital cost of $245MM and a utility cost of $77MM/yr and the same facility with an inlet water temperature at 45<sup>o</sup>C has a capital cost of only $226MM and a utility cost of $56MM/yr. As shown in Table 4 below, this $19MM savings in capital costs and $21MM/yr saving in utilities is largely due to reducing the size of the heat exchangers and lowering the steam required for heating duty on the inlet seawater respectively. Therefore our process is optimized by recovering the waste heat water from the gas fired power plant.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 4: Seawater Inlet Temperature Process Cost Optimization<br />
! Seawater Temperature <br/> (°C)<br />
! Capital Cost <br/> ($MM)<br />
! Utility Cost <br/> ($MM/yr)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 25 || 245 || 77<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 45 || 226 || 56<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Savings || 56 || 19<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
==Overall Process Economics==<br />
After optimization at fixed flow rates, the process was scaled to meet the the 67% operating percentage and final product definitions as shown in Table 1, which resulted in finalized economics shown in Table 5 below. For a table of the installed costs of each process vessel, see Appendix I. For the finalized NPV calculations, see Appendix J.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 5: Summarized Economics for 21-stage MSFD Process<br />
! Economic Parameter<br />
! Cost <br/> (USD)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Capital Cost || 345 MM<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Total Operating Cost per Year || 103 MM<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Utility Cost per Year || 59 MM<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 30-Year NPV (6% Discount) || -1035 MM<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
=Conclusions and Recommendations=<br />
==Project Viability==<br />
Table 5 above demonstrates that the process has reasonable operating and capital costs, but the 30-year NPV is negative by -1035 $MM due to the extremely low sell price capability of desalinated water as a product. Therefore, this plant would have to heavily be supported by the City of Corpus Christi to run as the product revenue will not make it self-sufficient. The acquisition of government subsidies are key operating requirements for all desalination facilities in the United States. <br />
<br />
==Additional Concerns==<br />
Large volumes of water, steam, and energy are needed to ensure the project runs as specified. While most of the water can easily be extracted from the ocean with little to consequence, the fuel used to generate the steam and electricity can have a significant environmental impact. As the plant is located next to a natural gas power plant, this fuel is better than coal with respect to environmental concerns, and utilizing energy from the power plant to preheat the feed stream for the desalination plant helps lower environmental impacts.<br />
<br />
The large amounts of high pressure steam being used represents one of the the largest safety concern in the process, because a high pressure steam release could easily cause severe burns or even death. Proper precautions and control measures must be in place to prevent accidental release. Otherwise, the process does not utilize any known toxic chemicals and is relatively safe from a chemical standpoint. The flash vessels mostly operate below atmospheric pressure, so they must be constructed as vessels that can withstand vacuum without failing.<br />
<br />
<br />
=Appendix A: Proposed Location of Desalination Plant=<br />
Pictured below is the proposed location for the desalination plant, located on Nueces Bay in Corpus Christi, adjacent to the Nueces Bay Energy Center. The plant’s proposed location is shown in the area outlined by the small circle in the upper right of the figure.<br />
<br />
[[File:NuecesBayLocation.png|center|600px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Desalination Facility Location|Figure A.1: Proposed mapped location of Nueces Bay Desalination Facility.]]<br />
[[File:ClassIWell.png|center|700px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Desalination Facility Distance to Injection Well|Figure A.2: Mapped distance from proposed location to Class I Injection Well]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix B: Feed and Product Definitions - Salinity=<br />
<br />
=Appendix C: Process Flow Diagram=<br />
[[File:TeamF_PFD.png|center|1200px|thumb|alt=Process Flow Diagram|Figure C.1: Process Flow Diagram]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix D: HYSYS Simulation Model=<br />
[[File:TeamF_HYSYS_Screenshot.PNG|center|1200px|thumb|alt=HYSYS Simulation Model|Figure D.1: Screenshot of HYSYS Model Simulation.]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix E: Stream Tables=<br />
<br />
=Appendix F: Heat Exchanger Sizing=<br />
<br />
=Appendix G: Pressure Vessel Sizing=<br />
<br />
=Appendix H: Expanded Economic Assumptions=<br />
<br />
=Appendix I: Equipment Cost Summary=<br />
<br />
=Appendix J: Economic NPV Analysis=<br />
<br />
=References=<br />
<references/></div>Kedricdaly2https://processdesign.mccormick.northwestern.edu/index.php?title=Nueces_Desalination_Center:_Production_of_Drinking_Water_by_Multi-Stage_Flash_Distillation&diff=4940Nueces Desalination Center: Production of Drinking Water by Multi-Stage Flash Distillation2016-03-07T15:16:00Z<p>Kedricdaly2: Updated Vouchkov references</p>
<hr />
<div>Team F: Rankine 672 Final Report<br />
<br />
Authors: Kedric Daly, Ben Granger, Evan Rosati, Kathleen Zhou<br />
<br />
Instructors: Fengqi You, David Wegerer<br />
<br />
March 11, 2016<br />
<br />
=Executive Summary=<br />
Desalination of seawater to drinking water is a technology of ever-increasing importance given trends of increasingly widespread water shortages around the world. Even in the United States, water shortages are becoming increasingly common in dry, highly-populated such as California and certain areas of the Gulf Coast. Our design team, Rankine 672, was tasked with evaluating the need for and designing a desalination plant to provide purified water in a place of need. Investigation revealed that the city of Corpus Christi, Texas, is a strategic location for development of a desalination facility, as surrounding region is in need of new drinking water sources and the city has expressed serious interest in contracting the development of a large-scale desalination plant. Our proposed solution is a multi-stage flash distillation desalination facility capable of producing 20,000,000 gallons (75,708 m<sup>3</sup>) of purified drinking water for the city and surrounding region per operating day.<br />
<br />
In this design, drinking water is produced from seawater feedstock through a 21-stage flash distillation process. By strategically locating the facility next to an existing natural gas power plant, the Nueces Bay Energy Center, pre-heated feed water can be taken directly from the outbound cooling systems of the power plant, allowing energy savings for our desalination plant. The process is designed for 16 hour-per-day operation, requires a seawater feed of 8250 m<sup>3</sup>/hr, and produces 4758 m<sup>3</sup>/hr of purified drinking water alongside a waste stream of 3485 m<sup>3</sup>/hr of concentrated brine. The waste stream is isolated from a recycle stream through a 9.0% purge; this results in an overall product yield of 57.7% on a volume basis. The process requires an additional pretreatment stream of 16.5 kg/hr Belgard EV 2030, which serves as an antiscalant, as well as 9.5 kg/hr chlorine, 352.1 kg/hr lime, and 418.7 kg/hr CO2 for post-treatment purposes.<br />
<br />
The overall capital cost of the plant is expected to be $345MM, with a total operating cost of $103MM/yr, $59MM/yr of which comes from utilities. Due to the low price at which the product water can be sold, the 30-year net present value of the plant, assuming a 6% discount rate, is $-1,035MM. It is thus imperative this plant be constructed with public funds because it cannot return a profit to any private investor. The growing need for water however could justify the cost, because it is important that the residents of the greater Corpus Christi area have access to drinkable water.<br />
<br />
__TOC__<br />
<br />
=Introduction=<br />
==Background==<br />
Clean drinking water is a basic human need that is becoming increasingly difficult to meet. Currently, over 1 billion people live in places where water is considered scarce<ref> Tapping the oceans. The Economist USA. http://www.economist.com/node/11484059. Accessed March 2, 2016. </ref>. Though often thought of as a problem exclusive to third-world countries, the issue is becoming more prevalent in the US as well, with water managers in 40 of 50 states anticipating water shortage conditions in some portion of their state in the next 10 years. These shortages are due to increasing demands on constant or diminishing freshwater resources, therefore, to correct the issue, a new supply must be found<ref> Water Supply in the US. EPA. http://www3.epa.gov/watersense/pubs/supply.html. Accessed March 2, 2016.</ref>. Desalination of seawater is therefore important as a new source for clean drinking water and prevent water shortages. <br />
<br />
==Project Definition==<br />
The overall goal of the project is to investigate the feasibility of a desalination plant in order to meet the needs of growing water demand. The design needs to take health, safety, and environmental concerns into account, while optimizing costs.<br />
<br />
=Design Basis=<br />
Site Location and Conditions<br />
Corpus Christi, TX was chosen as the location for the proposed desalination plant. The city is currently experiencing “Moderate Shortage Conditions”. This issue additionally comes at a time of growing demand with population growth anticipated due to new industry and Eagle Ford Group crude oil production<ref>Stage 2 Measures in the Drought Contingency Plan. Available at http://www.cctexas.com/government/water/conservation/conservation-drought-plans/stage-2-measures. Accessed January 12, 2016. </ref>.<br />
<br />
In June 2014, the city announced the Corpus Christi Desalination Demonstration Project<ref>Corpus Christi Desalination Demonstration Project. Available at http://www.cctexas.com/Assets/Departments/Water/Files/DesalFactSheet.pdf. Published June 2014. Accessed January 12, 2016. <br />
</ref> which seeks to create a demonstration desalination plant capable of producing 20,000 gallons of water per day, with plans to later build a full scale facility generating 20,000,000 gallons of water per day. The desalination demonstration project indicates a clear need for implementation of a desalination plant of this size to accommodate growth in the Corpus Christi area. <br />
<br />
Locating our plant in Corpus Christi will allow us to take advantage of the benefits of cogeneration through a partnership with the Nueces Bay Energy Center. By utilizing their outlet cooling water as a large portion of our feed for the desalination process, we can raise the temperature of our seawater feed, saving on energy costs in the multi stage flash distillation. The proposed location for the desalination plant is immediately west of the Nueces Bay Energy Center. See Appendix A for a map depicting the proposed location for the desalination plant along the coast of Nueces Bay.<br />
<br />
==Feed and Product Definitions==<br />
The proposed desalination facility’s feed and product streams are defined as shown in Table 1. Rationale for these definitions is also described below. The values reported in Table 1 are final derived numbers from HYSYS simulation modeling. <br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 1: Feed and product stream definitions<br />
! &nbsp;<br />
! Salt Concentration<br />
! Temperature <br />
! Amount<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Feed Stream <br />
| 30,500 ppm || 45°C || 8250 m<sup>3</sup>/hr<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Product Stream<br />
| ~ 0 ppm || 35°C || 4758 m<sup>3</sup>/hr<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Byproduct Stream<br />
| 695 ppm || 35°C || 3485 m<sup>3</sup>/hr<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
The process feed will be seawater from Nueces Bay, preheated through the cooling water system of the nearby Nueces Bay Energy Center. Based on calculations developed from NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory) data, it was estimated that the Nueces Bay Energy Center uses approximately 250 million gallons of seawater per day for process and cooling needs. Therefore, the 20 million gallon per day requirement for the desalination facility can easily be met through the power plant’s cooling water<ref>Torcellini P, Long N, Judkoff R. Consumptive Water Use for U.S. Power Consumption. NREL. 2003; TP-550-33905. <br />
</ref>. Note that we are assuming the process will operate 67% of the time (16 hours per day).<br />
<br />
Based on data acquired from two salinity-measuring stations in Nueces Bay, the average salinity of local seawater is 30.5 practical salinity units (psu)<ref>Stations Map & Real - Time Data. The Conrad Blucher Institute for Surveying and Science website. Available at http://www.cbi.tamucc.edu/cbi/data/. Updated January 2016. Accessed January 9, 2016. </ref>, thus setting the concentration of the process feed stream. This translates to a feed stream concentration of 30,500 ppm (parts per million)<ref>Definition and Units. CATD Salinity Expertise Center. Available at http://www.salinityremotesensing.ifremer.fr/home. Accessed January 12, 2016.</ref>. The composition of the salt attributed to this seawater salinity is shown in Table 6 in Appendix B. <br />
<br />
No data on the composition of seawater around the Corpus Christi area was available, but the composition of seawater does not change significantly in different locations. The given composition is considered accurate for our feed stream<ref>Brown E, Colling A, Park D, Phillips J, Rothery D, Wright J. Seawater : Its Composition, Properties and Behaviour. Boston: Butterworth-Heinemann, 1995.<br />
</ref>. Note that seawater salt is primarily sodium chloride - total dissolved solids are 85.7% sodium chloride by mass. As such, the dissolved solids in the feed stream is assumed in this project to be pure NaCl, making the feed composition 96.95% water and 3.05% NaCl by mass. A control system will likely be put in place to ensure feed concentration remains at this level, accounting for natural fluctuations in local seawater salinity.<br />
<br />
The largest byproduct from the process will be a brine slurry with high salt concentrations. An upper corrosion limit of 700 ppm was set for recirculated and purged brine. This undesired byproduct will be sent to a nearby Class I non-hazardous injection well facility operated by GNI Group, which is approximately 12 miles away from the proposed desalination plant location as shown in the figure in Appendix A<ref>Texas Water Code. Availabe at http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/WA/htm/WA.27.htm. Accessed January 14, 2016.<br />
</ref><ref>Google Maps. Available at https://goo.gl/maps/3xcvLZwUCe42 Accessed January 15, 2016.</ref>. Through the incorporation of a Class I injection well, the brine will not have to be treated or diluted before injection. <ref>EPA Regulations on Class I Wells. Available at http://www.epa.gov/uic/class-i-industrial-and-municipal-waste-disposal-wells. Accessed January 14, 2016.<br />
</ref><ref>List of Injection Well Facilities by Location. Available at http://www.ehso.com/cssepa/tsdfdeepwells.php. Accessed January 14, 2016.</ref><br />
<br />
There are no regulations regarding the temperature of city drinking water, so the product stream temperature has no requirements based on regulations. Outlet temperatures of 35<sup>o</sup>C are acceptable for input to the municipal water supply system. Since city water tends to be stored in non-temperature controlled tanks, the temperature will naturally cool to ambient temperature.<ref>Climate Corpus Christi- Texas. US Climate Data. Available at http://www.usclimatedata.com/climate/corpus-christi/texas/united-states/ustx0294. Accessed January 12, 2016. </ref><br />
<br />
==Pre-Treatment and Post-Treatment==<br />
For pretreatment, Belgard EV 2030 is recommended to be added at a concentration of 1.8-2.0 mg/L for a system with top brine temperature approximately 110 °C<ref>BWA Water Additives. Belgard EV2030 Technical Data Sheet. BWA Water Additives. http://www.wateradditives.com/files/products/tech_data_sheets/Belgard%20EV%202030_Technical%20Data%20Sheet_Thermal_8.5x11.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016.<br />
</ref>. Since our process is designed to operate at a slightly higher top brine temperature, 120 °C, we will design for the upper bound concentration: 2.0 mg/L of antiscalant. With a feed flow rate of 8250 m<sup>3</sup>/hr, the process therefore requires 16.5 kg/hr of Belgard EV 2030.<br />
<br />
For disinfection during post-treatment, chlorine addition typically requires a dose of roughly 2.0 mg/L as well<ref>World Health Organization. Desalination for safe water supply. http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/gdwqrevision/desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. With a pure water distillate flow rate of 4758 m<sup>3</sup>/hr, the process requires 9.5 kg/hr of chlorine gas. Approximately 74 mg/L of lime (calcium hydroxide) and 88mg/L of CO2 should be added to the desalinated water to help prevent corrosion and increase alkalinity within acceptable ranges<ref name="Vouchkov">Vouchkov, N. Re-Mineralization of Desalinated Water. SunCam. https://s3.amazonaws.com/suncam/npdocs/118.pdf. Accessed February 18, 2016.</ref>. With a product stream flow rate of 4758 m3/hr, these concentrations correspond to 352.1 kg/hr of lime and 418.7 kg/hr of CO2. Both of these can be purchased, and it is likely that the CO2 can be procured from the neighboring natural gas power plant.<br />
<br />
==Choice of Desalination Technology==<br />
The two major technologies commonly implemented for desalination include reverse osmosis (RO), and multi-stage flash distillation (MSFD). RO utilizes high pressures to force water through a semipermeable membrane that allows for purified water to pass through, but stops organic and other wastes. Often, the pressures can reach 55 - 68 bar, which requires large pumps to maintain pressure, and introduces safety concerns to the process<ref>Stage 2 Measures in the Drought Contingency Plan. Available at http://www.cctexas.com/government/water/conservation/conservation-drought-plans/stage-2-measures. Accessed January 12, 2016. <br />
</ref>. While RO can be less energy intensive than MSFD, and the membrane can also remove contaminants, it is susceptible to feedwater quality, membrane fouling, and requires more extensive pretreatment and posttreatment than MSFD. The cost of RO is directly proportional to the feed salinity, and so it is less expensive when desalinating low salinity water.<br />
<br />
Multi-stage flash distillation is best selected for areas that have high salinity or low energy costs. The pretreatment process for MSFD is much easier when compared to RO because pretreatment often consists of simply adding anti-corrosives and antiscalants to the feed stream. The process works by heating water in vessels at different pressures to change the boiling point of the water and evaporate it as it passes through the system. After evaporation, the water condenses, leaving pure water as the effluent. MSFD costs are now roughly $1.00/m3, where this cost is mostly independent of salinity, but dependent on energy costs.<ref>Fritzman C, Lowenberg J, Wintgens T, Melin T. State-of-the-art Reverse Osmosis Desalination. Desalination. 2007; 216:1-76. <br />
</ref> In both RO and MSFD a brine is produced which then must be appropriately treated and/or disposed of.<br />
<br />
Multi-stage flash distillation was selected for this process, mainly due to the economic advantages offered by the selected location of Corpus Christi, TX. MSFD is also a well understood process that can be more easily modeled by chemical engineering software.<br />
<br />
=Technical Approach=<br />
Quantitative modeling of the process and all included optimization was conducted using the simulation software Aspen HYSYS. A variety of assumptions were developed to set up and define specific components of the process simulation itself. Within Aspen HYSYS, the NRTL Electrolyte property package was selected to model the behavior of salt water. Each stage of the MSF process is modeled as an individual flash vessel, with individual shell & tube heat exchangers used to model the distillate condensers present in each flash stage in the MSF system.<br />
<br />
The HYSYS simulation model only considers the flash portion of the overall process, allowing establishment of mass and energy balances for the system. Pretreatment and post-treatment were excluded for the HYSYS model, as these steps are simple additions or removals of small concentrations of chemical components. Although the simulation models heat exchangers outside of each flash stage, in the physical design of the plant these heat exchangers will be contained within each flash stage.<br />
<br />
One portion of the process is not modeled, which is the inlet seawater entering the heat rejection stages. As can be seen from the full process flow diagram (Appendix C), the inlet seawater in the heat rejection stage is in high excess to provide maximum cooling capacity; then a significant portion is purged to bring the stream flow rate down to what is needed for the feed stream. It is assumed that the flow rate of cooling water for those three stages is in such high excess that the cooling water does not heat up. Therefore, in the process simulation models, the inlet stream is the feed stream, which enters directly into the heat recovery portion of the process.<br />
<br />
See Appendix D for a screenshot overview of the simulation environment model.<br />
<br />
=Process Overview=<br />
==Process Flowsheet==<br />
The following diagram, Figure 1, shows a basic flowsheet for the process. Process alternatives considered for each stage are discussed below. Please see Appendix C for the full process flowsheet with finalized design decisions.<br />
<br />
[[File:BlockFlowDiagram.png|center|700px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Desalination Facility Block Flow Diagram|Figure 1: Basic block flowsheet of the multi-stage flash desalination process.]]<br />
<br />
==Major Features==<br />
As seen above, there are three primary stages of the desalination process: Pre-treatment, the multi-stage flash distillation, and post-treatment. Seawater enters the pre-treatment phase first to make the feed suitable for the rest of the process by filtering out large particles that could accumulate on pipes, deaerating the water to limit corrosion, and adding an agent to combat fouling. The water then enters the distillation process, which is broken up into two sections: heat recovery and heat rejection. <br />
<br />
In the heat recovery stage, there are 18 flash vessels, each of which separates steam from the salinated liquid water. Each flash vessel has saltwater as its inlet and two outlets: a vapor outlet (steam) that condenses into the final product of purified water and a liquid outlet composed of water with more dissolved solids than the inlet, which is the inlet stream for the next flash vessel. The pipe containing the feed is first mixed with recycled brine, then goes through the top sections of each of the flash vessels, starting with V-118 and ending up at V-101. In this way, the feed stream pipe first serves as a heat exchanger, heating the pre-treated seawater while simultaneously condensing the steam into the final product. The feed then enters a final heat exchanger where it is brought up to 103.6 °C before entering V-101 to be flashed.<br />
<br />
After exiting V-118, the final flash vessel in the heat recovery portion, the water enters the heat rejection portion, which consists of three flash vessels (V-201, V-202, V-203). The flash vessels of this section operate in the same manner as in the heat recovery section, with the exception that condensation occurs using excess cooling water instead of pre-treated seawater. This technique allows excess heat to be rejected into an excess water stream rather than the feed.<br />
<br />
The purified product stream finally enters post-treatment processing in which water is re-aerated and remineralized, disinfected, and pH is adjusted before being delivered to the city. The concentrated brine leftover at the end of the flash cycle is recycled into the feed, although a purge is required to continuously remove some salt from the system. This purged brine is disposed of by use of a Class I injection well, per regional regulations.<br />
<br />
See Appendix E to find detailed stream tables of stream specifications.<br />
<br />
==Process Alternatives==<br />
===Pretreatment===<br />
Multi-stage flash distillation requires significantly less pretreatment than reverse osmosis desalination, but helpful pretreatment techniques still exist. One very inexpensive method of pretreatment is screening/filtration, which is used to filter out large contaminants from intake seawater. Using more complicated membrane technology to accomplish large particle filtration is a possible alternative, but doing so would be much more expensive than using a standard screen or filter, so the latter choice has been selected for this process.<ref>El-Dessouky H., Alatiqi I, Ettouney H. Process synthesis: The multi-stage flash desalination system. Desalination. 1998;115(2):115-179. doi: 10.1016/S0011-9164(98)00035-6.</ref><br />
<br />
The most critical type of fouling in multi-stage flash distillation is scaling - therefore, the most critical step in the pretreatment process will be the inclusion of an anti-scalant. Alkaline scaling can be prevented by acid dosing or polyphosphate addition; however, acid dosing can result in increased corrosion and polyphosphates can lead to non-alkaline calcium phosphate fouling, so these additives will not be considered<ref name="Morris">Morris, R. The development of the multi-stage flash distillation process: A designer's viewpoint. Desalination. 1993;93(1-3):57-68. doi:10.1016/S0011-9164(93)80096-6. Availble at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0011916493800966</ref><ref>Al-Gobaisi, D. A quarter-century of seawater desalination by large multistage flash plants in Abu Dhabi (Plant performance analysis, assessment, present efforts toward enhancement and future hopes). Desalination. 1994;99(2-3):509-512. doi: 10.1016/S0011-9164(94)00196-0.</ref>. As such, a polymer-based additive is recommended for the anti-scalant for this process. The Belgard EV series is designed for use in high-temperature seawater MSF; of these, Belgard EV 2030 is the most neutral in pH<ref>NSF International. NSF Product and Service Listings: Drinking Water Treatment Chemicals - Health Effects. NSF International. http://info.nsf.org/Certified/PwsChemicals/Listings.asp?Company=00300&. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref><ref>BWA Water Additives. Belgard EV2030 Technical Data Sheet. BWA Water Additives. http://www.wateradditives.com/files/products/tech_data_sheets/Belgard%20EV%202030_Technical%20Data%20Sheet_Thermal_8.5x11.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref><ref>BWA Water Additives. Belgard EV2035 Technical Data Sheet. BWA Water Additives. http://www.wateradditives.com/files/products/tech_data_sheets/Belgard%20EV2035_Technical%20Data%20Sheet_Thermal_8.5x11.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref><ref>BioLab Water Additives. Belgard EV Antiscalant for seawater distillation plants. BioLab Water Additives. http://www.lpq.com.mx/pdf/BELGARD%20EV.PDF. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref>. As such, we have selected Belgard EV 2030 for use as an anti-scalant in our process.<br />
<br />
Corrosion control is another significant method of pretreatment in multi-stage flash distillation plants. Using a piping material that has limited susceptibility to corrosion is typically not economically viable for MSF desalination plants due their large size, so using carbon steel for most of the piping is generally used for its economic benefits despite its susceptibility to corrosion<ref name = "Morris" />. Limiting oxygen concentration is very feasible through the use of deaerators, which can remove oxygen as well as other dissolved gases from the seawater stream. Often, an external deaeration system is used<ref name = "Morris" /><ref>Edwards - Hick Hargreaves. Seawater Deaerators. Edwards - Hick Hargreaves. http://psscorp.co.th/upload/news/20110830105340.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. Given these considerations, using an external deaerator combined with a less-corrosive antiscalant like Belgard EV 2030 is much more practical for the process than using anti-corrosive piping.<br />
<br />
Excessive foam can also be an issue in some MSF distillation facilities, so antifoaming agents are sometimes employed in the pretreatment process as well. However, many plants are operated without foaming issues, and therefore do not need anti-foaming pretreatment at all. Selection of an anti-foaming agent must be carefully weighed with selected of anti-scalant to avoid issues with additive interactions [26]. At this stage in the design process, an anti-foamer will not be included due to the risk of decreasing scalant efficacy, and the likelihood that foam will not be an issue in the desalination plant.<br />
<br />
===Multistage Flash Distillation===<br />
The main objective of the design project is desalinate water. This is done with the main process of multi stage flash distillation (MSF). MSF can be developed using a numerous number of different process configurations, such as Once-Through, Simple Mixer Brine Circulation, and Multi-Stage Heat Rejection Brine Circulation processes. <br />
<br />
The most desired process for the project is the Three Stage Heat Rejection Brine Circulation as it builds on benefits of the other simpler technologies. By combining principles of heat rejection and heat recovery, the required heat transfer area of the process is greatly reduced as compared to once through processes or simple brine recycle processes. It has the highest performance ratio with the lowest specific feed flow rates, therefore greatly lowering the operating costs of the process. It is also known as the industry standard for MSF<ref name = "KSU Chapter 6">Kansas State University ChE 413. Available at: http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/Almutaz/Documents/ChE-413/Multi-stage%20Flash%20Desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. In addition, since our brine disposal technique involves the pumping of the brine into a Class I well, the high brine outlet salinity is not a drawback for our process since post treatment or dilution of the brine is not necessary.<br />
<br />
===Post Treatment===<br />
After processing the water via multi-stage flash, the water needs to be post-treated to make the water taste as consumers would expect, since distilled water is “flat” and unpleasant, as well as to protect the consumers and the piping through which the water will be passing<ref>Clayton R. A review of current knowledge: Desalination for water supply. Foundation for Water Research. http://www.fwr.org/desal.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. There are multiple alternatives to achieve these objectives of remineralization, aeration, corrosion control, and disinfection.<br />
<br />
Aerating and introducing some dissolved solids back into the product water are effective ways to create a quality product that is not flat, and contains flavoring that is expected of the water when delivered to the consumer. Aeration will be accomplished via an inline spray aerator which will take up less space than cascade aeration.<ref>Minnesota Rural Water Association. Aeration. http://www.mrwa.com/WaterWorksMnl/Chapter%2011%20Aeration.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref> Feed blending will be used to remineralize the water as opposed to a remineralization filter because it does not require additional equipment purchases, and can easily handle the large amounts of throughput required for the process.<ref>Clayton R. A review of current knowledge: Desalination for water supply. Foundation for Water Research. http://www.fwr.org/desal.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref><br />
<br />
Corrosion and pH can be controlled by adding lime (calcium hydroxide) and carbon dioxide to the water. To do so, about 74 mg/L of lime and 88mg/L of CO<sub>2</sub> should be added to the desalinated water to help prevent corrosion and increase alkalinity within acceptable ranges. Sodium hydroxide, soda ash, and sodium bicarbonate are alternatives to altering the alkalinity and pH of the product water, but lime and CO<sub>2</sub> is an industry standard <ref name="Vouchkov" />.<br />
<br />
Disinfection needs to be done to prevent microbial growth in the desalinated water and ensure the safety of the general public. Chlorine addition via chlorine gas or sodium hypochlorite is the most common and only requires a dose of 1.5 to 2.5 mg/liter.<ref>World Health Organization. Desalination for safe water supply. http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/gdwqrevision/desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>Other alternatives include ozonation, UV light, and chloramination. Chlorine, as a 5% - 15% sodium hypochlorite solution, is sufficient for our process and relatively inexpensive, and as such will be utilized in the process.<br />
<br />
===Transport of Brine to Well===<br />
Three major possibilities exist for transporting the brine from our desalination plant to the injection well for disposal: rail, trucking, and a pipeline. A pipeline was chosen as the most feasible and cost-effective approach. <br />
<br />
A rail line is not available at this time, and with the cost to construct a rail line at approximately $43 million per mile<ref>About Money. How Much Do Rail Transit Projects Cost to Build and Operate? 2014. Available at: http://publictransport.about.com/od/Transit_Projects/a/How-Much-Do-Rail-Transit-Projects-Cost-To-Build-And-Operate.htm. Accessed January 27, 2016. </ref>, the enormous capital cost makes rail transport infeasible for this site. For large volume operations, pipelines are cheaper than trucking. In a study of wastewater sludge produced from wastewater treatment facilities, it was found that it was more economical for facilities producing over 1200 m<sup>3</sup> per day to utilize pipelines rather than trucking.<ref>Marufuzzaman M, Eskioglu S, Hernandez R. Truck versus pipeline transportation cost analysis of wastewater sludge. Transportation Research. 2015; 74(A): 14-30. </ref> Our facility is producing nearly 3 times this volume at 3485 m<sup>3</sup> per day of brine. Furthermore, brine is a less viscous fluid than wastewater sludge, decreasing pumping costs in the pipeline and further amplifying the benefit of choosing a pipeline over an injection well.<br />
<br />
===Brine Storage===<br />
Due to the choice of a pipeline, rather than trucking, as the method of transport of brine to the injection well, brine storage is unnecessary, so storage solutions such as holding tanks were not investigated. One method of storage compatible with a pipeline is to pump the brine through an evaporation pond. This solution is attractive as it would allow the brine to concentrate, saving some costs of pumping, however, the considerable land usage of evaporation ponds leads them to only be effective for smaller plants. The largest municipal plant utilizing this method produces only 5.7 million liters per day<ref>University of Santa Cruz Center for Integrated Water Research. Concentrate Management: Evaporation Ponds. 2010. Available at: https://ciwr.ucsc.edu/sites/default/files/ICM_D5.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016. </ref>, whereas our desalination plant is proposed to produce 75.7 million liters per day. Therefore, evaporation ponds have been eliminated from consideration.<br />
<br />
==Major Specifications==<br />
===Material of Construction Selection===<br />
While saltwater and desalinated water in general can be corrosive, there are best practices within the desalination industry for material selection. With this in mind, best practice shows carbon steel lifetime can be lengthened by monitoring the oxygen concentration in the water, specifying the paint used to coat any metal, and more expensive materials can be used in areas of extremely high corrosion.<ref name = "Morris" />. By following these best practices, it is possible to save significant amounts of money through the use of carbon steel in most areas of the plant, with specific high-corrosion areas being reinforced with, or replaced with, more corrosion resistant materials, such as Cu/Ni 70/30 alloy<ref name = "KSU Chapter 6" />.<br />
<br />
===Heat Exchanger Sizing===<br />
See Appendix F for heat exchanger sizing data. Heat exchanger sizes appear reasonable for placement in the flash vessels.<br />
<br />
===Flash Vessel Sizing===<br />
The dimensions for the flash drums were obtained through literature values. The flash drums were determined to be 18x4x3 m in width, height, and length.<ref name="KSU Chapter 6" /><br />
<br />
Wall thickness was determined using the following conventions: Design pressure is 10% more than the operating pressure, design temperature is 50°F (27.8°C) higher than the operating temperature, a corrosion allowance of 3-mm and an effectiveness of 85% was derived from the assumption of a double-welded butt joint that was spot checked. See Appendix G for wall thicknesses calculated for each pressure vessel. <br />
<br />
The sizing of the vessels to be constructed will be determined after talks with a manufacturer. Due to economies of scale, it may be more cost-effective to buy 21 pressure vessels with the dimensions mentioned above and a wall thickness of 17.1-mm, the highest wall thickness required in the system.<br />
<br />
===Pipe Losses and Pressure Drop===<br />
HYSYS was used to estimate the diameter of a pipe given a specified pressure drop per 100m of pipe. It was determined that for a pressure drop of 0.1 kPa/100m of pipe, a 3.05m diameter pipe is sufficient, which is more than manageable for manufacturers. This pressure drop is mostly insignificant and will be taken care of with the safety factors included in the pumps. The significant pressure drops in our system is accounted for via losses in the flash vessels and heat exchangers, which drive the flash process. Therefore overall pipe losses are insignificant and are built into intentional design losses.<br />
<br />
=Economic Analysis=<br />
==Economic Assumptions==<br />
The sale of purified water yields a revenue stream of $49.5 million per year assuming sale to commercial entities within the city limits of Corpus Christi at $1.7915 per thousand liters.<ref>Water schedule. City of Corpus Christi Utility Business Office. http://www.cctexas.com/Assets/Departments/Financial-Services/Utilities-Business-Office/files/waterrates.pdf Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref> The primary variable costs are utilities and the brine disposal, with minimal raw materials costs due to the primary feedstock, seawater, being free, and minimal amounts of pre- and post-treatment chemicals being used. The cost of brine disposal used in this analysis was high at $2.097 per thousand liters<ref>McCurdy, R. Underground injection wells for produced water disposal. Chesapeake Energy Corporation. http://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/documents/21_McCurdy_-_UIC_Disposal_508.pdf Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref>, an estimate for brine disposal utilizing trucking as the mode of transport. As has been shown through previous analyses, a lower cost can be achieved using a direct pipeline, however, no good estimates for this cost could be found.<br />
<br />
The NPV was calculated using a 6% cost of capital, the approximate interest rate for a municipal bond.<ref>Zirbe, R.O. Jr., Han, X., Layton, D., Leshine, T. A history of discount rates and their use by government agencies. (2002). http://faculty.washington.edu/zerbe/docs/DISCOUNT%20RATE%20HISTORY-latesXIt.doc Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref> It was assumed that the plant can be built within two years, with production at half-scale in its first year. Additionally, one month of variable costs, $10.6 million, was set aside for working capital. See Appendix H for a full table of assumptions. A 30 year NPV calculation was chosen as the decision basis since 30 years is a conservative estimate for the lifetime of a desalination plant [38]. See below for estimates of NPV for the lifetime of the plant under various assumptions and design criteria.<br />
<br />
==Optimization and Sensitivity Analysis==<br />
Looking at the multi-stage flash process, there are a number of opportunities to optimize the process. The major process variables that were investigated were the inlet water temperature, the operating pressure drop per vessel, and the number of stages over which the process takes place. Considering these optimizations, our final process consists of 21 flash vessels (18 heat recovery and 3 heat rejection stages), each with a pressure drop of 5 kPa. See Appendix D for a screenshot of the HYSYS simulation used to model the optimized process.<br />
===Operating Pressure and Pressure Drop===<br />
Initially our process was designed to pump the inlet seawater and brine to a pressure of 2 bar and allow the pressure drop in each flash stage to end our process downstream at 1 bar to prevent complications associated with designing a system under vacuum. While this provided pumping advantages, the energy in the system was significantly higher due to vapor pressure considerations. Due to this fact, the required heat exchange area for certain exchangers proved to be infeasible (on the order of 80,000m<sup>2</sup>) due to the enormous capital and operating costs that would be associated with such a large heat exchanger.<br />
<br />
The process was optimized to operate under vacuum, requiring additional pumping requirements but much lower required heat exchange area, and therefore lower utility costs. This optimization was done by specifying the pressure of the final flash vessel to 5.7kPa, so that the temperature of the water vapor (~30<sup>o</sup>C) is within approximately 5<sup>o</sup>C of the cooling water (35<sup>o</sup>C) so that condensation can occur within a reasonable approach. This also allows our system to optimally extract pure water from the brine running through the system and reduce energy requirements for cooling the product or the recycle. Our system redesign and optimization reduced the energy in the system and reduce the same heat exchanger area requirements by more than 3 orders of magnitude to approximately 800m<sup>2</sup>. <br />
<br />
Once the process was optimized to operate in a vacuum, the pressure drop per flash stage regulated through values was then optimized. Three pressure drops per stages, 3kPa, 5kPa, and 7kPa, were tested and then an economic analysis was conducted to find the optimal value for the pressure drop. These changes had impacts on both operating and capital costs as they would change initial pumping requirements, the amount of water flowing through the process and recycle (and therefore the flash vessel sizes, heat exchanger sizing), and the efficiency of each stage.<br />
<br />
The various pressure drops (3 kPa, 5 kPa, and 7 kPa) were tested on a system nominally at 24 stages under the assumption that the results would be generalizable to systems with a different number of stages. With increasing pressure drop, we found decreased capital cost but increased utility cost. As can be seen from Table 2 below, a pressure drop of 5 kPa proved to be the best option based on 30 year NPV, with a loss of $838.8 million, a savings of $65.5 million compared to the next-best option with a pressure drop of 7 kPa.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 2: Comparison of profitability for our MSF desalination process with 24 stages with 3 different pressure drops per stage<br />
! Number of Stages <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! Pressure Drop <br/> (kPa)<br />
! Capital Cost <br/> ($MM)<br />
! Utility Cost <br/> ($MM/yr)<br />
! 30-Year NPV <br/> ($MM)<br />
! NPV Ratio <br/> (over 5kPa)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 3 || 362.3 || 39.1 || -905.8 || 1.08<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 5 || 255.1 || 53.6 || -838.8 || 1.00<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 7 || 209.5 || 72.2 || -904.3 || 1.08<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
===Number of Flash Stages===<br />
The number of stages is an important area for optimization. An increased number of stages yields better recovery of purified water, however, requires higher capital cost from the additional pressure vessel. Furthermore, with an increased amount of purified water comes increasingly concentrated brine. This must be taken into account since any brine concentration in excess of about 7% presents a more significant corrosion risk<ref name="KSU Chapter 6" />, so increased maintenance costs for the piping or higher capital costs for more corrosion-resistant materials could be necessary for brine concentrations exceeding 7%. Therefore, to recover the same amount of pure water without exceeding corrosion limitations, increasing the number of stages will reduce the overall size of each stage.<br />
<br />
Optimizing based on NPV, it was found that 21 stages is optimal, balancing the increased profits from the additional purified water additional costs of higher capital cost. See Table 3 below to compare the 30-year NPV of the process across various numbers of flash vessels.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 3: Comparison of profitability for our MSF desalination process with a 5 kPa pressure drop, 5000 m<sup>3</sup>/hr feed flow rate, with varying number of stages.<br />
! Number of Stages <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! Pressure Drop <br/> (kPa)<br />
! Capital Cost <br/> ($MM)<br />
! Utility Cost <br/> ($MM/yr)<br />
! 30-Year NPV <br/> ($MM)<br />
! NPV Ratio <br/> (over 21 Stages)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 17 || 5 || 213.9 || 58.7 || -813.8 || 1.016<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 18 || 5 || 218 || 57.6 || -809.9 || 1.011<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 19 || 5 || 224.3 || 58 || -806.1 || 1.007<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 20 || 5 || 229.8 || 57.9 || -813.6 || 1.016<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 21 || 5 || 226.6 || 55.9 || -800.7 || 1<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 22 || 5 || 254.7 || 54.6 || -849.5 || 1.061<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 23 || 5 || 249.3 || 54.1 || -833.1 || 1.04<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 5 || 255.1 || 53.6 || -838.8 || 1.048<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 25 || 5 || 254.9 || 52.7 || -837.4 || 1.046<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
===Inlet Seawater Temperature===<br />
By pairing our desalination plant with a natural gas power plant and utilizing its cooling water we forgo initial heating of our inlet stream. Normally, water pumped from the ocean would be approximately 25<sup>o</sup>C and by capturing waste heat from the power plant we can reduce utilities with our water inlet of 45<sup>o</sup>C. Through an economic comparison between two plants nominally at 21 flash stages, the plant with an inlet temperature at 25<sup>o</sup>C has a capital cost of $245MM and a utility cost of $77MM/yr and the same facility with an inlet water temperature at 45<sup>o</sup>C has a capital cost of only $226MM and a utility cost of $56MM/yr. As shown in Table 4 below, this $19MM savings in capital costs and $21MM/yr saving in utilities is largely due to reducing the size of the heat exchangers and lowering the steam required for heating duty on the inlet seawater respectively. Therefore our process is optimized by recovering the waste heat water from the gas fired power plant.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 4: Seawater Inlet Temperature Process Cost Optimization<br />
! Seawater Temperature <br/> (°C)<br />
! Capital Cost <br/> ($MM)<br />
! Utility Cost <br/> ($MM/yr)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 25 || 245 || 77<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 45 || 226 || 56<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Savings || 56 || 19<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
==Overall Process Economics==<br />
After optimization at fixed flow rates, the process was scaled to meet the the 67% operating percentage and final product definitions as shown in Table 1, which resulted in finalized economics shown in Table 5 below. For a table of the installed costs of each process vessel, see Appendix I. For the finalized NPV calculations, see Appendix J.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 5: Summarized Economics for 21-stage MSFD Process<br />
! Economic Parameter<br />
! Cost <br/> (USD)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Capital Cost || 345 MM<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Total Operating Cost per Year || 103 MM<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Utility Cost per Year || 59 MM<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 30-Year NPV (6% Discount) || -1035 MM<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
=Conclusions and Recommendations=<br />
==Project Viability==<br />
Table 5 above demonstrates that the process has reasonable operating and capital costs, but the 30-year NPV is negative by -1035 $MM due to the extremely low sell price capability of desalinated water as a product. Therefore, this plant would have to heavily be supported by the City of Corpus Christi to run as the product revenue will not make it self-sufficient. The acquisition of government subsidies are key operating requirements for all desalination facilities in the United States. <br />
<br />
==Additional Concerns==<br />
Large volumes of water, steam, and energy are needed to ensure the project runs as specified. While most of the water can easily be extracted from the ocean with little to consequence, the fuel used to generate the steam and electricity can have a significant environmental impact. As the plant is located next to a natural gas power plant, this fuel is better than coal with respect to environmental concerns, and utilizing energy from the power plant to preheat the feed stream for the desalination plant helps lower environmental impacts.<br />
<br />
The large amounts of high pressure steam being used represents one of the the largest safety concern in the process, because a high pressure steam release could easily cause severe burns or even death. Proper precautions and control measures must be in place to prevent accidental release. Otherwise, the process does not utilize any known toxic chemicals and is relatively safe from a chemical standpoint. The flash vessels mostly operate below atmospheric pressure, so they must be constructed as vessels that can withstand vacuum without failing.<br />
<br />
<br />
=Appendix A: Proposed Location of Desalination Plant=<br />
Pictured below is the proposed location for the desalination plant, located on Nueces Bay in Corpus Christi, adjacent to the Nueces Bay Energy Center. The plant’s proposed location is shown in the area outlined by the small circle in the upper right of the figure.<br />
<br />
[[File:NuecesBayLocation.png|center|600px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Desalination Facility Location|Figure A.1: Proposed mapped location of Nueces Bay Desalination Facility.]]<br />
[[File:ClassIWell.png|center|700px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Desalination Facility Distance to Injection Well|Figure A.2: Mapped distance from proposed location to Class I Injection Well]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix B: Feed and Product Definitions - Salinity=<br />
<br />
=Appendix C: Process Flow Diagram=<br />
[[File:TeamF_PFD.png|center|1200px|thumb|alt=Process Flow Diagram|Figure C.1: Process Flow Diagram]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix D: HYSYS Simulation Model=<br />
[[File:TeamF_HYSYS_Screenshot.PNG|center|1200px|thumb|alt=HYSYS Simulation Model|Figure D.1: Screenshot of HYSYS Model Simulation.]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix E: Stream Tables=<br />
<br />
=Appendix F: Heat Exchanger Sizing=<br />
<br />
=Appendix G: Pressure Vessel Sizing=<br />
<br />
=Appendix H: Expanded Economic Assumptions=<br />
<br />
=Appendix I: Equipment Cost Summary=<br />
<br />
=Appendix J: Economic NPV Analysis=<br />
<br />
=References=<br />
<references/></div>Kedricdaly2https://processdesign.mccormick.northwestern.edu/index.php?title=Nueces_Desalination_Center:_Production_of_Drinking_Water_by_Multi-Stage_Flash_Distillation&diff=4939Nueces Desalination Center: Production of Drinking Water by Multi-Stage Flash Distillation2016-03-07T15:13:06Z<p>Kedricdaly2: KSU Chapter 6 reference updating</p>
<hr />
<div>Team F: Rankine 672 Final Report<br />
<br />
Authors: Kedric Daly, Ben Granger, Evan Rosati, Kathleen Zhou<br />
<br />
Instructors: Fengqi You, David Wegerer<br />
<br />
March 11, 2016<br />
<br />
=Executive Summary=<br />
Desalination of seawater to drinking water is a technology of ever-increasing importance given trends of increasingly widespread water shortages around the world. Even in the United States, water shortages are becoming increasingly common in dry, highly-populated such as California and certain areas of the Gulf Coast. Our design team, Rankine 672, was tasked with evaluating the need for and designing a desalination plant to provide purified water in a place of need. Investigation revealed that the city of Corpus Christi, Texas, is a strategic location for development of a desalination facility, as surrounding region is in need of new drinking water sources and the city has expressed serious interest in contracting the development of a large-scale desalination plant. Our proposed solution is a multi-stage flash distillation desalination facility capable of producing 20,000,000 gallons (75,708 m<sup>3</sup>) of purified drinking water for the city and surrounding region per operating day.<br />
<br />
In this design, drinking water is produced from seawater feedstock through a 21-stage flash distillation process. By strategically locating the facility next to an existing natural gas power plant, the Nueces Bay Energy Center, pre-heated feed water can be taken directly from the outbound cooling systems of the power plant, allowing energy savings for our desalination plant. The process is designed for 16 hour-per-day operation, requires a seawater feed of 8250 m<sup>3</sup>/hr, and produces 4758 m<sup>3</sup>/hr of purified drinking water alongside a waste stream of 3485 m<sup>3</sup>/hr of concentrated brine. The waste stream is isolated from a recycle stream through a 9.0% purge; this results in an overall product yield of 57.7% on a volume basis. The process requires an additional pretreatment stream of 16.5 kg/hr Belgard EV 2030, which serves as an antiscalant, as well as 9.5 kg/hr chlorine, 352.1 kg/hr lime, and 418.7 kg/hr CO2 for post-treatment purposes.<br />
<br />
The overall capital cost of the plant is expected to be $345MM, with a total operating cost of $103MM/yr, $59MM/yr of which comes from utilities. Due to the low price at which the product water can be sold, the 30-year net present value of the plant, assuming a 6% discount rate, is $-1,035MM. It is thus imperative this plant be constructed with public funds because it cannot return a profit to any private investor. The growing need for water however could justify the cost, because it is important that the residents of the greater Corpus Christi area have access to drinkable water.<br />
<br />
__TOC__<br />
<br />
=Introduction=<br />
==Background==<br />
Clean drinking water is a basic human need that is becoming increasingly difficult to meet. Currently, over 1 billion people live in places where water is considered scarce<ref> Tapping the oceans. The Economist USA. http://www.economist.com/node/11484059. Accessed March 2, 2016. </ref>. Though often thought of as a problem exclusive to third-world countries, the issue is becoming more prevalent in the US as well, with water managers in 40 of 50 states anticipating water shortage conditions in some portion of their state in the next 10 years. These shortages are due to increasing demands on constant or diminishing freshwater resources, therefore, to correct the issue, a new supply must be found<ref> Water Supply in the US. EPA. http://www3.epa.gov/watersense/pubs/supply.html. Accessed March 2, 2016.</ref>. Desalination of seawater is therefore important as a new source for clean drinking water and prevent water shortages. <br />
<br />
==Project Definition==<br />
The overall goal of the project is to investigate the feasibility of a desalination plant in order to meet the needs of growing water demand. The design needs to take health, safety, and environmental concerns into account, while optimizing costs.<br />
<br />
=Design Basis=<br />
Site Location and Conditions<br />
Corpus Christi, TX was chosen as the location for the proposed desalination plant. The city is currently experiencing “Moderate Shortage Conditions”. This issue additionally comes at a time of growing demand with population growth anticipated due to new industry and Eagle Ford Group crude oil production<ref>Stage 2 Measures in the Drought Contingency Plan. Available at http://www.cctexas.com/government/water/conservation/conservation-drought-plans/stage-2-measures. Accessed January 12, 2016. </ref>.<br />
<br />
In June 2014, the city announced the Corpus Christi Desalination Demonstration Project<ref>Corpus Christi Desalination Demonstration Project. Available at http://www.cctexas.com/Assets/Departments/Water/Files/DesalFactSheet.pdf. Published June 2014. Accessed January 12, 2016. <br />
</ref> which seeks to create a demonstration desalination plant capable of producing 20,000 gallons of water per day, with plans to later build a full scale facility generating 20,000,000 gallons of water per day. The desalination demonstration project indicates a clear need for implementation of a desalination plant of this size to accommodate growth in the Corpus Christi area. <br />
<br />
Locating our plant in Corpus Christi will allow us to take advantage of the benefits of cogeneration through a partnership with the Nueces Bay Energy Center. By utilizing their outlet cooling water as a large portion of our feed for the desalination process, we can raise the temperature of our seawater feed, saving on energy costs in the multi stage flash distillation. The proposed location for the desalination plant is immediately west of the Nueces Bay Energy Center. See Appendix A for a map depicting the proposed location for the desalination plant along the coast of Nueces Bay.<br />
<br />
==Feed and Product Definitions==<br />
The proposed desalination facility’s feed and product streams are defined as shown in Table 1. Rationale for these definitions is also described below. The values reported in Table 1 are final derived numbers from HYSYS simulation modeling. <br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 1: Feed and product stream definitions<br />
! &nbsp;<br />
! Salt Concentration<br />
! Temperature <br />
! Amount<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Feed Stream <br />
| 30,500 ppm || 45°C || 8250 m<sup>3</sup>/hr<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Product Stream<br />
| ~ 0 ppm || 35°C || 4758 m<sup>3</sup>/hr<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Byproduct Stream<br />
| 695 ppm || 35°C || 3485 m<sup>3</sup>/hr<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
The process feed will be seawater from Nueces Bay, preheated through the cooling water system of the nearby Nueces Bay Energy Center. Based on calculations developed from NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory) data, it was estimated that the Nueces Bay Energy Center uses approximately 250 million gallons of seawater per day for process and cooling needs. Therefore, the 20 million gallon per day requirement for the desalination facility can easily be met through the power plant’s cooling water<ref>Torcellini P, Long N, Judkoff R. Consumptive Water Use for U.S. Power Consumption. NREL. 2003; TP-550-33905. <br />
</ref>. Note that we are assuming the process will operate 67% of the time (16 hours per day).<br />
<br />
Based on data acquired from two salinity-measuring stations in Nueces Bay, the average salinity of local seawater is 30.5 practical salinity units (psu)<ref>Stations Map & Real - Time Data. The Conrad Blucher Institute for Surveying and Science website. Available at http://www.cbi.tamucc.edu/cbi/data/. Updated January 2016. Accessed January 9, 2016. </ref>, thus setting the concentration of the process feed stream. This translates to a feed stream concentration of 30,500 ppm (parts per million)<ref>Definition and Units. CATD Salinity Expertise Center. Available at http://www.salinityremotesensing.ifremer.fr/home. Accessed January 12, 2016.</ref>. The composition of the salt attributed to this seawater salinity is shown in Table 6 in Appendix B. <br />
<br />
No data on the composition of seawater around the Corpus Christi area was available, but the composition of seawater does not change significantly in different locations. The given composition is considered accurate for our feed stream<ref>Brown E, Colling A, Park D, Phillips J, Rothery D, Wright J. Seawater : Its Composition, Properties and Behaviour. Boston: Butterworth-Heinemann, 1995.<br />
</ref>. Note that seawater salt is primarily sodium chloride - total dissolved solids are 85.7% sodium chloride by mass. As such, the dissolved solids in the feed stream is assumed in this project to be pure NaCl, making the feed composition 96.95% water and 3.05% NaCl by mass. A control system will likely be put in place to ensure feed concentration remains at this level, accounting for natural fluctuations in local seawater salinity.<br />
<br />
The largest byproduct from the process will be a brine slurry with high salt concentrations. An upper corrosion limit of 700 ppm was set for recirculated and purged brine. This undesired byproduct will be sent to a nearby Class I non-hazardous injection well facility operated by GNI Group, which is approximately 12 miles away from the proposed desalination plant location as shown in the figure in Appendix A<ref>Texas Water Code. Availabe at http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/WA/htm/WA.27.htm. Accessed January 14, 2016.<br />
</ref><ref>Google Maps. Available at https://goo.gl/maps/3xcvLZwUCe42 Accessed January 15, 2016.</ref>. Through the incorporation of a Class I injection well, the brine will not have to be treated or diluted before injection. <ref>EPA Regulations on Class I Wells. Available at http://www.epa.gov/uic/class-i-industrial-and-municipal-waste-disposal-wells. Accessed January 14, 2016.<br />
</ref><ref>List of Injection Well Facilities by Location. Available at http://www.ehso.com/cssepa/tsdfdeepwells.php. Accessed January 14, 2016.</ref><br />
<br />
There are no regulations regarding the temperature of city drinking water, so the product stream temperature has no requirements based on regulations. Outlet temperatures of 35<sup>o</sup>C are acceptable for input to the municipal water supply system. Since city water tends to be stored in non-temperature controlled tanks, the temperature will naturally cool to ambient temperature.<ref>Climate Corpus Christi- Texas. US Climate Data. Available at http://www.usclimatedata.com/climate/corpus-christi/texas/united-states/ustx0294. Accessed January 12, 2016. </ref><br />
<br />
==Pre-Treatment and Post-Treatment==<br />
For pretreatment, Belgard EV 2030 is recommended to be added at a concentration of 1.8-2.0 mg/L for a system with top brine temperature approximately 110 °C<ref>BWA Water Additives. Belgard EV2030 Technical Data Sheet. BWA Water Additives. http://www.wateradditives.com/files/products/tech_data_sheets/Belgard%20EV%202030_Technical%20Data%20Sheet_Thermal_8.5x11.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016.<br />
</ref>. Since our process is designed to operate at a slightly higher top brine temperature, 120 °C, we will design for the upper bound concentration: 2.0 mg/L of antiscalant. With a feed flow rate of 8250 m<sup>3</sup>/hr, the process therefore requires 16.5 kg/hr of Belgard EV 2030.<br />
<br />
For disinfection during post-treatment, chlorine addition typically requires a dose of roughly 2.0 mg/L as well<ref>World Health Organization. Desalination for safe water supply. http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/gdwqrevision/desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. With a pure water distillate flow rate of 4758 m<sup>3</sup>/hr, the process requires 9.5 kg/hr of chlorine gas. Approximately 74 mg/L of lime (calcium hydroxide) and 88mg/L of CO2 should be added to the desalinated water to help prevent corrosion and increase alkalinity within acceptable ranges<ref>Vouchkov, N. Re-Mineralization of Desalinated Water. SunCam. https://s3.amazonaws.com/suncam/npdocs/118.pdf. Accessed February 18, 2016.</ref>. With a product stream flow rate of 4758 m3/hr, these concentrations correspond to 352.1 kg/hr of lime and 418.7 kg/hr of CO2. Both of these can be purchased, and it is likely that the CO2 can be procured from the neighboring natural gas power plant.<br />
<br />
==Choice of Desalination Technology==<br />
The two major technologies commonly implemented for desalination include reverse osmosis (RO), and multi-stage flash distillation (MSFD). RO utilizes high pressures to force water through a semipermeable membrane that allows for purified water to pass through, but stops organic and other wastes. Often, the pressures can reach 55 - 68 bar, which requires large pumps to maintain pressure, and introduces safety concerns to the process<ref>Stage 2 Measures in the Drought Contingency Plan. Available at http://www.cctexas.com/government/water/conservation/conservation-drought-plans/stage-2-measures. Accessed January 12, 2016. <br />
</ref>. While RO can be less energy intensive than MSFD, and the membrane can also remove contaminants, it is susceptible to feedwater quality, membrane fouling, and requires more extensive pretreatment and posttreatment than MSFD. The cost of RO is directly proportional to the feed salinity, and so it is less expensive when desalinating low salinity water.<br />
<br />
Multi-stage flash distillation is best selected for areas that have high salinity or low energy costs. The pretreatment process for MSFD is much easier when compared to RO because pretreatment often consists of simply adding anti-corrosives and antiscalants to the feed stream. The process works by heating water in vessels at different pressures to change the boiling point of the water and evaporate it as it passes through the system. After evaporation, the water condenses, leaving pure water as the effluent. MSFD costs are now roughly $1.00/m3, where this cost is mostly independent of salinity, but dependent on energy costs.<ref>Fritzman C, Lowenberg J, Wintgens T, Melin T. State-of-the-art Reverse Osmosis Desalination. Desalination. 2007; 216:1-76. <br />
</ref> In both RO and MSFD a brine is produced which then must be appropriately treated and/or disposed of.<br />
<br />
Multi-stage flash distillation was selected for this process, mainly due to the economic advantages offered by the selected location of Corpus Christi, TX. MSFD is also a well understood process that can be more easily modeled by chemical engineering software.<br />
<br />
=Technical Approach=<br />
Quantitative modeling of the process and all included optimization was conducted using the simulation software Aspen HYSYS. A variety of assumptions were developed to set up and define specific components of the process simulation itself. Within Aspen HYSYS, the NRTL Electrolyte property package was selected to model the behavior of salt water. Each stage of the MSF process is modeled as an individual flash vessel, with individual shell & tube heat exchangers used to model the distillate condensers present in each flash stage in the MSF system.<br />
<br />
The HYSYS simulation model only considers the flash portion of the overall process, allowing establishment of mass and energy balances for the system. Pretreatment and post-treatment were excluded for the HYSYS model, as these steps are simple additions or removals of small concentrations of chemical components. Although the simulation models heat exchangers outside of each flash stage, in the physical design of the plant these heat exchangers will be contained within each flash stage.<br />
<br />
One portion of the process is not modeled, which is the inlet seawater entering the heat rejection stages. As can be seen from the full process flow diagram (Appendix C), the inlet seawater in the heat rejection stage is in high excess to provide maximum cooling capacity; then a significant portion is purged to bring the stream flow rate down to what is needed for the feed stream. It is assumed that the flow rate of cooling water for those three stages is in such high excess that the cooling water does not heat up. Therefore, in the process simulation models, the inlet stream is the feed stream, which enters directly into the heat recovery portion of the process.<br />
<br />
See Appendix D for a screenshot overview of the simulation environment model.<br />
<br />
=Process Overview=<br />
==Process Flowsheet==<br />
The following diagram, Figure 1, shows a basic flowsheet for the process. Process alternatives considered for each stage are discussed below. Please see Appendix C for the full process flowsheet with finalized design decisions.<br />
<br />
[[File:BlockFlowDiagram.png|center|700px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Desalination Facility Block Flow Diagram|Figure 1: Basic block flowsheet of the multi-stage flash desalination process.]]<br />
<br />
==Major Features==<br />
As seen above, there are three primary stages of the desalination process: Pre-treatment, the multi-stage flash distillation, and post-treatment. Seawater enters the pre-treatment phase first to make the feed suitable for the rest of the process by filtering out large particles that could accumulate on pipes, deaerating the water to limit corrosion, and adding an agent to combat fouling. The water then enters the distillation process, which is broken up into two sections: heat recovery and heat rejection. <br />
<br />
In the heat recovery stage, there are 18 flash vessels, each of which separates steam from the salinated liquid water. Each flash vessel has saltwater as its inlet and two outlets: a vapor outlet (steam) that condenses into the final product of purified water and a liquid outlet composed of water with more dissolved solids than the inlet, which is the inlet stream for the next flash vessel. The pipe containing the feed is first mixed with recycled brine, then goes through the top sections of each of the flash vessels, starting with V-118 and ending up at V-101. In this way, the feed stream pipe first serves as a heat exchanger, heating the pre-treated seawater while simultaneously condensing the steam into the final product. The feed then enters a final heat exchanger where it is brought up to 103.6 °C before entering V-101 to be flashed.<br />
<br />
After exiting V-118, the final flash vessel in the heat recovery portion, the water enters the heat rejection portion, which consists of three flash vessels (V-201, V-202, V-203). The flash vessels of this section operate in the same manner as in the heat recovery section, with the exception that condensation occurs using excess cooling water instead of pre-treated seawater. This technique allows excess heat to be rejected into an excess water stream rather than the feed.<br />
<br />
The purified product stream finally enters post-treatment processing in which water is re-aerated and remineralized, disinfected, and pH is adjusted before being delivered to the city. The concentrated brine leftover at the end of the flash cycle is recycled into the feed, although a purge is required to continuously remove some salt from the system. This purged brine is disposed of by use of a Class I injection well, per regional regulations.<br />
<br />
See Appendix E to find detailed stream tables of stream specifications.<br />
<br />
==Process Alternatives==<br />
===Pretreatment===<br />
Multi-stage flash distillation requires significantly less pretreatment than reverse osmosis desalination, but helpful pretreatment techniques still exist. One very inexpensive method of pretreatment is screening/filtration, which is used to filter out large contaminants from intake seawater. Using more complicated membrane technology to accomplish large particle filtration is a possible alternative, but doing so would be much more expensive than using a standard screen or filter, so the latter choice has been selected for this process.<ref>El-Dessouky H., Alatiqi I, Ettouney H. Process synthesis: The multi-stage flash desalination system. Desalination. 1998;115(2):115-179. doi: 10.1016/S0011-9164(98)00035-6.</ref><br />
<br />
The most critical type of fouling in multi-stage flash distillation is scaling - therefore, the most critical step in the pretreatment process will be the inclusion of an anti-scalant. Alkaline scaling can be prevented by acid dosing or polyphosphate addition; however, acid dosing can result in increased corrosion and polyphosphates can lead to non-alkaline calcium phosphate fouling, so these additives will not be considered<ref name="Morris">Morris, R. The development of the multi-stage flash distillation process: A designer's viewpoint. Desalination. 1993;93(1-3):57-68. doi:10.1016/S0011-9164(93)80096-6. Availble at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0011916493800966</ref><ref>Al-Gobaisi, D. A quarter-century of seawater desalination by large multistage flash plants in Abu Dhabi (Plant performance analysis, assessment, present efforts toward enhancement and future hopes). Desalination. 1994;99(2-3):509-512. doi: 10.1016/S0011-9164(94)00196-0.</ref>. As such, a polymer-based additive is recommended for the anti-scalant for this process. The Belgard EV series is designed for use in high-temperature seawater MSF; of these, Belgard EV 2030 is the most neutral in pH<ref>NSF International. NSF Product and Service Listings: Drinking Water Treatment Chemicals - Health Effects. NSF International. http://info.nsf.org/Certified/PwsChemicals/Listings.asp?Company=00300&. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref><ref>BWA Water Additives. Belgard EV2030 Technical Data Sheet. BWA Water Additives. http://www.wateradditives.com/files/products/tech_data_sheets/Belgard%20EV%202030_Technical%20Data%20Sheet_Thermal_8.5x11.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref><ref>BWA Water Additives. Belgard EV2035 Technical Data Sheet. BWA Water Additives. http://www.wateradditives.com/files/products/tech_data_sheets/Belgard%20EV2035_Technical%20Data%20Sheet_Thermal_8.5x11.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref><ref>BioLab Water Additives. Belgard EV Antiscalant for seawater distillation plants. BioLab Water Additives. http://www.lpq.com.mx/pdf/BELGARD%20EV.PDF. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref>. As such, we have selected Belgard EV 2030 for use as an anti-scalant in our process.<br />
<br />
Corrosion control is another significant method of pretreatment in multi-stage flash distillation plants. Using a piping material that has limited susceptibility to corrosion is typically not economically viable for MSF desalination plants due their large size, so using carbon steel for most of the piping is generally used for its economic benefits despite its susceptibility to corrosion<ref name = "Morris" />. Limiting oxygen concentration is very feasible through the use of deaerators, which can remove oxygen as well as other dissolved gases from the seawater stream. Often, an external deaeration system is used<ref name = "Morris" /><ref>Edwards - Hick Hargreaves. Seawater Deaerators. Edwards - Hick Hargreaves. http://psscorp.co.th/upload/news/20110830105340.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. Given these considerations, using an external deaerator combined with a less-corrosive antiscalant like Belgard EV 2030 is much more practical for the process than using anti-corrosive piping.<br />
<br />
Excessive foam can also be an issue in some MSF distillation facilities, so antifoaming agents are sometimes employed in the pretreatment process as well. However, many plants are operated without foaming issues, and therefore do not need anti-foaming pretreatment at all. Selection of an anti-foaming agent must be carefully weighed with selected of anti-scalant to avoid issues with additive interactions [26]. At this stage in the design process, an anti-foamer will not be included due to the risk of decreasing scalant efficacy, and the likelihood that foam will not be an issue in the desalination plant.<br />
<br />
===Multistage Flash Distillation===<br />
The main objective of the design project is desalinate water. This is done with the main process of multi stage flash distillation (MSF). MSF can be developed using a numerous number of different process configurations, such as Once-Through, Simple Mixer Brine Circulation, and Multi-Stage Heat Rejection Brine Circulation processes. <br />
<br />
The most desired process for the project is the Three Stage Heat Rejection Brine Circulation as it builds on benefits of the other simpler technologies. By combining principles of heat rejection and heat recovery, the required heat transfer area of the process is greatly reduced as compared to once through processes or simple brine recycle processes. It has the highest performance ratio with the lowest specific feed flow rates, therefore greatly lowering the operating costs of the process. It is also known as the industry standard for MSF<ref name = "KSU Chapter 6">Kansas State University ChE 413. Available at: http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/Almutaz/Documents/ChE-413/Multi-stage%20Flash%20Desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. In addition, since our brine disposal technique involves the pumping of the brine into a Class I well, the high brine outlet salinity is not a drawback for our process since post treatment or dilution of the brine is not necessary.<br />
<br />
===Post Treatment===<br />
After processing the water via multi-stage flash, the water needs to be post-treated to make the water taste as consumers would expect, since distilled water is “flat” and unpleasant, as well as to protect the consumers and the piping through which the water will be passing<ref>Clayton R. A review of current knowledge: Desalination for water supply. Foundation for Water Research. http://www.fwr.org/desal.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. There are multiple alternatives to achieve these objectives of remineralization, aeration, corrosion control, and disinfection.<br />
<br />
Aerating and introducing some dissolved solids back into the product water are effective ways to create a quality product that is not flat, and contains flavoring that is expected of the water when delivered to the consumer. Aeration will be accomplished via an inline spray aerator which will take up less space than cascade aeration.<ref>Minnesota Rural Water Association. Aeration. http://www.mrwa.com/WaterWorksMnl/Chapter%2011%20Aeration.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref> Feed blending will be used to remineralize the water as opposed to a remineralization filter because it does not require additional equipment purchases, and can easily handle the large amounts of throughput required for the process.<ref>Clayton R. A review of current knowledge: Desalination for water supply. Foundation for Water Research. http://www.fwr.org/desal.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref><br />
<br />
Corrosion and pH can be controlled by adding lime (calcium hydroxide) and carbon dioxide to the water. To do so, about 74 mg/L of lime and 88mg/L of CO<sub>2</sub> should be added to the desalinated water to help prevent corrosion and increase alkalinity within acceptable ranges. Sodium hydroxide, soda ash, and sodium bicarbonate are alternatives to altering the alkalinity and pH of the product water, but lime and CO<sub>2</sub> is an industry standard.<ref> Vouchkov, N. Re-Mineralization of Desalinated Water. SunCam. https://s3.amazonaws.com/suncam/npdocs/118.pdf. Accessed February 18, 2016.</ref><br />
<br />
Disinfection needs to be done to prevent microbial growth in the desalinated water and ensure the safety of the general public. Chlorine addition via chlorine gas or sodium hypochlorite is the most common and only requires a dose of 1.5 to 2.5 mg/liter.<ref>World Health Organization. Desalination for safe water supply. http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/gdwqrevision/desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>Other alternatives include ozonation, UV light, and chloramination. Chlorine, as a 5% - 15% sodium hypochlorite solution, is sufficient for our process and relatively inexpensive, and as such will be utilized in the process.<br />
<br />
===Transport of Brine to Well===<br />
Three major possibilities exist for transporting the brine from our desalination plant to the injection well for disposal: rail, trucking, and a pipeline. A pipeline was chosen as the most feasible and cost-effective approach. <br />
<br />
A rail line is not available at this time, and with the cost to construct a rail line at approximately $43 million per mile<ref>About Money. How Much Do Rail Transit Projects Cost to Build and Operate? 2014. Available at: http://publictransport.about.com/od/Transit_Projects/a/How-Much-Do-Rail-Transit-Projects-Cost-To-Build-And-Operate.htm. Accessed January 27, 2016. </ref>, the enormous capital cost makes rail transport infeasible for this site. For large volume operations, pipelines are cheaper than trucking. In a study of wastewater sludge produced from wastewater treatment facilities, it was found that it was more economical for facilities producing over 1200 m<sup>3</sup> per day to utilize pipelines rather than trucking.<ref>Marufuzzaman M, Eskioglu S, Hernandez R. Truck versus pipeline transportation cost analysis of wastewater sludge. Transportation Research. 2015; 74(A): 14-30. </ref> Our facility is producing nearly 3 times this volume at 3485 m<sup>3</sup> per day of brine. Furthermore, brine is a less viscous fluid than wastewater sludge, decreasing pumping costs in the pipeline and further amplifying the benefit of choosing a pipeline over an injection well.<br />
<br />
===Brine Storage===<br />
Due to the choice of a pipeline, rather than trucking, as the method of transport of brine to the injection well, brine storage is unnecessary, so storage solutions such as holding tanks were not investigated. One method of storage compatible with a pipeline is to pump the brine through an evaporation pond. This solution is attractive as it would allow the brine to concentrate, saving some costs of pumping, however, the considerable land usage of evaporation ponds leads them to only be effective for smaller plants. The largest municipal plant utilizing this method produces only 5.7 million liters per day<ref>University of Santa Cruz Center for Integrated Water Research. Concentrate Management: Evaporation Ponds. 2010. Available at: https://ciwr.ucsc.edu/sites/default/files/ICM_D5.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016. </ref>, whereas our desalination plant is proposed to produce 75.7 million liters per day. Therefore, evaporation ponds have been eliminated from consideration.<br />
<br />
==Major Specifications==<br />
===Material of Construction Selection===<br />
While saltwater and desalinated water in general can be corrosive, there are best practices within the desalination industry for material selection. With this in mind, best practice shows carbon steel lifetime can be lengthened by monitoring the oxygen concentration in the water, specifying the paint used to coat any metal, and more expensive materials can be used in areas of extremely high corrosion.<ref name = "Morris" />. By following these best practices, it is possible to save significant amounts of money through the use of carbon steel in most areas of the plant, with specific high-corrosion areas being reinforced with, or replaced with, more corrosion resistant materials, such as Cu/Ni 70/30 alloy<ref name = "KSU Chapter 6" />.<br />
<br />
===Heat Exchanger Sizing===<br />
See Appendix F for heat exchanger sizing data. Heat exchanger sizes appear reasonable for placement in the flash vessels.<br />
<br />
===Flash Vessel Sizing===<br />
The dimensions for the flash drums were obtained through literature values. The flash drums were determined to be 18x4x3 m in width, height, and length.<ref name="KSU Chapter 6" /><br />
<br />
Wall thickness was determined using the following conventions: Design pressure is 10% more than the operating pressure, design temperature is 50°F (27.8°C) higher than the operating temperature, a corrosion allowance of 3-mm and an effectiveness of 85% was derived from the assumption of a double-welded butt joint that was spot checked. See Appendix G for wall thicknesses calculated for each pressure vessel. <br />
<br />
The sizing of the vessels to be constructed will be determined after talks with a manufacturer. Due to economies of scale, it may be more cost-effective to buy 21 pressure vessels with the dimensions mentioned above and a wall thickness of 17.1-mm, the highest wall thickness required in the system.<br />
<br />
===Pipe Losses and Pressure Drop===<br />
HYSYS was used to estimate the diameter of a pipe given a specified pressure drop per 100m of pipe. It was determined that for a pressure drop of 0.1 kPa/100m of pipe, a 3.05m diameter pipe is sufficient, which is more than manageable for manufacturers. This pressure drop is mostly insignificant and will be taken care of with the safety factors included in the pumps. The significant pressure drops in our system is accounted for via losses in the flash vessels and heat exchangers, which drive the flash process. Therefore overall pipe losses are insignificant and are built into intentional design losses.<br />
<br />
=Economic Analysis=<br />
==Economic Assumptions==<br />
The sale of purified water yields a revenue stream of $49.5 million per year assuming sale to commercial entities within the city limits of Corpus Christi at $1.7915 per thousand liters.<ref>Water schedule. City of Corpus Christi Utility Business Office. http://www.cctexas.com/Assets/Departments/Financial-Services/Utilities-Business-Office/files/waterrates.pdf Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref> The primary variable costs are utilities and the brine disposal, with minimal raw materials costs due to the primary feedstock, seawater, being free, and minimal amounts of pre- and post-treatment chemicals being used. The cost of brine disposal used in this analysis was high at $2.097 per thousand liters<ref>McCurdy, R. Underground injection wells for produced water disposal. Chesapeake Energy Corporation. http://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/documents/21_McCurdy_-_UIC_Disposal_508.pdf Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref>, an estimate for brine disposal utilizing trucking as the mode of transport. As has been shown through previous analyses, a lower cost can be achieved using a direct pipeline, however, no good estimates for this cost could be found.<br />
<br />
The NPV was calculated using a 6% cost of capital, the approximate interest rate for a municipal bond.<ref>Zirbe, R.O. Jr., Han, X., Layton, D., Leshine, T. A history of discount rates and their use by government agencies. (2002). http://faculty.washington.edu/zerbe/docs/DISCOUNT%20RATE%20HISTORY-latesXIt.doc Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref> It was assumed that the plant can be built within two years, with production at half-scale in its first year. Additionally, one month of variable costs, $10.6 million, was set aside for working capital. See Appendix H for a full table of assumptions. A 30 year NPV calculation was chosen as the decision basis since 30 years is a conservative estimate for the lifetime of a desalination plant [38]. See below for estimates of NPV for the lifetime of the plant under various assumptions and design criteria.<br />
<br />
==Optimization and Sensitivity Analysis==<br />
Looking at the multi-stage flash process, there are a number of opportunities to optimize the process. The major process variables that were investigated were the inlet water temperature, the operating pressure drop per vessel, and the number of stages over which the process takes place. Considering these optimizations, our final process consists of 21 flash vessels (18 heat recovery and 3 heat rejection stages), each with a pressure drop of 5 kPa. See Appendix D for a screenshot of the HYSYS simulation used to model the optimized process.<br />
===Operating Pressure and Pressure Drop===<br />
Initially our process was designed to pump the inlet seawater and brine to a pressure of 2 bar and allow the pressure drop in each flash stage to end our process downstream at 1 bar to prevent complications associated with designing a system under vacuum. While this provided pumping advantages, the energy in the system was significantly higher due to vapor pressure considerations. Due to this fact, the required heat exchange area for certain exchangers proved to be infeasible (on the order of 80,000m<sup>2</sup>) due to the enormous capital and operating costs that would be associated with such a large heat exchanger.<br />
<br />
The process was optimized to operate under vacuum, requiring additional pumping requirements but much lower required heat exchange area, and therefore lower utility costs. This optimization was done by specifying the pressure of the final flash vessel to 5.7kPa, so that the temperature of the water vapor (~30<sup>o</sup>C) is within approximately 5<sup>o</sup>C of the cooling water (35<sup>o</sup>C) so that condensation can occur within a reasonable approach. This also allows our system to optimally extract pure water from the brine running through the system and reduce energy requirements for cooling the product or the recycle. Our system redesign and optimization reduced the energy in the system and reduce the same heat exchanger area requirements by more than 3 orders of magnitude to approximately 800m<sup>2</sup>. <br />
<br />
Once the process was optimized to operate in a vacuum, the pressure drop per flash stage regulated through values was then optimized. Three pressure drops per stages, 3kPa, 5kPa, and 7kPa, were tested and then an economic analysis was conducted to find the optimal value for the pressure drop. These changes had impacts on both operating and capital costs as they would change initial pumping requirements, the amount of water flowing through the process and recycle (and therefore the flash vessel sizes, heat exchanger sizing), and the efficiency of each stage.<br />
<br />
The various pressure drops (3 kPa, 5 kPa, and 7 kPa) were tested on a system nominally at 24 stages under the assumption that the results would be generalizable to systems with a different number of stages. With increasing pressure drop, we found decreased capital cost but increased utility cost. As can be seen from Table 2 below, a pressure drop of 5 kPa proved to be the best option based on 30 year NPV, with a loss of $838.8 million, a savings of $65.5 million compared to the next-best option with a pressure drop of 7 kPa.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 2: Comparison of profitability for our MSF desalination process with 24 stages with 3 different pressure drops per stage<br />
! Number of Stages <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! Pressure Drop <br/> (kPa)<br />
! Capital Cost <br/> ($MM)<br />
! Utility Cost <br/> ($MM/yr)<br />
! 30-Year NPV <br/> ($MM)<br />
! NPV Ratio <br/> (over 5kPa)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 3 || 362.3 || 39.1 || -905.8 || 1.08<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 5 || 255.1 || 53.6 || -838.8 || 1.00<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 7 || 209.5 || 72.2 || -904.3 || 1.08<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
===Number of Flash Stages===<br />
The number of stages is an important area for optimization. An increased number of stages yields better recovery of purified water, however, requires higher capital cost from the additional pressure vessel. Furthermore, with an increased amount of purified water comes increasingly concentrated brine. This must be taken into account since any brine concentration in excess of about 7% presents a more significant corrosion risk<ref name="KSU Chapter 6" />, so increased maintenance costs for the piping or higher capital costs for more corrosion-resistant materials could be necessary for brine concentrations exceeding 7%. Therefore, to recover the same amount of pure water without exceeding corrosion limitations, increasing the number of stages will reduce the overall size of each stage.<br />
<br />
Optimizing based on NPV, it was found that 21 stages is optimal, balancing the increased profits from the additional purified water additional costs of higher capital cost. See Table 3 below to compare the 30-year NPV of the process across various numbers of flash vessels.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 3: Comparison of profitability for our MSF desalination process with a 5 kPa pressure drop, 5000 m<sup>3</sup>/hr feed flow rate, with varying number of stages.<br />
! Number of Stages <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! Pressure Drop <br/> (kPa)<br />
! Capital Cost <br/> ($MM)<br />
! Utility Cost <br/> ($MM/yr)<br />
! 30-Year NPV <br/> ($MM)<br />
! NPV Ratio <br/> (over 21 Stages)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 17 || 5 || 213.9 || 58.7 || -813.8 || 1.016<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 18 || 5 || 218 || 57.6 || -809.9 || 1.011<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 19 || 5 || 224.3 || 58 || -806.1 || 1.007<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 20 || 5 || 229.8 || 57.9 || -813.6 || 1.016<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 21 || 5 || 226.6 || 55.9 || -800.7 || 1<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 22 || 5 || 254.7 || 54.6 || -849.5 || 1.061<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 23 || 5 || 249.3 || 54.1 || -833.1 || 1.04<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 5 || 255.1 || 53.6 || -838.8 || 1.048<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 25 || 5 || 254.9 || 52.7 || -837.4 || 1.046<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
===Inlet Seawater Temperature===<br />
By pairing our desalination plant with a natural gas power plant and utilizing its cooling water we forgo initial heating of our inlet stream. Normally, water pumped from the ocean would be approximately 25<sup>o</sup>C and by capturing waste heat from the power plant we can reduce utilities with our water inlet of 45<sup>o</sup>C. Through an economic comparison between two plants nominally at 21 flash stages, the plant with an inlet temperature at 25<sup>o</sup>C has a capital cost of $245MM and a utility cost of $77MM/yr and the same facility with an inlet water temperature at 45<sup>o</sup>C has a capital cost of only $226MM and a utility cost of $56MM/yr. As shown in Table 4 below, this $19MM savings in capital costs and $21MM/yr saving in utilities is largely due to reducing the size of the heat exchangers and lowering the steam required for heating duty on the inlet seawater respectively. Therefore our process is optimized by recovering the waste heat water from the gas fired power plant.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 4: Seawater Inlet Temperature Process Cost Optimization<br />
! Seawater Temperature <br/> (°C)<br />
! Capital Cost <br/> ($MM)<br />
! Utility Cost <br/> ($MM/yr)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 25 || 245 || 77<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 45 || 226 || 56<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Savings || 56 || 19<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
==Overall Process Economics==<br />
After optimization at fixed flow rates, the process was scaled to meet the the 67% operating percentage and final product definitions as shown in Table 1, which resulted in finalized economics shown in Table 5 below. For a table of the installed costs of each process vessel, see Appendix I. For the finalized NPV calculations, see Appendix J.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 5: Summarized Economics for 21-stage MSFD Process<br />
! Economic Parameter<br />
! Cost <br/> (USD)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Capital Cost || 345 MM<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Total Operating Cost per Year || 103 MM<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Utility Cost per Year || 59 MM<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 30-Year NPV (6% Discount) || -1035 MM<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
=Conclusions and Recommendations=<br />
==Project Viability==<br />
Table 5 above demonstrates that the process has reasonable operating and capital costs, but the 30-year NPV is negative by -1035 $MM due to the extremely low sell price capability of desalinated water as a product. Therefore, this plant would have to heavily be supported by the City of Corpus Christi to run as the product revenue will not make it self-sufficient. The acquisition of government subsidies are key operating requirements for all desalination facilities in the United States. <br />
<br />
==Additional Concerns==<br />
Large volumes of water, steam, and energy are needed to ensure the project runs as specified. While most of the water can easily be extracted from the ocean with little to consequence, the fuel used to generate the steam and electricity can have a significant environmental impact. As the plant is located next to a natural gas power plant, this fuel is better than coal with respect to environmental concerns, and utilizing energy from the power plant to preheat the feed stream for the desalination plant helps lower environmental impacts.<br />
<br />
The large amounts of high pressure steam being used represents one of the the largest safety concern in the process, because a high pressure steam release could easily cause severe burns or even death. Proper precautions and control measures must be in place to prevent accidental release. Otherwise, the process does not utilize any known toxic chemicals and is relatively safe from a chemical standpoint. The flash vessels mostly operate below atmospheric pressure, so they must be constructed as vessels that can withstand vacuum without failing.<br />
<br />
<br />
=Appendix A: Proposed Location of Desalination Plant=<br />
Pictured below is the proposed location for the desalination plant, located on Nueces Bay in Corpus Christi, adjacent to the Nueces Bay Energy Center. The plant’s proposed location is shown in the area outlined by the small circle in the upper right of the figure.<br />
<br />
[[File:NuecesBayLocation.png|center|600px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Desalination Facility Location|Figure A.1: Proposed mapped location of Nueces Bay Desalination Facility.]]<br />
[[File:ClassIWell.png|center|700px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Desalination Facility Distance to Injection Well|Figure A.2: Mapped distance from proposed location to Class I Injection Well]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix B: Feed and Product Definitions - Salinity=<br />
<br />
=Appendix C: Process Flow Diagram=<br />
[[File:TeamF_PFD.png|center|1200px|thumb|alt=Process Flow Diagram|Figure C.1: Process Flow Diagram]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix D: HYSYS Simulation Model=<br />
[[File:TeamF_HYSYS_Screenshot.PNG|center|1200px|thumb|alt=HYSYS Simulation Model|Figure D.1: Screenshot of HYSYS Model Simulation.]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix E: Stream Tables=<br />
<br />
=Appendix F: Heat Exchanger Sizing=<br />
<br />
=Appendix G: Pressure Vessel Sizing=<br />
<br />
=Appendix H: Expanded Economic Assumptions=<br />
<br />
=Appendix I: Equipment Cost Summary=<br />
<br />
=Appendix J: Economic NPV Analysis=<br />
<br />
=References=<br />
<references/></div>Kedricdaly2https://processdesign.mccormick.northwestern.edu/index.php?title=Nueces_Desalination_Center:_Production_of_Drinking_Water_by_Multi-Stage_Flash_Distillation&diff=4938Nueces Desalination Center: Production of Drinking Water by Multi-Stage Flash Distillation2016-03-07T15:03:44Z<p>Kedricdaly2: Fixed links to Morris Reference in code (to stop double counting same source)</p>
<hr />
<div>Team F: Rankine 672 Final Report<br />
<br />
Authors: Kedric Daly, Ben Granger, Evan Rosati, Kathleen Zhou<br />
<br />
Instructors: Fengqi You, David Wegerer<br />
<br />
March 11, 2016<br />
<br />
=Executive Summary=<br />
Desalination of seawater to drinking water is a technology of ever-increasing importance given trends of increasingly widespread water shortages around the world. Even in the United States, water shortages are becoming increasingly common in dry, highly-populated such as California and certain areas of the Gulf Coast. Our design team, Rankine 672, was tasked with evaluating the need for and designing a desalination plant to provide purified water in a place of need. Investigation revealed that the city of Corpus Christi, Texas, is a strategic location for development of a desalination facility, as surrounding region is in need of new drinking water sources and the city has expressed serious interest in contracting the development of a large-scale desalination plant. Our proposed solution is a multi-stage flash distillation desalination facility capable of producing 20,000,000 gallons (75,708 m<sup>3</sup>) of purified drinking water for the city and surrounding region per operating day.<br />
<br />
In this design, drinking water is produced from seawater feedstock through a 21-stage flash distillation process. By strategically locating the facility next to an existing natural gas power plant, the Nueces Bay Energy Center, pre-heated feed water can be taken directly from the outbound cooling systems of the power plant, allowing energy savings for our desalination plant. The process is designed for 16 hour-per-day operation, requires a seawater feed of 8250 m<sup>3</sup>/hr, and produces 4758 m<sup>3</sup>/hr of purified drinking water alongside a waste stream of 3485 m<sup>3</sup>/hr of concentrated brine. The waste stream is isolated from a recycle stream through a 9.0% purge; this results in an overall product yield of 57.7% on a volume basis. The process requires an additional pretreatment stream of 16.5 kg/hr Belgard EV 2030, which serves as an antiscalant, as well as 9.5 kg/hr chlorine, 352.1 kg/hr lime, and 418.7 kg/hr CO2 for post-treatment purposes.<br />
<br />
The overall capital cost of the plant is expected to be $345MM, with a total operating cost of $103MM/yr, $59MM/yr of which comes from utilities. Due to the low price at which the product water can be sold, the 30-year net present value of the plant, assuming a 6% discount rate, is $-1,035MM. It is thus imperative this plant be constructed with public funds because it cannot return a profit to any private investor. The growing need for water however could justify the cost, because it is important that the residents of the greater Corpus Christi area have access to drinkable water.<br />
<br />
__TOC__<br />
<br />
=Introduction=<br />
==Background==<br />
Clean drinking water is a basic human need that is becoming increasingly difficult to meet. Currently, over 1 billion people live in places where water is considered scarce<ref> Tapping the oceans. The Economist USA. http://www.economist.com/node/11484059. Accessed March 2, 2016. </ref>. Though often thought of as a problem exclusive to third-world countries, the issue is becoming more prevalent in the US as well, with water managers in 40 of 50 states anticipating water shortage conditions in some portion of their state in the next 10 years. These shortages are due to increasing demands on constant or diminishing freshwater resources, therefore, to correct the issue, a new supply must be found<ref> Water Supply in the US. EPA. http://www3.epa.gov/watersense/pubs/supply.html. Accessed March 2, 2016.</ref>. Desalination of seawater is therefore important as a new source for clean drinking water and prevent water shortages. <br />
<br />
==Project Definition==<br />
The overall goal of the project is to investigate the feasibility of a desalination plant in order to meet the needs of growing water demand. The design needs to take health, safety, and environmental concerns into account, while optimizing costs.<br />
<br />
=Design Basis=<br />
Site Location and Conditions<br />
Corpus Christi, TX was chosen as the location for the proposed desalination plant. The city is currently experiencing “Moderate Shortage Conditions”. This issue additionally comes at a time of growing demand with population growth anticipated due to new industry and Eagle Ford Group crude oil production<ref>Stage 2 Measures in the Drought Contingency Plan. Available at http://www.cctexas.com/government/water/conservation/conservation-drought-plans/stage-2-measures. Accessed January 12, 2016. </ref>.<br />
<br />
In June 2014, the city announced the Corpus Christi Desalination Demonstration Project<ref>Corpus Christi Desalination Demonstration Project. Available at http://www.cctexas.com/Assets/Departments/Water/Files/DesalFactSheet.pdf. Published June 2014. Accessed January 12, 2016. <br />
</ref> which seeks to create a demonstration desalination plant capable of producing 20,000 gallons of water per day, with plans to later build a full scale facility generating 20,000,000 gallons of water per day. The desalination demonstration project indicates a clear need for implementation of a desalination plant of this size to accommodate growth in the Corpus Christi area. <br />
<br />
Locating our plant in Corpus Christi will allow us to take advantage of the benefits of cogeneration through a partnership with the Nueces Bay Energy Center. By utilizing their outlet cooling water as a large portion of our feed for the desalination process, we can raise the temperature of our seawater feed, saving on energy costs in the multi stage flash distillation. The proposed location for the desalination plant is immediately west of the Nueces Bay Energy Center. See Appendix A for a map depicting the proposed location for the desalination plant along the coast of Nueces Bay.<br />
<br />
==Feed and Product Definitions==<br />
The proposed desalination facility’s feed and product streams are defined as shown in Table 1. Rationale for these definitions is also described below. The values reported in Table 1 are final derived numbers from HYSYS simulation modeling. <br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 1: Feed and product stream definitions<br />
! &nbsp;<br />
! Salt Concentration<br />
! Temperature <br />
! Amount<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Feed Stream <br />
| 30,500 ppm || 45°C || 8250 m<sup>3</sup>/hr<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Product Stream<br />
| ~ 0 ppm || 35°C || 4758 m<sup>3</sup>/hr<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Byproduct Stream<br />
| 695 ppm || 35°C || 3485 m<sup>3</sup>/hr<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
The process feed will be seawater from Nueces Bay, preheated through the cooling water system of the nearby Nueces Bay Energy Center. Based on calculations developed from NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory) data, it was estimated that the Nueces Bay Energy Center uses approximately 250 million gallons of seawater per day for process and cooling needs. Therefore, the 20 million gallon per day requirement for the desalination facility can easily be met through the power plant’s cooling water<ref>Torcellini P, Long N, Judkoff R. Consumptive Water Use for U.S. Power Consumption. NREL. 2003; TP-550-33905. <br />
</ref>. Note that we are assuming the process will operate 67% of the time (16 hours per day).<br />
<br />
Based on data acquired from two salinity-measuring stations in Nueces Bay, the average salinity of local seawater is 30.5 practical salinity units (psu)<ref>Stations Map & Real - Time Data. The Conrad Blucher Institute for Surveying and Science website. Available at http://www.cbi.tamucc.edu/cbi/data/. Updated January 2016. Accessed January 9, 2016. </ref>, thus setting the concentration of the process feed stream. This translates to a feed stream concentration of 30,500 ppm (parts per million)<ref>Definition and Units. CATD Salinity Expertise Center. Available at http://www.salinityremotesensing.ifremer.fr/home. Accessed January 12, 2016.</ref>. The composition of the salt attributed to this seawater salinity is shown in Table 6 in Appendix B. <br />
<br />
No data on the composition of seawater around the Corpus Christi area was available, but the composition of seawater does not change significantly in different locations. The given composition is considered accurate for our feed stream<ref>Brown E, Colling A, Park D, Phillips J, Rothery D, Wright J. Seawater : Its Composition, Properties and Behaviour. Boston: Butterworth-Heinemann, 1995.<br />
</ref>. Note that seawater salt is primarily sodium chloride - total dissolved solids are 85.7% sodium chloride by mass. As such, the dissolved solids in the feed stream is assumed in this project to be pure NaCl, making the feed composition 96.95% water and 3.05% NaCl by mass. A control system will likely be put in place to ensure feed concentration remains at this level, accounting for natural fluctuations in local seawater salinity.<br />
<br />
The largest byproduct from the process will be a brine slurry with high salt concentrations. An upper corrosion limit of 700 ppm was set for recirculated and purged brine. This undesired byproduct will be sent to a nearby Class I non-hazardous injection well facility operated by GNI Group, which is approximately 12 miles away from the proposed desalination plant location as shown in the figure in Appendix A<ref>Texas Water Code. Availabe at http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/WA/htm/WA.27.htm. Accessed January 14, 2016.<br />
</ref><ref>Google Maps. Available at https://goo.gl/maps/3xcvLZwUCe42 Accessed January 15, 2016.</ref>. Through the incorporation of a Class I injection well, the brine will not have to be treated or diluted before injection. <ref>EPA Regulations on Class I Wells. Available at http://www.epa.gov/uic/class-i-industrial-and-municipal-waste-disposal-wells. Accessed January 14, 2016.<br />
</ref><ref>List of Injection Well Facilities by Location. Available at http://www.ehso.com/cssepa/tsdfdeepwells.php. Accessed January 14, 2016.</ref><br />
<br />
There are no regulations regarding the temperature of city drinking water, so the product stream temperature has no requirements based on regulations. Outlet temperatures of 35<sup>o</sup>C are acceptable for input to the municipal water supply system. Since city water tends to be stored in non-temperature controlled tanks, the temperature will naturally cool to ambient temperature.<ref>Climate Corpus Christi- Texas. US Climate Data. Available at http://www.usclimatedata.com/climate/corpus-christi/texas/united-states/ustx0294. Accessed January 12, 2016. </ref><br />
<br />
==Pre-Treatment and Post-Treatment==<br />
For pretreatment, Belgard EV 2030 is recommended to be added at a concentration of 1.8-2.0 mg/L for a system with top brine temperature approximately 110 °C<ref>BWA Water Additives. Belgard EV2030 Technical Data Sheet. BWA Water Additives. http://www.wateradditives.com/files/products/tech_data_sheets/Belgard%20EV%202030_Technical%20Data%20Sheet_Thermal_8.5x11.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016.<br />
</ref>. Since our process is designed to operate at a slightly higher top brine temperature, 120 °C, we will design for the upper bound concentration: 2.0 mg/L of antiscalant. With a feed flow rate of 8250 m<sup>3</sup>/hr, the process therefore requires 16.5 kg/hr of Belgard EV 2030.<br />
<br />
For disinfection during post-treatment, chlorine addition typically requires a dose of roughly 2.0 mg/L as well<ref>World Health Organization. Desalination for safe water supply. http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/gdwqrevision/desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. With a pure water distillate flow rate of 4758 m<sup>3</sup>/hr, the process requires 9.5 kg/hr of chlorine gas. Approximately 74 mg/L of lime (calcium hydroxide) and 88mg/L of CO2 should be added to the desalinated water to help prevent corrosion and increase alkalinity within acceptable ranges<ref>Vouchkov, N. Re-Mineralization of Desalinated Water. SunCam. https://s3.amazonaws.com/suncam/npdocs/118.pdf. Accessed February 18, 2016.</ref>. With a product stream flow rate of 4758 m3/hr, these concentrations correspond to 352.1 kg/hr of lime and 418.7 kg/hr of CO2. Both of these can be purchased, and it is likely that the CO2 can be procured from the neighboring natural gas power plant.<br />
<br />
==Choice of Desalination Technology==<br />
The two major technologies commonly implemented for desalination include reverse osmosis (RO), and multi-stage flash distillation (MSFD). RO utilizes high pressures to force water through a semipermeable membrane that allows for purified water to pass through, but stops organic and other wastes. Often, the pressures can reach 55 - 68 bar, which requires large pumps to maintain pressure, and introduces safety concerns to the process<ref>Stage 2 Measures in the Drought Contingency Plan. Available at http://www.cctexas.com/government/water/conservation/conservation-drought-plans/stage-2-measures. Accessed January 12, 2016. <br />
</ref>. While RO can be less energy intensive than MSFD, and the membrane can also remove contaminants, it is susceptible to feedwater quality, membrane fouling, and requires more extensive pretreatment and posttreatment than MSFD. The cost of RO is directly proportional to the feed salinity, and so it is less expensive when desalinating low salinity water.<br />
<br />
Multi-stage flash distillation is best selected for areas that have high salinity or low energy costs. The pretreatment process for MSFD is much easier when compared to RO because pretreatment often consists of simply adding anti-corrosives and antiscalants to the feed stream. The process works by heating water in vessels at different pressures to change the boiling point of the water and evaporate it as it passes through the system. After evaporation, the water condenses, leaving pure water as the effluent. MSFD costs are now roughly $1.00/m3, where this cost is mostly independent of salinity, but dependent on energy costs.<ref>Fritzman C, Lowenberg J, Wintgens T, Melin T. State-of-the-art Reverse Osmosis Desalination. Desalination. 2007; 216:1-76. <br />
</ref> In both RO and MSFD a brine is produced which then must be appropriately treated and/or disposed of.<br />
<br />
Multi-stage flash distillation was selected for this process, mainly due to the economic advantages offered by the selected location of Corpus Christi, TX. MSFD is also a well understood process that can be more easily modeled by chemical engineering software.<br />
<br />
=Technical Approach=<br />
Quantitative modeling of the process and all included optimization was conducted using the simulation software Aspen HYSYS. A variety of assumptions were developed to set up and define specific components of the process simulation itself. Within Aspen HYSYS, the NRTL Electrolyte property package was selected to model the behavior of salt water. Each stage of the MSF process is modeled as an individual flash vessel, with individual shell & tube heat exchangers used to model the distillate condensers present in each flash stage in the MSF system.<br />
<br />
The HYSYS simulation model only considers the flash portion of the overall process, allowing establishment of mass and energy balances for the system. Pretreatment and post-treatment were excluded for the HYSYS model, as these steps are simple additions or removals of small concentrations of chemical components. Although the simulation models heat exchangers outside of each flash stage, in the physical design of the plant these heat exchangers will be contained within each flash stage.<br />
<br />
One portion of the process is not modeled, which is the inlet seawater entering the heat rejection stages. As can be seen from the full process flow diagram (Appendix C), the inlet seawater in the heat rejection stage is in high excess to provide maximum cooling capacity; then a significant portion is purged to bring the stream flow rate down to what is needed for the feed stream. It is assumed that the flow rate of cooling water for those three stages is in such high excess that the cooling water does not heat up. Therefore, in the process simulation models, the inlet stream is the feed stream, which enters directly into the heat recovery portion of the process.<br />
<br />
See Appendix D for a screenshot overview of the simulation environment model.<br />
<br />
=Process Overview=<br />
==Process Flowsheet==<br />
The following diagram, Figure 1, shows a basic flowsheet for the process. Process alternatives considered for each stage are discussed below. Please see Appendix C for the full process flowsheet with finalized design decisions.<br />
<br />
[[File:BlockFlowDiagram.png|center|700px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Desalination Facility Block Flow Diagram|Figure 1: Basic block flowsheet of the multi-stage flash desalination process.]]<br />
<br />
==Major Features==<br />
As seen above, there are three primary stages of the desalination process: Pre-treatment, the multi-stage flash distillation, and post-treatment. Seawater enters the pre-treatment phase first to make the feed suitable for the rest of the process by filtering out large particles that could accumulate on pipes, deaerating the water to limit corrosion, and adding an agent to combat fouling. The water then enters the distillation process, which is broken up into two sections: heat recovery and heat rejection. <br />
<br />
In the heat recovery stage, there are 18 flash vessels, each of which separates steam from the salinated liquid water. Each flash vessel has saltwater as its inlet and two outlets: a vapor outlet (steam) that condenses into the final product of purified water and a liquid outlet composed of water with more dissolved solids than the inlet, which is the inlet stream for the next flash vessel. The pipe containing the feed is first mixed with recycled brine, then goes through the top sections of each of the flash vessels, starting with V-118 and ending up at V-101. In this way, the feed stream pipe first serves as a heat exchanger, heating the pre-treated seawater while simultaneously condensing the steam into the final product. The feed then enters a final heat exchanger where it is brought up to 103.6 °C before entering V-101 to be flashed.<br />
<br />
After exiting V-118, the final flash vessel in the heat recovery portion, the water enters the heat rejection portion, which consists of three flash vessels (V-201, V-202, V-203). The flash vessels of this section operate in the same manner as in the heat recovery section, with the exception that condensation occurs using excess cooling water instead of pre-treated seawater. This technique allows excess heat to be rejected into an excess water stream rather than the feed.<br />
<br />
The purified product stream finally enters post-treatment processing in which water is re-aerated and remineralized, disinfected, and pH is adjusted before being delivered to the city. The concentrated brine leftover at the end of the flash cycle is recycled into the feed, although a purge is required to continuously remove some salt from the system. This purged brine is disposed of by use of a Class I injection well, per regional regulations.<br />
<br />
See Appendix E to find detailed stream tables of stream specifications.<br />
<br />
==Process Alternatives==<br />
===Pretreatment===<br />
Multi-stage flash distillation requires significantly less pretreatment than reverse osmosis desalination, but helpful pretreatment techniques still exist. One very inexpensive method of pretreatment is screening/filtration, which is used to filter out large contaminants from intake seawater. Using more complicated membrane technology to accomplish large particle filtration is a possible alternative, but doing so would be much more expensive than using a standard screen or filter, so the latter choice has been selected for this process.<ref>El-Dessouky H., Alatiqi I, Ettouney H. Process synthesis: The multi-stage flash desalination system. Desalination. 1998;115(2):115-179. doi: 10.1016/S0011-9164(98)00035-6.</ref><br />
<br />
The most critical type of fouling in multi-stage flash distillation is scaling - therefore, the most critical step in the pretreatment process will be the inclusion of an anti-scalant. Alkaline scaling can be prevented by acid dosing or polyphosphate addition; however, acid dosing can result in increased corrosion and polyphosphates can lead to non-alkaline calcium phosphate fouling, so these additives will not be considered<ref name="Morris">Morris, R. The development of the multi-stage flash distillation process: A designer's viewpoint. Desalination. 1993;93(1-3):57-68. doi:10.1016/S0011-9164(93)80096-6. Availble at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0011916493800966</ref><ref>Al-Gobaisi, D. A quarter-century of seawater desalination by large multistage flash plants in Abu Dhabi (Plant performance analysis, assessment, present efforts toward enhancement and future hopes). Desalination. 1994;99(2-3):509-512. doi: 10.1016/S0011-9164(94)00196-0.</ref>. As such, a polymer-based additive is recommended for the anti-scalant for this process. The Belgard EV series is designed for use in high-temperature seawater MSF; of these, Belgard EV 2030 is the most neutral in pH<ref>NSF International. NSF Product and Service Listings: Drinking Water Treatment Chemicals - Health Effects. NSF International. http://info.nsf.org/Certified/PwsChemicals/Listings.asp?Company=00300&. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref><ref>BWA Water Additives. Belgard EV2030 Technical Data Sheet. BWA Water Additives. http://www.wateradditives.com/files/products/tech_data_sheets/Belgard%20EV%202030_Technical%20Data%20Sheet_Thermal_8.5x11.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref><ref>BWA Water Additives. Belgard EV2035 Technical Data Sheet. BWA Water Additives. http://www.wateradditives.com/files/products/tech_data_sheets/Belgard%20EV2035_Technical%20Data%20Sheet_Thermal_8.5x11.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref><ref>BioLab Water Additives. Belgard EV Antiscalant for seawater distillation plants. BioLab Water Additives. http://www.lpq.com.mx/pdf/BELGARD%20EV.PDF. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref>. As such, we have selected Belgard EV 2030 for use as an anti-scalant in our process.<br />
<br />
Corrosion control is another significant method of pretreatment in multi-stage flash distillation plants. Using a piping material that has limited susceptibility to corrosion is typically not economically viable for MSF desalination plants due their large size, so using carbon steel for most of the piping is generally used for its economic benefits despite its susceptibility to corrosion<ref name = "Morris" />. Limiting oxygen concentration is very feasible through the use of deaerators, which can remove oxygen as well as other dissolved gases from the seawater stream. Often, an external deaeration system is used<ref name = "Morris" /><ref>Edwards - Hick Hargreaves. Seawater Deaerators. Edwards - Hick Hargreaves. http://psscorp.co.th/upload/news/20110830105340.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. Given these considerations, using an external deaerator combined with a less-corrosive antiscalant like Belgard EV 2030 is much more practical for the process than using anti-corrosive piping.<br />
<br />
Excessive foam can also be an issue in some MSF distillation facilities, so antifoaming agents are sometimes employed in the pretreatment process as well. However, many plants are operated without foaming issues, and therefore do not need anti-foaming pretreatment at all. Selection of an anti-foaming agent must be carefully weighed with selected of anti-scalant to avoid issues with additive interactions [26]. At this stage in the design process, an anti-foamer will not be included due to the risk of decreasing scalant efficacy, and the likelihood that foam will not be an issue in the desalination plant.<br />
<br />
===Multistage Flash Distillation===<br />
The main objective of the design project is desalinate water. This is done with the main process of multi stage flash distillation (MSF). MSF can be developed using a numerous number of different process configurations, such as Once-Through, Simple Mixer Brine Circulation, and Multi-Stage Heat Rejection Brine Circulation processes. <br />
<br />
The most desired process for the project is the Three Stage Heat Rejection Brine Circulation as it builds on benefits of the other simpler technologies. By combining principles of heat rejection and heat recovery, the required heat transfer area of the process is greatly reduced as compared to once through processes or simple brine recycle processes. It has the highest performance ratio with the lowest specific feed flow rates, therefore greatly lowering the operating costs of the process. It is also known as the industry standard for MSF<ref>Kansas State University ChE 413.. Available at: http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/Almutaz/Documents/ChE-413/Multi-stage%20Flash%20Desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. In addition, since our brine disposal technique involves the pumping of the brine into a Class I well, the high brine outlet salinity is not a drawback for our process since post treatment or dilution of the brine is not necessary.<br />
<br />
===Post Treatment===<br />
After processing the water via multi-stage flash, the water needs to be post-treated to make the water taste as consumers would expect, since distilled water is “flat” and unpleasant, as well as to protect the consumers and the piping through which the water will be passing<ref>Clayton R. A review of current knowledge: Desalination for water supply. Foundation for Water Research. http://www.fwr.org/desal.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. There are multiple alternatives to achieve these objectives of remineralization, aeration, corrosion control, and disinfection.<br />
<br />
Aerating and introducing some dissolved solids back into the product water are effective ways to create a quality product that is not flat, and contains flavoring that is expected of the water when delivered to the consumer. Aeration will be accomplished via an inline spray aerator which will take up less space than cascade aeration.<ref>Minnesota Rural Water Association. Aeration. http://www.mrwa.com/WaterWorksMnl/Chapter%2011%20Aeration.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref> Feed blending will be used to remineralize the water as opposed to a remineralization filter because it does not require additional equipment purchases, and can easily handle the large amounts of throughput required for the process.<ref>Clayton R. A review of current knowledge: Desalination for water supply. Foundation for Water Research. http://www.fwr.org/desal.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref><br />
<br />
Corrosion and pH can be controlled by adding lime (calcium hydroxide) and carbon dioxide to the water. To do so, about 74 mg/L of lime and 88mg/L of CO<sub>2</sub> should be added to the desalinated water to help prevent corrosion and increase alkalinity within acceptable ranges. Sodium hydroxide, soda ash, and sodium bicarbonate are alternatives to altering the alkalinity and pH of the product water, but lime and CO<sub>2</sub> is an industry standard.<ref> Vouchkov, N. Re-Mineralization of Desalinated Water. SunCam. https://s3.amazonaws.com/suncam/npdocs/118.pdf. Accessed February 18, 2016.</ref><br />
<br />
Disinfection needs to be done to prevent microbial growth in the desalinated water and ensure the safety of the general public. Chlorine addition via chlorine gas or sodium hypochlorite is the most common and only requires a dose of 1.5 to 2.5 mg/liter.<ref>World Health Organization. Desalination for safe water supply. http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/gdwqrevision/desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>Other alternatives include ozonation, UV light, and chloramination. Chlorine, as a 5% - 15% sodium hypochlorite solution, is sufficient for our process and relatively inexpensive, and as such will be utilized in the process.<br />
<br />
===Transport of Brine to Well===<br />
Three major possibilities exist for transporting the brine from our desalination plant to the injection well for disposal: rail, trucking, and a pipeline. A pipeline was chosen as the most feasible and cost-effective approach. <br />
<br />
A rail line is not available at this time, and with the cost to construct a rail line at approximately $43 million per mile<ref>About Money. How Much Do Rail Transit Projects Cost to Build and Operate? 2014. Available at: http://publictransport.about.com/od/Transit_Projects/a/How-Much-Do-Rail-Transit-Projects-Cost-To-Build-And-Operate.htm. Accessed January 27, 2016. </ref>, the enormous capital cost makes rail transport infeasible for this site. For large volume operations, pipelines are cheaper than trucking. In a study of wastewater sludge produced from wastewater treatment facilities, it was found that it was more economical for facilities producing over 1200 m<sup>3</sup> per day to utilize pipelines rather than trucking.<ref>Marufuzzaman M, Eskioglu S, Hernandez R. Truck versus pipeline transportation cost analysis of wastewater sludge. Transportation Research. 2015; 74(A): 14-30. </ref> Our facility is producing nearly 3 times this volume at 3485 m<sup>3</sup> per day of brine. Furthermore, brine is a less viscous fluid than wastewater sludge, decreasing pumping costs in the pipeline and further amplifying the benefit of choosing a pipeline over an injection well.<br />
<br />
===Brine Storage===<br />
Due to the choice of a pipeline, rather than trucking, as the method of transport of brine to the injection well, brine storage is unnecessary, so storage solutions such as holding tanks were not investigated. One method of storage compatible with a pipeline is to pump the brine through an evaporation pond. This solution is attractive as it would allow the brine to concentrate, saving some costs of pumping, however, the considerable land usage of evaporation ponds leads them to only be effective for smaller plants. The largest municipal plant utilizing this method produces only 5.7 million liters per day<ref>University of Santa Cruz Center for Integrated Water Research. Concentrate Management: Evaporation Ponds. 2010. Available at: https://ciwr.ucsc.edu/sites/default/files/ICM_D5.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016. </ref>, whereas our desalination plant is proposed to produce 75.7 million liters per day. Therefore, evaporation ponds have been eliminated from consideration.<br />
<br />
==Major Specifications==<br />
===Material of Construction Selection===<br />
While saltwater and desalinated water in general can be corrosive, there are best practices within the desalination industry for material selection. With this in mind, best practice shows carbon steel lifetime can be lengthened by monitoring the oxygen concentration in the water, specifying the paint used to coat any metal, and more expensive materials can be used in areas of extremely high corrosion.<ref name = "Morris" />. By following these best practices, it is possible to save significant amounts of money through the use of carbon steel in most areas of the plant, with specific high-corrosion areas being reinforced with, or replaced with, more corrosion resistant materials, such as Cu/Ni 70/30 alloy<ref>Kansas State University ChE 413.. Available at: http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/Almutaz/Documents/ChE-413/Multi-stage%20Flash%20Desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>.<br />
<br />
===Heat Exchanger Sizing===<br />
See Appendix F for heat exchanger sizing data. Heat exchanger sizes appear reasonable for placement in the flash vessels.<br />
<br />
===Flash Vessel Sizing===<br />
The dimensions for the flash drums were obtained through literature values. The flash drums were determined to be 18x4x3 m in width, height, and length.<ref>Kansas State University ChE 413.. Available at: http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/Almutaz/Documents/ChE-413/Multi-stage%20Flash%20Desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref><br />
<br />
Wall thickness was determined using the following conventions: Design pressure is 10% more than the operating pressure, design temperature is 50°F (27.8°C) higher than the operating temperature, a corrosion allowance of 3-mm and an effectiveness of 85% was derived from the assumption of a double-welded butt joint that was spot checked. See Appendix G for wall thicknesses calculated for each pressure vessel. <br />
<br />
The sizing of the vessels to be constructed will be determined after talks with a manufacturer. Due to economies of scale, it may be more cost-effective to buy 21 pressure vessels with the dimensions mentioned above and a wall thickness of 17.1-mm, the highest wall thickness required in the system.<br />
<br />
===Pipe Losses and Pressure Drop===<br />
HYSYS was used to estimate the diameter of a pipe given a specified pressure drop per 100m of pipe. It was determined that for a pressure drop of 0.1 kPa/100m of pipe, a 3.05m diameter pipe is sufficient, which is more than manageable for manufacturers. This pressure drop is mostly insignificant and will be taken care of with the safety factors included in the pumps. The significant pressure drops in our system is accounted for via losses in the flash vessels and heat exchangers, which drive the flash process. Therefore overall pipe losses are insignificant and are built into intentional design losses.<br />
<br />
=Economic Analysis=<br />
==Economic Assumptions==<br />
The sale of purified water yields a revenue stream of $49.5 million per year assuming sale to commercial entities within the city limits of Corpus Christi at $1.7915 per thousand liters.<ref>Water schedule. City of Corpus Christi Utility Business Office. http://www.cctexas.com/Assets/Departments/Financial-Services/Utilities-Business-Office/files/waterrates.pdf Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref> The primary variable costs are utilities and the brine disposal, with minimal raw materials costs due to the primary feedstock, seawater, being free, and minimal amounts of pre- and post-treatment chemicals being used. The cost of brine disposal used in this analysis was high at $2.097 per thousand liters<ref>McCurdy, R. Underground injection wells for produced water disposal. Chesapeake Energy Corporation. http://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/documents/21_McCurdy_-_UIC_Disposal_508.pdf Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref>, an estimate for brine disposal utilizing trucking as the mode of transport. As has been shown through previous analyses, a lower cost can be achieved using a direct pipeline, however, no good estimates for this cost could be found.<br />
<br />
The NPV was calculated using a 6% cost of capital, the approximate interest rate for a municipal bond.<ref>Zirbe, R.O. Jr., Han, X., Layton, D., Leshine, T. A history of discount rates and their use by government agencies. (2002). http://faculty.washington.edu/zerbe/docs/DISCOUNT%20RATE%20HISTORY-latesXIt.doc Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref> It was assumed that the plant can be built within two years, with production at half-scale in its first year. Additionally, one month of variable costs, $10.6 million, was set aside for working capital. See Appendix H for a full table of assumptions. A 30 year NPV calculation was chosen as the decision basis since 30 years is a conservative estimate for the lifetime of a desalination plant [38]. See below for estimates of NPV for the lifetime of the plant under various assumptions and design criteria.<br />
<br />
==Optimization and Sensitivity Analysis==<br />
Looking at the multi-stage flash process, there are a number of opportunities to optimize the process. The major process variables that were investigated were the inlet water temperature, the operating pressure drop per vessel, and the number of stages over which the process takes place. Considering these optimizations, our final process consists of 21 flash vessels (18 heat recovery and 3 heat rejection stages), each with a pressure drop of 5 kPa. See Appendix D for a screenshot of the HYSYS simulation used to model the optimized process.<br />
===Operating Pressure and Pressure Drop===<br />
Initially our process was designed to pump the inlet seawater and brine to a pressure of 2 bar and allow the pressure drop in each flash stage to end our process downstream at 1 bar to prevent complications associated with designing a system under vacuum. While this provided pumping advantages, the energy in the system was significantly higher due to vapor pressure considerations. Due to this fact, the required heat exchange area for certain exchangers proved to be infeasible (on the order of 80,000m<sup>2</sup>) due to the enormous capital and operating costs that would be associated with such a large heat exchanger.<br />
<br />
The process was optimized to operate under vacuum, requiring additional pumping requirements but much lower required heat exchange area, and therefore lower utility costs. This optimization was done by specifying the pressure of the final flash vessel to 5.7kPa, so that the temperature of the water vapor (~30<sup>o</sup>C) is within approximately 5<sup>o</sup>C of the cooling water (35<sup>o</sup>C) so that condensation can occur within a reasonable approach. This also allows our system to optimally extract pure water from the brine running through the system and reduce energy requirements for cooling the product or the recycle. Our system redesign and optimization reduced the energy in the system and reduce the same heat exchanger area requirements by more than 3 orders of magnitude to approximately 800m<sup>2</sup>. <br />
<br />
Once the process was optimized to operate in a vacuum, the pressure drop per flash stage regulated through values was then optimized. Three pressure drops per stages, 3kPa, 5kPa, and 7kPa, were tested and then an economic analysis was conducted to find the optimal value for the pressure drop. These changes had impacts on both operating and capital costs as they would change initial pumping requirements, the amount of water flowing through the process and recycle (and therefore the flash vessel sizes, heat exchanger sizing), and the efficiency of each stage.<br />
<br />
The various pressure drops (3 kPa, 5 kPa, and 7 kPa) were tested on a system nominally at 24 stages under the assumption that the results would be generalizable to systems with a different number of stages. With increasing pressure drop, we found decreased capital cost but increased utility cost. As can be seen from Table 2 below, a pressure drop of 5 kPa proved to be the best option based on 30 year NPV, with a loss of $838.8 million, a savings of $65.5 million compared to the next-best option with a pressure drop of 7 kPa.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 2: Comparison of profitability for our MSF desalination process with 24 stages with 3 different pressure drops per stage<br />
! Number of Stages <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! Pressure Drop <br/> (kPa)<br />
! Capital Cost <br/> ($MM)<br />
! Utility Cost <br/> ($MM/yr)<br />
! 30-Year NPV <br/> ($MM)<br />
! NPV Ratio <br/> (over 5kPa)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 3 || 362.3 || 39.1 || -905.8 || 1.08<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 5 || 255.1 || 53.6 || -838.8 || 1.00<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 7 || 209.5 || 72.2 || -904.3 || 1.08<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
===Number of Flash Stages===<br />
The number of stages is an important area for optimization. An increased number of stages yields better recovery of purified water, however, requires higher capital cost from the additional pressure vessel. Furthermore, with an increased amount of purified water comes increasingly concentrated brine. This must be taken into account since any brine concentration in excess of about 7% presents a more significant corrosion risk<ref>Kansas State University ChE 413.. Available at: http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/Almutaz/Documents/ChE-413/Multi-stage%20Flash%20Desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>, so increased maintenance costs for the piping or higher capital costs for more corrosion-resistant materials could be necessary for brine concentrations exceeding 7%. Therefore, to recover the same amount of pure water without exceeding corrosion limitations, increasing the number of stages will reduce the overall size of each stage.<br />
<br />
Optimizing based on NPV, it was found that 21 stages is optimal, balancing the increased profits from the additional purified water additional costs of higher capital cost. See Table 3 below to compare the 30-year NPV of the process across various numbers of flash vessels.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 3: Comparison of profitability for our MSF desalination process with a 5 kPa pressure drop, 5000 m<sup>3</sup>/hr feed flow rate, with varying number of stages.<br />
! Number of Stages <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! Pressure Drop <br/> (kPa)<br />
! Capital Cost <br/> ($MM)<br />
! Utility Cost <br/> ($MM/yr)<br />
! 30-Year NPV <br/> ($MM)<br />
! NPV Ratio <br/> (over 21 Stages)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 17 || 5 || 213.9 || 58.7 || -813.8 || 1.016<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 18 || 5 || 218 || 57.6 || -809.9 || 1.011<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 19 || 5 || 224.3 || 58 || -806.1 || 1.007<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 20 || 5 || 229.8 || 57.9 || -813.6 || 1.016<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 21 || 5 || 226.6 || 55.9 || -800.7 || 1<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 22 || 5 || 254.7 || 54.6 || -849.5 || 1.061<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 23 || 5 || 249.3 || 54.1 || -833.1 || 1.04<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 5 || 255.1 || 53.6 || -838.8 || 1.048<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 25 || 5 || 254.9 || 52.7 || -837.4 || 1.046<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
===Inlet Seawater Temperature===<br />
By pairing our desalination plant with a natural gas power plant and utilizing its cooling water we forgo initial heating of our inlet stream. Normally, water pumped from the ocean would be approximately 25<sup>o</sup>C and by capturing waste heat from the power plant we can reduce utilities with our water inlet of 45<sup>o</sup>C. Through an economic comparison between two plants nominally at 21 flash stages, the plant with an inlet temperature at 25<sup>o</sup>C has a capital cost of $245MM and a utility cost of $77MM/yr and the same facility with an inlet water temperature at 45<sup>o</sup>C has a capital cost of only $226MM and a utility cost of $56MM/yr. As shown in Table 4 below, this $19MM savings in capital costs and $21MM/yr saving in utilities is largely due to reducing the size of the heat exchangers and lowering the steam required for heating duty on the inlet seawater respectively. Therefore our process is optimized by recovering the waste heat water from the gas fired power plant.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 4: Seawater Inlet Temperature Process Cost Optimization<br />
! Seawater Temperature <br/> (°C)<br />
! Capital Cost <br/> ($MM)<br />
! Utility Cost <br/> ($MM/yr)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 25 || 245 || 77<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 45 || 226 || 56<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Savings || 56 || 19<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
==Overall Process Economics==<br />
After optimization at fixed flow rates, the process was scaled to meet the the 67% operating percentage and final product definitions as shown in Table 1, which resulted in finalized economics shown in Table 5 below. For a table of the installed costs of each process vessel, see Appendix I. For the finalized NPV calculations, see Appendix J.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 5: Summarized Economics for 21-stage MSFD Process<br />
! Economic Parameter<br />
! Cost <br/> (USD)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Capital Cost || 345 MM<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Total Operating Cost per Year || 103 MM<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Utility Cost per Year || 59 MM<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 30-Year NPV (6% Discount) || -1035 MM<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
=Conclusions and Recommendations=<br />
==Project Viability==<br />
Table 5 above demonstrates that the process has reasonable operating and capital costs, but the 30-year NPV is negative by -1035 $MM due to the extremely low sell price capability of desalinated water as a product. Therefore, this plant would have to heavily be supported by the City of Corpus Christi to run as the product revenue will not make it self-sufficient. The acquisition of government subsidies are key operating requirements for all desalination facilities in the United States. <br />
<br />
==Additional Concerns==<br />
Large volumes of water, steam, and energy are needed to ensure the project runs as specified. While most of the water can easily be extracted from the ocean with little to consequence, the fuel used to generate the steam and electricity can have a significant environmental impact. As the plant is located next to a natural gas power plant, this fuel is better than coal with respect to environmental concerns, and utilizing energy from the power plant to preheat the feed stream for the desalination plant helps lower environmental impacts.<br />
<br />
The large amounts of high pressure steam being used represents one of the the largest safety concern in the process, because a high pressure steam release could easily cause severe burns or even death. Proper precautions and control measures must be in place to prevent accidental release. Otherwise, the process does not utilize any known toxic chemicals and is relatively safe from a chemical standpoint. The flash vessels mostly operate below atmospheric pressure, so they must be constructed as vessels that can withstand vacuum without failing.<br />
<br />
<br />
=Appendix A: Proposed Location of Desalination Plant=<br />
Pictured below is the proposed location for the desalination plant, located on Nueces Bay in Corpus Christi, adjacent to the Nueces Bay Energy Center. The plant’s proposed location is shown in the area outlined by the small circle in the upper right of the figure.<br />
<br />
[[File:NuecesBayLocation.png|center|600px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Desalination Facility Location|Figure A.1: Proposed mapped location of Nueces Bay Desalination Facility.]]<br />
[[File:ClassIWell.png|center|700px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Desalination Facility Distance to Injection Well|Figure A.2: Mapped distance from proposed location to Class I Injection Well]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix B: Feed and Product Definitions - Salinity=<br />
<br />
=Appendix C: Process Flow Diagram=<br />
[[File:TeamF_PFD.png|center|1200px|thumb|alt=Process Flow Diagram|Figure C.1: Process Flow Diagram]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix D: HYSYS Simulation Model=<br />
[[File:TeamF_HYSYS_Screenshot.PNG|center|1200px|thumb|alt=HYSYS Simulation Model|Figure D.1: Screenshot of HYSYS Model Simulation.]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix E: Stream Tables=<br />
<br />
=Appendix F: Heat Exchanger Sizing=<br />
<br />
=Appendix G: Pressure Vessel Sizing=<br />
<br />
=Appendix H: Expanded Economic Assumptions=<br />
<br />
=Appendix I: Equipment Cost Summary=<br />
<br />
=Appendix J: Economic NPV Analysis=<br />
<br />
=References=<br />
<references/></div>Kedricdaly2https://processdesign.mccormick.northwestern.edu/index.php?title=Nueces_Desalination_Center:_Production_of_Drinking_Water_by_Multi-Stage_Flash_Distillation&diff=4937Nueces Desalination Center: Production of Drinking Water by Multi-Stage Flash Distillation2016-03-07T14:57:32Z<p>Kedricdaly2: /* Pretreatment */ naming a source to place in other spots in the page so it's not double counted</p>
<hr />
<div>Team F: Rankine 672 Final Report<br />
<br />
Authors: Kedric Daly, Ben Granger, Evan Rosati, Kathleen Zhou<br />
<br />
Instructors: Fengqi You, David Wegerer<br />
<br />
March 11, 2016<br />
<br />
=Executive Summary=<br />
Desalination of seawater to drinking water is a technology of ever-increasing importance given trends of increasingly widespread water shortages around the world. Even in the United States, water shortages are becoming increasingly common in dry, highly-populated such as California and certain areas of the Gulf Coast. Our design team, Rankine 672, was tasked with evaluating the need for and designing a desalination plant to provide purified water in a place of need. Investigation revealed that the city of Corpus Christi, Texas, is a strategic location for development of a desalination facility, as surrounding region is in need of new drinking water sources and the city has expressed serious interest in contracting the development of a large-scale desalination plant. Our proposed solution is a multi-stage flash distillation desalination facility capable of producing 20,000,000 gallons (75,708 m<sup>3</sup>) of purified drinking water for the city and surrounding region per operating day.<br />
<br />
In this design, drinking water is produced from seawater feedstock through a 21-stage flash distillation process. By strategically locating the facility next to an existing natural gas power plant, the Nueces Bay Energy Center, pre-heated feed water can be taken directly from the outbound cooling systems of the power plant, allowing energy savings for our desalination plant. The process is designed for 16 hour-per-day operation, requires a seawater feed of 8250 m<sup>3</sup>/hr, and produces 4758 m<sup>3</sup>/hr of purified drinking water alongside a waste stream of 3485 m<sup>3</sup>/hr of concentrated brine. The waste stream is isolated from a recycle stream through a 9.0% purge; this results in an overall product yield of 57.7% on a volume basis. The process requires an additional pretreatment stream of 16.5 kg/hr Belgard EV 2030, which serves as an antiscalant, as well as 9.5 kg/hr chlorine, 352.1 kg/hr lime, and 418.7 kg/hr CO2 for post-treatment purposes.<br />
<br />
The overall capital cost of the plant is expected to be $345MM, with a total operating cost of $103MM/yr, $59MM/yr of which comes from utilities. Due to the low price at which the product water can be sold, the 30-year net present value of the plant, assuming a 6% discount rate, is $-1,035MM. It is thus imperative this plant be constructed with public funds because it cannot return a profit to any private investor. The growing need for water however could justify the cost, because it is important that the residents of the greater Corpus Christi area have access to drinkable water.<br />
<br />
__TOC__<br />
<br />
=Introduction=<br />
==Background==<br />
Clean drinking water is a basic human need that is becoming increasingly difficult to meet. Currently, over 1 billion people live in places where water is considered scarce<ref> Tapping the oceans. The Economist USA. http://www.economist.com/node/11484059. Accessed March 2, 2016. </ref>. Though often thought of as a problem exclusive to third-world countries, the issue is becoming more prevalent in the US as well, with water managers in 40 of 50 states anticipating water shortage conditions in some portion of their state in the next 10 years. These shortages are due to increasing demands on constant or diminishing freshwater resources, therefore, to correct the issue, a new supply must be found<ref> Water Supply in the US. EPA. http://www3.epa.gov/watersense/pubs/supply.html. Accessed March 2, 2016.</ref>. Desalination of seawater is therefore important as a new source for clean drinking water and prevent water shortages. <br />
<br />
==Project Definition==<br />
The overall goal of the project is to investigate the feasibility of a desalination plant in order to meet the needs of growing water demand. The design needs to take health, safety, and environmental concerns into account, while optimizing costs.<br />
<br />
=Design Basis=<br />
Site Location and Conditions<br />
Corpus Christi, TX was chosen as the location for the proposed desalination plant. The city is currently experiencing “Moderate Shortage Conditions”. This issue additionally comes at a time of growing demand with population growth anticipated due to new industry and Eagle Ford Group crude oil production<ref>Stage 2 Measures in the Drought Contingency Plan. Available at http://www.cctexas.com/government/water/conservation/conservation-drought-plans/stage-2-measures. Accessed January 12, 2016. </ref>.<br />
<br />
In June 2014, the city announced the Corpus Christi Desalination Demonstration Project<ref>Corpus Christi Desalination Demonstration Project. Available at http://www.cctexas.com/Assets/Departments/Water/Files/DesalFactSheet.pdf. Published June 2014. Accessed January 12, 2016. <br />
</ref> which seeks to create a demonstration desalination plant capable of producing 20,000 gallons of water per day, with plans to later build a full scale facility generating 20,000,000 gallons of water per day. The desalination demonstration project indicates a clear need for implementation of a desalination plant of this size to accommodate growth in the Corpus Christi area. <br />
<br />
Locating our plant in Corpus Christi will allow us to take advantage of the benefits of cogeneration through a partnership with the Nueces Bay Energy Center. By utilizing their outlet cooling water as a large portion of our feed for the desalination process, we can raise the temperature of our seawater feed, saving on energy costs in the multi stage flash distillation. The proposed location for the desalination plant is immediately west of the Nueces Bay Energy Center. See Appendix A for a map depicting the proposed location for the desalination plant along the coast of Nueces Bay.<br />
<br />
==Feed and Product Definitions==<br />
The proposed desalination facility’s feed and product streams are defined as shown in Table 1. Rationale for these definitions is also described below. The values reported in Table 1 are final derived numbers from HYSYS simulation modeling. <br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 1: Feed and product stream definitions<br />
! &nbsp;<br />
! Salt Concentration<br />
! Temperature <br />
! Amount<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Feed Stream <br />
| 30,500 ppm || 45°C || 8250 m<sup>3</sup>/hr<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Product Stream<br />
| ~ 0 ppm || 35°C || 4758 m<sup>3</sup>/hr<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Byproduct Stream<br />
| 695 ppm || 35°C || 3485 m<sup>3</sup>/hr<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
The process feed will be seawater from Nueces Bay, preheated through the cooling water system of the nearby Nueces Bay Energy Center. Based on calculations developed from NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory) data, it was estimated that the Nueces Bay Energy Center uses approximately 250 million gallons of seawater per day for process and cooling needs. Therefore, the 20 million gallon per day requirement for the desalination facility can easily be met through the power plant’s cooling water<ref>Torcellini P, Long N, Judkoff R. Consumptive Water Use for U.S. Power Consumption. NREL. 2003; TP-550-33905. <br />
</ref>. Note that we are assuming the process will operate 67% of the time (16 hours per day).<br />
<br />
Based on data acquired from two salinity-measuring stations in Nueces Bay, the average salinity of local seawater is 30.5 practical salinity units (psu)<ref>Stations Map & Real - Time Data. The Conrad Blucher Institute for Surveying and Science website. Available at http://www.cbi.tamucc.edu/cbi/data/. Updated January 2016. Accessed January 9, 2016. </ref>, thus setting the concentration of the process feed stream. This translates to a feed stream concentration of 30,500 ppm (parts per million)<ref>Definition and Units. CATD Salinity Expertise Center. Available at http://www.salinityremotesensing.ifremer.fr/home. Accessed January 12, 2016.</ref>. The composition of the salt attributed to this seawater salinity is shown in Table 6 in Appendix B. <br />
<br />
No data on the composition of seawater around the Corpus Christi area was available, but the composition of seawater does not change significantly in different locations. The given composition is considered accurate for our feed stream<ref>Brown E, Colling A, Park D, Phillips J, Rothery D, Wright J. Seawater : Its Composition, Properties and Behaviour. Boston: Butterworth-Heinemann, 1995.<br />
</ref>. Note that seawater salt is primarily sodium chloride - total dissolved solids are 85.7% sodium chloride by mass. As such, the dissolved solids in the feed stream is assumed in this project to be pure NaCl, making the feed composition 96.95% water and 3.05% NaCl by mass. A control system will likely be put in place to ensure feed concentration remains at this level, accounting for natural fluctuations in local seawater salinity.<br />
<br />
The largest byproduct from the process will be a brine slurry with high salt concentrations. An upper corrosion limit of 700 ppm was set for recirculated and purged brine. This undesired byproduct will be sent to a nearby Class I non-hazardous injection well facility operated by GNI Group, which is approximately 12 miles away from the proposed desalination plant location as shown in the figure in Appendix A<ref>Texas Water Code. Availabe at http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/WA/htm/WA.27.htm. Accessed January 14, 2016.<br />
</ref><ref>Google Maps. Available at https://goo.gl/maps/3xcvLZwUCe42 Accessed January 15, 2016.</ref>. Through the incorporation of a Class I injection well, the brine will not have to be treated or diluted before injection. <ref>EPA Regulations on Class I Wells. Available at http://www.epa.gov/uic/class-i-industrial-and-municipal-waste-disposal-wells. Accessed January 14, 2016.<br />
</ref><ref>List of Injection Well Facilities by Location. Available at http://www.ehso.com/cssepa/tsdfdeepwells.php. Accessed January 14, 2016.</ref><br />
<br />
There are no regulations regarding the temperature of city drinking water, so the product stream temperature has no requirements based on regulations. Outlet temperatures of 35<sup>o</sup>C are acceptable for input to the municipal water supply system. Since city water tends to be stored in non-temperature controlled tanks, the temperature will naturally cool to ambient temperature.<ref>Climate Corpus Christi- Texas. US Climate Data. Available at http://www.usclimatedata.com/climate/corpus-christi/texas/united-states/ustx0294. Accessed January 12, 2016. </ref><br />
<br />
==Pre-Treatment and Post-Treatment==<br />
For pretreatment, Belgard EV 2030 is recommended to be added at a concentration of 1.8-2.0 mg/L for a system with top brine temperature approximately 110 °C<ref>BWA Water Additives. Belgard EV2030 Technical Data Sheet. BWA Water Additives. http://www.wateradditives.com/files/products/tech_data_sheets/Belgard%20EV%202030_Technical%20Data%20Sheet_Thermal_8.5x11.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016.<br />
</ref>. Since our process is designed to operate at a slightly higher top brine temperature, 120 °C, we will design for the upper bound concentration: 2.0 mg/L of antiscalant. With a feed flow rate of 8250 m<sup>3</sup>/hr, the process therefore requires 16.5 kg/hr of Belgard EV 2030.<br />
<br />
For disinfection during post-treatment, chlorine addition typically requires a dose of roughly 2.0 mg/L as well<ref>World Health Organization. Desalination for safe water supply. http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/gdwqrevision/desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. With a pure water distillate flow rate of 4758 m<sup>3</sup>/hr, the process requires 9.5 kg/hr of chlorine gas. Approximately 74 mg/L of lime (calcium hydroxide) and 88mg/L of CO2 should be added to the desalinated water to help prevent corrosion and increase alkalinity within acceptable ranges<ref>Vouchkov, N. Re-Mineralization of Desalinated Water. SunCam. https://s3.amazonaws.com/suncam/npdocs/118.pdf. Accessed February 18, 2016.</ref>. With a product stream flow rate of 4758 m3/hr, these concentrations correspond to 352.1 kg/hr of lime and 418.7 kg/hr of CO2. Both of these can be purchased, and it is likely that the CO2 can be procured from the neighboring natural gas power plant.<br />
<br />
==Choice of Desalination Technology==<br />
The two major technologies commonly implemented for desalination include reverse osmosis (RO), and multi-stage flash distillation (MSFD). RO utilizes high pressures to force water through a semipermeable membrane that allows for purified water to pass through, but stops organic and other wastes. Often, the pressures can reach 55 - 68 bar, which requires large pumps to maintain pressure, and introduces safety concerns to the process<ref>Stage 2 Measures in the Drought Contingency Plan. Available at http://www.cctexas.com/government/water/conservation/conservation-drought-plans/stage-2-measures. Accessed January 12, 2016. <br />
</ref>. While RO can be less energy intensive than MSFD, and the membrane can also remove contaminants, it is susceptible to feedwater quality, membrane fouling, and requires more extensive pretreatment and posttreatment than MSFD. The cost of RO is directly proportional to the feed salinity, and so it is less expensive when desalinating low salinity water.<br />
<br />
Multi-stage flash distillation is best selected for areas that have high salinity or low energy costs. The pretreatment process for MSFD is much easier when compared to RO because pretreatment often consists of simply adding anti-corrosives and antiscalants to the feed stream. The process works by heating water in vessels at different pressures to change the boiling point of the water and evaporate it as it passes through the system. After evaporation, the water condenses, leaving pure water as the effluent. MSFD costs are now roughly $1.00/m3, where this cost is mostly independent of salinity, but dependent on energy costs.<ref>Fritzman C, Lowenberg J, Wintgens T, Melin T. State-of-the-art Reverse Osmosis Desalination. Desalination. 2007; 216:1-76. <br />
</ref> In both RO and MSFD a brine is produced which then must be appropriately treated and/or disposed of.<br />
<br />
Multi-stage flash distillation was selected for this process, mainly due to the economic advantages offered by the selected location of Corpus Christi, TX. MSFD is also a well understood process that can be more easily modeled by chemical engineering software.<br />
<br />
=Technical Approach=<br />
Quantitative modeling of the process and all included optimization was conducted using the simulation software Aspen HYSYS. A variety of assumptions were developed to set up and define specific components of the process simulation itself. Within Aspen HYSYS, the NRTL Electrolyte property package was selected to model the behavior of salt water. Each stage of the MSF process is modeled as an individual flash vessel, with individual shell & tube heat exchangers used to model the distillate condensers present in each flash stage in the MSF system.<br />
<br />
The HYSYS simulation model only considers the flash portion of the overall process, allowing establishment of mass and energy balances for the system. Pretreatment and post-treatment were excluded for the HYSYS model, as these steps are simple additions or removals of small concentrations of chemical components. Although the simulation models heat exchangers outside of each flash stage, in the physical design of the plant these heat exchangers will be contained within each flash stage.<br />
<br />
One portion of the process is not modeled, which is the inlet seawater entering the heat rejection stages. As can be seen from the full process flow diagram (Appendix C), the inlet seawater in the heat rejection stage is in high excess to provide maximum cooling capacity; then a significant portion is purged to bring the stream flow rate down to what is needed for the feed stream. It is assumed that the flow rate of cooling water for those three stages is in such high excess that the cooling water does not heat up. Therefore, in the process simulation models, the inlet stream is the feed stream, which enters directly into the heat recovery portion of the process.<br />
<br />
See Appendix D for a screenshot overview of the simulation environment model.<br />
<br />
=Process Overview=<br />
==Process Flowsheet==<br />
The following diagram, Figure 1, shows a basic flowsheet for the process. Process alternatives considered for each stage are discussed below. Please see Appendix C for the full process flowsheet with finalized design decisions.<br />
<br />
[[File:BlockFlowDiagram.png|center|700px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Desalination Facility Block Flow Diagram|Figure 1: Basic block flowsheet of the multi-stage flash desalination process.]]<br />
<br />
==Major Features==<br />
As seen above, there are three primary stages of the desalination process: Pre-treatment, the multi-stage flash distillation, and post-treatment. Seawater enters the pre-treatment phase first to make the feed suitable for the rest of the process by filtering out large particles that could accumulate on pipes, deaerating the water to limit corrosion, and adding an agent to combat fouling. The water then enters the distillation process, which is broken up into two sections: heat recovery and heat rejection. <br />
<br />
In the heat recovery stage, there are 18 flash vessels, each of which separates steam from the salinated liquid water. Each flash vessel has saltwater as its inlet and two outlets: a vapor outlet (steam) that condenses into the final product of purified water and a liquid outlet composed of water with more dissolved solids than the inlet, which is the inlet stream for the next flash vessel. The pipe containing the feed is first mixed with recycled brine, then goes through the top sections of each of the flash vessels, starting with V-118 and ending up at V-101. In this way, the feed stream pipe first serves as a heat exchanger, heating the pre-treated seawater while simultaneously condensing the steam into the final product. The feed then enters a final heat exchanger where it is brought up to 103.6 °C before entering V-101 to be flashed.<br />
<br />
After exiting V-118, the final flash vessel in the heat recovery portion, the water enters the heat rejection portion, which consists of three flash vessels (V-201, V-202, V-203). The flash vessels of this section operate in the same manner as in the heat recovery section, with the exception that condensation occurs using excess cooling water instead of pre-treated seawater. This technique allows excess heat to be rejected into an excess water stream rather than the feed.<br />
<br />
The purified product stream finally enters post-treatment processing in which water is re-aerated and remineralized, disinfected, and pH is adjusted before being delivered to the city. The concentrated brine leftover at the end of the flash cycle is recycled into the feed, although a purge is required to continuously remove some salt from the system. This purged brine is disposed of by use of a Class I injection well, per regional regulations.<br />
<br />
See Appendix E to find detailed stream tables of stream specifications.<br />
<br />
==Process Alternatives==<br />
===Pretreatment===<br />
Multi-stage flash distillation requires significantly less pretreatment than reverse osmosis desalination, but helpful pretreatment techniques still exist. One very inexpensive method of pretreatment is screening/filtration, which is used to filter out large contaminants from intake seawater. Using more complicated membrane technology to accomplish large particle filtration is a possible alternative, but doing so would be much more expensive than using a standard screen or filter, so the latter choice has been selected for this process.<ref>El-Dessouky H., Alatiqi I, Ettouney H. Process synthesis: The multi-stage flash desalination system. Desalination. 1998;115(2):115-179. doi: 10.1016/S0011-9164(98)00035-6.</ref><br />
<br />
The most critical type of fouling in multi-stage flash distillation is scaling - therefore, the most critical step in the pretreatment process will be the inclusion of an anti-scalant. Alkaline scaling can be prevented by acid dosing or polyphosphate addition; however, acid dosing can result in increased corrosion and polyphosphates can lead to non-alkaline calcium phosphate fouling, so these additives will not be considered<ref name="Morris">Morris, R. The development of the multi-stage flash distillation process: A designer's viewpoint. Desalination. 1993;93(1-3):57-68. doi:10.1016/S0011-9164(93)80096-6.<br />
</ref><ref>Al-Gobaisi, D. A quarter-century of seawater desalination by large multistage flash plants in Abu Dhabi (Plant performance analysis, assessment, present efforts toward enhancement and future hopes). Desalination. 1994;99(2-3):509-512. doi: 10.1016/S0011-9164(94)00196-0.</ref>. As such, a polymer-based additive is recommended for the anti-scalant for this process. The Belgard EV series is designed for use in high-temperature seawater MSF; of these, Belgard EV 2030 is the most neutral in pH<ref>NSF International. NSF Product and Service Listings: Drinking Water Treatment Chemicals - Health Effects. NSF International. http://info.nsf.org/Certified/PwsChemicals/Listings.asp?Company=00300&. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref><ref>BWA Water Additives. Belgard EV2030 Technical Data Sheet. BWA Water Additives. http://www.wateradditives.com/files/products/tech_data_sheets/Belgard%20EV%202030_Technical%20Data%20Sheet_Thermal_8.5x11.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref><ref>BWA Water Additives. Belgard EV2035 Technical Data Sheet. BWA Water Additives. http://www.wateradditives.com/files/products/tech_data_sheets/Belgard%20EV2035_Technical%20Data%20Sheet_Thermal_8.5x11.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref><ref>BioLab Water Additives. Belgard EV Antiscalant for seawater distillation plants. BioLab Water Additives. http://www.lpq.com.mx/pdf/BELGARD%20EV.PDF. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref>. As such, we have selected Belgard EV 2030 for use as an anti-scalant in our process.<br />
<br />
Corrosion control is another significant method of pretreatment in multi-stage flash distillation plants. Using a piping material that has limited susceptibility to corrosion is typically not economically viable for MSF desalination plants due their large size, so using carbon steel for most of the piping is generally used for its economic benefits despite its susceptibility to corrosion<ref>Morris, R. The development of the multi-stage flash distillation process: A designer's viewpoint. Desalination. 1993;93(1-3):57-68. doi:10.1016/S0011-9164(93)80096-6.</ref>. Limiting oxygen concentration is very feasible through the use of deaerators, which can remove oxygen as well as other dissolved gases from the seawater stream. Often, an external deaeration system is used<ref>Morris, R. The development of the multi-stage flash distillation process: A designer's viewpoint. Desalination. 1993;93(1-3):57-68. doi:10.1016/S0011-9164(93)80096-6.</ref><ref>Edwards - Hick Hargreaves. Seawater Deaerators. Edwards - Hick Hargreaves. http://psscorp.co.th/upload/news/20110830105340.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. Given these considerations, using an external deaerator combined with a less-corrosive antiscalant like Belgard EV 2030 is much more practical for the process than using anti-corrosive piping.<br />
<br />
Excessive foam can also be an issue in some MSF distillation facilities, so antifoaming agents are sometimes employed in the pretreatment process as well. However, many plants are operated without foaming issues, and therefore do not need anti-foaming pretreatment at all. Selection of an anti-foaming agent must be carefully weighed with selected of anti-scalant to avoid issues with additive interactions [26]. At this stage in the design process, an anti-foamer will not be included due to the risk of decreasing scalant efficacy, and the likelihood that foam will not be an issue in the desalination plant.<br />
<br />
===Multistage Flash Distillation===<br />
The main objective of the design project is desalinate water. This is done with the main process of multi stage flash distillation (MSF). MSF can be developed using a numerous number of different process configurations, such as Once-Through, Simple Mixer Brine Circulation, and Multi-Stage Heat Rejection Brine Circulation processes. <br />
<br />
The most desired process for the project is the Three Stage Heat Rejection Brine Circulation as it builds on benefits of the other simpler technologies. By combining principles of heat rejection and heat recovery, the required heat transfer area of the process is greatly reduced as compared to once through processes or simple brine recycle processes. It has the highest performance ratio with the lowest specific feed flow rates, therefore greatly lowering the operating costs of the process. It is also known as the industry standard for MSF<ref>Kansas State University ChE 413.. Available at: http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/Almutaz/Documents/ChE-413/Multi-stage%20Flash%20Desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. In addition, since our brine disposal technique involves the pumping of the brine into a Class I well, the high brine outlet salinity is not a drawback for our process since post treatment or dilution of the brine is not necessary.<br />
<br />
===Post Treatment===<br />
After processing the water via multi-stage flash, the water needs to be post-treated to make the water taste as consumers would expect, since distilled water is “flat” and unpleasant, as well as to protect the consumers and the piping through which the water will be passing<ref>Clayton R. A review of current knowledge: Desalination for water supply. Foundation for Water Research. http://www.fwr.org/desal.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. There are multiple alternatives to achieve these objectives of remineralization, aeration, corrosion control, and disinfection.<br />
<br />
Aerating and introducing some dissolved solids back into the product water are effective ways to create a quality product that is not flat, and contains flavoring that is expected of the water when delivered to the consumer. Aeration will be accomplished via an inline spray aerator which will take up less space than cascade aeration.<ref>Minnesota Rural Water Association. Aeration. http://www.mrwa.com/WaterWorksMnl/Chapter%2011%20Aeration.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref> Feed blending will be used to remineralize the water as opposed to a remineralization filter because it does not require additional equipment purchases, and can easily handle the large amounts of throughput required for the process.<ref>Clayton R. A review of current knowledge: Desalination for water supply. Foundation for Water Research. http://www.fwr.org/desal.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref><br />
<br />
Corrosion and pH can be controlled by adding lime (calcium hydroxide) and carbon dioxide to the water. To do so, about 74 mg/L of lime and 88mg/L of CO<sub>2</sub> should be added to the desalinated water to help prevent corrosion and increase alkalinity within acceptable ranges. Sodium hydroxide, soda ash, and sodium bicarbonate are alternatives to altering the alkalinity and pH of the product water, but lime and CO<sub>2</sub> is an industry standard.<ref> Vouchkov, N. Re-Mineralization of Desalinated Water. SunCam. https://s3.amazonaws.com/suncam/npdocs/118.pdf. Accessed February 18, 2016.</ref><br />
<br />
Disinfection needs to be done to prevent microbial growth in the desalinated water and ensure the safety of the general public. Chlorine addition via chlorine gas or sodium hypochlorite is the most common and only requires a dose of 1.5 to 2.5 mg/liter.<ref>World Health Organization. Desalination for safe water supply. http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/gdwqrevision/desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>Other alternatives include ozonation, UV light, and chloramination. Chlorine, as a 5% - 15% sodium hypochlorite solution, is sufficient for our process and relatively inexpensive, and as such will be utilized in the process.<br />
<br />
===Transport of Brine to Well===<br />
Three major possibilities exist for transporting the brine from our desalination plant to the injection well for disposal: rail, trucking, and a pipeline. A pipeline was chosen as the most feasible and cost-effective approach. <br />
<br />
A rail line is not available at this time, and with the cost to construct a rail line at approximately $43 million per mile<ref>About Money. How Much Do Rail Transit Projects Cost to Build and Operate? 2014. Available at: http://publictransport.about.com/od/Transit_Projects/a/How-Much-Do-Rail-Transit-Projects-Cost-To-Build-And-Operate.htm. Accessed January 27, 2016. </ref>, the enormous capital cost makes rail transport infeasible for this site. For large volume operations, pipelines are cheaper than trucking. In a study of wastewater sludge produced from wastewater treatment facilities, it was found that it was more economical for facilities producing over 1200 m<sup>3</sup> per day to utilize pipelines rather than trucking.<ref>Marufuzzaman M, Eskioglu S, Hernandez R. Truck versus pipeline transportation cost analysis of wastewater sludge. Transportation Research. 2015; 74(A): 14-30. </ref> Our facility is producing nearly 3 times this volume at 3485 m<sup>3</sup> per day of brine. Furthermore, brine is a less viscous fluid than wastewater sludge, decreasing pumping costs in the pipeline and further amplifying the benefit of choosing a pipeline over an injection well.<br />
<br />
===Brine Storage===<br />
Due to the choice of a pipeline, rather than trucking, as the method of transport of brine to the injection well, brine storage is unnecessary, so storage solutions such as holding tanks were not investigated. One method of storage compatible with a pipeline is to pump the brine through an evaporation pond. This solution is attractive as it would allow the brine to concentrate, saving some costs of pumping, however, the considerable land usage of evaporation ponds leads them to only be effective for smaller plants. The largest municipal plant utilizing this method produces only 5.7 million liters per day<ref>University of Santa Cruz Center for Integrated Water Research. Concentrate Management: Evaporation Ponds. 2010. Available at: https://ciwr.ucsc.edu/sites/default/files/ICM_D5.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016. </ref>, whereas our desalination plant is proposed to produce 75.7 million liters per day. Therefore, evaporation ponds have been eliminated from consideration.<br />
<br />
==Major Specifications==<br />
===Material of Construction Selection===<br />
While saltwater and desalinated water in general can be corrosive, there are best practices within the desalination industry for material selection. With this in mind, best practice shows carbon steel lifetime can be lengthened by monitoring the oxygen concentration in the water, specifying the paint used to coat any metal, and more expensive materials can be used in areas of extremely high corrosion.<ref>Morris, R. The development of the multi-stage flash distillation process: A designer's viewpoint. Desalination. 1993;93(1-3):57-68. doi:10.1016/S0011-9164(93)80096-6. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0011916493800966<br />
</ref> By following these best practices, it is possible to save significant amounts of money through the use of carbon steel in most areas of the plant, with specific high-corrosion areas being reinforced with, or replaced with, more corrosion resistant materials, such as Cu/Ni 70/30 alloy<ref>Kansas State University ChE 413.. Available at: http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/Almutaz/Documents/ChE-413/Multi-stage%20Flash%20Desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>.<br />
<br />
===Heat Exchanger Sizing===<br />
See Appendix F for heat exchanger sizing data. Heat exchanger sizes appear reasonable for placement in the flash vessels.<br />
<br />
===Flash Vessel Sizing===<br />
The dimensions for the flash drums were obtained through literature values. The flash drums were determined to be 18x4x3 m in width, height, and length.<ref>Kansas State University ChE 413.. Available at: http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/Almutaz/Documents/ChE-413/Multi-stage%20Flash%20Desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref><br />
<br />
Wall thickness was determined using the following conventions: Design pressure is 10% more than the operating pressure, design temperature is 50°F (27.8°C) higher than the operating temperature, a corrosion allowance of 3-mm and an effectiveness of 85% was derived from the assumption of a double-welded butt joint that was spot checked. See Appendix G for wall thicknesses calculated for each pressure vessel. <br />
<br />
The sizing of the vessels to be constructed will be determined after talks with a manufacturer. Due to economies of scale, it may be more cost-effective to buy 21 pressure vessels with the dimensions mentioned above and a wall thickness of 17.1-mm, the highest wall thickness required in the system.<br />
<br />
===Pipe Losses and Pressure Drop===<br />
HYSYS was used to estimate the diameter of a pipe given a specified pressure drop per 100m of pipe. It was determined that for a pressure drop of 0.1 kPa/100m of pipe, a 3.05m diameter pipe is sufficient, which is more than manageable for manufacturers. This pressure drop is mostly insignificant and will be taken care of with the safety factors included in the pumps. The significant pressure drops in our system is accounted for via losses in the flash vessels and heat exchangers, which drive the flash process. Therefore overall pipe losses are insignificant and are built into intentional design losses.<br />
<br />
=Economic Analysis=<br />
==Economic Assumptions==<br />
The sale of purified water yields a revenue stream of $49.5 million per year assuming sale to commercial entities within the city limits of Corpus Christi at $1.7915 per thousand liters.<ref>Water schedule. City of Corpus Christi Utility Business Office. http://www.cctexas.com/Assets/Departments/Financial-Services/Utilities-Business-Office/files/waterrates.pdf Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref> The primary variable costs are utilities and the brine disposal, with minimal raw materials costs due to the primary feedstock, seawater, being free, and minimal amounts of pre- and post-treatment chemicals being used. The cost of brine disposal used in this analysis was high at $2.097 per thousand liters<ref>McCurdy, R. Underground injection wells for produced water disposal. Chesapeake Energy Corporation. http://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/documents/21_McCurdy_-_UIC_Disposal_508.pdf Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref>, an estimate for brine disposal utilizing trucking as the mode of transport. As has been shown through previous analyses, a lower cost can be achieved using a direct pipeline, however, no good estimates for this cost could be found.<br />
<br />
The NPV was calculated using a 6% cost of capital, the approximate interest rate for a municipal bond.<ref>Zirbe, R.O. Jr., Han, X., Layton, D., Leshine, T. A history of discount rates and their use by government agencies. (2002). http://faculty.washington.edu/zerbe/docs/DISCOUNT%20RATE%20HISTORY-latesXIt.doc Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref> It was assumed that the plant can be built within two years, with production at half-scale in its first year. Additionally, one month of variable costs, $10.6 million, was set aside for working capital. See Appendix H for a full table of assumptions. A 30 year NPV calculation was chosen as the decision basis since 30 years is a conservative estimate for the lifetime of a desalination plant [38]. See below for estimates of NPV for the lifetime of the plant under various assumptions and design criteria.<br />
<br />
==Optimization and Sensitivity Analysis==<br />
Looking at the multi-stage flash process, there are a number of opportunities to optimize the process. The major process variables that were investigated were the inlet water temperature, the operating pressure drop per vessel, and the number of stages over which the process takes place. Considering these optimizations, our final process consists of 21 flash vessels (18 heat recovery and 3 heat rejection stages), each with a pressure drop of 5 kPa. See Appendix D for a screenshot of the HYSYS simulation used to model the optimized process.<br />
===Operating Pressure and Pressure Drop===<br />
Initially our process was designed to pump the inlet seawater and brine to a pressure of 2 bar and allow the pressure drop in each flash stage to end our process downstream at 1 bar to prevent complications associated with designing a system under vacuum. While this provided pumping advantages, the energy in the system was significantly higher due to vapor pressure considerations. Due to this fact, the required heat exchange area for certain exchangers proved to be infeasible (on the order of 80,000m<sup>2</sup>) due to the enormous capital and operating costs that would be associated with such a large heat exchanger.<br />
<br />
The process was optimized to operate under vacuum, requiring additional pumping requirements but much lower required heat exchange area, and therefore lower utility costs. This optimization was done by specifying the pressure of the final flash vessel to 5.7kPa, so that the temperature of the water vapor (~30<sup>o</sup>C) is within approximately 5<sup>o</sup>C of the cooling water (35<sup>o</sup>C) so that condensation can occur within a reasonable approach. This also allows our system to optimally extract pure water from the brine running through the system and reduce energy requirements for cooling the product or the recycle. Our system redesign and optimization reduced the energy in the system and reduce the same heat exchanger area requirements by more than 3 orders of magnitude to approximately 800m<sup>2</sup>. <br />
<br />
Once the process was optimized to operate in a vacuum, the pressure drop per flash stage regulated through values was then optimized. Three pressure drops per stages, 3kPa, 5kPa, and 7kPa, were tested and then an economic analysis was conducted to find the optimal value for the pressure drop. These changes had impacts on both operating and capital costs as they would change initial pumping requirements, the amount of water flowing through the process and recycle (and therefore the flash vessel sizes, heat exchanger sizing), and the efficiency of each stage.<br />
<br />
The various pressure drops (3 kPa, 5 kPa, and 7 kPa) were tested on a system nominally at 24 stages under the assumption that the results would be generalizable to systems with a different number of stages. With increasing pressure drop, we found decreased capital cost but increased utility cost. As can be seen from Table 2 below, a pressure drop of 5 kPa proved to be the best option based on 30 year NPV, with a loss of $838.8 million, a savings of $65.5 million compared to the next-best option with a pressure drop of 7 kPa.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 2: Comparison of profitability for our MSF desalination process with 24 stages with 3 different pressure drops per stage<br />
! Number of Stages <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! Pressure Drop <br/> (kPa)<br />
! Capital Cost <br/> ($MM)<br />
! Utility Cost <br/> ($MM/yr)<br />
! 30-Year NPV <br/> ($MM)<br />
! NPV Ratio <br/> (over 5kPa)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 3 || 362.3 || 39.1 || -905.8 || 1.08<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 5 || 255.1 || 53.6 || -838.8 || 1.00<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 7 || 209.5 || 72.2 || -904.3 || 1.08<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
===Number of Flash Stages===<br />
The number of stages is an important area for optimization. An increased number of stages yields better recovery of purified water, however, requires higher capital cost from the additional pressure vessel. Furthermore, with an increased amount of purified water comes increasingly concentrated brine. This must be taken into account since any brine concentration in excess of about 7% presents a more significant corrosion risk<ref>Kansas State University ChE 413.. Available at: http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/Almutaz/Documents/ChE-413/Multi-stage%20Flash%20Desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>, so increased maintenance costs for the piping or higher capital costs for more corrosion-resistant materials could be necessary for brine concentrations exceeding 7%. Therefore, to recover the same amount of pure water without exceeding corrosion limitations, increasing the number of stages will reduce the overall size of each stage.<br />
<br />
Optimizing based on NPV, it was found that 21 stages is optimal, balancing the increased profits from the additional purified water additional costs of higher capital cost. See Table 3 below to compare the 30-year NPV of the process across various numbers of flash vessels.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 3: Comparison of profitability for our MSF desalination process with a 5 kPa pressure drop, 5000 m<sup>3</sup>/hr feed flow rate, with varying number of stages.<br />
! Number of Stages <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! Pressure Drop <br/> (kPa)<br />
! Capital Cost <br/> ($MM)<br />
! Utility Cost <br/> ($MM/yr)<br />
! 30-Year NPV <br/> ($MM)<br />
! NPV Ratio <br/> (over 21 Stages)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 17 || 5 || 213.9 || 58.7 || -813.8 || 1.016<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 18 || 5 || 218 || 57.6 || -809.9 || 1.011<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 19 || 5 || 224.3 || 58 || -806.1 || 1.007<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 20 || 5 || 229.8 || 57.9 || -813.6 || 1.016<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 21 || 5 || 226.6 || 55.9 || -800.7 || 1<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 22 || 5 || 254.7 || 54.6 || -849.5 || 1.061<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 23 || 5 || 249.3 || 54.1 || -833.1 || 1.04<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 5 || 255.1 || 53.6 || -838.8 || 1.048<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 25 || 5 || 254.9 || 52.7 || -837.4 || 1.046<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
===Inlet Seawater Temperature===<br />
By pairing our desalination plant with a natural gas power plant and utilizing its cooling water we forgo initial heating of our inlet stream. Normally, water pumped from the ocean would be approximately 25<sup>o</sup>C and by capturing waste heat from the power plant we can reduce utilities with our water inlet of 45<sup>o</sup>C. Through an economic comparison between two plants nominally at 21 flash stages, the plant with an inlet temperature at 25<sup>o</sup>C has a capital cost of $245MM and a utility cost of $77MM/yr and the same facility with an inlet water temperature at 45<sup>o</sup>C has a capital cost of only $226MM and a utility cost of $56MM/yr. As shown in Table 4 below, this $19MM savings in capital costs and $21MM/yr saving in utilities is largely due to reducing the size of the heat exchangers and lowering the steam required for heating duty on the inlet seawater respectively. Therefore our process is optimized by recovering the waste heat water from the gas fired power plant.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 4: Seawater Inlet Temperature Process Cost Optimization<br />
! Seawater Temperature <br/> (°C)<br />
! Capital Cost <br/> ($MM)<br />
! Utility Cost <br/> ($MM/yr)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 25 || 245 || 77<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 45 || 226 || 56<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Savings || 56 || 19<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
==Overall Process Economics==<br />
After optimization at fixed flow rates, the process was scaled to meet the the 67% operating percentage and final product definitions as shown in Table 1, which resulted in finalized economics shown in Table 5 below. For a table of the installed costs of each process vessel, see Appendix I. For the finalized NPV calculations, see Appendix J.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 5: Summarized Economics for 21-stage MSFD Process<br />
! Economic Parameter<br />
! Cost <br/> (USD)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Capital Cost || 345 MM<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Total Operating Cost per Year || 103 MM<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Utility Cost per Year || 59 MM<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 30-Year NPV (6% Discount) || -1035 MM<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
=Conclusions and Recommendations=<br />
==Project Viability==<br />
Table 5 above demonstrates that the process has reasonable operating and capital costs, but the 30-year NPV is negative by -1035 $MM due to the extremely low sell price capability of desalinated water as a product. Therefore, this plant would have to heavily be supported by the City of Corpus Christi to run as the product revenue will not make it self-sufficient. The acquisition of government subsidies are key operating requirements for all desalination facilities in the United States. <br />
<br />
==Additional Concerns==<br />
Large volumes of water, steam, and energy are needed to ensure the project runs as specified. While most of the water can easily be extracted from the ocean with little to consequence, the fuel used to generate the steam and electricity can have a significant environmental impact. As the plant is located next to a natural gas power plant, this fuel is better than coal with respect to environmental concerns, and utilizing energy from the power plant to preheat the feed stream for the desalination plant helps lower environmental impacts.<br />
<br />
The large amounts of high pressure steam being used represents one of the the largest safety concern in the process, because a high pressure steam release could easily cause severe burns or even death. Proper precautions and control measures must be in place to prevent accidental release. Otherwise, the process does not utilize any known toxic chemicals and is relatively safe from a chemical standpoint. The flash vessels mostly operate below atmospheric pressure, so they must be constructed as vessels that can withstand vacuum without failing.<br />
<br />
<br />
=Appendix A: Proposed Location of Desalination Plant=<br />
Pictured below is the proposed location for the desalination plant, located on Nueces Bay in Corpus Christi, adjacent to the Nueces Bay Energy Center. The plant’s proposed location is shown in the area outlined by the small circle in the upper right of the figure.<br />
<br />
[[File:NuecesBayLocation.png|center|600px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Desalination Facility Location|Figure A.1: Proposed mapped location of Nueces Bay Desalination Facility.]]<br />
[[File:ClassIWell.png|center|700px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Desalination Facility Distance to Injection Well|Figure A.2: Mapped distance from proposed location to Class I Injection Well]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix B: Feed and Product Definitions - Salinity=<br />
<br />
=Appendix C: Process Flow Diagram=<br />
[[File:TeamF_PFD.png|center|1200px|thumb|alt=Process Flow Diagram|Figure C.1: Process Flow Diagram]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix D: HYSYS Simulation Model=<br />
[[File:TeamF_HYSYS_Screenshot.PNG|center|1200px|thumb|alt=HYSYS Simulation Model|Figure D.1: Screenshot of HYSYS Model Simulation.]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix E: Stream Tables=<br />
<br />
=Appendix F: Heat Exchanger Sizing=<br />
<br />
=Appendix G: Pressure Vessel Sizing=<br />
<br />
=Appendix H: Expanded Economic Assumptions=<br />
<br />
=Appendix I: Equipment Cost Summary=<br />
<br />
=Appendix J: Economic NPV Analysis=<br />
<br />
=References=<br />
<references/></div>Kedricdaly2https://processdesign.mccormick.northwestern.edu/index.php?title=Nueces_Desalination_Center:_Production_of_Drinking_Water_by_Multi-Stage_Flash_Distillation&diff=4936Nueces Desalination Center: Production of Drinking Water by Multi-Stage Flash Distillation2016-03-07T03:42:53Z<p>Kedricdaly2: /* Overall Process Economics */</p>
<hr />
<div>Team F: Rankine 672 Final Report<br />
<br />
Authors: Kedric Daly, Ben Granger, Evan Rosati, Kathleen Zhou<br />
<br />
Instructors: Fengqi You, David Wegerer<br />
<br />
March 11, 2016<br />
<br />
=Executive Summary=<br />
Desalination of seawater to drinking water is a technology of ever-increasing importance given trends of increasingly widespread water shortages around the world. Even in the United States, water shortages are becoming increasingly common in dry, highly-populated such as California and certain areas of the Gulf Coast. Our design team, Rankine 672, was tasked with evaluating the need for and designing a desalination plant to provide purified water in a place of need. Investigation revealed that the city of Corpus Christi, Texas, is a strategic location for development of a desalination facility, as surrounding region is in need of new drinking water sources and the city has expressed serious interest in contracting the development of a large-scale desalination plant. Our proposed solution is a multi-stage flash distillation desalination facility capable of producing 20,000,000 gallons (75,708 m<sup>3</sup>) of purified drinking water for the city and surrounding region per operating day.<br />
<br />
In this design, drinking water is produced from seawater feedstock through a 21-stage flash distillation process. By strategically locating the facility next to an existing natural gas power plant, the Nueces Bay Energy Center, pre-heated feed water can be taken directly from the outbound cooling systems of the power plant, allowing energy savings for our desalination plant. The process is designed for 16 hour-per-day operation, requires a seawater feed of 8250 m<sup>3</sup>/hr, and produces 4758 m<sup>3</sup>/hr of purified drinking water alongside a waste stream of 3485 m<sup>3</sup>/hr of concentrated brine. The waste stream is isolated from a recycle stream through a 9.0% purge; this results in an overall product yield of 57.7% on a volume basis. The process requires an additional pretreatment stream of 16.5 kg/hr Belgard EV 2030, which serves as an antiscalant, as well as 9.5 kg/hr chlorine, 352.1 kg/hr lime, and 418.7 kg/hr CO2 for post-treatment purposes.<br />
<br />
The overall capital cost of the plant is expected to be $345MM, with a total operating cost of $103MM/yr, $59MM/yr of which comes from utilities. Due to the low price at which the product water can be sold, the 30-year net present value of the plant, assuming a 6% discount rate, is $-1,035MM. It is thus imperative this plant be constructed with public funds because it cannot return a profit to any private investor. The growing need for water however could justify the cost, because it is important that the residents of the greater Corpus Christi area have access to drinkable water.<br />
<br />
__TOC__<br />
<br />
=Introduction=<br />
==Background==<br />
Clean drinking water is a basic human need that is becoming increasingly difficult to meet. Currently, over 1 billion people live in places where water is considered scarce<ref> Tapping the oceans. The Economist USA. http://www.economist.com/node/11484059. Accessed March 2, 2016. </ref>. Though often thought of as a problem exclusive to third-world countries, the issue is becoming more prevalent in the US as well, with water managers in 40 of 50 states anticipating water shortage conditions in some portion of their state in the next 10 years. These shortages are due to increasing demands on constant or diminishing freshwater resources, therefore, to correct the issue, a new supply must be found<ref> Water Supply in the US. EPA. http://www3.epa.gov/watersense/pubs/supply.html. Accessed March 2, 2016.</ref>. Desalination of seawater is therefore important as a new source for clean drinking water and prevent water shortages. <br />
<br />
==Project Definition==<br />
The overall goal of the project is to investigate the feasibility of a desalination plant in order to meet the needs of growing water demand. The design needs to take health, safety, and environmental concerns into account, while optimizing costs.<br />
<br />
=Design Basis=<br />
Site Location and Conditions<br />
Corpus Christi, TX was chosen as the location for the proposed desalination plant. The city is currently experiencing “Moderate Shortage Conditions”. This issue additionally comes at a time of growing demand with population growth anticipated due to new industry and Eagle Ford Group crude oil production<ref>Stage 2 Measures in the Drought Contingency Plan. Available at http://www.cctexas.com/government/water/conservation/conservation-drought-plans/stage-2-measures. Accessed January 12, 2016. </ref>.<br />
<br />
In June 2014, the city announced the Corpus Christi Desalination Demonstration Project<ref>Corpus Christi Desalination Demonstration Project. Available at http://www.cctexas.com/Assets/Departments/Water/Files/DesalFactSheet.pdf. Published June 2014. Accessed January 12, 2016. <br />
</ref> which seeks to create a demonstration desalination plant capable of producing 20,000 gallons of water per day, with plans to later build a full scale facility generating 20,000,000 gallons of water per day. The desalination demonstration project indicates a clear need for implementation of a desalination plant of this size to accommodate growth in the Corpus Christi area. <br />
<br />
Locating our plant in Corpus Christi will allow us to take advantage of the benefits of cogeneration through a partnership with the Nueces Bay Energy Center. By utilizing their outlet cooling water as a large portion of our feed for the desalination process, we can raise the temperature of our seawater feed, saving on energy costs in the multi stage flash distillation. The proposed location for the desalination plant is immediately west of the Nueces Bay Energy Center. See Appendix A for a map depicting the proposed location for the desalination plant along the coast of Nueces Bay.<br />
<br />
==Feed and Product Definitions==<br />
The proposed desalination facility’s feed and product streams are defined as shown in Table 1. Rationale for these definitions is also described below. The values reported in Table 1 are final derived numbers from HYSYS simulation modeling. <br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 1: Feed and product stream definitions<br />
! &nbsp;<br />
! Salt Concentration<br />
! Temperature <br />
! Amount<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Feed Stream <br />
| 30,500 ppm || 45°C || 8250 m<sup>3</sup>/hr<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Product Stream<br />
| ~ 0 ppm || 35°C || 4758 m<sup>3</sup>/hr<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Byproduct Stream<br />
| 695 ppm || 35°C || 3485 m<sup>3</sup>/hr<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
The process feed will be seawater from Nueces Bay, preheated through the cooling water system of the nearby Nueces Bay Energy Center. Based on calculations developed from NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory) data, it was estimated that the Nueces Bay Energy Center uses approximately 250 million gallons of seawater per day for process and cooling needs. Therefore, the 20 million gallon per day requirement for the desalination facility can easily be met through the power plant’s cooling water<ref>Torcellini P, Long N, Judkoff R. Consumptive Water Use for U.S. Power Consumption. NREL. 2003; TP-550-33905. <br />
</ref>. Note that we are assuming the process will operate 67% of the time (16 hours per day).<br />
<br />
Based on data acquired from two salinity-measuring stations in Nueces Bay, the average salinity of local seawater is 30.5 practical salinity units (psu)<ref>Stations Map & Real - Time Data. The Conrad Blucher Institute for Surveying and Science website. Available at http://www.cbi.tamucc.edu/cbi/data/. Updated January 2016. Accessed January 9, 2016. </ref>, thus setting the concentration of the process feed stream. This translates to a feed stream concentration of 30,500 ppm (parts per million)<ref>Definition and Units. CATD Salinity Expertise Center. Available at http://www.salinityremotesensing.ifremer.fr/home. Accessed January 12, 2016.</ref>. The composition of the salt attributed to this seawater salinity is shown in Table 6 in Appendix B. <br />
<br />
No data on the composition of seawater around the Corpus Christi area was available, but the composition of seawater does not change significantly in different locations. The given composition is considered accurate for our feed stream<ref>Brown E, Colling A, Park D, Phillips J, Rothery D, Wright J. Seawater : Its Composition, Properties and Behaviour. Boston: Butterworth-Heinemann, 1995.<br />
</ref>. Note that seawater salt is primarily sodium chloride - total dissolved solids are 85.7% sodium chloride by mass. As such, the dissolved solids in the feed stream is assumed in this project to be pure NaCl, making the feed composition 96.95% water and 3.05% NaCl by mass. A control system will likely be put in place to ensure feed concentration remains at this level, accounting for natural fluctuations in local seawater salinity.<br />
<br />
The largest byproduct from the process will be a brine slurry with high salt concentrations. An upper corrosion limit of 700 ppm was set for recirculated and purged brine. This undesired byproduct will be sent to a nearby Class I non-hazardous injection well facility operated by GNI Group, which is approximately 12 miles away from the proposed desalination plant location as shown in the figure in Appendix A<ref>Texas Water Code. Availabe at http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/WA/htm/WA.27.htm. Accessed January 14, 2016.<br />
</ref><ref>Google Maps. Available at https://goo.gl/maps/3xcvLZwUCe42 Accessed January 15, 2016.</ref>. Through the incorporation of a Class I injection well, the brine will not have to be treated or diluted before injection. <ref>EPA Regulations on Class I Wells. Available at http://www.epa.gov/uic/class-i-industrial-and-municipal-waste-disposal-wells. Accessed January 14, 2016.<br />
</ref><ref>List of Injection Well Facilities by Location. Available at http://www.ehso.com/cssepa/tsdfdeepwells.php. Accessed January 14, 2016.</ref><br />
<br />
There are no regulations regarding the temperature of city drinking water, so the product stream temperature has no requirements based on regulations. Outlet temperatures of 35<sup>o</sup>C are acceptable for input to the municipal water supply system. Since city water tends to be stored in non-temperature controlled tanks, the temperature will naturally cool to ambient temperature.<ref>Climate Corpus Christi- Texas. US Climate Data. Available at http://www.usclimatedata.com/climate/corpus-christi/texas/united-states/ustx0294. Accessed January 12, 2016. </ref><br />
<br />
==Pre-Treatment and Post-Treatment==<br />
For pretreatment, Belgard EV 2030 is recommended to be added at a concentration of 1.8-2.0 mg/L for a system with top brine temperature approximately 110 °C<ref>BWA Water Additives. Belgard EV2030 Technical Data Sheet. BWA Water Additives. http://www.wateradditives.com/files/products/tech_data_sheets/Belgard%20EV%202030_Technical%20Data%20Sheet_Thermal_8.5x11.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016.<br />
</ref>. Since our process is designed to operate at a slightly higher top brine temperature, 120 °C, we will design for the upper bound concentration: 2.0 mg/L of antiscalant. With a feed flow rate of 8250 m<sup>3</sup>/hr, the process therefore requires 16.5 kg/hr of Belgard EV 2030.<br />
<br />
For disinfection during post-treatment, chlorine addition typically requires a dose of roughly 2.0 mg/L as well<ref>World Health Organization. Desalination for safe water supply. http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/gdwqrevision/desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. With a pure water distillate flow rate of 4758 m<sup>3</sup>/hr, the process requires 9.5 kg/hr of chlorine gas. Approximately 74 mg/L of lime (calcium hydroxide) and 88mg/L of CO2 should be added to the desalinated water to help prevent corrosion and increase alkalinity within acceptable ranges<ref>Vouchkov, N. Re-Mineralization of Desalinated Water. SunCam. https://s3.amazonaws.com/suncam/npdocs/118.pdf. Accessed February 18, 2016.</ref>. With a product stream flow rate of 4758 m3/hr, these concentrations correspond to 352.1 kg/hr of lime and 418.7 kg/hr of CO2. Both of these can be purchased, and it is likely that the CO2 can be procured from the neighboring natural gas power plant.<br />
<br />
==Choice of Desalination Technology==<br />
The two major technologies commonly implemented for desalination include reverse osmosis (RO), and multi-stage flash distillation (MSFD). RO utilizes high pressures to force water through a semipermeable membrane that allows for purified water to pass through, but stops organic and other wastes. Often, the pressures can reach 55 - 68 bar, which requires large pumps to maintain pressure, and introduces safety concerns to the process<ref>Stage 2 Measures in the Drought Contingency Plan. Available at http://www.cctexas.com/government/water/conservation/conservation-drought-plans/stage-2-measures. Accessed January 12, 2016. <br />
</ref>. While RO can be less energy intensive than MSFD, and the membrane can also remove contaminants, it is susceptible to feedwater quality, membrane fouling, and requires more extensive pretreatment and posttreatment than MSFD. The cost of RO is directly proportional to the feed salinity, and so it is less expensive when desalinating low salinity water.<br />
<br />
Multi-stage flash distillation is best selected for areas that have high salinity or low energy costs. The pretreatment process for MSFD is much easier when compared to RO because pretreatment often consists of simply adding anti-corrosives and antiscalants to the feed stream. The process works by heating water in vessels at different pressures to change the boiling point of the water and evaporate it as it passes through the system. After evaporation, the water condenses, leaving pure water as the effluent. MSFD costs are now roughly $1.00/m3, where this cost is mostly independent of salinity, but dependent on energy costs.<ref>Fritzman C, Lowenberg J, Wintgens T, Melin T. State-of-the-art Reverse Osmosis Desalination. Desalination. 2007; 216:1-76. <br />
</ref> In both RO and MSFD a brine is produced which then must be appropriately treated and/or disposed of.<br />
<br />
Multi-stage flash distillation was selected for this process, mainly due to the economic advantages offered by the selected location of Corpus Christi, TX. MSFD is also a well understood process that can be more easily modeled by chemical engineering software.<br />
<br />
=Technical Approach=<br />
Quantitative modeling of the process and all included optimization was conducted using the simulation software Aspen HYSYS. A variety of assumptions were developed to set up and define specific components of the process simulation itself. Within Aspen HYSYS, the NRTL Electrolyte property package was selected to model the behavior of salt water. Each stage of the MSF process is modeled as an individual flash vessel, with individual shell & tube heat exchangers used to model the distillate condensers present in each flash stage in the MSF system.<br />
<br />
The HYSYS simulation model only considers the flash portion of the overall process, allowing establishment of mass and energy balances for the system. Pretreatment and post-treatment were excluded for the HYSYS model, as these steps are simple additions or removals of small concentrations of chemical components. Although the simulation models heat exchangers outside of each flash stage, in the physical design of the plant these heat exchangers will be contained within each flash stage.<br />
<br />
One portion of the process is not modeled, which is the inlet seawater entering the heat rejection stages. As can be seen from the full process flow diagram (Appendix C), the inlet seawater in the heat rejection stage is in high excess to provide maximum cooling capacity; then a significant portion is purged to bring the stream flow rate down to what is needed for the feed stream. It is assumed that the flow rate of cooling water for those three stages is in such high excess that the cooling water does not heat up. Therefore, in the process simulation models, the inlet stream is the feed stream, which enters directly into the heat recovery portion of the process.<br />
<br />
See Appendix D for a screenshot overview of the simulation environment model.<br />
<br />
=Process Overview=<br />
==Process Flowsheet==<br />
The following diagram, Figure 1, shows a basic flowsheet for the process. Process alternatives considered for each stage are discussed below. Please see Appendix C for the full process flowsheet with finalized design decisions.<br />
<br />
[[File:BlockFlowDiagram.png|center|700px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Desalination Facility Block Flow Diagram|Figure 1: Basic block flowsheet of the multi-stage flash desalination process.]]<br />
<br />
==Major Features==<br />
As seen above, there are three primary stages of the desalination process: Pre-treatment, the multi-stage flash distillation, and post-treatment. Seawater enters the pre-treatment phase first to make the feed suitable for the rest of the process by filtering out large particles that could accumulate on pipes, deaerating the water to limit corrosion, and adding an agent to combat fouling. The water then enters the distillation process, which is broken up into two sections: heat recovery and heat rejection. <br />
<br />
In the heat recovery stage, there are 18 flash vessels, each of which separates steam from the salinated liquid water. Each flash vessel has saltwater as its inlet and two outlets: a vapor outlet (steam) that condenses into the final product of purified water and a liquid outlet composed of water with more dissolved solids than the inlet, which is the inlet stream for the next flash vessel. The pipe containing the feed is first mixed with recycled brine, then goes through the top sections of each of the flash vessels, starting with V-118 and ending up at V-101. In this way, the feed stream pipe first serves as a heat exchanger, heating the pre-treated seawater while simultaneously condensing the steam into the final product. The feed then enters a final heat exchanger where it is brought up to 103.6 °C before entering V-101 to be flashed.<br />
<br />
After exiting V-118, the final flash vessel in the heat recovery portion, the water enters the heat rejection portion, which consists of three flash vessels (V-201, V-202, V-203). The flash vessels of this section operate in the same manner as in the heat recovery section, with the exception that condensation occurs using excess cooling water instead of pre-treated seawater. This technique allows excess heat to be rejected into an excess water stream rather than the feed.<br />
<br />
The purified product stream finally enters post-treatment processing in which water is re-aerated and remineralized, disinfected, and pH is adjusted before being delivered to the city. The concentrated brine leftover at the end of the flash cycle is recycled into the feed, although a purge is required to continuously remove some salt from the system. This purged brine is disposed of by use of a Class I injection well, per regional regulations.<br />
<br />
See Appendix E to find detailed stream tables of stream specifications.<br />
<br />
==Process Alternatives==<br />
===Pretreatment===<br />
Multi-stage flash distillation requires significantly less pretreatment than reverse osmosis desalination, but helpful pretreatment techniques still exist. One very inexpensive method of pretreatment is screening/filtration, which is used to filter out large contaminants from intake seawater. Using more complicated membrane technology to accomplish large particle filtration is a possible alternative, but doing so would be much more expensive than using a standard screen or filter, so the latter choice has been selected for this process.<ref>El-Dessouky H., Alatiqi I, Ettouney H. Process synthesis: The multi-stage flash desalination system. Desalination. 1998;115(2):115-179. doi: 10.1016/S0011-9164(98)00035-6.</ref><br />
<br />
The most critical type of fouling in multi-stage flash distillation is scaling - therefore, the most critical step in the pretreatment process will be the inclusion of an anti-scalant. Alkaline scaling can be prevented by acid dosing or polyphosphate addition; however, acid dosing can result in increased corrosion and polyphosphates can lead to non-alkaline calcium phosphate fouling, so these additives will not be considered<ref>Morris, R. The development of the multi-stage flash distillation process: A designer's viewpoint. Desalination. 1993;93(1-3):57-68. doi:10.1016/S0011-9164(93)80096-6.<br />
</ref><ref>Al-Gobaisi, D. A quarter-century of seawater desalination by large multistage flash plants in Abu Dhabi (Plant performance analysis, assessment, present efforts toward enhancement and future hopes). Desalination. 1994;99(2-3):509-512. doi: 10.1016/S0011-9164(94)00196-0.</ref>. As such, a polymer-based additive is recommended for the anti-scalant for this process. The Belgard EV series is designed for use in high-temperature seawater MSF; of these, Belgard EV 2030 is the most neutral in pH<ref>NSF International. NSF Product and Service Listings: Drinking Water Treatment Chemicals - Health Effects. NSF International. http://info.nsf.org/Certified/PwsChemicals/Listings.asp?Company=00300&. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref><ref>BWA Water Additives. Belgard EV2030 Technical Data Sheet. BWA Water Additives. http://www.wateradditives.com/files/products/tech_data_sheets/Belgard%20EV%202030_Technical%20Data%20Sheet_Thermal_8.5x11.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref><ref>BWA Water Additives. Belgard EV2035 Technical Data Sheet. BWA Water Additives. http://www.wateradditives.com/files/products/tech_data_sheets/Belgard%20EV2035_Technical%20Data%20Sheet_Thermal_8.5x11.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref><ref>BioLab Water Additives. Belgard EV Antiscalant for seawater distillation plants. BioLab Water Additives. http://www.lpq.com.mx/pdf/BELGARD%20EV.PDF. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref>. As such, we have selected Belgard EV 2030 for use as an anti-scalant in our process.<br />
<br />
Corrosion control is another significant method of pretreatment in multi-stage flash distillation plants. Using a piping material that has limited susceptibility to corrosion is typically not economically viable for MSF desalination plants due their large size, so using carbon steel for most of the piping is generally used for its economic benefits despite its susceptibility to corrosion<ref>Morris, R. The development of the multi-stage flash distillation process: A designer's viewpoint. Desalination. 1993;93(1-3):57-68. doi:10.1016/S0011-9164(93)80096-6.</ref>. Limiting oxygen concentration is very feasible through the use of deaerators, which can remove oxygen as well as other dissolved gases from the seawater stream. Often, an external deaeration system is used<ref>Morris, R. The development of the multi-stage flash distillation process: A designer's viewpoint. Desalination. 1993;93(1-3):57-68. doi:10.1016/S0011-9164(93)80096-6.</ref><ref>Edwards - Hick Hargreaves. Seawater Deaerators. Edwards - Hick Hargreaves. http://psscorp.co.th/upload/news/20110830105340.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. Given these considerations, using an external deaerator combined with a less-corrosive antiscalant like Belgard EV 2030 is much more practical for the process than using anti-corrosive piping.<br />
<br />
Excessive foam can also be an issue in some MSF distillation facilities, so antifoaming agents are sometimes employed in the pretreatment process as well. However, many plants are operated without foaming issues, and therefore do not need anti-foaming pretreatment at all. Selection of an anti-foaming agent must be carefully weighed with selected of anti-scalant to avoid issues with additive interactions [26]. At this stage in the design process, an anti-foamer will not be included due to the risk of decreasing scalant efficacy, and the likelihood that foam will not be an issue in the desalination plant.<br />
<br />
===Multistage Flash Distillation===<br />
The main objective of the design project is desalinate water. This is done with the main process of multi stage flash distillation (MSF). MSF can be developed using a numerous number of different process configurations, such as Once-Through, Simple Mixer Brine Circulation, and Multi-Stage Heat Rejection Brine Circulation processes. <br />
<br />
The most desired process for the project is the Three Stage Heat Rejection Brine Circulation as it builds on benefits of the other simpler technologies. By combining principles of heat rejection and heat recovery, the required heat transfer area of the process is greatly reduced as compared to once through processes or simple brine recycle processes. It has the highest performance ratio with the lowest specific feed flow rates, therefore greatly lowering the operating costs of the process. It is also known as the industry standard for MSF<ref>Kansas State University ChE 413.. Available at: http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/Almutaz/Documents/ChE-413/Multi-stage%20Flash%20Desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. In addition, since our brine disposal technique involves the pumping of the brine into a Class I well, the high brine outlet salinity is not a drawback for our process since post treatment or dilution of the brine is not necessary.<br />
<br />
===Post Treatment===<br />
After processing the water via multi-stage flash, the water needs to be post-treated to make the water taste as consumers would expect, since distilled water is “flat” and unpleasant, as well as to protect the consumers and the piping through which the water will be passing<ref>Clayton R. A review of current knowledge: Desalination for water supply. Foundation for Water Research. http://www.fwr.org/desal.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. There are multiple alternatives to achieve these objectives of remineralization, aeration, corrosion control, and disinfection.<br />
<br />
Aerating and introducing some dissolved solids back into the product water are effective ways to create a quality product that is not flat, and contains flavoring that is expected of the water when delivered to the consumer. Aeration will be accomplished via an inline spray aerator which will take up less space than cascade aeration.<ref>Minnesota Rural Water Association. Aeration. http://www.mrwa.com/WaterWorksMnl/Chapter%2011%20Aeration.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref> Feed blending will be used to remineralize the water as opposed to a remineralization filter because it does not require additional equipment purchases, and can easily handle the large amounts of throughput required for the process.<ref>Clayton R. A review of current knowledge: Desalination for water supply. Foundation for Water Research. http://www.fwr.org/desal.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref><br />
<br />
Corrosion and pH can be controlled by adding lime (calcium hydroxide) and carbon dioxide to the water. To do so, about 74 mg/L of lime and 88mg/L of CO<sub>2</sub> should be added to the desalinated water to help prevent corrosion and increase alkalinity within acceptable ranges. Sodium hydroxide, soda ash, and sodium bicarbonate are alternatives to altering the alkalinity and pH of the product water, but lime and CO<sub>2</sub> is an industry standard.<ref> Vouchkov, N. Re-Mineralization of Desalinated Water. SunCam. https://s3.amazonaws.com/suncam/npdocs/118.pdf. Accessed February 18, 2016.</ref><br />
<br />
Disinfection needs to be done to prevent microbial growth in the desalinated water and ensure the safety of the general public. Chlorine addition via chlorine gas or sodium hypochlorite is the most common and only requires a dose of 1.5 to 2.5 mg/liter.<ref>World Health Organization. Desalination for safe water supply. http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/gdwqrevision/desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>Other alternatives include ozonation, UV light, and chloramination. Chlorine, as a 5% - 15% sodium hypochlorite solution, is sufficient for our process and relatively inexpensive, and as such will be utilized in the process.<br />
<br />
===Transport of Brine to Well===<br />
Three major possibilities exist for transporting the brine from our desalination plant to the injection well for disposal: rail, trucking, and a pipeline. A pipeline was chosen as the most feasible and cost-effective approach. <br />
<br />
A rail line is not available at this time, and with the cost to construct a rail line at approximately $43 million per mile<ref>About Money. How Much Do Rail Transit Projects Cost to Build and Operate? 2014. Available at: http://publictransport.about.com/od/Transit_Projects/a/How-Much-Do-Rail-Transit-Projects-Cost-To-Build-And-Operate.htm. Accessed January 27, 2016. </ref>, the enormous capital cost makes rail transport infeasible for this site. For large volume operations, pipelines are cheaper than trucking. In a study of wastewater sludge produced from wastewater treatment facilities, it was found that it was more economical for facilities producing over 1200 m<sup>3</sup> per day to utilize pipelines rather than trucking.<ref>Marufuzzaman M, Eskioglu S, Hernandez R. Truck versus pipeline transportation cost analysis of wastewater sludge. Transportation Research. 2015; 74(A): 14-30. </ref> Our facility is producing nearly 3 times this volume at 3485 m<sup>3</sup> per day of brine. Furthermore, brine is a less viscous fluid than wastewater sludge, decreasing pumping costs in the pipeline and further amplifying the benefit of choosing a pipeline over an injection well.<br />
<br />
===Brine Storage===<br />
Due to the choice of a pipeline, rather than trucking, as the method of transport of brine to the injection well, brine storage is unnecessary, so storage solutions such as holding tanks were not investigated. One method of storage compatible with a pipeline is to pump the brine through an evaporation pond. This solution is attractive as it would allow the brine to concentrate, saving some costs of pumping, however, the considerable land usage of evaporation ponds leads them to only be effective for smaller plants. The largest municipal plant utilizing this method produces only 5.7 million liters per day<ref>University of Santa Cruz Center for Integrated Water Research. Concentrate Management: Evaporation Ponds. 2010. Available at: https://ciwr.ucsc.edu/sites/default/files/ICM_D5.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016. </ref>, whereas our desalination plant is proposed to produce 75.7 million liters per day. Therefore, evaporation ponds have been eliminated from consideration.<br />
<br />
==Major Specifications==<br />
===Material of Construction Selection===<br />
While saltwater and desalinated water in general can be corrosive, there are best practices within the desalination industry for material selection. With this in mind, best practice shows carbon steel lifetime can be lengthened by monitoring the oxygen concentration in the water, specifying the paint used to coat any metal, and more expensive materials can be used in areas of extremely high corrosion.<ref>Morris, R. The development of the multi-stage flash distillation process: A designer's viewpoint. Desalination. 1993;93(1-3):57-68. doi:10.1016/S0011-9164(93)80096-6. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0011916493800966<br />
</ref> By following these best practices, it is possible to save significant amounts of money through the use of carbon steel in most areas of the plant, with specific high-corrosion areas being reinforced with, or replaced with, more corrosion resistant materials, such as Cu/Ni 70/30 alloy<ref>Kansas State University ChE 413.. Available at: http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/Almutaz/Documents/ChE-413/Multi-stage%20Flash%20Desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>.<br />
<br />
===Heat Exchanger Sizing===<br />
See Appendix F for heat exchanger sizing data. Heat exchanger sizes appear reasonable for placement in the flash vessels.<br />
<br />
===Flash Vessel Sizing===<br />
The dimensions for the flash drums were obtained through literature values. The flash drums were determined to be 18x4x3 m in width, height, and length.<ref>Kansas State University ChE 413.. Available at: http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/Almutaz/Documents/ChE-413/Multi-stage%20Flash%20Desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref><br />
<br />
Wall thickness was determined using the following conventions: Design pressure is 10% more than the operating pressure, design temperature is 50°F (27.8°C) higher than the operating temperature, a corrosion allowance of 3-mm and an effectiveness of 85% was derived from the assumption of a double-welded butt joint that was spot checked. See Appendix G for wall thicknesses calculated for each pressure vessel. <br />
<br />
The sizing of the vessels to be constructed will be determined after talks with a manufacturer. Due to economies of scale, it may be more cost-effective to buy 21 pressure vessels with the dimensions mentioned above and a wall thickness of 17.1-mm, the highest wall thickness required in the system.<br />
<br />
===Pipe Losses and Pressure Drop===<br />
HYSYS was used to estimate the diameter of a pipe given a specified pressure drop per 100m of pipe. It was determined that for a pressure drop of 0.1 kPa/100m of pipe, a 3.05m diameter pipe is sufficient, which is more than manageable for manufacturers. This pressure drop is mostly insignificant and will be taken care of with the safety factors included in the pumps. The significant pressure drops in our system is accounted for via losses in the flash vessels and heat exchangers, which drive the flash process. Therefore overall pipe losses are insignificant and are built into intentional design losses.<br />
<br />
=Economic Analysis=<br />
==Economic Assumptions==<br />
The sale of purified water yields a revenue stream of $49.5 million per year assuming sale to commercial entities within the city limits of Corpus Christi at $1.7915 per thousand liters.<ref>Water schedule. City of Corpus Christi Utility Business Office. http://www.cctexas.com/Assets/Departments/Financial-Services/Utilities-Business-Office/files/waterrates.pdf Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref> The primary variable costs are utilities and the brine disposal, with minimal raw materials costs due to the primary feedstock, seawater, being free, and minimal amounts of pre- and post-treatment chemicals being used. The cost of brine disposal used in this analysis was high at $2.097 per thousand liters<ref>McCurdy, R. Underground injection wells for produced water disposal. Chesapeake Energy Corporation. http://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/documents/21_McCurdy_-_UIC_Disposal_508.pdf Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref>, an estimate for brine disposal utilizing trucking as the mode of transport. As has been shown through previous analyses, a lower cost can be achieved using a direct pipeline, however, no good estimates for this cost could be found.<br />
<br />
The NPV was calculated using a 6% cost of capital, the approximate interest rate for a municipal bond.<ref>Zirbe, R.O. Jr., Han, X., Layton, D., Leshine, T. A history of discount rates and their use by government agencies. (2002). http://faculty.washington.edu/zerbe/docs/DISCOUNT%20RATE%20HISTORY-latesXIt.doc Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref> It was assumed that the plant can be built within two years, with production at half-scale in its first year. Additionally, one month of variable costs, $10.6 million, was set aside for working capital. See Appendix H for a full table of assumptions. A 30 year NPV calculation was chosen as the decision basis since 30 years is a conservative estimate for the lifetime of a desalination plant [38]. See below for estimates of NPV for the lifetime of the plant under various assumptions and design criteria.<br />
<br />
==Optimization and Sensitivity Analysis==<br />
Looking at the multi-stage flash process, there are a number of opportunities to optimize the process. The major process variables that were investigated were the inlet water temperature, the operating pressure drop per vessel, and the number of stages over which the process takes place. Considering these optimizations, our final process consists of 21 flash vessels (18 heat recovery and 3 heat rejection stages), each with a pressure drop of 5 kPa. See Appendix D for a screenshot of the HYSYS simulation used to model the optimized process.<br />
===Operating Pressure and Pressure Drop===<br />
Initially our process was designed to pump the inlet seawater and brine to a pressure of 2 bar and allow the pressure drop in each flash stage to end our process downstream at 1 bar to prevent complications associated with designing a system under vacuum. While this provided pumping advantages, the energy in the system was significantly higher due to vapor pressure considerations. Due to this fact, the required heat exchange area for certain exchangers proved to be infeasible (on the order of 80,000m<sup>2</sup>) due to the enormous capital and operating costs that would be associated with such a large heat exchanger.<br />
<br />
The process was optimized to operate under vacuum, requiring additional pumping requirements but much lower required heat exchange area, and therefore lower utility costs. This optimization was done by specifying the pressure of the final flash vessel to 5.7kPa, so that the temperature of the water vapor (~30<sup>o</sup>C) is within approximately 5<sup>o</sup>C of the cooling water (35<sup>o</sup>C) so that condensation can occur within a reasonable approach. This also allows our system to optimally extract pure water from the brine running through the system and reduce energy requirements for cooling the product or the recycle. Our system redesign and optimization reduced the energy in the system and reduce the same heat exchanger area requirements by more than 3 orders of magnitude to approximately 800m<sup>2</sup>. <br />
<br />
Once the process was optimized to operate in a vacuum, the pressure drop per flash stage regulated through values was then optimized. Three pressure drops per stages, 3kPa, 5kPa, and 7kPa, were tested and then an economic analysis was conducted to find the optimal value for the pressure drop. These changes had impacts on both operating and capital costs as they would change initial pumping requirements, the amount of water flowing through the process and recycle (and therefore the flash vessel sizes, heat exchanger sizing), and the efficiency of each stage.<br />
<br />
The various pressure drops (3 kPa, 5 kPa, and 7 kPa) were tested on a system nominally at 24 stages under the assumption that the results would be generalizable to systems with a different number of stages. With increasing pressure drop, we found decreased capital cost but increased utility cost. As can be seen from Table 2 below, a pressure drop of 5 kPa proved to be the best option based on 30 year NPV, with a loss of $838.8 million, a savings of $65.5 million compared to the next-best option with a pressure drop of 7 kPa.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 2: Comparison of profitability for our MSF desalination process with 24 stages with 3 different pressure drops per stage<br />
! Number of Stages <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! Pressure Drop <br/> (kPa)<br />
! Capital Cost <br/> ($MM)<br />
! Utility Cost <br/> ($MM/yr)<br />
! 30-Year NPV <br/> ($MM)<br />
! NPV Ratio <br/> (over 5kPa)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 3 || 362.3 || 39.1 || -905.8 || 1.08<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 5 || 255.1 || 53.6 || -838.8 || 1.00<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 7 || 209.5 || 72.2 || -904.3 || 1.08<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
===Number of Flash Stages===<br />
The number of stages is an important area for optimization. An increased number of stages yields better recovery of purified water, however, requires higher capital cost from the additional pressure vessel. Furthermore, with an increased amount of purified water comes increasingly concentrated brine. This must be taken into account since any brine concentration in excess of about 7% presents a more significant corrosion risk<ref>Kansas State University ChE 413.. Available at: http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/Almutaz/Documents/ChE-413/Multi-stage%20Flash%20Desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>, so increased maintenance costs for the piping or higher capital costs for more corrosion-resistant materials could be necessary for brine concentrations exceeding 7%. Therefore, to recover the same amount of pure water without exceeding corrosion limitations, increasing the number of stages will reduce the overall size of each stage.<br />
<br />
Optimizing based on NPV, it was found that 21 stages is optimal, balancing the increased profits from the additional purified water additional costs of higher capital cost. See Table 3 below to compare the 30-year NPV of the process across various numbers of flash vessels.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 3: Comparison of profitability for our MSF desalination process with a 5 kPa pressure drop, 5000 m<sup>3</sup>/hr feed flow rate, with varying number of stages.<br />
! Number of Stages <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! Pressure Drop <br/> (kPa)<br />
! Capital Cost <br/> ($MM)<br />
! Utility Cost <br/> ($MM/yr)<br />
! 30-Year NPV <br/> ($MM)<br />
! NPV Ratio <br/> (over 21 Stages)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 17 || 5 || 213.9 || 58.7 || -813.8 || 1.016<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 18 || 5 || 218 || 57.6 || -809.9 || 1.011<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 19 || 5 || 224.3 || 58 || -806.1 || 1.007<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 20 || 5 || 229.8 || 57.9 || -813.6 || 1.016<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 21 || 5 || 226.6 || 55.9 || -800.7 || 1<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 22 || 5 || 254.7 || 54.6 || -849.5 || 1.061<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 23 || 5 || 249.3 || 54.1 || -833.1 || 1.04<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 5 || 255.1 || 53.6 || -838.8 || 1.048<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 25 || 5 || 254.9 || 52.7 || -837.4 || 1.046<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
===Inlet Seawater Temperature===<br />
By pairing our desalination plant with a natural gas power plant and utilizing its cooling water we forgo initial heating of our inlet stream. Normally, water pumped from the ocean would be approximately 25<sup>o</sup>C and by capturing waste heat from the power plant we can reduce utilities with our water inlet of 45<sup>o</sup>C. Through an economic comparison between two plants nominally at 21 flash stages, the plant with an inlet temperature at 25<sup>o</sup>C has a capital cost of $245MM and a utility cost of $77MM/yr and the same facility with an inlet water temperature at 45<sup>o</sup>C has a capital cost of only $226MM and a utility cost of $56MM/yr. As shown in Table 4 below, this $19MM savings in capital costs and $21MM/yr saving in utilities is largely due to reducing the size of the heat exchangers and lowering the steam required for heating duty on the inlet seawater respectively. Therefore our process is optimized by recovering the waste heat water from the gas fired power plant.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 4: Seawater Inlet Temperature Process Cost Optimization<br />
! Seawater Temperature <br/> (°C)<br />
! Capital Cost <br/> ($MM)<br />
! Utility Cost <br/> ($MM/yr)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 25 || 245 || 77<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 45 || 226 || 56<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Savings || 56 || 19<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
==Overall Process Economics==<br />
After optimization at fixed flow rates, the process was scaled to meet the the 67% operating percentage and final product definitions as shown in Table 1, which resulted in finalized economics shown in Table 5 below. For a table of the installed costs of each process vessel, see Appendix I. For the finalized NPV calculations, see Appendix J.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 5: Summarized Economics for 21-stage MSFD Process<br />
! Economic Parameter<br />
! Cost <br/> (USD)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Capital Cost || 345 MM<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Total Operating Cost per Year || 103 MM<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Utility Cost per Year || 59 MM<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 30-Year NPV (6% Discount) || -1035 MM<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
=Conclusions and Recommendations=<br />
==Project Viability==<br />
Table 5 above demonstrates that the process has reasonable operating and capital costs, but the 30-year NPV is negative by -1035 $MM due to the extremely low sell price capability of desalinated water as a product. Therefore, this plant would have to heavily be supported by the City of Corpus Christi to run as the product revenue will not make it self-sufficient. The acquisition of government subsidies are key operating requirements for all desalination facilities in the United States. <br />
<br />
==Additional Concerns==<br />
Large volumes of water, steam, and energy are needed to ensure the project runs as specified. While most of the water can easily be extracted from the ocean with little to consequence, the fuel used to generate the steam and electricity can have a significant environmental impact. As the plant is located next to a natural gas power plant, this fuel is better than coal with respect to environmental concerns, and utilizing energy from the power plant to preheat the feed stream for the desalination plant helps lower environmental impacts.<br />
<br />
The large amounts of high pressure steam being used represents one of the the largest safety concern in the process, because a high pressure steam release could easily cause severe burns or even death. Proper precautions and control measures must be in place to prevent accidental release. Otherwise, the process does not utilize any known toxic chemicals and is relatively safe from a chemical standpoint. The flash vessels mostly operate below atmospheric pressure, so they must be constructed as vessels that can withstand vacuum without failing.<br />
<br />
<br />
=Appendix A: Proposed Location of Desalination Plant=<br />
Pictured below is the proposed location for the desalination plant, located on Nueces Bay in Corpus Christi, adjacent to the Nueces Bay Energy Center. The plant’s proposed location is shown in the area outlined by the small circle in the upper right of the figure.<br />
<br />
[[File:NuecesBayLocation.png|center|600px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Desalination Facility Location|Figure A.1: Proposed mapped location of Nueces Bay Desalination Facility.]]<br />
[[File:ClassIWell.png|center|700px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Desalination Facility Distance to Injection Well|Figure A.2: Mapped distance from proposed location to Class I Injection Well]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix B: Feed and Product Definitions - Salinity=<br />
<br />
=Appendix C: Process Flow Diagram=<br />
[[File:TeamF_PFD.png|center|1200px|thumb|alt=Process Flow Diagram|Figure C.1: Process Flow Diagram]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix D: HYSYS Simulation Model=<br />
[[File:TeamF_HYSYS_Screenshot.PNG|center|1200px|thumb|alt=HYSYS Simulation Model|Figure D.1: Screenshot of HYSYS Model Simulation.]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix E: Stream Tables=<br />
<br />
=Appendix F: Heat Exchanger Sizing=<br />
<br />
=Appendix G: Pressure Vessel Sizing=<br />
<br />
=Appendix H: Expanded Economic Assumptions=<br />
<br />
=Appendix I: Equipment Cost Summary=<br />
<br />
=Appendix J: Economic NPV Analysis=<br />
<br />
=References=<br />
<references/></div>Kedricdaly2https://processdesign.mccormick.northwestern.edu/index.php?title=Nueces_Desalination_Center:_Production_of_Drinking_Water_by_Multi-Stage_Flash_Distillation&diff=4935Nueces Desalination Center: Production of Drinking Water by Multi-Stage Flash Distillation2016-03-07T03:42:26Z<p>Kedricdaly2: /* Number of Flash Stages */ Insert Table 3</p>
<hr />
<div>Team F: Rankine 672 Final Report<br />
<br />
Authors: Kedric Daly, Ben Granger, Evan Rosati, Kathleen Zhou<br />
<br />
Instructors: Fengqi You, David Wegerer<br />
<br />
March 11, 2016<br />
<br />
=Executive Summary=<br />
Desalination of seawater to drinking water is a technology of ever-increasing importance given trends of increasingly widespread water shortages around the world. Even in the United States, water shortages are becoming increasingly common in dry, highly-populated such as California and certain areas of the Gulf Coast. Our design team, Rankine 672, was tasked with evaluating the need for and designing a desalination plant to provide purified water in a place of need. Investigation revealed that the city of Corpus Christi, Texas, is a strategic location for development of a desalination facility, as surrounding region is in need of new drinking water sources and the city has expressed serious interest in contracting the development of a large-scale desalination plant. Our proposed solution is a multi-stage flash distillation desalination facility capable of producing 20,000,000 gallons (75,708 m<sup>3</sup>) of purified drinking water for the city and surrounding region per operating day.<br />
<br />
In this design, drinking water is produced from seawater feedstock through a 21-stage flash distillation process. By strategically locating the facility next to an existing natural gas power plant, the Nueces Bay Energy Center, pre-heated feed water can be taken directly from the outbound cooling systems of the power plant, allowing energy savings for our desalination plant. The process is designed for 16 hour-per-day operation, requires a seawater feed of 8250 m<sup>3</sup>/hr, and produces 4758 m<sup>3</sup>/hr of purified drinking water alongside a waste stream of 3485 m<sup>3</sup>/hr of concentrated brine. The waste stream is isolated from a recycle stream through a 9.0% purge; this results in an overall product yield of 57.7% on a volume basis. The process requires an additional pretreatment stream of 16.5 kg/hr Belgard EV 2030, which serves as an antiscalant, as well as 9.5 kg/hr chlorine, 352.1 kg/hr lime, and 418.7 kg/hr CO2 for post-treatment purposes.<br />
<br />
The overall capital cost of the plant is expected to be $345MM, with a total operating cost of $103MM/yr, $59MM/yr of which comes from utilities. Due to the low price at which the product water can be sold, the 30-year net present value of the plant, assuming a 6% discount rate, is $-1,035MM. It is thus imperative this plant be constructed with public funds because it cannot return a profit to any private investor. The growing need for water however could justify the cost, because it is important that the residents of the greater Corpus Christi area have access to drinkable water.<br />
<br />
__TOC__<br />
<br />
=Introduction=<br />
==Background==<br />
Clean drinking water is a basic human need that is becoming increasingly difficult to meet. Currently, over 1 billion people live in places where water is considered scarce<ref> Tapping the oceans. The Economist USA. http://www.economist.com/node/11484059. Accessed March 2, 2016. </ref>. Though often thought of as a problem exclusive to third-world countries, the issue is becoming more prevalent in the US as well, with water managers in 40 of 50 states anticipating water shortage conditions in some portion of their state in the next 10 years. These shortages are due to increasing demands on constant or diminishing freshwater resources, therefore, to correct the issue, a new supply must be found<ref> Water Supply in the US. EPA. http://www3.epa.gov/watersense/pubs/supply.html. Accessed March 2, 2016.</ref>. Desalination of seawater is therefore important as a new source for clean drinking water and prevent water shortages. <br />
<br />
==Project Definition==<br />
The overall goal of the project is to investigate the feasibility of a desalination plant in order to meet the needs of growing water demand. The design needs to take health, safety, and environmental concerns into account, while optimizing costs.<br />
<br />
=Design Basis=<br />
Site Location and Conditions<br />
Corpus Christi, TX was chosen as the location for the proposed desalination plant. The city is currently experiencing “Moderate Shortage Conditions”. This issue additionally comes at a time of growing demand with population growth anticipated due to new industry and Eagle Ford Group crude oil production<ref>Stage 2 Measures in the Drought Contingency Plan. Available at http://www.cctexas.com/government/water/conservation/conservation-drought-plans/stage-2-measures. Accessed January 12, 2016. </ref>.<br />
<br />
In June 2014, the city announced the Corpus Christi Desalination Demonstration Project<ref>Corpus Christi Desalination Demonstration Project. Available at http://www.cctexas.com/Assets/Departments/Water/Files/DesalFactSheet.pdf. Published June 2014. Accessed January 12, 2016. <br />
</ref> which seeks to create a demonstration desalination plant capable of producing 20,000 gallons of water per day, with plans to later build a full scale facility generating 20,000,000 gallons of water per day. The desalination demonstration project indicates a clear need for implementation of a desalination plant of this size to accommodate growth in the Corpus Christi area. <br />
<br />
Locating our plant in Corpus Christi will allow us to take advantage of the benefits of cogeneration through a partnership with the Nueces Bay Energy Center. By utilizing their outlet cooling water as a large portion of our feed for the desalination process, we can raise the temperature of our seawater feed, saving on energy costs in the multi stage flash distillation. The proposed location for the desalination plant is immediately west of the Nueces Bay Energy Center. See Appendix A for a map depicting the proposed location for the desalination plant along the coast of Nueces Bay.<br />
<br />
==Feed and Product Definitions==<br />
The proposed desalination facility’s feed and product streams are defined as shown in Table 1. Rationale for these definitions is also described below. The values reported in Table 1 are final derived numbers from HYSYS simulation modeling. <br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 1: Feed and product stream definitions<br />
! &nbsp;<br />
! Salt Concentration<br />
! Temperature <br />
! Amount<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Feed Stream <br />
| 30,500 ppm || 45°C || 8250 m<sup>3</sup>/hr<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Product Stream<br />
| ~ 0 ppm || 35°C || 4758 m<sup>3</sup>/hr<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Byproduct Stream<br />
| 695 ppm || 35°C || 3485 m<sup>3</sup>/hr<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
The process feed will be seawater from Nueces Bay, preheated through the cooling water system of the nearby Nueces Bay Energy Center. Based on calculations developed from NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory) data, it was estimated that the Nueces Bay Energy Center uses approximately 250 million gallons of seawater per day for process and cooling needs. Therefore, the 20 million gallon per day requirement for the desalination facility can easily be met through the power plant’s cooling water<ref>Torcellini P, Long N, Judkoff R. Consumptive Water Use for U.S. Power Consumption. NREL. 2003; TP-550-33905. <br />
</ref>. Note that we are assuming the process will operate 67% of the time (16 hours per day).<br />
<br />
Based on data acquired from two salinity-measuring stations in Nueces Bay, the average salinity of local seawater is 30.5 practical salinity units (psu)<ref>Stations Map & Real - Time Data. The Conrad Blucher Institute for Surveying and Science website. Available at http://www.cbi.tamucc.edu/cbi/data/. Updated January 2016. Accessed January 9, 2016. </ref>, thus setting the concentration of the process feed stream. This translates to a feed stream concentration of 30,500 ppm (parts per million)<ref>Definition and Units. CATD Salinity Expertise Center. Available at http://www.salinityremotesensing.ifremer.fr/home. Accessed January 12, 2016.</ref>. The composition of the salt attributed to this seawater salinity is shown in Table 6 in Appendix B. <br />
<br />
No data on the composition of seawater around the Corpus Christi area was available, but the composition of seawater does not change significantly in different locations. The given composition is considered accurate for our feed stream<ref>Brown E, Colling A, Park D, Phillips J, Rothery D, Wright J. Seawater : Its Composition, Properties and Behaviour. Boston: Butterworth-Heinemann, 1995.<br />
</ref>. Note that seawater salt is primarily sodium chloride - total dissolved solids are 85.7% sodium chloride by mass. As such, the dissolved solids in the feed stream is assumed in this project to be pure NaCl, making the feed composition 96.95% water and 3.05% NaCl by mass. A control system will likely be put in place to ensure feed concentration remains at this level, accounting for natural fluctuations in local seawater salinity.<br />
<br />
The largest byproduct from the process will be a brine slurry with high salt concentrations. An upper corrosion limit of 700 ppm was set for recirculated and purged brine. This undesired byproduct will be sent to a nearby Class I non-hazardous injection well facility operated by GNI Group, which is approximately 12 miles away from the proposed desalination plant location as shown in the figure in Appendix A<ref>Texas Water Code. Availabe at http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/WA/htm/WA.27.htm. Accessed January 14, 2016.<br />
</ref><ref>Google Maps. Available at https://goo.gl/maps/3xcvLZwUCe42 Accessed January 15, 2016.</ref>. Through the incorporation of a Class I injection well, the brine will not have to be treated or diluted before injection. <ref>EPA Regulations on Class I Wells. Available at http://www.epa.gov/uic/class-i-industrial-and-municipal-waste-disposal-wells. Accessed January 14, 2016.<br />
</ref><ref>List of Injection Well Facilities by Location. Available at http://www.ehso.com/cssepa/tsdfdeepwells.php. Accessed January 14, 2016.</ref><br />
<br />
There are no regulations regarding the temperature of city drinking water, so the product stream temperature has no requirements based on regulations. Outlet temperatures of 35<sup>o</sup>C are acceptable for input to the municipal water supply system. Since city water tends to be stored in non-temperature controlled tanks, the temperature will naturally cool to ambient temperature.<ref>Climate Corpus Christi- Texas. US Climate Data. Available at http://www.usclimatedata.com/climate/corpus-christi/texas/united-states/ustx0294. Accessed January 12, 2016. </ref><br />
<br />
==Pre-Treatment and Post-Treatment==<br />
For pretreatment, Belgard EV 2030 is recommended to be added at a concentration of 1.8-2.0 mg/L for a system with top brine temperature approximately 110 °C<ref>BWA Water Additives. Belgard EV2030 Technical Data Sheet. BWA Water Additives. http://www.wateradditives.com/files/products/tech_data_sheets/Belgard%20EV%202030_Technical%20Data%20Sheet_Thermal_8.5x11.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016.<br />
</ref>. Since our process is designed to operate at a slightly higher top brine temperature, 120 °C, we will design for the upper bound concentration: 2.0 mg/L of antiscalant. With a feed flow rate of 8250 m<sup>3</sup>/hr, the process therefore requires 16.5 kg/hr of Belgard EV 2030.<br />
<br />
For disinfection during post-treatment, chlorine addition typically requires a dose of roughly 2.0 mg/L as well<ref>World Health Organization. Desalination for safe water supply. http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/gdwqrevision/desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. With a pure water distillate flow rate of 4758 m<sup>3</sup>/hr, the process requires 9.5 kg/hr of chlorine gas. Approximately 74 mg/L of lime (calcium hydroxide) and 88mg/L of CO2 should be added to the desalinated water to help prevent corrosion and increase alkalinity within acceptable ranges<ref>Vouchkov, N. Re-Mineralization of Desalinated Water. SunCam. https://s3.amazonaws.com/suncam/npdocs/118.pdf. Accessed February 18, 2016.</ref>. With a product stream flow rate of 4758 m3/hr, these concentrations correspond to 352.1 kg/hr of lime and 418.7 kg/hr of CO2. Both of these can be purchased, and it is likely that the CO2 can be procured from the neighboring natural gas power plant.<br />
<br />
==Choice of Desalination Technology==<br />
The two major technologies commonly implemented for desalination include reverse osmosis (RO), and multi-stage flash distillation (MSFD). RO utilizes high pressures to force water through a semipermeable membrane that allows for purified water to pass through, but stops organic and other wastes. Often, the pressures can reach 55 - 68 bar, which requires large pumps to maintain pressure, and introduces safety concerns to the process<ref>Stage 2 Measures in the Drought Contingency Plan. Available at http://www.cctexas.com/government/water/conservation/conservation-drought-plans/stage-2-measures. Accessed January 12, 2016. <br />
</ref>. While RO can be less energy intensive than MSFD, and the membrane can also remove contaminants, it is susceptible to feedwater quality, membrane fouling, and requires more extensive pretreatment and posttreatment than MSFD. The cost of RO is directly proportional to the feed salinity, and so it is less expensive when desalinating low salinity water.<br />
<br />
Multi-stage flash distillation is best selected for areas that have high salinity or low energy costs. The pretreatment process for MSFD is much easier when compared to RO because pretreatment often consists of simply adding anti-corrosives and antiscalants to the feed stream. The process works by heating water in vessels at different pressures to change the boiling point of the water and evaporate it as it passes through the system. After evaporation, the water condenses, leaving pure water as the effluent. MSFD costs are now roughly $1.00/m3, where this cost is mostly independent of salinity, but dependent on energy costs.<ref>Fritzman C, Lowenberg J, Wintgens T, Melin T. State-of-the-art Reverse Osmosis Desalination. Desalination. 2007; 216:1-76. <br />
</ref> In both RO and MSFD a brine is produced which then must be appropriately treated and/or disposed of.<br />
<br />
Multi-stage flash distillation was selected for this process, mainly due to the economic advantages offered by the selected location of Corpus Christi, TX. MSFD is also a well understood process that can be more easily modeled by chemical engineering software.<br />
<br />
=Technical Approach=<br />
Quantitative modeling of the process and all included optimization was conducted using the simulation software Aspen HYSYS. A variety of assumptions were developed to set up and define specific components of the process simulation itself. Within Aspen HYSYS, the NRTL Electrolyte property package was selected to model the behavior of salt water. Each stage of the MSF process is modeled as an individual flash vessel, with individual shell & tube heat exchangers used to model the distillate condensers present in each flash stage in the MSF system.<br />
<br />
The HYSYS simulation model only considers the flash portion of the overall process, allowing establishment of mass and energy balances for the system. Pretreatment and post-treatment were excluded for the HYSYS model, as these steps are simple additions or removals of small concentrations of chemical components. Although the simulation models heat exchangers outside of each flash stage, in the physical design of the plant these heat exchangers will be contained within each flash stage.<br />
<br />
One portion of the process is not modeled, which is the inlet seawater entering the heat rejection stages. As can be seen from the full process flow diagram (Appendix C), the inlet seawater in the heat rejection stage is in high excess to provide maximum cooling capacity; then a significant portion is purged to bring the stream flow rate down to what is needed for the feed stream. It is assumed that the flow rate of cooling water for those three stages is in such high excess that the cooling water does not heat up. Therefore, in the process simulation models, the inlet stream is the feed stream, which enters directly into the heat recovery portion of the process.<br />
<br />
See Appendix D for a screenshot overview of the simulation environment model.<br />
<br />
=Process Overview=<br />
==Process Flowsheet==<br />
The following diagram, Figure 1, shows a basic flowsheet for the process. Process alternatives considered for each stage are discussed below. Please see Appendix C for the full process flowsheet with finalized design decisions.<br />
<br />
[[File:BlockFlowDiagram.png|center|700px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Desalination Facility Block Flow Diagram|Figure 1: Basic block flowsheet of the multi-stage flash desalination process.]]<br />
<br />
==Major Features==<br />
As seen above, there are three primary stages of the desalination process: Pre-treatment, the multi-stage flash distillation, and post-treatment. Seawater enters the pre-treatment phase first to make the feed suitable for the rest of the process by filtering out large particles that could accumulate on pipes, deaerating the water to limit corrosion, and adding an agent to combat fouling. The water then enters the distillation process, which is broken up into two sections: heat recovery and heat rejection. <br />
<br />
In the heat recovery stage, there are 18 flash vessels, each of which separates steam from the salinated liquid water. Each flash vessel has saltwater as its inlet and two outlets: a vapor outlet (steam) that condenses into the final product of purified water and a liquid outlet composed of water with more dissolved solids than the inlet, which is the inlet stream for the next flash vessel. The pipe containing the feed is first mixed with recycled brine, then goes through the top sections of each of the flash vessels, starting with V-118 and ending up at V-101. In this way, the feed stream pipe first serves as a heat exchanger, heating the pre-treated seawater while simultaneously condensing the steam into the final product. The feed then enters a final heat exchanger where it is brought up to 103.6 °C before entering V-101 to be flashed.<br />
<br />
After exiting V-118, the final flash vessel in the heat recovery portion, the water enters the heat rejection portion, which consists of three flash vessels (V-201, V-202, V-203). The flash vessels of this section operate in the same manner as in the heat recovery section, with the exception that condensation occurs using excess cooling water instead of pre-treated seawater. This technique allows excess heat to be rejected into an excess water stream rather than the feed.<br />
<br />
The purified product stream finally enters post-treatment processing in which water is re-aerated and remineralized, disinfected, and pH is adjusted before being delivered to the city. The concentrated brine leftover at the end of the flash cycle is recycled into the feed, although a purge is required to continuously remove some salt from the system. This purged brine is disposed of by use of a Class I injection well, per regional regulations.<br />
<br />
See Appendix E to find detailed stream tables of stream specifications.<br />
<br />
==Process Alternatives==<br />
===Pretreatment===<br />
Multi-stage flash distillation requires significantly less pretreatment than reverse osmosis desalination, but helpful pretreatment techniques still exist. One very inexpensive method of pretreatment is screening/filtration, which is used to filter out large contaminants from intake seawater. Using more complicated membrane technology to accomplish large particle filtration is a possible alternative, but doing so would be much more expensive than using a standard screen or filter, so the latter choice has been selected for this process.<ref>El-Dessouky H., Alatiqi I, Ettouney H. Process synthesis: The multi-stage flash desalination system. Desalination. 1998;115(2):115-179. doi: 10.1016/S0011-9164(98)00035-6.</ref><br />
<br />
The most critical type of fouling in multi-stage flash distillation is scaling - therefore, the most critical step in the pretreatment process will be the inclusion of an anti-scalant. Alkaline scaling can be prevented by acid dosing or polyphosphate addition; however, acid dosing can result in increased corrosion and polyphosphates can lead to non-alkaline calcium phosphate fouling, so these additives will not be considered<ref>Morris, R. The development of the multi-stage flash distillation process: A designer's viewpoint. Desalination. 1993;93(1-3):57-68. doi:10.1016/S0011-9164(93)80096-6.<br />
</ref><ref>Al-Gobaisi, D. A quarter-century of seawater desalination by large multistage flash plants in Abu Dhabi (Plant performance analysis, assessment, present efforts toward enhancement and future hopes). Desalination. 1994;99(2-3):509-512. doi: 10.1016/S0011-9164(94)00196-0.</ref>. As such, a polymer-based additive is recommended for the anti-scalant for this process. The Belgard EV series is designed for use in high-temperature seawater MSF; of these, Belgard EV 2030 is the most neutral in pH<ref>NSF International. NSF Product and Service Listings: Drinking Water Treatment Chemicals - Health Effects. NSF International. http://info.nsf.org/Certified/PwsChemicals/Listings.asp?Company=00300&. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref><ref>BWA Water Additives. Belgard EV2030 Technical Data Sheet. BWA Water Additives. http://www.wateradditives.com/files/products/tech_data_sheets/Belgard%20EV%202030_Technical%20Data%20Sheet_Thermal_8.5x11.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref><ref>BWA Water Additives. Belgard EV2035 Technical Data Sheet. BWA Water Additives. http://www.wateradditives.com/files/products/tech_data_sheets/Belgard%20EV2035_Technical%20Data%20Sheet_Thermal_8.5x11.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref><ref>BioLab Water Additives. Belgard EV Antiscalant for seawater distillation plants. BioLab Water Additives. http://www.lpq.com.mx/pdf/BELGARD%20EV.PDF. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref>. As such, we have selected Belgard EV 2030 for use as an anti-scalant in our process.<br />
<br />
Corrosion control is another significant method of pretreatment in multi-stage flash distillation plants. Using a piping material that has limited susceptibility to corrosion is typically not economically viable for MSF desalination plants due their large size, so using carbon steel for most of the piping is generally used for its economic benefits despite its susceptibility to corrosion<ref>Morris, R. The development of the multi-stage flash distillation process: A designer's viewpoint. Desalination. 1993;93(1-3):57-68. doi:10.1016/S0011-9164(93)80096-6.</ref>. Limiting oxygen concentration is very feasible through the use of deaerators, which can remove oxygen as well as other dissolved gases from the seawater stream. Often, an external deaeration system is used<ref>Morris, R. The development of the multi-stage flash distillation process: A designer's viewpoint. Desalination. 1993;93(1-3):57-68. doi:10.1016/S0011-9164(93)80096-6.</ref><ref>Edwards - Hick Hargreaves. Seawater Deaerators. Edwards - Hick Hargreaves. http://psscorp.co.th/upload/news/20110830105340.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. Given these considerations, using an external deaerator combined with a less-corrosive antiscalant like Belgard EV 2030 is much more practical for the process than using anti-corrosive piping.<br />
<br />
Excessive foam can also be an issue in some MSF distillation facilities, so antifoaming agents are sometimes employed in the pretreatment process as well. However, many plants are operated without foaming issues, and therefore do not need anti-foaming pretreatment at all. Selection of an anti-foaming agent must be carefully weighed with selected of anti-scalant to avoid issues with additive interactions [26]. At this stage in the design process, an anti-foamer will not be included due to the risk of decreasing scalant efficacy, and the likelihood that foam will not be an issue in the desalination plant.<br />
<br />
===Multistage Flash Distillation===<br />
The main objective of the design project is desalinate water. This is done with the main process of multi stage flash distillation (MSF). MSF can be developed using a numerous number of different process configurations, such as Once-Through, Simple Mixer Brine Circulation, and Multi-Stage Heat Rejection Brine Circulation processes. <br />
<br />
The most desired process for the project is the Three Stage Heat Rejection Brine Circulation as it builds on benefits of the other simpler technologies. By combining principles of heat rejection and heat recovery, the required heat transfer area of the process is greatly reduced as compared to once through processes or simple brine recycle processes. It has the highest performance ratio with the lowest specific feed flow rates, therefore greatly lowering the operating costs of the process. It is also known as the industry standard for MSF<ref>Kansas State University ChE 413.. Available at: http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/Almutaz/Documents/ChE-413/Multi-stage%20Flash%20Desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. In addition, since our brine disposal technique involves the pumping of the brine into a Class I well, the high brine outlet salinity is not a drawback for our process since post treatment or dilution of the brine is not necessary.<br />
<br />
===Post Treatment===<br />
After processing the water via multi-stage flash, the water needs to be post-treated to make the water taste as consumers would expect, since distilled water is “flat” and unpleasant, as well as to protect the consumers and the piping through which the water will be passing<ref>Clayton R. A review of current knowledge: Desalination for water supply. Foundation for Water Research. http://www.fwr.org/desal.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. There are multiple alternatives to achieve these objectives of remineralization, aeration, corrosion control, and disinfection.<br />
<br />
Aerating and introducing some dissolved solids back into the product water are effective ways to create a quality product that is not flat, and contains flavoring that is expected of the water when delivered to the consumer. Aeration will be accomplished via an inline spray aerator which will take up less space than cascade aeration.<ref>Minnesota Rural Water Association. Aeration. http://www.mrwa.com/WaterWorksMnl/Chapter%2011%20Aeration.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref> Feed blending will be used to remineralize the water as opposed to a remineralization filter because it does not require additional equipment purchases, and can easily handle the large amounts of throughput required for the process.<ref>Clayton R. A review of current knowledge: Desalination for water supply. Foundation for Water Research. http://www.fwr.org/desal.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref><br />
<br />
Corrosion and pH can be controlled by adding lime (calcium hydroxide) and carbon dioxide to the water. To do so, about 74 mg/L of lime and 88mg/L of CO<sub>2</sub> should be added to the desalinated water to help prevent corrosion and increase alkalinity within acceptable ranges. Sodium hydroxide, soda ash, and sodium bicarbonate are alternatives to altering the alkalinity and pH of the product water, but lime and CO<sub>2</sub> is an industry standard.<ref> Vouchkov, N. Re-Mineralization of Desalinated Water. SunCam. https://s3.amazonaws.com/suncam/npdocs/118.pdf. Accessed February 18, 2016.</ref><br />
<br />
Disinfection needs to be done to prevent microbial growth in the desalinated water and ensure the safety of the general public. Chlorine addition via chlorine gas or sodium hypochlorite is the most common and only requires a dose of 1.5 to 2.5 mg/liter.<ref>World Health Organization. Desalination for safe water supply. http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/gdwqrevision/desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>Other alternatives include ozonation, UV light, and chloramination. Chlorine, as a 5% - 15% sodium hypochlorite solution, is sufficient for our process and relatively inexpensive, and as such will be utilized in the process.<br />
<br />
===Transport of Brine to Well===<br />
Three major possibilities exist for transporting the brine from our desalination plant to the injection well for disposal: rail, trucking, and a pipeline. A pipeline was chosen as the most feasible and cost-effective approach. <br />
<br />
A rail line is not available at this time, and with the cost to construct a rail line at approximately $43 million per mile<ref>About Money. How Much Do Rail Transit Projects Cost to Build and Operate? 2014. Available at: http://publictransport.about.com/od/Transit_Projects/a/How-Much-Do-Rail-Transit-Projects-Cost-To-Build-And-Operate.htm. Accessed January 27, 2016. </ref>, the enormous capital cost makes rail transport infeasible for this site. For large volume operations, pipelines are cheaper than trucking. In a study of wastewater sludge produced from wastewater treatment facilities, it was found that it was more economical for facilities producing over 1200 m<sup>3</sup> per day to utilize pipelines rather than trucking.<ref>Marufuzzaman M, Eskioglu S, Hernandez R. Truck versus pipeline transportation cost analysis of wastewater sludge. Transportation Research. 2015; 74(A): 14-30. </ref> Our facility is producing nearly 3 times this volume at 3485 m<sup>3</sup> per day of brine. Furthermore, brine is a less viscous fluid than wastewater sludge, decreasing pumping costs in the pipeline and further amplifying the benefit of choosing a pipeline over an injection well.<br />
<br />
===Brine Storage===<br />
Due to the choice of a pipeline, rather than trucking, as the method of transport of brine to the injection well, brine storage is unnecessary, so storage solutions such as holding tanks were not investigated. One method of storage compatible with a pipeline is to pump the brine through an evaporation pond. This solution is attractive as it would allow the brine to concentrate, saving some costs of pumping, however, the considerable land usage of evaporation ponds leads them to only be effective for smaller plants. The largest municipal plant utilizing this method produces only 5.7 million liters per day<ref>University of Santa Cruz Center for Integrated Water Research. Concentrate Management: Evaporation Ponds. 2010. Available at: https://ciwr.ucsc.edu/sites/default/files/ICM_D5.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016. </ref>, whereas our desalination plant is proposed to produce 75.7 million liters per day. Therefore, evaporation ponds have been eliminated from consideration.<br />
<br />
==Major Specifications==<br />
===Material of Construction Selection===<br />
While saltwater and desalinated water in general can be corrosive, there are best practices within the desalination industry for material selection. With this in mind, best practice shows carbon steel lifetime can be lengthened by monitoring the oxygen concentration in the water, specifying the paint used to coat any metal, and more expensive materials can be used in areas of extremely high corrosion.<ref>Morris, R. The development of the multi-stage flash distillation process: A designer's viewpoint. Desalination. 1993;93(1-3):57-68. doi:10.1016/S0011-9164(93)80096-6. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0011916493800966<br />
</ref> By following these best practices, it is possible to save significant amounts of money through the use of carbon steel in most areas of the plant, with specific high-corrosion areas being reinforced with, or replaced with, more corrosion resistant materials, such as Cu/Ni 70/30 alloy<ref>Kansas State University ChE 413.. Available at: http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/Almutaz/Documents/ChE-413/Multi-stage%20Flash%20Desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>.<br />
<br />
===Heat Exchanger Sizing===<br />
See Appendix F for heat exchanger sizing data. Heat exchanger sizes appear reasonable for placement in the flash vessels.<br />
<br />
===Flash Vessel Sizing===<br />
The dimensions for the flash drums were obtained through literature values. The flash drums were determined to be 18x4x3 m in width, height, and length.<ref>Kansas State University ChE 413.. Available at: http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/Almutaz/Documents/ChE-413/Multi-stage%20Flash%20Desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref><br />
<br />
Wall thickness was determined using the following conventions: Design pressure is 10% more than the operating pressure, design temperature is 50°F (27.8°C) higher than the operating temperature, a corrosion allowance of 3-mm and an effectiveness of 85% was derived from the assumption of a double-welded butt joint that was spot checked. See Appendix G for wall thicknesses calculated for each pressure vessel. <br />
<br />
The sizing of the vessels to be constructed will be determined after talks with a manufacturer. Due to economies of scale, it may be more cost-effective to buy 21 pressure vessels with the dimensions mentioned above and a wall thickness of 17.1-mm, the highest wall thickness required in the system.<br />
<br />
===Pipe Losses and Pressure Drop===<br />
HYSYS was used to estimate the diameter of a pipe given a specified pressure drop per 100m of pipe. It was determined that for a pressure drop of 0.1 kPa/100m of pipe, a 3.05m diameter pipe is sufficient, which is more than manageable for manufacturers. This pressure drop is mostly insignificant and will be taken care of with the safety factors included in the pumps. The significant pressure drops in our system is accounted for via losses in the flash vessels and heat exchangers, which drive the flash process. Therefore overall pipe losses are insignificant and are built into intentional design losses.<br />
<br />
=Economic Analysis=<br />
==Economic Assumptions==<br />
The sale of purified water yields a revenue stream of $49.5 million per year assuming sale to commercial entities within the city limits of Corpus Christi at $1.7915 per thousand liters.<ref>Water schedule. City of Corpus Christi Utility Business Office. http://www.cctexas.com/Assets/Departments/Financial-Services/Utilities-Business-Office/files/waterrates.pdf Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref> The primary variable costs are utilities and the brine disposal, with minimal raw materials costs due to the primary feedstock, seawater, being free, and minimal amounts of pre- and post-treatment chemicals being used. The cost of brine disposal used in this analysis was high at $2.097 per thousand liters<ref>McCurdy, R. Underground injection wells for produced water disposal. Chesapeake Energy Corporation. http://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/documents/21_McCurdy_-_UIC_Disposal_508.pdf Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref>, an estimate for brine disposal utilizing trucking as the mode of transport. As has been shown through previous analyses, a lower cost can be achieved using a direct pipeline, however, no good estimates for this cost could be found.<br />
<br />
The NPV was calculated using a 6% cost of capital, the approximate interest rate for a municipal bond.<ref>Zirbe, R.O. Jr., Han, X., Layton, D., Leshine, T. A history of discount rates and their use by government agencies. (2002). http://faculty.washington.edu/zerbe/docs/DISCOUNT%20RATE%20HISTORY-latesXIt.doc Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref> It was assumed that the plant can be built within two years, with production at half-scale in its first year. Additionally, one month of variable costs, $10.6 million, was set aside for working capital. See Appendix H for a full table of assumptions. A 30 year NPV calculation was chosen as the decision basis since 30 years is a conservative estimate for the lifetime of a desalination plant [38]. See below for estimates of NPV for the lifetime of the plant under various assumptions and design criteria.<br />
<br />
==Optimization and Sensitivity Analysis==<br />
Looking at the multi-stage flash process, there are a number of opportunities to optimize the process. The major process variables that were investigated were the inlet water temperature, the operating pressure drop per vessel, and the number of stages over which the process takes place. Considering these optimizations, our final process consists of 21 flash vessels (18 heat recovery and 3 heat rejection stages), each with a pressure drop of 5 kPa. See Appendix D for a screenshot of the HYSYS simulation used to model the optimized process.<br />
===Operating Pressure and Pressure Drop===<br />
Initially our process was designed to pump the inlet seawater and brine to a pressure of 2 bar and allow the pressure drop in each flash stage to end our process downstream at 1 bar to prevent complications associated with designing a system under vacuum. While this provided pumping advantages, the energy in the system was significantly higher due to vapor pressure considerations. Due to this fact, the required heat exchange area for certain exchangers proved to be infeasible (on the order of 80,000m<sup>2</sup>) due to the enormous capital and operating costs that would be associated with such a large heat exchanger.<br />
<br />
The process was optimized to operate under vacuum, requiring additional pumping requirements but much lower required heat exchange area, and therefore lower utility costs. This optimization was done by specifying the pressure of the final flash vessel to 5.7kPa, so that the temperature of the water vapor (~30<sup>o</sup>C) is within approximately 5<sup>o</sup>C of the cooling water (35<sup>o</sup>C) so that condensation can occur within a reasonable approach. This also allows our system to optimally extract pure water from the brine running through the system and reduce energy requirements for cooling the product or the recycle. Our system redesign and optimization reduced the energy in the system and reduce the same heat exchanger area requirements by more than 3 orders of magnitude to approximately 800m<sup>2</sup>. <br />
<br />
Once the process was optimized to operate in a vacuum, the pressure drop per flash stage regulated through values was then optimized. Three pressure drops per stages, 3kPa, 5kPa, and 7kPa, were tested and then an economic analysis was conducted to find the optimal value for the pressure drop. These changes had impacts on both operating and capital costs as they would change initial pumping requirements, the amount of water flowing through the process and recycle (and therefore the flash vessel sizes, heat exchanger sizing), and the efficiency of each stage.<br />
<br />
The various pressure drops (3 kPa, 5 kPa, and 7 kPa) were tested on a system nominally at 24 stages under the assumption that the results would be generalizable to systems with a different number of stages. With increasing pressure drop, we found decreased capital cost but increased utility cost. As can be seen from Table 2 below, a pressure drop of 5 kPa proved to be the best option based on 30 year NPV, with a loss of $838.8 million, a savings of $65.5 million compared to the next-best option with a pressure drop of 7 kPa.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 2: Comparison of profitability for our MSF desalination process with 24 stages with 3 different pressure drops per stage<br />
! Number of Stages <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! Pressure Drop <br/> (kPa)<br />
! Capital Cost <br/> ($MM)<br />
! Utility Cost <br/> ($MM/yr)<br />
! 30-Year NPV <br/> ($MM)<br />
! NPV Ratio <br/> (over 5kPa)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 3 || 362.3 || 39.1 || -905.8 || 1.08<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 5 || 255.1 || 53.6 || -838.8 || 1.00<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 7 || 209.5 || 72.2 || -904.3 || 1.08<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
===Number of Flash Stages===<br />
The number of stages is an important area for optimization. An increased number of stages yields better recovery of purified water, however, requires higher capital cost from the additional pressure vessel. Furthermore, with an increased amount of purified water comes increasingly concentrated brine. This must be taken into account since any brine concentration in excess of about 7% presents a more significant corrosion risk<ref>Kansas State University ChE 413.. Available at: http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/Almutaz/Documents/ChE-413/Multi-stage%20Flash%20Desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>, so increased maintenance costs for the piping or higher capital costs for more corrosion-resistant materials could be necessary for brine concentrations exceeding 7%. Therefore, to recover the same amount of pure water without exceeding corrosion limitations, increasing the number of stages will reduce the overall size of each stage.<br />
<br />
Optimizing based on NPV, it was found that 21 stages is optimal, balancing the increased profits from the additional purified water additional costs of higher capital cost. See Table 3 below to compare the 30-year NPV of the process across various numbers of flash vessels.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 3: Comparison of profitability for our MSF desalination process with a 5 kPa pressure drop, 5000 m<sup>3</sup>/hr feed flow rate, with varying number of stages.<br />
! Number of Stages <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! Pressure Drop <br/> (kPa)<br />
! Capital Cost <br/> ($MM)<br />
! Utility Cost <br/> ($MM/yr)<br />
! 30-Year NPV <br/> ($MM)<br />
! NPV Ratio <br/> (over 21 Stages)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 17 || 5 || 213.9 || 58.7 || -813.8 || 1.016<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 18 || 5 || 218 || 57.6 || -809.9 || 1.011<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 19 || 5 || 224.3 || 58 || -806.1 || 1.007<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 20 || 5 || 229.8 || 57.9 || -813.6 || 1.016<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 21 || 5 || 226.6 || 55.9 || -800.7 || 1<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 22 || 5 || 254.7 || 54.6 || -849.5 || 1.061<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 23 || 5 || 249.3 || 54.1 || -833.1 || 1.04<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 5 || 255.1 || 53.6 || -838.8 || 1.048<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 25 || 5 || 254.9 || 52.7 || -837.4 || 1.046<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
===Inlet Seawater Temperature===<br />
By pairing our desalination plant with a natural gas power plant and utilizing its cooling water we forgo initial heating of our inlet stream. Normally, water pumped from the ocean would be approximately 25<sup>o</sup>C and by capturing waste heat from the power plant we can reduce utilities with our water inlet of 45<sup>o</sup>C. Through an economic comparison between two plants nominally at 21 flash stages, the plant with an inlet temperature at 25<sup>o</sup>C has a capital cost of $245MM and a utility cost of $77MM/yr and the same facility with an inlet water temperature at 45<sup>o</sup>C has a capital cost of only $226MM and a utility cost of $56MM/yr. As shown in Table 4 below, this $19MM savings in capital costs and $21MM/yr saving in utilities is largely due to reducing the size of the heat exchangers and lowering the steam required for heating duty on the inlet seawater respectively. Therefore our process is optimized by recovering the waste heat water from the gas fired power plant.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 4: Seawater Inlet Temperature Process Cost Optimization<br />
! Seawater Temperature <br/> (°C)<br />
! Capital Cost <br/> ($MM)<br />
! Utility Cost <br/> ($MM/yr)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 25 || 245 || 77<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 45 || 226 || 56<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Savings || 56 || 19<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
==Overall Process Economics==<br />
After optimization at fixed flow rates, the process was scaled to meet the the 67% operating percentage and final product definitions as shown in Table 1, which resulted in finalized economics shown in Table 5 below. For a table of the installed costs of each process vessel, see Appendix I. For the finalized NPV calculations, see Appendix J.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 5: Summarized Economics for 21-stage MSFD Process<br />
! Economic Parameter<br />
! Cost <br/> (USD)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Capital Cost || 345 MM<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Total Operating Cost per Year || 103 MM<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Utility Cost per Year || 59 MM<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 30-Year NPV (6% Discount) || -1,035 MM<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
=Conclusions and Recommendations=<br />
==Project Viability==<br />
Table 5 above demonstrates that the process has reasonable operating and capital costs, but the 30-year NPV is negative by -1035 $MM due to the extremely low sell price capability of desalinated water as a product. Therefore, this plant would have to heavily be supported by the City of Corpus Christi to run as the product revenue will not make it self-sufficient. The acquisition of government subsidies are key operating requirements for all desalination facilities in the United States. <br />
<br />
==Additional Concerns==<br />
Large volumes of water, steam, and energy are needed to ensure the project runs as specified. While most of the water can easily be extracted from the ocean with little to consequence, the fuel used to generate the steam and electricity can have a significant environmental impact. As the plant is located next to a natural gas power plant, this fuel is better than coal with respect to environmental concerns, and utilizing energy from the power plant to preheat the feed stream for the desalination plant helps lower environmental impacts.<br />
<br />
The large amounts of high pressure steam being used represents one of the the largest safety concern in the process, because a high pressure steam release could easily cause severe burns or even death. Proper precautions and control measures must be in place to prevent accidental release. Otherwise, the process does not utilize any known toxic chemicals and is relatively safe from a chemical standpoint. The flash vessels mostly operate below atmospheric pressure, so they must be constructed as vessels that can withstand vacuum without failing.<br />
<br />
<br />
=Appendix A: Proposed Location of Desalination Plant=<br />
Pictured below is the proposed location for the desalination plant, located on Nueces Bay in Corpus Christi, adjacent to the Nueces Bay Energy Center. The plant’s proposed location is shown in the area outlined by the small circle in the upper right of the figure.<br />
<br />
[[File:NuecesBayLocation.png|center|600px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Desalination Facility Location|Figure A.1: Proposed mapped location of Nueces Bay Desalination Facility.]]<br />
[[File:ClassIWell.png|center|700px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Desalination Facility Distance to Injection Well|Figure A.2: Mapped distance from proposed location to Class I Injection Well]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix B: Feed and Product Definitions - Salinity=<br />
<br />
=Appendix C: Process Flow Diagram=<br />
[[File:TeamF_PFD.png|center|1200px|thumb|alt=Process Flow Diagram|Figure C.1: Process Flow Diagram]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix D: HYSYS Simulation Model=<br />
[[File:TeamF_HYSYS_Screenshot.PNG|center|1200px|thumb|alt=HYSYS Simulation Model|Figure D.1: Screenshot of HYSYS Model Simulation.]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix E: Stream Tables=<br />
<br />
=Appendix F: Heat Exchanger Sizing=<br />
<br />
=Appendix G: Pressure Vessel Sizing=<br />
<br />
=Appendix H: Expanded Economic Assumptions=<br />
<br />
=Appendix I: Equipment Cost Summary=<br />
<br />
=Appendix J: Economic NPV Analysis=<br />
<br />
=References=<br />
<references/></div>Kedricdaly2https://processdesign.mccormick.northwestern.edu/index.php?title=Nueces_Desalination_Center:_Production_of_Drinking_Water_by_Multi-Stage_Flash_Distillation&diff=4934Nueces Desalination Center: Production of Drinking Water by Multi-Stage Flash Distillation2016-03-07T03:31:30Z<p>Kedricdaly2: /* Operating Pressure and Pressure Drop */ Hyphenation and Capitalization in Table 2</p>
<hr />
<div>Team F: Rankine 672 Final Report<br />
<br />
Authors: Kedric Daly, Ben Granger, Evan Rosati, Kathleen Zhou<br />
<br />
Instructors: Fengqi You, David Wegerer<br />
<br />
March 11, 2016<br />
<br />
=Executive Summary=<br />
Desalination of seawater to drinking water is a technology of ever-increasing importance given trends of increasingly widespread water shortages around the world. Even in the United States, water shortages are becoming increasingly common in dry, highly-populated such as California and certain areas of the Gulf Coast. Our design team, Rankine 672, was tasked with evaluating the need for and designing a desalination plant to provide purified water in a place of need. Investigation revealed that the city of Corpus Christi, Texas, is a strategic location for development of a desalination facility, as surrounding region is in need of new drinking water sources and the city has expressed serious interest in contracting the development of a large-scale desalination plant. Our proposed solution is a multi-stage flash distillation desalination facility capable of producing 20,000,000 gallons (75,708 m<sup>3</sup>) of purified drinking water for the city and surrounding region per operating day.<br />
<br />
In this design, drinking water is produced from seawater feedstock through a 21-stage flash distillation process. By strategically locating the facility next to an existing natural gas power plant, the Nueces Bay Energy Center, pre-heated feed water can be taken directly from the outbound cooling systems of the power plant, allowing energy savings for our desalination plant. The process is designed for 16 hour-per-day operation, requires a seawater feed of 8250 m<sup>3</sup>/hr, and produces 4758 m<sup>3</sup>/hr of purified drinking water alongside a waste stream of 3485 m<sup>3</sup>/hr of concentrated brine. The waste stream is isolated from a recycle stream through a 9.0% purge; this results in an overall product yield of 57.7% on a volume basis. The process requires an additional pretreatment stream of 16.5 kg/hr Belgard EV 2030, which serves as an antiscalant, as well as 9.5 kg/hr chlorine, 352.1 kg/hr lime, and 418.7 kg/hr CO2 for post-treatment purposes.<br />
<br />
The overall capital cost of the plant is expected to be $345MM, with a total operating cost of $103MM/yr, $59MM/yr of which comes from utilities. Due to the low price at which the product water can be sold, the 30-year net present value of the plant, assuming a 6% discount rate, is $-1,035MM. It is thus imperative this plant be constructed with public funds because it cannot return a profit to any private investor. The growing need for water however could justify the cost, because it is important that the residents of the greater Corpus Christi area have access to drinkable water.<br />
<br />
__TOC__<br />
<br />
=Introduction=<br />
==Background==<br />
Clean drinking water is a basic human need that is becoming increasingly difficult to meet. Currently, over 1 billion people live in places where water is considered scarce<ref> Tapping the oceans. The Economist USA. http://www.economist.com/node/11484059. Accessed March 2, 2016. </ref>. Though often thought of as a problem exclusive to third-world countries, the issue is becoming more prevalent in the US as well, with water managers in 40 of 50 states anticipating water shortage conditions in some portion of their state in the next 10 years. These shortages are due to increasing demands on constant or diminishing freshwater resources, therefore, to correct the issue, a new supply must be found<ref> Water Supply in the US. EPA. http://www3.epa.gov/watersense/pubs/supply.html. Accessed March 2, 2016.</ref>. Desalination of seawater is therefore important as a new source for clean drinking water and prevent water shortages. <br />
<br />
==Project Definition==<br />
The overall goal of the project is to investigate the feasibility of a desalination plant in order to meet the needs of growing water demand. The design needs to take health, safety, and environmental concerns into account, while optimizing costs.<br />
<br />
=Design Basis=<br />
Site Location and Conditions<br />
Corpus Christi, TX was chosen as the location for the proposed desalination plant. The city is currently experiencing “Moderate Shortage Conditions”. This issue additionally comes at a time of growing demand with population growth anticipated due to new industry and Eagle Ford Group crude oil production<ref>Stage 2 Measures in the Drought Contingency Plan. Available at http://www.cctexas.com/government/water/conservation/conservation-drought-plans/stage-2-measures. Accessed January 12, 2016. </ref>.<br />
<br />
In June 2014, the city announced the Corpus Christi Desalination Demonstration Project<ref>Corpus Christi Desalination Demonstration Project. Available at http://www.cctexas.com/Assets/Departments/Water/Files/DesalFactSheet.pdf. Published June 2014. Accessed January 12, 2016. <br />
</ref> which seeks to create a demonstration desalination plant capable of producing 20,000 gallons of water per day, with plans to later build a full scale facility generating 20,000,000 gallons of water per day. The desalination demonstration project indicates a clear need for implementation of a desalination plant of this size to accommodate growth in the Corpus Christi area. <br />
<br />
Locating our plant in Corpus Christi will allow us to take advantage of the benefits of cogeneration through a partnership with the Nueces Bay Energy Center. By utilizing their outlet cooling water as a large portion of our feed for the desalination process, we can raise the temperature of our seawater feed, saving on energy costs in the multi stage flash distillation. The proposed location for the desalination plant is immediately west of the Nueces Bay Energy Center. See Appendix A for a map depicting the proposed location for the desalination plant along the coast of Nueces Bay.<br />
<br />
==Feed and Product Definitions==<br />
The proposed desalination facility’s feed and product streams are defined as shown in Table 1. Rationale for these definitions is also described below. The values reported in Table 1 are final derived numbers from HYSYS simulation modeling. <br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 1: Feed and product stream definitions<br />
! &nbsp;<br />
! Salt Concentration<br />
! Temperature <br />
! Amount<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Feed Stream <br />
| 30,500 ppm || 45°C || 8250 m<sup>3</sup>/hr<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Product Stream<br />
| ~ 0 ppm || 35°C || 4758 m<sup>3</sup>/hr<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Byproduct Stream<br />
| 695 ppm || 35°C || 3485 m<sup>3</sup>/hr<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
The process feed will be seawater from Nueces Bay, preheated through the cooling water system of the nearby Nueces Bay Energy Center. Based on calculations developed from NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory) data, it was estimated that the Nueces Bay Energy Center uses approximately 250 million gallons of seawater per day for process and cooling needs. Therefore, the 20 million gallon per day requirement for the desalination facility can easily be met through the power plant’s cooling water<ref>Torcellini P, Long N, Judkoff R. Consumptive Water Use for U.S. Power Consumption. NREL. 2003; TP-550-33905. <br />
</ref>. Note that we are assuming the process will operate 67% of the time (16 hours per day).<br />
<br />
Based on data acquired from two salinity-measuring stations in Nueces Bay, the average salinity of local seawater is 30.5 practical salinity units (psu)<ref>Stations Map & Real - Time Data. The Conrad Blucher Institute for Surveying and Science website. Available at http://www.cbi.tamucc.edu/cbi/data/. Updated January 2016. Accessed January 9, 2016. </ref>, thus setting the concentration of the process feed stream. This translates to a feed stream concentration of 30,500 ppm (parts per million)<ref>Definition and Units. CATD Salinity Expertise Center. Available at http://www.salinityremotesensing.ifremer.fr/home. Accessed January 12, 2016.</ref>. The composition of the salt attributed to this seawater salinity is shown in Table 6 in Appendix B. <br />
<br />
No data on the composition of seawater around the Corpus Christi area was available, but the composition of seawater does not change significantly in different locations. The given composition is considered accurate for our feed stream<ref>Brown E, Colling A, Park D, Phillips J, Rothery D, Wright J. Seawater : Its Composition, Properties and Behaviour. Boston: Butterworth-Heinemann, 1995.<br />
</ref>. Note that seawater salt is primarily sodium chloride - total dissolved solids are 85.7% sodium chloride by mass. As such, the dissolved solids in the feed stream is assumed in this project to be pure NaCl, making the feed composition 96.95% water and 3.05% NaCl by mass. A control system will likely be put in place to ensure feed concentration remains at this level, accounting for natural fluctuations in local seawater salinity.<br />
<br />
The largest byproduct from the process will be a brine slurry with high salt concentrations. An upper corrosion limit of 700 ppm was set for recirculated and purged brine. This undesired byproduct will be sent to a nearby Class I non-hazardous injection well facility operated by GNI Group, which is approximately 12 miles away from the proposed desalination plant location as shown in the figure in Appendix A<ref>Texas Water Code. Availabe at http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/WA/htm/WA.27.htm. Accessed January 14, 2016.<br />
</ref><ref>Google Maps. Available at https://goo.gl/maps/3xcvLZwUCe42 Accessed January 15, 2016.</ref>. Through the incorporation of a Class I injection well, the brine will not have to be treated or diluted before injection. <ref>EPA Regulations on Class I Wells. Available at http://www.epa.gov/uic/class-i-industrial-and-municipal-waste-disposal-wells. Accessed January 14, 2016.<br />
</ref><ref>List of Injection Well Facilities by Location. Available at http://www.ehso.com/cssepa/tsdfdeepwells.php. Accessed January 14, 2016.</ref><br />
<br />
There are no regulations regarding the temperature of city drinking water, so the product stream temperature has no requirements based on regulations. Outlet temperatures of 35<sup>o</sup>C are acceptable for input to the municipal water supply system. Since city water tends to be stored in non-temperature controlled tanks, the temperature will naturally cool to ambient temperature.<ref>Climate Corpus Christi- Texas. US Climate Data. Available at http://www.usclimatedata.com/climate/corpus-christi/texas/united-states/ustx0294. Accessed January 12, 2016. </ref><br />
<br />
==Pre-Treatment and Post-Treatment==<br />
For pretreatment, Belgard EV 2030 is recommended to be added at a concentration of 1.8-2.0 mg/L for a system with top brine temperature approximately 110 °C<ref>BWA Water Additives. Belgard EV2030 Technical Data Sheet. BWA Water Additives. http://www.wateradditives.com/files/products/tech_data_sheets/Belgard%20EV%202030_Technical%20Data%20Sheet_Thermal_8.5x11.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016.<br />
</ref>. Since our process is designed to operate at a slightly higher top brine temperature, 120 °C, we will design for the upper bound concentration: 2.0 mg/L of antiscalant. With a feed flow rate of 8250 m<sup>3</sup>/hr, the process therefore requires 16.5 kg/hr of Belgard EV 2030.<br />
<br />
For disinfection during post-treatment, chlorine addition typically requires a dose of roughly 2.0 mg/L as well<ref>World Health Organization. Desalination for safe water supply. http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/gdwqrevision/desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. With a pure water distillate flow rate of 4758 m<sup>3</sup>/hr, the process requires 9.5 kg/hr of chlorine gas. Approximately 74 mg/L of lime (calcium hydroxide) and 88mg/L of CO2 should be added to the desalinated water to help prevent corrosion and increase alkalinity within acceptable ranges<ref>Vouchkov, N. Re-Mineralization of Desalinated Water. SunCam. https://s3.amazonaws.com/suncam/npdocs/118.pdf. Accessed February 18, 2016.</ref>. With a product stream flow rate of 4758 m3/hr, these concentrations correspond to 352.1 kg/hr of lime and 418.7 kg/hr of CO2. Both of these can be purchased, and it is likely that the CO2 can be procured from the neighboring natural gas power plant.<br />
<br />
==Choice of Desalination Technology==<br />
The two major technologies commonly implemented for desalination include reverse osmosis (RO), and multi-stage flash distillation (MSFD). RO utilizes high pressures to force water through a semipermeable membrane that allows for purified water to pass through, but stops organic and other wastes. Often, the pressures can reach 55 - 68 bar, which requires large pumps to maintain pressure, and introduces safety concerns to the process<ref>Stage 2 Measures in the Drought Contingency Plan. Available at http://www.cctexas.com/government/water/conservation/conservation-drought-plans/stage-2-measures. Accessed January 12, 2016. <br />
</ref>. While RO can be less energy intensive than MSFD, and the membrane can also remove contaminants, it is susceptible to feedwater quality, membrane fouling, and requires more extensive pretreatment and posttreatment than MSFD. The cost of RO is directly proportional to the feed salinity, and so it is less expensive when desalinating low salinity water.<br />
<br />
Multi-stage flash distillation is best selected for areas that have high salinity or low energy costs. The pretreatment process for MSFD is much easier when compared to RO because pretreatment often consists of simply adding anti-corrosives and antiscalants to the feed stream. The process works by heating water in vessels at different pressures to change the boiling point of the water and evaporate it as it passes through the system. After evaporation, the water condenses, leaving pure water as the effluent. MSFD costs are now roughly $1.00/m3, where this cost is mostly independent of salinity, but dependent on energy costs.<ref>Fritzman C, Lowenberg J, Wintgens T, Melin T. State-of-the-art Reverse Osmosis Desalination. Desalination. 2007; 216:1-76. <br />
</ref> In both RO and MSFD a brine is produced which then must be appropriately treated and/or disposed of.<br />
<br />
Multi-stage flash distillation was selected for this process, mainly due to the economic advantages offered by the selected location of Corpus Christi, TX. MSFD is also a well understood process that can be more easily modeled by chemical engineering software.<br />
<br />
=Technical Approach=<br />
Quantitative modeling of the process and all included optimization was conducted using the simulation software Aspen HYSYS. A variety of assumptions were developed to set up and define specific components of the process simulation itself. Within Aspen HYSYS, the NRTL Electrolyte property package was selected to model the behavior of salt water. Each stage of the MSF process is modeled as an individual flash vessel, with individual shell & tube heat exchangers used to model the distillate condensers present in each flash stage in the MSF system.<br />
<br />
The HYSYS simulation model only considers the flash portion of the overall process, allowing establishment of mass and energy balances for the system. Pretreatment and post-treatment were excluded for the HYSYS model, as these steps are simple additions or removals of small concentrations of chemical components. Although the simulation models heat exchangers outside of each flash stage, in the physical design of the plant these heat exchangers will be contained within each flash stage.<br />
<br />
One portion of the process is not modeled, which is the inlet seawater entering the heat rejection stages. As can be seen from the full process flow diagram (Appendix C), the inlet seawater in the heat rejection stage is in high excess to provide maximum cooling capacity; then a significant portion is purged to bring the stream flow rate down to what is needed for the feed stream. It is assumed that the flow rate of cooling water for those three stages is in such high excess that the cooling water does not heat up. Therefore, in the process simulation models, the inlet stream is the feed stream, which enters directly into the heat recovery portion of the process.<br />
<br />
See Appendix D for a screenshot overview of the simulation environment model.<br />
<br />
=Process Overview=<br />
==Process Flowsheet==<br />
The following diagram, Figure 1, shows a basic flowsheet for the process. Process alternatives considered for each stage are discussed below. Please see Appendix C for the full process flowsheet with finalized design decisions.<br />
<br />
[[File:BlockFlowDiagram.png|center|700px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Desalination Facility Block Flow Diagram|Figure 1: Basic block flowsheet of the multi-stage flash desalination process.]]<br />
<br />
==Major Features==<br />
As seen above, there are three primary stages of the desalination process: Pre-treatment, the multi-stage flash distillation, and post-treatment. Seawater enters the pre-treatment phase first to make the feed suitable for the rest of the process by filtering out large particles that could accumulate on pipes, deaerating the water to limit corrosion, and adding an agent to combat fouling. The water then enters the distillation process, which is broken up into two sections: heat recovery and heat rejection. <br />
<br />
In the heat recovery stage, there are 18 flash vessels, each of which separates steam from the salinated liquid water. Each flash vessel has saltwater as its inlet and two outlets: a vapor outlet (steam) that condenses into the final product of purified water and a liquid outlet composed of water with more dissolved solids than the inlet, which is the inlet stream for the next flash vessel. The pipe containing the feed is first mixed with recycled brine, then goes through the top sections of each of the flash vessels, starting with V-118 and ending up at V-101. In this way, the feed stream pipe first serves as a heat exchanger, heating the pre-treated seawater while simultaneously condensing the steam into the final product. The feed then enters a final heat exchanger where it is brought up to 103.6 °C before entering V-101 to be flashed.<br />
<br />
After exiting V-118, the final flash vessel in the heat recovery portion, the water enters the heat rejection portion, which consists of three flash vessels (V-201, V-202, V-203). The flash vessels of this section operate in the same manner as in the heat recovery section, with the exception that condensation occurs using excess cooling water instead of pre-treated seawater. This technique allows excess heat to be rejected into an excess water stream rather than the feed.<br />
<br />
The purified product stream finally enters post-treatment processing in which water is re-aerated and remineralized, disinfected, and pH is adjusted before being delivered to the city. The concentrated brine leftover at the end of the flash cycle is recycled into the feed, although a purge is required to continuously remove some salt from the system. This purged brine is disposed of by use of a Class I injection well, per regional regulations.<br />
<br />
See Appendix E to find detailed stream tables of stream specifications.<br />
<br />
==Process Alternatives==<br />
===Pretreatment===<br />
Multi-stage flash distillation requires significantly less pretreatment than reverse osmosis desalination, but helpful pretreatment techniques still exist. One very inexpensive method of pretreatment is screening/filtration, which is used to filter out large contaminants from intake seawater. Using more complicated membrane technology to accomplish large particle filtration is a possible alternative, but doing so would be much more expensive than using a standard screen or filter, so the latter choice has been selected for this process.<ref>El-Dessouky H., Alatiqi I, Ettouney H. Process synthesis: The multi-stage flash desalination system. Desalination. 1998;115(2):115-179. doi: 10.1016/S0011-9164(98)00035-6.</ref><br />
<br />
The most critical type of fouling in multi-stage flash distillation is scaling - therefore, the most critical step in the pretreatment process will be the inclusion of an anti-scalant. Alkaline scaling can be prevented by acid dosing or polyphosphate addition; however, acid dosing can result in increased corrosion and polyphosphates can lead to non-alkaline calcium phosphate fouling, so these additives will not be considered<ref>Morris, R. The development of the multi-stage flash distillation process: A designer's viewpoint. Desalination. 1993;93(1-3):57-68. doi:10.1016/S0011-9164(93)80096-6.<br />
</ref><ref>Al-Gobaisi, D. A quarter-century of seawater desalination by large multistage flash plants in Abu Dhabi (Plant performance analysis, assessment, present efforts toward enhancement and future hopes). Desalination. 1994;99(2-3):509-512. doi: 10.1016/S0011-9164(94)00196-0.</ref>. As such, a polymer-based additive is recommended for the anti-scalant for this process. The Belgard EV series is designed for use in high-temperature seawater MSF; of these, Belgard EV 2030 is the most neutral in pH<ref>NSF International. NSF Product and Service Listings: Drinking Water Treatment Chemicals - Health Effects. NSF International. http://info.nsf.org/Certified/PwsChemicals/Listings.asp?Company=00300&. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref><ref>BWA Water Additives. Belgard EV2030 Technical Data Sheet. BWA Water Additives. http://www.wateradditives.com/files/products/tech_data_sheets/Belgard%20EV%202030_Technical%20Data%20Sheet_Thermal_8.5x11.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref><ref>BWA Water Additives. Belgard EV2035 Technical Data Sheet. BWA Water Additives. http://www.wateradditives.com/files/products/tech_data_sheets/Belgard%20EV2035_Technical%20Data%20Sheet_Thermal_8.5x11.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref><ref>BioLab Water Additives. Belgard EV Antiscalant for seawater distillation plants. BioLab Water Additives. http://www.lpq.com.mx/pdf/BELGARD%20EV.PDF. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref>. As such, we have selected Belgard EV 2030 for use as an anti-scalant in our process.<br />
<br />
Corrosion control is another significant method of pretreatment in multi-stage flash distillation plants. Using a piping material that has limited susceptibility to corrosion is typically not economically viable for MSF desalination plants due their large size, so using carbon steel for most of the piping is generally used for its economic benefits despite its susceptibility to corrosion<ref>Morris, R. The development of the multi-stage flash distillation process: A designer's viewpoint. Desalination. 1993;93(1-3):57-68. doi:10.1016/S0011-9164(93)80096-6.</ref>. Limiting oxygen concentration is very feasible through the use of deaerators, which can remove oxygen as well as other dissolved gases from the seawater stream. Often, an external deaeration system is used<ref>Morris, R. The development of the multi-stage flash distillation process: A designer's viewpoint. Desalination. 1993;93(1-3):57-68. doi:10.1016/S0011-9164(93)80096-6.</ref><ref>Edwards - Hick Hargreaves. Seawater Deaerators. Edwards - Hick Hargreaves. http://psscorp.co.th/upload/news/20110830105340.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. Given these considerations, using an external deaerator combined with a less-corrosive antiscalant like Belgard EV 2030 is much more practical for the process than using anti-corrosive piping.<br />
<br />
Excessive foam can also be an issue in some MSF distillation facilities, so antifoaming agents are sometimes employed in the pretreatment process as well. However, many plants are operated without foaming issues, and therefore do not need anti-foaming pretreatment at all. Selection of an anti-foaming agent must be carefully weighed with selected of anti-scalant to avoid issues with additive interactions [26]. At this stage in the design process, an anti-foamer will not be included due to the risk of decreasing scalant efficacy, and the likelihood that foam will not be an issue in the desalination plant.<br />
<br />
===Multistage Flash Distillation===<br />
The main objective of the design project is desalinate water. This is done with the main process of multi stage flash distillation (MSF). MSF can be developed using a numerous number of different process configurations, such as Once-Through, Simple Mixer Brine Circulation, and Multi-Stage Heat Rejection Brine Circulation processes. <br />
<br />
The most desired process for the project is the Three Stage Heat Rejection Brine Circulation as it builds on benefits of the other simpler technologies. By combining principles of heat rejection and heat recovery, the required heat transfer area of the process is greatly reduced as compared to once through processes or simple brine recycle processes. It has the highest performance ratio with the lowest specific feed flow rates, therefore greatly lowering the operating costs of the process. It is also known as the industry standard for MSF<ref>Kansas State University ChE 413.. Available at: http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/Almutaz/Documents/ChE-413/Multi-stage%20Flash%20Desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. In addition, since our brine disposal technique involves the pumping of the brine into a Class I well, the high brine outlet salinity is not a drawback for our process since post treatment or dilution of the brine is not necessary.<br />
<br />
===Post Treatment===<br />
After processing the water via multi-stage flash, the water needs to be post-treated to make the water taste as consumers would expect, since distilled water is “flat” and unpleasant, as well as to protect the consumers and the piping through which the water will be passing<ref>Clayton R. A review of current knowledge: Desalination for water supply. Foundation for Water Research. http://www.fwr.org/desal.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. There are multiple alternatives to achieve these objectives of remineralization, aeration, corrosion control, and disinfection.<br />
<br />
Aerating and introducing some dissolved solids back into the product water are effective ways to create a quality product that is not flat, and contains flavoring that is expected of the water when delivered to the consumer. Aeration will be accomplished via an inline spray aerator which will take up less space than cascade aeration.<ref>Minnesota Rural Water Association. Aeration. http://www.mrwa.com/WaterWorksMnl/Chapter%2011%20Aeration.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref> Feed blending will be used to remineralize the water as opposed to a remineralization filter because it does not require additional equipment purchases, and can easily handle the large amounts of throughput required for the process.<ref>Clayton R. A review of current knowledge: Desalination for water supply. Foundation for Water Research. http://www.fwr.org/desal.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref><br />
<br />
Corrosion and pH can be controlled by adding lime (calcium hydroxide) and carbon dioxide to the water. To do so, about 74 mg/L of lime and 88mg/L of CO<sub>2</sub> should be added to the desalinated water to help prevent corrosion and increase alkalinity within acceptable ranges. Sodium hydroxide, soda ash, and sodium bicarbonate are alternatives to altering the alkalinity and pH of the product water, but lime and CO<sub>2</sub> is an industry standard.<ref> Vouchkov, N. Re-Mineralization of Desalinated Water. SunCam. https://s3.amazonaws.com/suncam/npdocs/118.pdf. Accessed February 18, 2016.</ref><br />
<br />
Disinfection needs to be done to prevent microbial growth in the desalinated water and ensure the safety of the general public. Chlorine addition via chlorine gas or sodium hypochlorite is the most common and only requires a dose of 1.5 to 2.5 mg/liter.<ref>World Health Organization. Desalination for safe water supply. http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/gdwqrevision/desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>Other alternatives include ozonation, UV light, and chloramination. Chlorine, as a 5% - 15% sodium hypochlorite solution, is sufficient for our process and relatively inexpensive, and as such will be utilized in the process.<br />
<br />
===Transport of Brine to Well===<br />
Three major possibilities exist for transporting the brine from our desalination plant to the injection well for disposal: rail, trucking, and a pipeline. A pipeline was chosen as the most feasible and cost-effective approach. <br />
<br />
A rail line is not available at this time, and with the cost to construct a rail line at approximately $43 million per mile<ref>About Money. How Much Do Rail Transit Projects Cost to Build and Operate? 2014. Available at: http://publictransport.about.com/od/Transit_Projects/a/How-Much-Do-Rail-Transit-Projects-Cost-To-Build-And-Operate.htm. Accessed January 27, 2016. </ref>, the enormous capital cost makes rail transport infeasible for this site. For large volume operations, pipelines are cheaper than trucking. In a study of wastewater sludge produced from wastewater treatment facilities, it was found that it was more economical for facilities producing over 1200 m<sup>3</sup> per day to utilize pipelines rather than trucking.<ref>Marufuzzaman M, Eskioglu S, Hernandez R. Truck versus pipeline transportation cost analysis of wastewater sludge. Transportation Research. 2015; 74(A): 14-30. </ref> Our facility is producing nearly 3 times this volume at 3485 m<sup>3</sup> per day of brine. Furthermore, brine is a less viscous fluid than wastewater sludge, decreasing pumping costs in the pipeline and further amplifying the benefit of choosing a pipeline over an injection well.<br />
<br />
===Brine Storage===<br />
Due to the choice of a pipeline, rather than trucking, as the method of transport of brine to the injection well, brine storage is unnecessary, so storage solutions such as holding tanks were not investigated. One method of storage compatible with a pipeline is to pump the brine through an evaporation pond. This solution is attractive as it would allow the brine to concentrate, saving some costs of pumping, however, the considerable land usage of evaporation ponds leads them to only be effective for smaller plants. The largest municipal plant utilizing this method produces only 5.7 million liters per day<ref>University of Santa Cruz Center for Integrated Water Research. Concentrate Management: Evaporation Ponds. 2010. Available at: https://ciwr.ucsc.edu/sites/default/files/ICM_D5.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016. </ref>, whereas our desalination plant is proposed to produce 75.7 million liters per day. Therefore, evaporation ponds have been eliminated from consideration.<br />
<br />
==Major Specifications==<br />
===Material of Construction Selection===<br />
While saltwater and desalinated water in general can be corrosive, there are best practices within the desalination industry for material selection. With this in mind, best practice shows carbon steel lifetime can be lengthened by monitoring the oxygen concentration in the water, specifying the paint used to coat any metal, and more expensive materials can be used in areas of extremely high corrosion.<ref>Morris, R. The development of the multi-stage flash distillation process: A designer's viewpoint. Desalination. 1993;93(1-3):57-68. doi:10.1016/S0011-9164(93)80096-6. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0011916493800966<br />
</ref> By following these best practices, it is possible to save significant amounts of money through the use of carbon steel in most areas of the plant, with specific high-corrosion areas being reinforced with, or replaced with, more corrosion resistant materials, such as Cu/Ni 70/30 alloy<ref>Kansas State University ChE 413.. Available at: http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/Almutaz/Documents/ChE-413/Multi-stage%20Flash%20Desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>.<br />
<br />
===Heat Exchanger Sizing===<br />
See Appendix F for heat exchanger sizing data. Heat exchanger sizes appear reasonable for placement in the flash vessels.<br />
<br />
===Flash Vessel Sizing===<br />
The dimensions for the flash drums were obtained through literature values. The flash drums were determined to be 18x4x3 m in width, height, and length.<ref>Kansas State University ChE 413.. Available at: http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/Almutaz/Documents/ChE-413/Multi-stage%20Flash%20Desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref><br />
<br />
Wall thickness was determined using the following conventions: Design pressure is 10% more than the operating pressure, design temperature is 50°F (27.8°C) higher than the operating temperature, a corrosion allowance of 3-mm and an effectiveness of 85% was derived from the assumption of a double-welded butt joint that was spot checked. See Appendix G for wall thicknesses calculated for each pressure vessel. <br />
<br />
The sizing of the vessels to be constructed will be determined after talks with a manufacturer. Due to economies of scale, it may be more cost-effective to buy 21 pressure vessels with the dimensions mentioned above and a wall thickness of 17.1-mm, the highest wall thickness required in the system.<br />
<br />
===Pipe Losses and Pressure Drop===<br />
HYSYS was used to estimate the diameter of a pipe given a specified pressure drop per 100m of pipe. It was determined that for a pressure drop of 0.1 kPa/100m of pipe, a 3.05m diameter pipe is sufficient, which is more than manageable for manufacturers. This pressure drop is mostly insignificant and will be taken care of with the safety factors included in the pumps. The significant pressure drops in our system is accounted for via losses in the flash vessels and heat exchangers, which drive the flash process. Therefore overall pipe losses are insignificant and are built into intentional design losses.<br />
<br />
=Economic Analysis=<br />
==Economic Assumptions==<br />
The sale of purified water yields a revenue stream of $49.5 million per year assuming sale to commercial entities within the city limits of Corpus Christi at $1.7915 per thousand liters.<ref>Water schedule. City of Corpus Christi Utility Business Office. http://www.cctexas.com/Assets/Departments/Financial-Services/Utilities-Business-Office/files/waterrates.pdf Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref> The primary variable costs are utilities and the brine disposal, with minimal raw materials costs due to the primary feedstock, seawater, being free, and minimal amounts of pre- and post-treatment chemicals being used. The cost of brine disposal used in this analysis was high at $2.097 per thousand liters<ref>McCurdy, R. Underground injection wells for produced water disposal. Chesapeake Energy Corporation. http://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/documents/21_McCurdy_-_UIC_Disposal_508.pdf Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref>, an estimate for brine disposal utilizing trucking as the mode of transport. As has been shown through previous analyses, a lower cost can be achieved using a direct pipeline, however, no good estimates for this cost could be found.<br />
<br />
The NPV was calculated using a 6% cost of capital, the approximate interest rate for a municipal bond.<ref>Zirbe, R.O. Jr., Han, X., Layton, D., Leshine, T. A history of discount rates and their use by government agencies. (2002). http://faculty.washington.edu/zerbe/docs/DISCOUNT%20RATE%20HISTORY-latesXIt.doc Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref> It was assumed that the plant can be built within two years, with production at half-scale in its first year. Additionally, one month of variable costs, $10.6 million, was set aside for working capital. See Appendix H for a full table of assumptions. A 30 year NPV calculation was chosen as the decision basis since 30 years is a conservative estimate for the lifetime of a desalination plant [38]. See below for estimates of NPV for the lifetime of the plant under various assumptions and design criteria.<br />
<br />
==Optimization and Sensitivity Analysis==<br />
Looking at the multi-stage flash process, there are a number of opportunities to optimize the process. The major process variables that were investigated were the inlet water temperature, the operating pressure drop per vessel, and the number of stages over which the process takes place. Considering these optimizations, our final process consists of 21 flash vessels (18 heat recovery and 3 heat rejection stages), each with a pressure drop of 5 kPa. See Appendix D for a screenshot of the HYSYS simulation used to model the optimized process.<br />
===Operating Pressure and Pressure Drop===<br />
Initially our process was designed to pump the inlet seawater and brine to a pressure of 2 bar and allow the pressure drop in each flash stage to end our process downstream at 1 bar to prevent complications associated with designing a system under vacuum. While this provided pumping advantages, the energy in the system was significantly higher due to vapor pressure considerations. Due to this fact, the required heat exchange area for certain exchangers proved to be infeasible (on the order of 80,000m<sup>2</sup>) due to the enormous capital and operating costs that would be associated with such a large heat exchanger.<br />
<br />
The process was optimized to operate under vacuum, requiring additional pumping requirements but much lower required heat exchange area, and therefore lower utility costs. This optimization was done by specifying the pressure of the final flash vessel to 5.7kPa, so that the temperature of the water vapor (~30<sup>o</sup>C) is within approximately 5<sup>o</sup>C of the cooling water (35<sup>o</sup>C) so that condensation can occur within a reasonable approach. This also allows our system to optimally extract pure water from the brine running through the system and reduce energy requirements for cooling the product or the recycle. Our system redesign and optimization reduced the energy in the system and reduce the same heat exchanger area requirements by more than 3 orders of magnitude to approximately 800m<sup>2</sup>. <br />
<br />
Once the process was optimized to operate in a vacuum, the pressure drop per flash stage regulated through values was then optimized. Three pressure drops per stages, 3kPa, 5kPa, and 7kPa, were tested and then an economic analysis was conducted to find the optimal value for the pressure drop. These changes had impacts on both operating and capital costs as they would change initial pumping requirements, the amount of water flowing through the process and recycle (and therefore the flash vessel sizes, heat exchanger sizing), and the efficiency of each stage.<br />
<br />
The various pressure drops (3 kPa, 5 kPa, and 7 kPa) were tested on a system nominally at 24 stages under the assumption that the results would be generalizable to systems with a different number of stages. With increasing pressure drop, we found decreased capital cost but increased utility cost. As can be seen from Table 2 below, a pressure drop of 5 kPa proved to be the best option based on 30 year NPV, with a loss of $838.8 million, a savings of $65.5 million compared to the next-best option with a pressure drop of 7 kPa.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 2: Comparison of profitability for our MSF desalination process with 24 stages with 3 different pressure drops per stage<br />
! Number of Stages <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! Pressure Drop <br/> (kPa)<br />
! Capital Cost <br/> ($MM)<br />
! Utility Cost <br/> ($MM/yr)<br />
! 30-Year NPV <br/> ($MM)<br />
! NPV Ratio <br/> (over 5kPa)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 3 || 362.3 || 39.1 || -905.8 || 1.08<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 5 || 255.1 || 53.6 || -838.8 || 1.00<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 7 || 209.5 || 72.2 || -904.3 || 1.08<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
===Number of Flash Stages===<br />
The number of stages is an important area for optimization. An increased number of stages yields better recovery of purified water, however, requires higher capital cost from the additional pressure vessel. Furthermore, with an increased amount of purified water comes increasingly concentrated brine. This must be taken into account since any brine concentration in excess of about 7% presents a more significant corrosion risk<ref>Kansas State University ChE 413.. Available at: http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/Almutaz/Documents/ChE-413/Multi-stage%20Flash%20Desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>, so increased maintenance costs for the piping or higher capital costs for more corrosion-resistant materials could be necessary for brine concentrations exceeding 7%. Therefore, to recover the same amount of pure water without exceeding corrosion limitations, increasing the number of stages will reduce the overall size of each stage.<br />
<br />
Optimizing based on NPV, it was found that 21 stages is optimal, balancing the increased profits from the additional purified water additional costs of higher capital cost. See Table 3 below to compare the 30-year NPV of the process across various numbers of flash vessels.<br />
<br />
<b>!!!! INSERT TABLE 3!!!! </b><br />
<br />
===Inlet Seawater Temperature===<br />
By pairing our desalination plant with a natural gas power plant and utilizing its cooling water we forgo initial heating of our inlet stream. Normally, water pumped from the ocean would be approximately 25<sup>o</sup>C and by capturing waste heat from the power plant we can reduce utilities with our water inlet of 45<sup>o</sup>C. Through an economic comparison between two plants nominally at 21 flash stages, the plant with an inlet temperature at 25<sup>o</sup>C has a capital cost of $245MM and a utility cost of $77MM/yr and the same facility with an inlet water temperature at 45<sup>o</sup>C has a capital cost of only $226MM and a utility cost of $56MM/yr. As shown in Table 4 below, this $19MM savings in capital costs and $21MM/yr saving in utilities is largely due to reducing the size of the heat exchangers and lowering the steam required for heating duty on the inlet seawater respectively. Therefore our process is optimized by recovering the waste heat water from the gas fired power plant.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 4: Seawater Inlet Temperature Process Cost Optimization<br />
! Seawater Temperature <br/> (°C)<br />
! Capital Cost <br/> ($MM)<br />
! Utility Cost <br/> ($MM/yr)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 25 || 245 || 77<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 45 || 226 || 56<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Savings || 56 || 19<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
==Overall Process Economics==<br />
After optimization at fixed flow rates, the process was scaled to meet the the 67% operating percentage and final product definitions as shown in Table 1, which resulted in finalized economics shown in Table 5 below. For a table of the installed costs of each process vessel, see Appendix I. For the finalized NPV calculations, see Appendix J.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 5: Summarized Economics for 21-stage MSFD Process<br />
! Economic Parameter<br />
! Cost <br/> (USD)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Capital Cost || 345 MM<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Total Operating Cost per Year || 103 MM<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Utility Cost per Year || 59 MM<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 30-Year NPV (6% Discount) || -1,035 MM<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
=Conclusions and Recommendations=<br />
==Project Viability==<br />
Table 5 above demonstrates that the process has reasonable operating and capital costs, but the 30-year NPV is negative by -1035 $MM due to the extremely low sell price capability of desalinated water as a product. Therefore, this plant would have to heavily be supported by the City of Corpus Christi to run as the product revenue will not make it self-sufficient. The acquisition of government subsidies are key operating requirements for all desalination facilities in the United States. <br />
<br />
==Additional Concerns==<br />
Large volumes of water, steam, and energy are needed to ensure the project runs as specified. While most of the water can easily be extracted from the ocean with little to consequence, the fuel used to generate the steam and electricity can have a significant environmental impact. As the plant is located next to a natural gas power plant, this fuel is better than coal with respect to environmental concerns, and utilizing energy from the power plant to preheat the feed stream for the desalination plant helps lower environmental impacts.<br />
<br />
The large amounts of high pressure steam being used represents one of the the largest safety concern in the process, because a high pressure steam release could easily cause severe burns or even death. Proper precautions and control measures must be in place to prevent accidental release. Otherwise, the process does not utilize any known toxic chemicals and is relatively safe from a chemical standpoint. The flash vessels mostly operate below atmospheric pressure, so they must be constructed as vessels that can withstand vacuum without failing.<br />
<br />
<br />
=Appendix A: Proposed Location of Desalination Plant=<br />
Pictured below is the proposed location for the desalination plant, located on Nueces Bay in Corpus Christi, adjacent to the Nueces Bay Energy Center. The plant’s proposed location is shown in the area outlined by the small circle in the upper right of the figure.<br />
<br />
[[File:NuecesBayLocation.png|center|600px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Desalination Facility Location|Figure A.1: Proposed mapped location of Nueces Bay Desalination Facility.]]<br />
[[File:ClassIWell.png|center|700px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Desalination Facility Distance to Injection Well|Figure A.2: Mapped distance from proposed location to Class I Injection Well]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix B: Feed and Product Definitions - Salinity=<br />
<br />
=Appendix C: Process Flow Diagram=<br />
[[File:TeamF_PFD.png|center|1200px|thumb|alt=Process Flow Diagram|Figure C.1: Process Flow Diagram]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix D: HYSYS Simulation Model=<br />
[[File:TeamF_HYSYS_Screenshot.PNG|center|1200px|thumb|alt=HYSYS Simulation Model|Figure D.1: Screenshot of HYSYS Model Simulation.]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix E: Stream Tables=<br />
<br />
=Appendix F: Heat Exchanger Sizing=<br />
<br />
=Appendix G: Pressure Vessel Sizing=<br />
<br />
=Appendix H: Expanded Economic Assumptions=<br />
<br />
=Appendix I: Equipment Cost Summary=<br />
<br />
=Appendix J: Economic NPV Analysis=<br />
<br />
=References=<br />
<references/></div>Kedricdaly2https://processdesign.mccormick.northwestern.edu/index.php?title=Nueces_Desalination_Center:_Production_of_Drinking_Water_by_Multi-Stage_Flash_Distillation&diff=4933Nueces Desalination Center: Production of Drinking Water by Multi-Stage Flash Distillation2016-03-07T03:30:49Z<p>Kedricdaly2: /* Overall Process Economics */ Insert Table 5</p>
<hr />
<div>Team F: Rankine 672 Final Report<br />
<br />
Authors: Kedric Daly, Ben Granger, Evan Rosati, Kathleen Zhou<br />
<br />
Instructors: Fengqi You, David Wegerer<br />
<br />
March 11, 2016<br />
<br />
=Executive Summary=<br />
Desalination of seawater to drinking water is a technology of ever-increasing importance given trends of increasingly widespread water shortages around the world. Even in the United States, water shortages are becoming increasingly common in dry, highly-populated such as California and certain areas of the Gulf Coast. Our design team, Rankine 672, was tasked with evaluating the need for and designing a desalination plant to provide purified water in a place of need. Investigation revealed that the city of Corpus Christi, Texas, is a strategic location for development of a desalination facility, as surrounding region is in need of new drinking water sources and the city has expressed serious interest in contracting the development of a large-scale desalination plant. Our proposed solution is a multi-stage flash distillation desalination facility capable of producing 20,000,000 gallons (75,708 m<sup>3</sup>) of purified drinking water for the city and surrounding region per operating day.<br />
<br />
In this design, drinking water is produced from seawater feedstock through a 21-stage flash distillation process. By strategically locating the facility next to an existing natural gas power plant, the Nueces Bay Energy Center, pre-heated feed water can be taken directly from the outbound cooling systems of the power plant, allowing energy savings for our desalination plant. The process is designed for 16 hour-per-day operation, requires a seawater feed of 8250 m<sup>3</sup>/hr, and produces 4758 m<sup>3</sup>/hr of purified drinking water alongside a waste stream of 3485 m<sup>3</sup>/hr of concentrated brine. The waste stream is isolated from a recycle stream through a 9.0% purge; this results in an overall product yield of 57.7% on a volume basis. The process requires an additional pretreatment stream of 16.5 kg/hr Belgard EV 2030, which serves as an antiscalant, as well as 9.5 kg/hr chlorine, 352.1 kg/hr lime, and 418.7 kg/hr CO2 for post-treatment purposes.<br />
<br />
The overall capital cost of the plant is expected to be $345MM, with a total operating cost of $103MM/yr, $59MM/yr of which comes from utilities. Due to the low price at which the product water can be sold, the 30-year net present value of the plant, assuming a 6% discount rate, is $-1,035MM. It is thus imperative this plant be constructed with public funds because it cannot return a profit to any private investor. The growing need for water however could justify the cost, because it is important that the residents of the greater Corpus Christi area have access to drinkable water.<br />
<br />
__TOC__<br />
<br />
=Introduction=<br />
==Background==<br />
Clean drinking water is a basic human need that is becoming increasingly difficult to meet. Currently, over 1 billion people live in places where water is considered scarce<ref> Tapping the oceans. The Economist USA. http://www.economist.com/node/11484059. Accessed March 2, 2016. </ref>. Though often thought of as a problem exclusive to third-world countries, the issue is becoming more prevalent in the US as well, with water managers in 40 of 50 states anticipating water shortage conditions in some portion of their state in the next 10 years. These shortages are due to increasing demands on constant or diminishing freshwater resources, therefore, to correct the issue, a new supply must be found<ref> Water Supply in the US. EPA. http://www3.epa.gov/watersense/pubs/supply.html. Accessed March 2, 2016.</ref>. Desalination of seawater is therefore important as a new source for clean drinking water and prevent water shortages. <br />
<br />
==Project Definition==<br />
The overall goal of the project is to investigate the feasibility of a desalination plant in order to meet the needs of growing water demand. The design needs to take health, safety, and environmental concerns into account, while optimizing costs.<br />
<br />
=Design Basis=<br />
Site Location and Conditions<br />
Corpus Christi, TX was chosen as the location for the proposed desalination plant. The city is currently experiencing “Moderate Shortage Conditions”. This issue additionally comes at a time of growing demand with population growth anticipated due to new industry and Eagle Ford Group crude oil production<ref>Stage 2 Measures in the Drought Contingency Plan. Available at http://www.cctexas.com/government/water/conservation/conservation-drought-plans/stage-2-measures. Accessed January 12, 2016. </ref>.<br />
<br />
In June 2014, the city announced the Corpus Christi Desalination Demonstration Project<ref>Corpus Christi Desalination Demonstration Project. Available at http://www.cctexas.com/Assets/Departments/Water/Files/DesalFactSheet.pdf. Published June 2014. Accessed January 12, 2016. <br />
</ref> which seeks to create a demonstration desalination plant capable of producing 20,000 gallons of water per day, with plans to later build a full scale facility generating 20,000,000 gallons of water per day. The desalination demonstration project indicates a clear need for implementation of a desalination plant of this size to accommodate growth in the Corpus Christi area. <br />
<br />
Locating our plant in Corpus Christi will allow us to take advantage of the benefits of cogeneration through a partnership with the Nueces Bay Energy Center. By utilizing their outlet cooling water as a large portion of our feed for the desalination process, we can raise the temperature of our seawater feed, saving on energy costs in the multi stage flash distillation. The proposed location for the desalination plant is immediately west of the Nueces Bay Energy Center. See Appendix A for a map depicting the proposed location for the desalination plant along the coast of Nueces Bay.<br />
<br />
==Feed and Product Definitions==<br />
The proposed desalination facility’s feed and product streams are defined as shown in Table 1. Rationale for these definitions is also described below. The values reported in Table 1 are final derived numbers from HYSYS simulation modeling. <br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 1: Feed and product stream definitions<br />
! &nbsp;<br />
! Salt Concentration<br />
! Temperature <br />
! Amount<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Feed Stream <br />
| 30,500 ppm || 45°C || 8250 m<sup>3</sup>/hr<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Product Stream<br />
| ~ 0 ppm || 35°C || 4758 m<sup>3</sup>/hr<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Byproduct Stream<br />
| 695 ppm || 35°C || 3485 m<sup>3</sup>/hr<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
The process feed will be seawater from Nueces Bay, preheated through the cooling water system of the nearby Nueces Bay Energy Center. Based on calculations developed from NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory) data, it was estimated that the Nueces Bay Energy Center uses approximately 250 million gallons of seawater per day for process and cooling needs. Therefore, the 20 million gallon per day requirement for the desalination facility can easily be met through the power plant’s cooling water<ref>Torcellini P, Long N, Judkoff R. Consumptive Water Use for U.S. Power Consumption. NREL. 2003; TP-550-33905. <br />
</ref>. Note that we are assuming the process will operate 67% of the time (16 hours per day).<br />
<br />
Based on data acquired from two salinity-measuring stations in Nueces Bay, the average salinity of local seawater is 30.5 practical salinity units (psu)<ref>Stations Map & Real - Time Data. The Conrad Blucher Institute for Surveying and Science website. Available at http://www.cbi.tamucc.edu/cbi/data/. Updated January 2016. Accessed January 9, 2016. </ref>, thus setting the concentration of the process feed stream. This translates to a feed stream concentration of 30,500 ppm (parts per million)<ref>Definition and Units. CATD Salinity Expertise Center. Available at http://www.salinityremotesensing.ifremer.fr/home. Accessed January 12, 2016.</ref>. The composition of the salt attributed to this seawater salinity is shown in Table 6 in Appendix B. <br />
<br />
No data on the composition of seawater around the Corpus Christi area was available, but the composition of seawater does not change significantly in different locations. The given composition is considered accurate for our feed stream<ref>Brown E, Colling A, Park D, Phillips J, Rothery D, Wright J. Seawater : Its Composition, Properties and Behaviour. Boston: Butterworth-Heinemann, 1995.<br />
</ref>. Note that seawater salt is primarily sodium chloride - total dissolved solids are 85.7% sodium chloride by mass. As such, the dissolved solids in the feed stream is assumed in this project to be pure NaCl, making the feed composition 96.95% water and 3.05% NaCl by mass. A control system will likely be put in place to ensure feed concentration remains at this level, accounting for natural fluctuations in local seawater salinity.<br />
<br />
The largest byproduct from the process will be a brine slurry with high salt concentrations. An upper corrosion limit of 700 ppm was set for recirculated and purged brine. This undesired byproduct will be sent to a nearby Class I non-hazardous injection well facility operated by GNI Group, which is approximately 12 miles away from the proposed desalination plant location as shown in the figure in Appendix A<ref>Texas Water Code. Availabe at http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/WA/htm/WA.27.htm. Accessed January 14, 2016.<br />
</ref><ref>Google Maps. Available at https://goo.gl/maps/3xcvLZwUCe42 Accessed January 15, 2016.</ref>. Through the incorporation of a Class I injection well, the brine will not have to be treated or diluted before injection. <ref>EPA Regulations on Class I Wells. Available at http://www.epa.gov/uic/class-i-industrial-and-municipal-waste-disposal-wells. Accessed January 14, 2016.<br />
</ref><ref>List of Injection Well Facilities by Location. Available at http://www.ehso.com/cssepa/tsdfdeepwells.php. Accessed January 14, 2016.</ref><br />
<br />
There are no regulations regarding the temperature of city drinking water, so the product stream temperature has no requirements based on regulations. Outlet temperatures of 35<sup>o</sup>C are acceptable for input to the municipal water supply system. Since city water tends to be stored in non-temperature controlled tanks, the temperature will naturally cool to ambient temperature.<ref>Climate Corpus Christi- Texas. US Climate Data. Available at http://www.usclimatedata.com/climate/corpus-christi/texas/united-states/ustx0294. Accessed January 12, 2016. </ref><br />
<br />
==Pre-Treatment and Post-Treatment==<br />
For pretreatment, Belgard EV 2030 is recommended to be added at a concentration of 1.8-2.0 mg/L for a system with top brine temperature approximately 110 °C<ref>BWA Water Additives. Belgard EV2030 Technical Data Sheet. BWA Water Additives. http://www.wateradditives.com/files/products/tech_data_sheets/Belgard%20EV%202030_Technical%20Data%20Sheet_Thermal_8.5x11.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016.<br />
</ref>. Since our process is designed to operate at a slightly higher top brine temperature, 120 °C, we will design for the upper bound concentration: 2.0 mg/L of antiscalant. With a feed flow rate of 8250 m<sup>3</sup>/hr, the process therefore requires 16.5 kg/hr of Belgard EV 2030.<br />
<br />
For disinfection during post-treatment, chlorine addition typically requires a dose of roughly 2.0 mg/L as well<ref>World Health Organization. Desalination for safe water supply. http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/gdwqrevision/desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. With a pure water distillate flow rate of 4758 m<sup>3</sup>/hr, the process requires 9.5 kg/hr of chlorine gas. Approximately 74 mg/L of lime (calcium hydroxide) and 88mg/L of CO2 should be added to the desalinated water to help prevent corrosion and increase alkalinity within acceptable ranges<ref>Vouchkov, N. Re-Mineralization of Desalinated Water. SunCam. https://s3.amazonaws.com/suncam/npdocs/118.pdf. Accessed February 18, 2016.</ref>. With a product stream flow rate of 4758 m3/hr, these concentrations correspond to 352.1 kg/hr of lime and 418.7 kg/hr of CO2. Both of these can be purchased, and it is likely that the CO2 can be procured from the neighboring natural gas power plant.<br />
<br />
==Choice of Desalination Technology==<br />
The two major technologies commonly implemented for desalination include reverse osmosis (RO), and multi-stage flash distillation (MSFD). RO utilizes high pressures to force water through a semipermeable membrane that allows for purified water to pass through, but stops organic and other wastes. Often, the pressures can reach 55 - 68 bar, which requires large pumps to maintain pressure, and introduces safety concerns to the process<ref>Stage 2 Measures in the Drought Contingency Plan. Available at http://www.cctexas.com/government/water/conservation/conservation-drought-plans/stage-2-measures. Accessed January 12, 2016. <br />
</ref>. While RO can be less energy intensive than MSFD, and the membrane can also remove contaminants, it is susceptible to feedwater quality, membrane fouling, and requires more extensive pretreatment and posttreatment than MSFD. The cost of RO is directly proportional to the feed salinity, and so it is less expensive when desalinating low salinity water.<br />
<br />
Multi-stage flash distillation is best selected for areas that have high salinity or low energy costs. The pretreatment process for MSFD is much easier when compared to RO because pretreatment often consists of simply adding anti-corrosives and antiscalants to the feed stream. The process works by heating water in vessels at different pressures to change the boiling point of the water and evaporate it as it passes through the system. After evaporation, the water condenses, leaving pure water as the effluent. MSFD costs are now roughly $1.00/m3, where this cost is mostly independent of salinity, but dependent on energy costs.<ref>Fritzman C, Lowenberg J, Wintgens T, Melin T. State-of-the-art Reverse Osmosis Desalination. Desalination. 2007; 216:1-76. <br />
</ref> In both RO and MSFD a brine is produced which then must be appropriately treated and/or disposed of.<br />
<br />
Multi-stage flash distillation was selected for this process, mainly due to the economic advantages offered by the selected location of Corpus Christi, TX. MSFD is also a well understood process that can be more easily modeled by chemical engineering software.<br />
<br />
=Technical Approach=<br />
Quantitative modeling of the process and all included optimization was conducted using the simulation software Aspen HYSYS. A variety of assumptions were developed to set up and define specific components of the process simulation itself. Within Aspen HYSYS, the NRTL Electrolyte property package was selected to model the behavior of salt water. Each stage of the MSF process is modeled as an individual flash vessel, with individual shell & tube heat exchangers used to model the distillate condensers present in each flash stage in the MSF system.<br />
<br />
The HYSYS simulation model only considers the flash portion of the overall process, allowing establishment of mass and energy balances for the system. Pretreatment and post-treatment were excluded for the HYSYS model, as these steps are simple additions or removals of small concentrations of chemical components. Although the simulation models heat exchangers outside of each flash stage, in the physical design of the plant these heat exchangers will be contained within each flash stage.<br />
<br />
One portion of the process is not modeled, which is the inlet seawater entering the heat rejection stages. As can be seen from the full process flow diagram (Appendix C), the inlet seawater in the heat rejection stage is in high excess to provide maximum cooling capacity; then a significant portion is purged to bring the stream flow rate down to what is needed for the feed stream. It is assumed that the flow rate of cooling water for those three stages is in such high excess that the cooling water does not heat up. Therefore, in the process simulation models, the inlet stream is the feed stream, which enters directly into the heat recovery portion of the process.<br />
<br />
See Appendix D for a screenshot overview of the simulation environment model.<br />
<br />
=Process Overview=<br />
==Process Flowsheet==<br />
The following diagram, Figure 1, shows a basic flowsheet for the process. Process alternatives considered for each stage are discussed below. Please see Appendix C for the full process flowsheet with finalized design decisions.<br />
<br />
[[File:BlockFlowDiagram.png|center|700px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Desalination Facility Block Flow Diagram|Figure 1: Basic block flowsheet of the multi-stage flash desalination process.]]<br />
<br />
==Major Features==<br />
As seen above, there are three primary stages of the desalination process: Pre-treatment, the multi-stage flash distillation, and post-treatment. Seawater enters the pre-treatment phase first to make the feed suitable for the rest of the process by filtering out large particles that could accumulate on pipes, deaerating the water to limit corrosion, and adding an agent to combat fouling. The water then enters the distillation process, which is broken up into two sections: heat recovery and heat rejection. <br />
<br />
In the heat recovery stage, there are 18 flash vessels, each of which separates steam from the salinated liquid water. Each flash vessel has saltwater as its inlet and two outlets: a vapor outlet (steam) that condenses into the final product of purified water and a liquid outlet composed of water with more dissolved solids than the inlet, which is the inlet stream for the next flash vessel. The pipe containing the feed is first mixed with recycled brine, then goes through the top sections of each of the flash vessels, starting with V-118 and ending up at V-101. In this way, the feed stream pipe first serves as a heat exchanger, heating the pre-treated seawater while simultaneously condensing the steam into the final product. The feed then enters a final heat exchanger where it is brought up to 103.6 °C before entering V-101 to be flashed.<br />
<br />
After exiting V-118, the final flash vessel in the heat recovery portion, the water enters the heat rejection portion, which consists of three flash vessels (V-201, V-202, V-203). The flash vessels of this section operate in the same manner as in the heat recovery section, with the exception that condensation occurs using excess cooling water instead of pre-treated seawater. This technique allows excess heat to be rejected into an excess water stream rather than the feed.<br />
<br />
The purified product stream finally enters post-treatment processing in which water is re-aerated and remineralized, disinfected, and pH is adjusted before being delivered to the city. The concentrated brine leftover at the end of the flash cycle is recycled into the feed, although a purge is required to continuously remove some salt from the system. This purged brine is disposed of by use of a Class I injection well, per regional regulations.<br />
<br />
See Appendix E to find detailed stream tables of stream specifications.<br />
<br />
==Process Alternatives==<br />
===Pretreatment===<br />
Multi-stage flash distillation requires significantly less pretreatment than reverse osmosis desalination, but helpful pretreatment techniques still exist. One very inexpensive method of pretreatment is screening/filtration, which is used to filter out large contaminants from intake seawater. Using more complicated membrane technology to accomplish large particle filtration is a possible alternative, but doing so would be much more expensive than using a standard screen or filter, so the latter choice has been selected for this process.<ref>El-Dessouky H., Alatiqi I, Ettouney H. Process synthesis: The multi-stage flash desalination system. Desalination. 1998;115(2):115-179. doi: 10.1016/S0011-9164(98)00035-6.</ref><br />
<br />
The most critical type of fouling in multi-stage flash distillation is scaling - therefore, the most critical step in the pretreatment process will be the inclusion of an anti-scalant. Alkaline scaling can be prevented by acid dosing or polyphosphate addition; however, acid dosing can result in increased corrosion and polyphosphates can lead to non-alkaline calcium phosphate fouling, so these additives will not be considered<ref>Morris, R. The development of the multi-stage flash distillation process: A designer's viewpoint. Desalination. 1993;93(1-3):57-68. doi:10.1016/S0011-9164(93)80096-6.<br />
</ref><ref>Al-Gobaisi, D. A quarter-century of seawater desalination by large multistage flash plants in Abu Dhabi (Plant performance analysis, assessment, present efforts toward enhancement and future hopes). Desalination. 1994;99(2-3):509-512. doi: 10.1016/S0011-9164(94)00196-0.</ref>. As such, a polymer-based additive is recommended for the anti-scalant for this process. The Belgard EV series is designed for use in high-temperature seawater MSF; of these, Belgard EV 2030 is the most neutral in pH<ref>NSF International. NSF Product and Service Listings: Drinking Water Treatment Chemicals - Health Effects. NSF International. http://info.nsf.org/Certified/PwsChemicals/Listings.asp?Company=00300&. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref><ref>BWA Water Additives. Belgard EV2030 Technical Data Sheet. BWA Water Additives. http://www.wateradditives.com/files/products/tech_data_sheets/Belgard%20EV%202030_Technical%20Data%20Sheet_Thermal_8.5x11.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref><ref>BWA Water Additives. Belgard EV2035 Technical Data Sheet. BWA Water Additives. http://www.wateradditives.com/files/products/tech_data_sheets/Belgard%20EV2035_Technical%20Data%20Sheet_Thermal_8.5x11.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref><ref>BioLab Water Additives. Belgard EV Antiscalant for seawater distillation plants. BioLab Water Additives. http://www.lpq.com.mx/pdf/BELGARD%20EV.PDF. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref>. As such, we have selected Belgard EV 2030 for use as an anti-scalant in our process.<br />
<br />
Corrosion control is another significant method of pretreatment in multi-stage flash distillation plants. Using a piping material that has limited susceptibility to corrosion is typically not economically viable for MSF desalination plants due their large size, so using carbon steel for most of the piping is generally used for its economic benefits despite its susceptibility to corrosion<ref>Morris, R. The development of the multi-stage flash distillation process: A designer's viewpoint. Desalination. 1993;93(1-3):57-68. doi:10.1016/S0011-9164(93)80096-6.</ref>. Limiting oxygen concentration is very feasible through the use of deaerators, which can remove oxygen as well as other dissolved gases from the seawater stream. Often, an external deaeration system is used<ref>Morris, R. The development of the multi-stage flash distillation process: A designer's viewpoint. Desalination. 1993;93(1-3):57-68. doi:10.1016/S0011-9164(93)80096-6.</ref><ref>Edwards - Hick Hargreaves. Seawater Deaerators. Edwards - Hick Hargreaves. http://psscorp.co.th/upload/news/20110830105340.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. Given these considerations, using an external deaerator combined with a less-corrosive antiscalant like Belgard EV 2030 is much more practical for the process than using anti-corrosive piping.<br />
<br />
Excessive foam can also be an issue in some MSF distillation facilities, so antifoaming agents are sometimes employed in the pretreatment process as well. However, many plants are operated without foaming issues, and therefore do not need anti-foaming pretreatment at all. Selection of an anti-foaming agent must be carefully weighed with selected of anti-scalant to avoid issues with additive interactions [26]. At this stage in the design process, an anti-foamer will not be included due to the risk of decreasing scalant efficacy, and the likelihood that foam will not be an issue in the desalination plant.<br />
<br />
===Multistage Flash Distillation===<br />
The main objective of the design project is desalinate water. This is done with the main process of multi stage flash distillation (MSF). MSF can be developed using a numerous number of different process configurations, such as Once-Through, Simple Mixer Brine Circulation, and Multi-Stage Heat Rejection Brine Circulation processes. <br />
<br />
The most desired process for the project is the Three Stage Heat Rejection Brine Circulation as it builds on benefits of the other simpler technologies. By combining principles of heat rejection and heat recovery, the required heat transfer area of the process is greatly reduced as compared to once through processes or simple brine recycle processes. It has the highest performance ratio with the lowest specific feed flow rates, therefore greatly lowering the operating costs of the process. It is also known as the industry standard for MSF<ref>Kansas State University ChE 413.. Available at: http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/Almutaz/Documents/ChE-413/Multi-stage%20Flash%20Desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. In addition, since our brine disposal technique involves the pumping of the brine into a Class I well, the high brine outlet salinity is not a drawback for our process since post treatment or dilution of the brine is not necessary.<br />
<br />
===Post Treatment===<br />
After processing the water via multi-stage flash, the water needs to be post-treated to make the water taste as consumers would expect, since distilled water is “flat” and unpleasant, as well as to protect the consumers and the piping through which the water will be passing<ref>Clayton R. A review of current knowledge: Desalination for water supply. Foundation for Water Research. http://www.fwr.org/desal.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. There are multiple alternatives to achieve these objectives of remineralization, aeration, corrosion control, and disinfection.<br />
<br />
Aerating and introducing some dissolved solids back into the product water are effective ways to create a quality product that is not flat, and contains flavoring that is expected of the water when delivered to the consumer. Aeration will be accomplished via an inline spray aerator which will take up less space than cascade aeration.<ref>Minnesota Rural Water Association. Aeration. http://www.mrwa.com/WaterWorksMnl/Chapter%2011%20Aeration.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref> Feed blending will be used to remineralize the water as opposed to a remineralization filter because it does not require additional equipment purchases, and can easily handle the large amounts of throughput required for the process.<ref>Clayton R. A review of current knowledge: Desalination for water supply. Foundation for Water Research. http://www.fwr.org/desal.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref><br />
<br />
Corrosion and pH can be controlled by adding lime (calcium hydroxide) and carbon dioxide to the water. To do so, about 74 mg/L of lime and 88mg/L of CO<sub>2</sub> should be added to the desalinated water to help prevent corrosion and increase alkalinity within acceptable ranges. Sodium hydroxide, soda ash, and sodium bicarbonate are alternatives to altering the alkalinity and pH of the product water, but lime and CO<sub>2</sub> is an industry standard.<ref> Vouchkov, N. Re-Mineralization of Desalinated Water. SunCam. https://s3.amazonaws.com/suncam/npdocs/118.pdf. Accessed February 18, 2016.</ref><br />
<br />
Disinfection needs to be done to prevent microbial growth in the desalinated water and ensure the safety of the general public. Chlorine addition via chlorine gas or sodium hypochlorite is the most common and only requires a dose of 1.5 to 2.5 mg/liter.<ref>World Health Organization. Desalination for safe water supply. http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/gdwqrevision/desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>Other alternatives include ozonation, UV light, and chloramination. Chlorine, as a 5% - 15% sodium hypochlorite solution, is sufficient for our process and relatively inexpensive, and as such will be utilized in the process.<br />
<br />
===Transport of Brine to Well===<br />
Three major possibilities exist for transporting the brine from our desalination plant to the injection well for disposal: rail, trucking, and a pipeline. A pipeline was chosen as the most feasible and cost-effective approach. <br />
<br />
A rail line is not available at this time, and with the cost to construct a rail line at approximately $43 million per mile<ref>About Money. How Much Do Rail Transit Projects Cost to Build and Operate? 2014. Available at: http://publictransport.about.com/od/Transit_Projects/a/How-Much-Do-Rail-Transit-Projects-Cost-To-Build-And-Operate.htm. Accessed January 27, 2016. </ref>, the enormous capital cost makes rail transport infeasible for this site. For large volume operations, pipelines are cheaper than trucking. In a study of wastewater sludge produced from wastewater treatment facilities, it was found that it was more economical for facilities producing over 1200 m<sup>3</sup> per day to utilize pipelines rather than trucking.<ref>Marufuzzaman M, Eskioglu S, Hernandez R. Truck versus pipeline transportation cost analysis of wastewater sludge. Transportation Research. 2015; 74(A): 14-30. </ref> Our facility is producing nearly 3 times this volume at 3485 m<sup>3</sup> per day of brine. Furthermore, brine is a less viscous fluid than wastewater sludge, decreasing pumping costs in the pipeline and further amplifying the benefit of choosing a pipeline over an injection well.<br />
<br />
===Brine Storage===<br />
Due to the choice of a pipeline, rather than trucking, as the method of transport of brine to the injection well, brine storage is unnecessary, so storage solutions such as holding tanks were not investigated. One method of storage compatible with a pipeline is to pump the brine through an evaporation pond. This solution is attractive as it would allow the brine to concentrate, saving some costs of pumping, however, the considerable land usage of evaporation ponds leads them to only be effective for smaller plants. The largest municipal plant utilizing this method produces only 5.7 million liters per day<ref>University of Santa Cruz Center for Integrated Water Research. Concentrate Management: Evaporation Ponds. 2010. Available at: https://ciwr.ucsc.edu/sites/default/files/ICM_D5.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016. </ref>, whereas our desalination plant is proposed to produce 75.7 million liters per day. Therefore, evaporation ponds have been eliminated from consideration.<br />
<br />
==Major Specifications==<br />
===Material of Construction Selection===<br />
While saltwater and desalinated water in general can be corrosive, there are best practices within the desalination industry for material selection. With this in mind, best practice shows carbon steel lifetime can be lengthened by monitoring the oxygen concentration in the water, specifying the paint used to coat any metal, and more expensive materials can be used in areas of extremely high corrosion.<ref>Morris, R. The development of the multi-stage flash distillation process: A designer's viewpoint. Desalination. 1993;93(1-3):57-68. doi:10.1016/S0011-9164(93)80096-6. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0011916493800966<br />
</ref> By following these best practices, it is possible to save significant amounts of money through the use of carbon steel in most areas of the plant, with specific high-corrosion areas being reinforced with, or replaced with, more corrosion resistant materials, such as Cu/Ni 70/30 alloy<ref>Kansas State University ChE 413.. Available at: http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/Almutaz/Documents/ChE-413/Multi-stage%20Flash%20Desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>.<br />
<br />
===Heat Exchanger Sizing===<br />
See Appendix F for heat exchanger sizing data. Heat exchanger sizes appear reasonable for placement in the flash vessels.<br />
<br />
===Flash Vessel Sizing===<br />
The dimensions for the flash drums were obtained through literature values. The flash drums were determined to be 18x4x3 m in width, height, and length.<ref>Kansas State University ChE 413.. Available at: http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/Almutaz/Documents/ChE-413/Multi-stage%20Flash%20Desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref><br />
<br />
Wall thickness was determined using the following conventions: Design pressure is 10% more than the operating pressure, design temperature is 50°F (27.8°C) higher than the operating temperature, a corrosion allowance of 3-mm and an effectiveness of 85% was derived from the assumption of a double-welded butt joint that was spot checked. See Appendix G for wall thicknesses calculated for each pressure vessel. <br />
<br />
The sizing of the vessels to be constructed will be determined after talks with a manufacturer. Due to economies of scale, it may be more cost-effective to buy 21 pressure vessels with the dimensions mentioned above and a wall thickness of 17.1-mm, the highest wall thickness required in the system.<br />
<br />
===Pipe Losses and Pressure Drop===<br />
HYSYS was used to estimate the diameter of a pipe given a specified pressure drop per 100m of pipe. It was determined that for a pressure drop of 0.1 kPa/100m of pipe, a 3.05m diameter pipe is sufficient, which is more than manageable for manufacturers. This pressure drop is mostly insignificant and will be taken care of with the safety factors included in the pumps. The significant pressure drops in our system is accounted for via losses in the flash vessels and heat exchangers, which drive the flash process. Therefore overall pipe losses are insignificant and are built into intentional design losses.<br />
<br />
=Economic Analysis=<br />
==Economic Assumptions==<br />
The sale of purified water yields a revenue stream of $49.5 million per year assuming sale to commercial entities within the city limits of Corpus Christi at $1.7915 per thousand liters.<ref>Water schedule. City of Corpus Christi Utility Business Office. http://www.cctexas.com/Assets/Departments/Financial-Services/Utilities-Business-Office/files/waterrates.pdf Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref> The primary variable costs are utilities and the brine disposal, with minimal raw materials costs due to the primary feedstock, seawater, being free, and minimal amounts of pre- and post-treatment chemicals being used. The cost of brine disposal used in this analysis was high at $2.097 per thousand liters<ref>McCurdy, R. Underground injection wells for produced water disposal. Chesapeake Energy Corporation. http://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/documents/21_McCurdy_-_UIC_Disposal_508.pdf Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref>, an estimate for brine disposal utilizing trucking as the mode of transport. As has been shown through previous analyses, a lower cost can be achieved using a direct pipeline, however, no good estimates for this cost could be found.<br />
<br />
The NPV was calculated using a 6% cost of capital, the approximate interest rate for a municipal bond.<ref>Zirbe, R.O. Jr., Han, X., Layton, D., Leshine, T. A history of discount rates and their use by government agencies. (2002). http://faculty.washington.edu/zerbe/docs/DISCOUNT%20RATE%20HISTORY-latesXIt.doc Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref> It was assumed that the plant can be built within two years, with production at half-scale in its first year. Additionally, one month of variable costs, $10.6 million, was set aside for working capital. See Appendix H for a full table of assumptions. A 30 year NPV calculation was chosen as the decision basis since 30 years is a conservative estimate for the lifetime of a desalination plant [38]. See below for estimates of NPV for the lifetime of the plant under various assumptions and design criteria.<br />
<br />
==Optimization and Sensitivity Analysis==<br />
Looking at the multi-stage flash process, there are a number of opportunities to optimize the process. The major process variables that were investigated were the inlet water temperature, the operating pressure drop per vessel, and the number of stages over which the process takes place. Considering these optimizations, our final process consists of 21 flash vessels (18 heat recovery and 3 heat rejection stages), each with a pressure drop of 5 kPa. See Appendix D for a screenshot of the HYSYS simulation used to model the optimized process.<br />
===Operating Pressure and Pressure Drop===<br />
Initially our process was designed to pump the inlet seawater and brine to a pressure of 2 bar and allow the pressure drop in each flash stage to end our process downstream at 1 bar to prevent complications associated with designing a system under vacuum. While this provided pumping advantages, the energy in the system was significantly higher due to vapor pressure considerations. Due to this fact, the required heat exchange area for certain exchangers proved to be infeasible (on the order of 80,000m<sup>2</sup>) due to the enormous capital and operating costs that would be associated with such a large heat exchanger.<br />
<br />
The process was optimized to operate under vacuum, requiring additional pumping requirements but much lower required heat exchange area, and therefore lower utility costs. This optimization was done by specifying the pressure of the final flash vessel to 5.7kPa, so that the temperature of the water vapor (~30<sup>o</sup>C) is within approximately 5<sup>o</sup>C of the cooling water (35<sup>o</sup>C) so that condensation can occur within a reasonable approach. This also allows our system to optimally extract pure water from the brine running through the system and reduce energy requirements for cooling the product or the recycle. Our system redesign and optimization reduced the energy in the system and reduce the same heat exchanger area requirements by more than 3 orders of magnitude to approximately 800m<sup>2</sup>. <br />
<br />
Once the process was optimized to operate in a vacuum, the pressure drop per flash stage regulated through values was then optimized. Three pressure drops per stages, 3kPa, 5kPa, and 7kPa, were tested and then an economic analysis was conducted to find the optimal value for the pressure drop. These changes had impacts on both operating and capital costs as they would change initial pumping requirements, the amount of water flowing through the process and recycle (and therefore the flash vessel sizes, heat exchanger sizing), and the efficiency of each stage.<br />
<br />
The various pressure drops (3 kPa, 5 kPa, and 7 kPa) were tested on a system nominally at 24 stages under the assumption that the results would be generalizable to systems with a different number of stages. With increasing pressure drop, we found decreased capital cost but increased utility cost. As can be seen from Table 2 below, a pressure drop of 5 kPa proved to be the best option based on 30 year NPV, with a loss of $838.8 million, a savings of $65.5 million compared to the next-best option with a pressure drop of 7 kPa.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 2: Comparison of profitability for our MSF desalination process with 24 stages with 3 different pressure drops per stage<br />
! Number of Stages <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! Pressure Drop <br/> (kPa)<br />
! Capital Cost <br/> ($MM)<br />
! Utility Cost <br/> ($MM/yr)<br />
! 30 year NPV <br/> ($MM)<br />
! NPV Ratio <br/> (over 5kPa)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 3 || 362.3 || 39.1 || -905.8 || 1.08<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 5 || 255.1 || 53.6 || -838.8 || 1.00<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 7 || 209.5 || 72.2 || -904.3 || 1.08<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
===Number of Flash Stages===<br />
The number of stages is an important area for optimization. An increased number of stages yields better recovery of purified water, however, requires higher capital cost from the additional pressure vessel. Furthermore, with an increased amount of purified water comes increasingly concentrated brine. This must be taken into account since any brine concentration in excess of about 7% presents a more significant corrosion risk<ref>Kansas State University ChE 413.. Available at: http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/Almutaz/Documents/ChE-413/Multi-stage%20Flash%20Desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>, so increased maintenance costs for the piping or higher capital costs for more corrosion-resistant materials could be necessary for brine concentrations exceeding 7%. Therefore, to recover the same amount of pure water without exceeding corrosion limitations, increasing the number of stages will reduce the overall size of each stage.<br />
<br />
Optimizing based on NPV, it was found that 21 stages is optimal, balancing the increased profits from the additional purified water additional costs of higher capital cost. See Table 3 below to compare the 30-year NPV of the process across various numbers of flash vessels.<br />
<br />
<b>!!!! INSERT TABLE 3!!!! </b><br />
<br />
===Inlet Seawater Temperature===<br />
By pairing our desalination plant with a natural gas power plant and utilizing its cooling water we forgo initial heating of our inlet stream. Normally, water pumped from the ocean would be approximately 25<sup>o</sup>C and by capturing waste heat from the power plant we can reduce utilities with our water inlet of 45<sup>o</sup>C. Through an economic comparison between two plants nominally at 21 flash stages, the plant with an inlet temperature at 25<sup>o</sup>C has a capital cost of $245MM and a utility cost of $77MM/yr and the same facility with an inlet water temperature at 45<sup>o</sup>C has a capital cost of only $226MM and a utility cost of $56MM/yr. As shown in Table 4 below, this $19MM savings in capital costs and $21MM/yr saving in utilities is largely due to reducing the size of the heat exchangers and lowering the steam required for heating duty on the inlet seawater respectively. Therefore our process is optimized by recovering the waste heat water from the gas fired power plant.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 4: Seawater Inlet Temperature Process Cost Optimization<br />
! Seawater Temperature <br/> (°C)<br />
! Capital Cost <br/> ($MM)<br />
! Utility Cost <br/> ($MM/yr)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 25 || 245 || 77<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 45 || 226 || 56<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Savings || 56 || 19<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
==Overall Process Economics==<br />
After optimization at fixed flow rates, the process was scaled to meet the the 67% operating percentage and final product definitions as shown in Table 1, which resulted in finalized economics shown in Table 5 below. For a table of the installed costs of each process vessel, see Appendix I. For the finalized NPV calculations, see Appendix J.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 5: Summarized Economics for 21-stage MSFD Process<br />
! Economic Parameter<br />
! Cost <br/> (USD)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Capital Cost || 345 MM<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Total Operating Cost per Year || 103 MM<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Utility Cost per Year || 59 MM<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 30-Year NPV (6% Discount) || -1,035 MM<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
=Conclusions and Recommendations=<br />
==Project Viability==<br />
Table 5 above demonstrates that the process has reasonable operating and capital costs, but the 30-year NPV is negative by -1035 $MM due to the extremely low sell price capability of desalinated water as a product. Therefore, this plant would have to heavily be supported by the City of Corpus Christi to run as the product revenue will not make it self-sufficient. The acquisition of government subsidies are key operating requirements for all desalination facilities in the United States. <br />
<br />
==Additional Concerns==<br />
Large volumes of water, steam, and energy are needed to ensure the project runs as specified. While most of the water can easily be extracted from the ocean with little to consequence, the fuel used to generate the steam and electricity can have a significant environmental impact. As the plant is located next to a natural gas power plant, this fuel is better than coal with respect to environmental concerns, and utilizing energy from the power plant to preheat the feed stream for the desalination plant helps lower environmental impacts.<br />
<br />
The large amounts of high pressure steam being used represents one of the the largest safety concern in the process, because a high pressure steam release could easily cause severe burns or even death. Proper precautions and control measures must be in place to prevent accidental release. Otherwise, the process does not utilize any known toxic chemicals and is relatively safe from a chemical standpoint. The flash vessels mostly operate below atmospheric pressure, so they must be constructed as vessels that can withstand vacuum without failing.<br />
<br />
<br />
=Appendix A: Proposed Location of Desalination Plant=<br />
Pictured below is the proposed location for the desalination plant, located on Nueces Bay in Corpus Christi, adjacent to the Nueces Bay Energy Center. The plant’s proposed location is shown in the area outlined by the small circle in the upper right of the figure.<br />
<br />
[[File:NuecesBayLocation.png|center|600px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Desalination Facility Location|Figure A.1: Proposed mapped location of Nueces Bay Desalination Facility.]]<br />
[[File:ClassIWell.png|center|700px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Desalination Facility Distance to Injection Well|Figure A.2: Mapped distance from proposed location to Class I Injection Well]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix B: Feed and Product Definitions - Salinity=<br />
<br />
=Appendix C: Process Flow Diagram=<br />
[[File:TeamF_PFD.png|center|1200px|thumb|alt=Process Flow Diagram|Figure C.1: Process Flow Diagram]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix D: HYSYS Simulation Model=<br />
[[File:TeamF_HYSYS_Screenshot.PNG|center|1200px|thumb|alt=HYSYS Simulation Model|Figure D.1: Screenshot of HYSYS Model Simulation.]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix E: Stream Tables=<br />
<br />
=Appendix F: Heat Exchanger Sizing=<br />
<br />
=Appendix G: Pressure Vessel Sizing=<br />
<br />
=Appendix H: Expanded Economic Assumptions=<br />
<br />
=Appendix I: Equipment Cost Summary=<br />
<br />
=Appendix J: Economic NPV Analysis=<br />
<br />
=References=<br />
<references/></div>Kedricdaly2https://processdesign.mccormick.northwestern.edu/index.php?title=Nueces_Desalination_Center:_Production_of_Drinking_Water_by_Multi-Stage_Flash_Distillation&diff=4932Nueces Desalination Center: Production of Drinking Water by Multi-Stage Flash Distillation2016-03-07T03:26:29Z<p>Kedricdaly2: /* Inlet Seawater Temperature */ Inserting Table 4</p>
<hr />
<div>Team F: Rankine 672 Final Report<br />
<br />
Authors: Kedric Daly, Ben Granger, Evan Rosati, Kathleen Zhou<br />
<br />
Instructors: Fengqi You, David Wegerer<br />
<br />
March 11, 2016<br />
<br />
=Executive Summary=<br />
Desalination of seawater to drinking water is a technology of ever-increasing importance given trends of increasingly widespread water shortages around the world. Even in the United States, water shortages are becoming increasingly common in dry, highly-populated such as California and certain areas of the Gulf Coast. Our design team, Rankine 672, was tasked with evaluating the need for and designing a desalination plant to provide purified water in a place of need. Investigation revealed that the city of Corpus Christi, Texas, is a strategic location for development of a desalination facility, as surrounding region is in need of new drinking water sources and the city has expressed serious interest in contracting the development of a large-scale desalination plant. Our proposed solution is a multi-stage flash distillation desalination facility capable of producing 20,000,000 gallons (75,708 m<sup>3</sup>) of purified drinking water for the city and surrounding region per operating day.<br />
<br />
In this design, drinking water is produced from seawater feedstock through a 21-stage flash distillation process. By strategically locating the facility next to an existing natural gas power plant, the Nueces Bay Energy Center, pre-heated feed water can be taken directly from the outbound cooling systems of the power plant, allowing energy savings for our desalination plant. The process is designed for 16 hour-per-day operation, requires a seawater feed of 8250 m<sup>3</sup>/hr, and produces 4758 m<sup>3</sup>/hr of purified drinking water alongside a waste stream of 3485 m<sup>3</sup>/hr of concentrated brine. The waste stream is isolated from a recycle stream through a 9.0% purge; this results in an overall product yield of 57.7% on a volume basis. The process requires an additional pretreatment stream of 16.5 kg/hr Belgard EV 2030, which serves as an antiscalant, as well as 9.5 kg/hr chlorine, 352.1 kg/hr lime, and 418.7 kg/hr CO2 for post-treatment purposes.<br />
<br />
The overall capital cost of the plant is expected to be $345MM, with a total operating cost of $103MM/yr, $59MM/yr of which comes from utilities. Due to the low price at which the product water can be sold, the 30-year net present value of the plant, assuming a 6% discount rate, is $-1,035MM. It is thus imperative this plant be constructed with public funds because it cannot return a profit to any private investor. The growing need for water however could justify the cost, because it is important that the residents of the greater Corpus Christi area have access to drinkable water.<br />
<br />
__TOC__<br />
<br />
=Introduction=<br />
==Background==<br />
Clean drinking water is a basic human need that is becoming increasingly difficult to meet. Currently, over 1 billion people live in places where water is considered scarce<ref> Tapping the oceans. The Economist USA. http://www.economist.com/node/11484059. Accessed March 2, 2016. </ref>. Though often thought of as a problem exclusive to third-world countries, the issue is becoming more prevalent in the US as well, with water managers in 40 of 50 states anticipating water shortage conditions in some portion of their state in the next 10 years. These shortages are due to increasing demands on constant or diminishing freshwater resources, therefore, to correct the issue, a new supply must be found<ref> Water Supply in the US. EPA. http://www3.epa.gov/watersense/pubs/supply.html. Accessed March 2, 2016.</ref>. Desalination of seawater is therefore important as a new source for clean drinking water and prevent water shortages. <br />
<br />
==Project Definition==<br />
The overall goal of the project is to investigate the feasibility of a desalination plant in order to meet the needs of growing water demand. The design needs to take health, safety, and environmental concerns into account, while optimizing costs.<br />
<br />
=Design Basis=<br />
Site Location and Conditions<br />
Corpus Christi, TX was chosen as the location for the proposed desalination plant. The city is currently experiencing “Moderate Shortage Conditions”. This issue additionally comes at a time of growing demand with population growth anticipated due to new industry and Eagle Ford Group crude oil production<ref>Stage 2 Measures in the Drought Contingency Plan. Available at http://www.cctexas.com/government/water/conservation/conservation-drought-plans/stage-2-measures. Accessed January 12, 2016. </ref>.<br />
<br />
In June 2014, the city announced the Corpus Christi Desalination Demonstration Project<ref>Corpus Christi Desalination Demonstration Project. Available at http://www.cctexas.com/Assets/Departments/Water/Files/DesalFactSheet.pdf. Published June 2014. Accessed January 12, 2016. <br />
</ref> which seeks to create a demonstration desalination plant capable of producing 20,000 gallons of water per day, with plans to later build a full scale facility generating 20,000,000 gallons of water per day. The desalination demonstration project indicates a clear need for implementation of a desalination plant of this size to accommodate growth in the Corpus Christi area. <br />
<br />
Locating our plant in Corpus Christi will allow us to take advantage of the benefits of cogeneration through a partnership with the Nueces Bay Energy Center. By utilizing their outlet cooling water as a large portion of our feed for the desalination process, we can raise the temperature of our seawater feed, saving on energy costs in the multi stage flash distillation. The proposed location for the desalination plant is immediately west of the Nueces Bay Energy Center. See Appendix A for a map depicting the proposed location for the desalination plant along the coast of Nueces Bay.<br />
<br />
==Feed and Product Definitions==<br />
The proposed desalination facility’s feed and product streams are defined as shown in Table 1. Rationale for these definitions is also described below. The values reported in Table 1 are final derived numbers from HYSYS simulation modeling. <br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 1: Feed and product stream definitions<br />
! &nbsp;<br />
! Salt Concentration<br />
! Temperature <br />
! Amount<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Feed Stream <br />
| 30,500 ppm || 45°C || 8250 m<sup>3</sup>/hr<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Product Stream<br />
| ~ 0 ppm || 35°C || 4758 m<sup>3</sup>/hr<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Byproduct Stream<br />
| 695 ppm || 35°C || 3485 m<sup>3</sup>/hr<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
The process feed will be seawater from Nueces Bay, preheated through the cooling water system of the nearby Nueces Bay Energy Center. Based on calculations developed from NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory) data, it was estimated that the Nueces Bay Energy Center uses approximately 250 million gallons of seawater per day for process and cooling needs. Therefore, the 20 million gallon per day requirement for the desalination facility can easily be met through the power plant’s cooling water<ref>Torcellini P, Long N, Judkoff R. Consumptive Water Use for U.S. Power Consumption. NREL. 2003; TP-550-33905. <br />
</ref>. Note that we are assuming the process will operate 67% of the time (16 hours per day).<br />
<br />
Based on data acquired from two salinity-measuring stations in Nueces Bay, the average salinity of local seawater is 30.5 practical salinity units (psu)<ref>Stations Map & Real - Time Data. The Conrad Blucher Institute for Surveying and Science website. Available at http://www.cbi.tamucc.edu/cbi/data/. Updated January 2016. Accessed January 9, 2016. </ref>, thus setting the concentration of the process feed stream. This translates to a feed stream concentration of 30,500 ppm (parts per million)<ref>Definition and Units. CATD Salinity Expertise Center. Available at http://www.salinityremotesensing.ifremer.fr/home. Accessed January 12, 2016.</ref>. The composition of the salt attributed to this seawater salinity is shown in Table 6 in Appendix B. <br />
<br />
No data on the composition of seawater around the Corpus Christi area was available, but the composition of seawater does not change significantly in different locations. The given composition is considered accurate for our feed stream<ref>Brown E, Colling A, Park D, Phillips J, Rothery D, Wright J. Seawater : Its Composition, Properties and Behaviour. Boston: Butterworth-Heinemann, 1995.<br />
</ref>. Note that seawater salt is primarily sodium chloride - total dissolved solids are 85.7% sodium chloride by mass. As such, the dissolved solids in the feed stream is assumed in this project to be pure NaCl, making the feed composition 96.95% water and 3.05% NaCl by mass. A control system will likely be put in place to ensure feed concentration remains at this level, accounting for natural fluctuations in local seawater salinity.<br />
<br />
The largest byproduct from the process will be a brine slurry with high salt concentrations. An upper corrosion limit of 700 ppm was set for recirculated and purged brine. This undesired byproduct will be sent to a nearby Class I non-hazardous injection well facility operated by GNI Group, which is approximately 12 miles away from the proposed desalination plant location as shown in the figure in Appendix A<ref>Texas Water Code. Availabe at http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/WA/htm/WA.27.htm. Accessed January 14, 2016.<br />
</ref><ref>Google Maps. Available at https://goo.gl/maps/3xcvLZwUCe42 Accessed January 15, 2016.</ref>. Through the incorporation of a Class I injection well, the brine will not have to be treated or diluted before injection. <ref>EPA Regulations on Class I Wells. Available at http://www.epa.gov/uic/class-i-industrial-and-municipal-waste-disposal-wells. Accessed January 14, 2016.<br />
</ref><ref>List of Injection Well Facilities by Location. Available at http://www.ehso.com/cssepa/tsdfdeepwells.php. Accessed January 14, 2016.</ref><br />
<br />
There are no regulations regarding the temperature of city drinking water, so the product stream temperature has no requirements based on regulations. Outlet temperatures of 35<sup>o</sup>C are acceptable for input to the municipal water supply system. Since city water tends to be stored in non-temperature controlled tanks, the temperature will naturally cool to ambient temperature.<ref>Climate Corpus Christi- Texas. US Climate Data. Available at http://www.usclimatedata.com/climate/corpus-christi/texas/united-states/ustx0294. Accessed January 12, 2016. </ref><br />
<br />
==Pre-Treatment and Post-Treatment==<br />
For pretreatment, Belgard EV 2030 is recommended to be added at a concentration of 1.8-2.0 mg/L for a system with top brine temperature approximately 110 °C<ref>BWA Water Additives. Belgard EV2030 Technical Data Sheet. BWA Water Additives. http://www.wateradditives.com/files/products/tech_data_sheets/Belgard%20EV%202030_Technical%20Data%20Sheet_Thermal_8.5x11.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016.<br />
</ref>. Since our process is designed to operate at a slightly higher top brine temperature, 120 °C, we will design for the upper bound concentration: 2.0 mg/L of antiscalant. With a feed flow rate of 8250 m<sup>3</sup>/hr, the process therefore requires 16.5 kg/hr of Belgard EV 2030.<br />
<br />
For disinfection during post-treatment, chlorine addition typically requires a dose of roughly 2.0 mg/L as well<ref>World Health Organization. Desalination for safe water supply. http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/gdwqrevision/desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. With a pure water distillate flow rate of 4758 m<sup>3</sup>/hr, the process requires 9.5 kg/hr of chlorine gas. Approximately 74 mg/L of lime (calcium hydroxide) and 88mg/L of CO2 should be added to the desalinated water to help prevent corrosion and increase alkalinity within acceptable ranges<ref>Vouchkov, N. Re-Mineralization of Desalinated Water. SunCam. https://s3.amazonaws.com/suncam/npdocs/118.pdf. Accessed February 18, 2016.</ref>. With a product stream flow rate of 4758 m3/hr, these concentrations correspond to 352.1 kg/hr of lime and 418.7 kg/hr of CO2. Both of these can be purchased, and it is likely that the CO2 can be procured from the neighboring natural gas power plant.<br />
<br />
==Choice of Desalination Technology==<br />
The two major technologies commonly implemented for desalination include reverse osmosis (RO), and multi-stage flash distillation (MSFD). RO utilizes high pressures to force water through a semipermeable membrane that allows for purified water to pass through, but stops organic and other wastes. Often, the pressures can reach 55 - 68 bar, which requires large pumps to maintain pressure, and introduces safety concerns to the process<ref>Stage 2 Measures in the Drought Contingency Plan. Available at http://www.cctexas.com/government/water/conservation/conservation-drought-plans/stage-2-measures. Accessed January 12, 2016. <br />
</ref>. While RO can be less energy intensive than MSFD, and the membrane can also remove contaminants, it is susceptible to feedwater quality, membrane fouling, and requires more extensive pretreatment and posttreatment than MSFD. The cost of RO is directly proportional to the feed salinity, and so it is less expensive when desalinating low salinity water.<br />
<br />
Multi-stage flash distillation is best selected for areas that have high salinity or low energy costs. The pretreatment process for MSFD is much easier when compared to RO because pretreatment often consists of simply adding anti-corrosives and antiscalants to the feed stream. The process works by heating water in vessels at different pressures to change the boiling point of the water and evaporate it as it passes through the system. After evaporation, the water condenses, leaving pure water as the effluent. MSFD costs are now roughly $1.00/m3, where this cost is mostly independent of salinity, but dependent on energy costs.<ref>Fritzman C, Lowenberg J, Wintgens T, Melin T. State-of-the-art Reverse Osmosis Desalination. Desalination. 2007; 216:1-76. <br />
</ref> In both RO and MSFD a brine is produced which then must be appropriately treated and/or disposed of.<br />
<br />
Multi-stage flash distillation was selected for this process, mainly due to the economic advantages offered by the selected location of Corpus Christi, TX. MSFD is also a well understood process that can be more easily modeled by chemical engineering software.<br />
<br />
=Technical Approach=<br />
Quantitative modeling of the process and all included optimization was conducted using the simulation software Aspen HYSYS. A variety of assumptions were developed to set up and define specific components of the process simulation itself. Within Aspen HYSYS, the NRTL Electrolyte property package was selected to model the behavior of salt water. Each stage of the MSF process is modeled as an individual flash vessel, with individual shell & tube heat exchangers used to model the distillate condensers present in each flash stage in the MSF system.<br />
<br />
The HYSYS simulation model only considers the flash portion of the overall process, allowing establishment of mass and energy balances for the system. Pretreatment and post-treatment were excluded for the HYSYS model, as these steps are simple additions or removals of small concentrations of chemical components. Although the simulation models heat exchangers outside of each flash stage, in the physical design of the plant these heat exchangers will be contained within each flash stage.<br />
<br />
One portion of the process is not modeled, which is the inlet seawater entering the heat rejection stages. As can be seen from the full process flow diagram (Appendix C), the inlet seawater in the heat rejection stage is in high excess to provide maximum cooling capacity; then a significant portion is purged to bring the stream flow rate down to what is needed for the feed stream. It is assumed that the flow rate of cooling water for those three stages is in such high excess that the cooling water does not heat up. Therefore, in the process simulation models, the inlet stream is the feed stream, which enters directly into the heat recovery portion of the process.<br />
<br />
See Appendix D for a screenshot overview of the simulation environment model.<br />
<br />
=Process Overview=<br />
==Process Flowsheet==<br />
The following diagram, Figure 1, shows a basic flowsheet for the process. Process alternatives considered for each stage are discussed below. Please see Appendix C for the full process flowsheet with finalized design decisions.<br />
<br />
[[File:BlockFlowDiagram.png|center|700px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Desalination Facility Block Flow Diagram|Figure 1: Basic block flowsheet of the multi-stage flash desalination process.]]<br />
<br />
==Major Features==<br />
As seen above, there are three primary stages of the desalination process: Pre-treatment, the multi-stage flash distillation, and post-treatment. Seawater enters the pre-treatment phase first to make the feed suitable for the rest of the process by filtering out large particles that could accumulate on pipes, deaerating the water to limit corrosion, and adding an agent to combat fouling. The water then enters the distillation process, which is broken up into two sections: heat recovery and heat rejection. <br />
<br />
In the heat recovery stage, there are 18 flash vessels, each of which separates steam from the salinated liquid water. Each flash vessel has saltwater as its inlet and two outlets: a vapor outlet (steam) that condenses into the final product of purified water and a liquid outlet composed of water with more dissolved solids than the inlet, which is the inlet stream for the next flash vessel. The pipe containing the feed is first mixed with recycled brine, then goes through the top sections of each of the flash vessels, starting with V-118 and ending up at V-101. In this way, the feed stream pipe first serves as a heat exchanger, heating the pre-treated seawater while simultaneously condensing the steam into the final product. The feed then enters a final heat exchanger where it is brought up to 103.6 °C before entering V-101 to be flashed.<br />
<br />
After exiting V-118, the final flash vessel in the heat recovery portion, the water enters the heat rejection portion, which consists of three flash vessels (V-201, V-202, V-203). The flash vessels of this section operate in the same manner as in the heat recovery section, with the exception that condensation occurs using excess cooling water instead of pre-treated seawater. This technique allows excess heat to be rejected into an excess water stream rather than the feed.<br />
<br />
The purified product stream finally enters post-treatment processing in which water is re-aerated and remineralized, disinfected, and pH is adjusted before being delivered to the city. The concentrated brine leftover at the end of the flash cycle is recycled into the feed, although a purge is required to continuously remove some salt from the system. This purged brine is disposed of by use of a Class I injection well, per regional regulations.<br />
<br />
See Appendix E to find detailed stream tables of stream specifications.<br />
<br />
==Process Alternatives==<br />
===Pretreatment===<br />
Multi-stage flash distillation requires significantly less pretreatment than reverse osmosis desalination, but helpful pretreatment techniques still exist. One very inexpensive method of pretreatment is screening/filtration, which is used to filter out large contaminants from intake seawater. Using more complicated membrane technology to accomplish large particle filtration is a possible alternative, but doing so would be much more expensive than using a standard screen or filter, so the latter choice has been selected for this process.<ref>El-Dessouky H., Alatiqi I, Ettouney H. Process synthesis: The multi-stage flash desalination system. Desalination. 1998;115(2):115-179. doi: 10.1016/S0011-9164(98)00035-6.</ref><br />
<br />
The most critical type of fouling in multi-stage flash distillation is scaling - therefore, the most critical step in the pretreatment process will be the inclusion of an anti-scalant. Alkaline scaling can be prevented by acid dosing or polyphosphate addition; however, acid dosing can result in increased corrosion and polyphosphates can lead to non-alkaline calcium phosphate fouling, so these additives will not be considered<ref>Morris, R. The development of the multi-stage flash distillation process: A designer's viewpoint. Desalination. 1993;93(1-3):57-68. doi:10.1016/S0011-9164(93)80096-6.<br />
</ref><ref>Al-Gobaisi, D. A quarter-century of seawater desalination by large multistage flash plants in Abu Dhabi (Plant performance analysis, assessment, present efforts toward enhancement and future hopes). Desalination. 1994;99(2-3):509-512. doi: 10.1016/S0011-9164(94)00196-0.</ref>. As such, a polymer-based additive is recommended for the anti-scalant for this process. The Belgard EV series is designed for use in high-temperature seawater MSF; of these, Belgard EV 2030 is the most neutral in pH<ref>NSF International. NSF Product and Service Listings: Drinking Water Treatment Chemicals - Health Effects. NSF International. http://info.nsf.org/Certified/PwsChemicals/Listings.asp?Company=00300&. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref><ref>BWA Water Additives. Belgard EV2030 Technical Data Sheet. BWA Water Additives. http://www.wateradditives.com/files/products/tech_data_sheets/Belgard%20EV%202030_Technical%20Data%20Sheet_Thermal_8.5x11.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref><ref>BWA Water Additives. Belgard EV2035 Technical Data Sheet. BWA Water Additives. http://www.wateradditives.com/files/products/tech_data_sheets/Belgard%20EV2035_Technical%20Data%20Sheet_Thermal_8.5x11.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref><ref>BioLab Water Additives. Belgard EV Antiscalant for seawater distillation plants. BioLab Water Additives. http://www.lpq.com.mx/pdf/BELGARD%20EV.PDF. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref>. As such, we have selected Belgard EV 2030 for use as an anti-scalant in our process.<br />
<br />
Corrosion control is another significant method of pretreatment in multi-stage flash distillation plants. Using a piping material that has limited susceptibility to corrosion is typically not economically viable for MSF desalination plants due their large size, so using carbon steel for most of the piping is generally used for its economic benefits despite its susceptibility to corrosion<ref>Morris, R. The development of the multi-stage flash distillation process: A designer's viewpoint. Desalination. 1993;93(1-3):57-68. doi:10.1016/S0011-9164(93)80096-6.</ref>. Limiting oxygen concentration is very feasible through the use of deaerators, which can remove oxygen as well as other dissolved gases from the seawater stream. Often, an external deaeration system is used<ref>Morris, R. The development of the multi-stage flash distillation process: A designer's viewpoint. Desalination. 1993;93(1-3):57-68. doi:10.1016/S0011-9164(93)80096-6.</ref><ref>Edwards - Hick Hargreaves. Seawater Deaerators. Edwards - Hick Hargreaves. http://psscorp.co.th/upload/news/20110830105340.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. Given these considerations, using an external deaerator combined with a less-corrosive antiscalant like Belgard EV 2030 is much more practical for the process than using anti-corrosive piping.<br />
<br />
Excessive foam can also be an issue in some MSF distillation facilities, so antifoaming agents are sometimes employed in the pretreatment process as well. However, many plants are operated without foaming issues, and therefore do not need anti-foaming pretreatment at all. Selection of an anti-foaming agent must be carefully weighed with selected of anti-scalant to avoid issues with additive interactions [26]. At this stage in the design process, an anti-foamer will not be included due to the risk of decreasing scalant efficacy, and the likelihood that foam will not be an issue in the desalination plant.<br />
<br />
===Multistage Flash Distillation===<br />
The main objective of the design project is desalinate water. This is done with the main process of multi stage flash distillation (MSF). MSF can be developed using a numerous number of different process configurations, such as Once-Through, Simple Mixer Brine Circulation, and Multi-Stage Heat Rejection Brine Circulation processes. <br />
<br />
The most desired process for the project is the Three Stage Heat Rejection Brine Circulation as it builds on benefits of the other simpler technologies. By combining principles of heat rejection and heat recovery, the required heat transfer area of the process is greatly reduced as compared to once through processes or simple brine recycle processes. It has the highest performance ratio with the lowest specific feed flow rates, therefore greatly lowering the operating costs of the process. It is also known as the industry standard for MSF<ref>Kansas State University ChE 413.. Available at: http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/Almutaz/Documents/ChE-413/Multi-stage%20Flash%20Desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. In addition, since our brine disposal technique involves the pumping of the brine into a Class I well, the high brine outlet salinity is not a drawback for our process since post treatment or dilution of the brine is not necessary.<br />
<br />
===Post Treatment===<br />
After processing the water via multi-stage flash, the water needs to be post-treated to make the water taste as consumers would expect, since distilled water is “flat” and unpleasant, as well as to protect the consumers and the piping through which the water will be passing<ref>Clayton R. A review of current knowledge: Desalination for water supply. Foundation for Water Research. http://www.fwr.org/desal.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. There are multiple alternatives to achieve these objectives of remineralization, aeration, corrosion control, and disinfection.<br />
<br />
Aerating and introducing some dissolved solids back into the product water are effective ways to create a quality product that is not flat, and contains flavoring that is expected of the water when delivered to the consumer. Aeration will be accomplished via an inline spray aerator which will take up less space than cascade aeration.<ref>Minnesota Rural Water Association. Aeration. http://www.mrwa.com/WaterWorksMnl/Chapter%2011%20Aeration.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref> Feed blending will be used to remineralize the water as opposed to a remineralization filter because it does not require additional equipment purchases, and can easily handle the large amounts of throughput required for the process.<ref>Clayton R. A review of current knowledge: Desalination for water supply. Foundation for Water Research. http://www.fwr.org/desal.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref><br />
<br />
Corrosion and pH can be controlled by adding lime (calcium hydroxide) and carbon dioxide to the water. To do so, about 74 mg/L of lime and 88mg/L of CO<sub>2</sub> should be added to the desalinated water to help prevent corrosion and increase alkalinity within acceptable ranges. Sodium hydroxide, soda ash, and sodium bicarbonate are alternatives to altering the alkalinity and pH of the product water, but lime and CO<sub>2</sub> is an industry standard.<ref> Vouchkov, N. Re-Mineralization of Desalinated Water. SunCam. https://s3.amazonaws.com/suncam/npdocs/118.pdf. Accessed February 18, 2016.</ref><br />
<br />
Disinfection needs to be done to prevent microbial growth in the desalinated water and ensure the safety of the general public. Chlorine addition via chlorine gas or sodium hypochlorite is the most common and only requires a dose of 1.5 to 2.5 mg/liter.<ref>World Health Organization. Desalination for safe water supply. http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/gdwqrevision/desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>Other alternatives include ozonation, UV light, and chloramination. Chlorine, as a 5% - 15% sodium hypochlorite solution, is sufficient for our process and relatively inexpensive, and as such will be utilized in the process.<br />
<br />
===Transport of Brine to Well===<br />
Three major possibilities exist for transporting the brine from our desalination plant to the injection well for disposal: rail, trucking, and a pipeline. A pipeline was chosen as the most feasible and cost-effective approach. <br />
<br />
A rail line is not available at this time, and with the cost to construct a rail line at approximately $43 million per mile<ref>About Money. How Much Do Rail Transit Projects Cost to Build and Operate? 2014. Available at: http://publictransport.about.com/od/Transit_Projects/a/How-Much-Do-Rail-Transit-Projects-Cost-To-Build-And-Operate.htm. Accessed January 27, 2016. </ref>, the enormous capital cost makes rail transport infeasible for this site. For large volume operations, pipelines are cheaper than trucking. In a study of wastewater sludge produced from wastewater treatment facilities, it was found that it was more economical for facilities producing over 1200 m<sup>3</sup> per day to utilize pipelines rather than trucking.<ref>Marufuzzaman M, Eskioglu S, Hernandez R. Truck versus pipeline transportation cost analysis of wastewater sludge. Transportation Research. 2015; 74(A): 14-30. </ref> Our facility is producing nearly 3 times this volume at 3485 m<sup>3</sup> per day of brine. Furthermore, brine is a less viscous fluid than wastewater sludge, decreasing pumping costs in the pipeline and further amplifying the benefit of choosing a pipeline over an injection well.<br />
<br />
===Brine Storage===<br />
Due to the choice of a pipeline, rather than trucking, as the method of transport of brine to the injection well, brine storage is unnecessary, so storage solutions such as holding tanks were not investigated. One method of storage compatible with a pipeline is to pump the brine through an evaporation pond. This solution is attractive as it would allow the brine to concentrate, saving some costs of pumping, however, the considerable land usage of evaporation ponds leads them to only be effective for smaller plants. The largest municipal plant utilizing this method produces only 5.7 million liters per day<ref>University of Santa Cruz Center for Integrated Water Research. Concentrate Management: Evaporation Ponds. 2010. Available at: https://ciwr.ucsc.edu/sites/default/files/ICM_D5.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016. </ref>, whereas our desalination plant is proposed to produce 75.7 million liters per day. Therefore, evaporation ponds have been eliminated from consideration.<br />
<br />
==Major Specifications==<br />
===Material of Construction Selection===<br />
While saltwater and desalinated water in general can be corrosive, there are best practices within the desalination industry for material selection. With this in mind, best practice shows carbon steel lifetime can be lengthened by monitoring the oxygen concentration in the water, specifying the paint used to coat any metal, and more expensive materials can be used in areas of extremely high corrosion.<ref>Morris, R. The development of the multi-stage flash distillation process: A designer's viewpoint. Desalination. 1993;93(1-3):57-68. doi:10.1016/S0011-9164(93)80096-6. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0011916493800966<br />
</ref> By following these best practices, it is possible to save significant amounts of money through the use of carbon steel in most areas of the plant, with specific high-corrosion areas being reinforced with, or replaced with, more corrosion resistant materials, such as Cu/Ni 70/30 alloy<ref>Kansas State University ChE 413.. Available at: http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/Almutaz/Documents/ChE-413/Multi-stage%20Flash%20Desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>.<br />
<br />
===Heat Exchanger Sizing===<br />
See Appendix F for heat exchanger sizing data. Heat exchanger sizes appear reasonable for placement in the flash vessels.<br />
<br />
===Flash Vessel Sizing===<br />
The dimensions for the flash drums were obtained through literature values. The flash drums were determined to be 18x4x3 m in width, height, and length.<ref>Kansas State University ChE 413.. Available at: http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/Almutaz/Documents/ChE-413/Multi-stage%20Flash%20Desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref><br />
<br />
Wall thickness was determined using the following conventions: Design pressure is 10% more than the operating pressure, design temperature is 50°F (27.8°C) higher than the operating temperature, a corrosion allowance of 3-mm and an effectiveness of 85% was derived from the assumption of a double-welded butt joint that was spot checked. See Appendix G for wall thicknesses calculated for each pressure vessel. <br />
<br />
The sizing of the vessels to be constructed will be determined after talks with a manufacturer. Due to economies of scale, it may be more cost-effective to buy 21 pressure vessels with the dimensions mentioned above and a wall thickness of 17.1-mm, the highest wall thickness required in the system.<br />
<br />
===Pipe Losses and Pressure Drop===<br />
HYSYS was used to estimate the diameter of a pipe given a specified pressure drop per 100m of pipe. It was determined that for a pressure drop of 0.1 kPa/100m of pipe, a 3.05m diameter pipe is sufficient, which is more than manageable for manufacturers. This pressure drop is mostly insignificant and will be taken care of with the safety factors included in the pumps. The significant pressure drops in our system is accounted for via losses in the flash vessels and heat exchangers, which drive the flash process. Therefore overall pipe losses are insignificant and are built into intentional design losses.<br />
<br />
=Economic Analysis=<br />
==Economic Assumptions==<br />
The sale of purified water yields a revenue stream of $49.5 million per year assuming sale to commercial entities within the city limits of Corpus Christi at $1.7915 per thousand liters.<ref>Water schedule. City of Corpus Christi Utility Business Office. http://www.cctexas.com/Assets/Departments/Financial-Services/Utilities-Business-Office/files/waterrates.pdf Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref> The primary variable costs are utilities and the brine disposal, with minimal raw materials costs due to the primary feedstock, seawater, being free, and minimal amounts of pre- and post-treatment chemicals being used. The cost of brine disposal used in this analysis was high at $2.097 per thousand liters<ref>McCurdy, R. Underground injection wells for produced water disposal. Chesapeake Energy Corporation. http://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/documents/21_McCurdy_-_UIC_Disposal_508.pdf Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref>, an estimate for brine disposal utilizing trucking as the mode of transport. As has been shown through previous analyses, a lower cost can be achieved using a direct pipeline, however, no good estimates for this cost could be found.<br />
<br />
The NPV was calculated using a 6% cost of capital, the approximate interest rate for a municipal bond.<ref>Zirbe, R.O. Jr., Han, X., Layton, D., Leshine, T. A history of discount rates and their use by government agencies. (2002). http://faculty.washington.edu/zerbe/docs/DISCOUNT%20RATE%20HISTORY-latesXIt.doc Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref> It was assumed that the plant can be built within two years, with production at half-scale in its first year. Additionally, one month of variable costs, $10.6 million, was set aside for working capital. See Appendix H for a full table of assumptions. A 30 year NPV calculation was chosen as the decision basis since 30 years is a conservative estimate for the lifetime of a desalination plant [38]. See below for estimates of NPV for the lifetime of the plant under various assumptions and design criteria.<br />
<br />
==Optimization and Sensitivity Analysis==<br />
Looking at the multi-stage flash process, there are a number of opportunities to optimize the process. The major process variables that were investigated were the inlet water temperature, the operating pressure drop per vessel, and the number of stages over which the process takes place. Considering these optimizations, our final process consists of 21 flash vessels (18 heat recovery and 3 heat rejection stages), each with a pressure drop of 5 kPa. See Appendix D for a screenshot of the HYSYS simulation used to model the optimized process.<br />
===Operating Pressure and Pressure Drop===<br />
Initially our process was designed to pump the inlet seawater and brine to a pressure of 2 bar and allow the pressure drop in each flash stage to end our process downstream at 1 bar to prevent complications associated with designing a system under vacuum. While this provided pumping advantages, the energy in the system was significantly higher due to vapor pressure considerations. Due to this fact, the required heat exchange area for certain exchangers proved to be infeasible (on the order of 80,000m<sup>2</sup>) due to the enormous capital and operating costs that would be associated with such a large heat exchanger.<br />
<br />
The process was optimized to operate under vacuum, requiring additional pumping requirements but much lower required heat exchange area, and therefore lower utility costs. This optimization was done by specifying the pressure of the final flash vessel to 5.7kPa, so that the temperature of the water vapor (~30<sup>o</sup>C) is within approximately 5<sup>o</sup>C of the cooling water (35<sup>o</sup>C) so that condensation can occur within a reasonable approach. This also allows our system to optimally extract pure water from the brine running through the system and reduce energy requirements for cooling the product or the recycle. Our system redesign and optimization reduced the energy in the system and reduce the same heat exchanger area requirements by more than 3 orders of magnitude to approximately 800m<sup>2</sup>. <br />
<br />
Once the process was optimized to operate in a vacuum, the pressure drop per flash stage regulated through values was then optimized. Three pressure drops per stages, 3kPa, 5kPa, and 7kPa, were tested and then an economic analysis was conducted to find the optimal value for the pressure drop. These changes had impacts on both operating and capital costs as they would change initial pumping requirements, the amount of water flowing through the process and recycle (and therefore the flash vessel sizes, heat exchanger sizing), and the efficiency of each stage.<br />
<br />
The various pressure drops (3 kPa, 5 kPa, and 7 kPa) were tested on a system nominally at 24 stages under the assumption that the results would be generalizable to systems with a different number of stages. With increasing pressure drop, we found decreased capital cost but increased utility cost. As can be seen from Table 2 below, a pressure drop of 5 kPa proved to be the best option based on 30 year NPV, with a loss of $838.8 million, a savings of $65.5 million compared to the next-best option with a pressure drop of 7 kPa.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 2: Comparison of profitability for our MSF desalination process with 24 stages with 3 different pressure drops per stage<br />
! Number of Stages <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! Pressure Drop <br/> (kPa)<br />
! Capital Cost <br/> ($MM)<br />
! Utility Cost <br/> ($MM/yr)<br />
! 30 year NPV <br/> ($MM)<br />
! NPV Ratio <br/> (over 5kPa)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 3 || 362.3 || 39.1 || -905.8 || 1.08<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 5 || 255.1 || 53.6 || -838.8 || 1.00<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 7 || 209.5 || 72.2 || -904.3 || 1.08<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
===Number of Flash Stages===<br />
The number of stages is an important area for optimization. An increased number of stages yields better recovery of purified water, however, requires higher capital cost from the additional pressure vessel. Furthermore, with an increased amount of purified water comes increasingly concentrated brine. This must be taken into account since any brine concentration in excess of about 7% presents a more significant corrosion risk<ref>Kansas State University ChE 413.. Available at: http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/Almutaz/Documents/ChE-413/Multi-stage%20Flash%20Desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>, so increased maintenance costs for the piping or higher capital costs for more corrosion-resistant materials could be necessary for brine concentrations exceeding 7%. Therefore, to recover the same amount of pure water without exceeding corrosion limitations, increasing the number of stages will reduce the overall size of each stage.<br />
<br />
Optimizing based on NPV, it was found that 21 stages is optimal, balancing the increased profits from the additional purified water additional costs of higher capital cost. See Table 3 below to compare the 30-year NPV of the process across various numbers of flash vessels.<br />
<br />
<b>!!!! INSERT TABLE 3!!!! </b><br />
<br />
===Inlet Seawater Temperature===<br />
By pairing our desalination plant with a natural gas power plant and utilizing its cooling water we forgo initial heating of our inlet stream. Normally, water pumped from the ocean would be approximately 25<sup>o</sup>C and by capturing waste heat from the power plant we can reduce utilities with our water inlet of 45<sup>o</sup>C. Through an economic comparison between two plants nominally at 21 flash stages, the plant with an inlet temperature at 25<sup>o</sup>C has a capital cost of $245MM and a utility cost of $77MM/yr and the same facility with an inlet water temperature at 45<sup>o</sup>C has a capital cost of only $226MM and a utility cost of $56MM/yr. As shown in Table 4 below, this $19MM savings in capital costs and $21MM/yr saving in utilities is largely due to reducing the size of the heat exchangers and lowering the steam required for heating duty on the inlet seawater respectively. Therefore our process is optimized by recovering the waste heat water from the gas fired power plant.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 4: Seawater Inlet Temperature Process Cost Optimization<br />
! Seawater Temperature <br/> (°C)<br />
! Capital Cost <br/> ($MM)<br />
! Utility Cost <br/> ($MM/yr)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 25 || 245 || 77<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 45 || 226 || 56<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| Savings || 56 || 19<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
==Overall Process Economics==<br />
After optimization at fixed flow rates, the process was scaled to meet the the 67% operating percentage and final product definitions as shown in Table 1, which resulted in finalized economics shown in Table 5 below. For a table of the installed costs of each process vessel, see Appendix I. For the finalized NPV calculations, see Appendix J.<br />
<br />
<b>!!!! INSERT TABLE 5!!!! </b><br />
<br />
=Conclusions and Recommendations=<br />
==Project Viability==<br />
Table 5 above demonstrates that the process has reasonable operating and capital costs, but the 30-year NPV is negative by -1035 $MM due to the extremely low sell price capability of desalinated water as a product. Therefore, this plant would have to heavily be supported by the City of Corpus Christi to run as the product revenue will not make it self-sufficient. The acquisition of government subsidies are key operating requirements for all desalination facilities in the United States. <br />
<br />
==Additional Concerns==<br />
Large volumes of water, steam, and energy are needed to ensure the project runs as specified. While most of the water can easily be extracted from the ocean with little to consequence, the fuel used to generate the steam and electricity can have a significant environmental impact. As the plant is located next to a natural gas power plant, this fuel is better than coal with respect to environmental concerns, and utilizing energy from the power plant to preheat the feed stream for the desalination plant helps lower environmental impacts.<br />
<br />
The large amounts of high pressure steam being used represents one of the the largest safety concern in the process, because a high pressure steam release could easily cause severe burns or even death. Proper precautions and control measures must be in place to prevent accidental release. Otherwise, the process does not utilize any known toxic chemicals and is relatively safe from a chemical standpoint. The flash vessels mostly operate below atmospheric pressure, so they must be constructed as vessels that can withstand vacuum without failing.<br />
<br />
<br />
=Appendix A: Proposed Location of Desalination Plant=<br />
Pictured below is the proposed location for the desalination plant, located on Nueces Bay in Corpus Christi, adjacent to the Nueces Bay Energy Center. The plant’s proposed location is shown in the area outlined by the small circle in the upper right of the figure.<br />
<br />
[[File:NuecesBayLocation.png|center|600px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Desalination Facility Location|Figure A.1: Proposed mapped location of Nueces Bay Desalination Facility.]]<br />
[[File:ClassIWell.png|center|700px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Desalination Facility Distance to Injection Well|Figure A.2: Mapped distance from proposed location to Class I Injection Well]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix B: Feed and Product Definitions - Salinity=<br />
<br />
=Appendix C: Process Flow Diagram=<br />
[[File:TeamF_PFD.png|center|1200px|thumb|alt=Process Flow Diagram|Figure C.1: Process Flow Diagram]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix D: HYSYS Simulation Model=<br />
[[File:TeamF_HYSYS_Screenshot.PNG|center|1200px|thumb|alt=HYSYS Simulation Model|Figure D.1: Screenshot of HYSYS Model Simulation.]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix E: Stream Tables=<br />
<br />
=Appendix F: Heat Exchanger Sizing=<br />
<br />
=Appendix G: Pressure Vessel Sizing=<br />
<br />
=Appendix H: Expanded Economic Assumptions=<br />
<br />
=Appendix I: Equipment Cost Summary=<br />
<br />
=Appendix J: Economic NPV Analysis=<br />
<br />
=References=<br />
<references/></div>Kedricdaly2https://processdesign.mccormick.northwestern.edu/index.php?title=Nueces_Desalination_Center:_Production_of_Drinking_Water_by_Multi-Stage_Flash_Distillation&diff=4931Nueces Desalination Center: Production of Drinking Water by Multi-Stage Flash Distillation2016-03-07T03:20:37Z<p>Kedricdaly2: /* Operating Pressure and Pressure Drop */ Inserting Table 2</p>
<hr />
<div>Team F: Rankine 672 Final Report<br />
<br />
Authors: Kedric Daly, Ben Granger, Evan Rosati, Kathleen Zhou<br />
<br />
Instructors: Fengqi You, David Wegerer<br />
<br />
March 11, 2016<br />
<br />
=Executive Summary=<br />
Desalination of seawater to drinking water is a technology of ever-increasing importance given trends of increasingly widespread water shortages around the world. Even in the United States, water shortages are becoming increasingly common in dry, highly-populated such as California and certain areas of the Gulf Coast. Our design team, Rankine 672, was tasked with evaluating the need for and designing a desalination plant to provide purified water in a place of need. Investigation revealed that the city of Corpus Christi, Texas, is a strategic location for development of a desalination facility, as surrounding region is in need of new drinking water sources and the city has expressed serious interest in contracting the development of a large-scale desalination plant. Our proposed solution is a multi-stage flash distillation desalination facility capable of producing 20,000,000 gallons (75,708 m<sup>3</sup>) of purified drinking water for the city and surrounding region per operating day.<br />
<br />
In this design, drinking water is produced from seawater feedstock through a 21-stage flash distillation process. By strategically locating the facility next to an existing natural gas power plant, the Nueces Bay Energy Center, pre-heated feed water can be taken directly from the outbound cooling systems of the power plant, allowing energy savings for our desalination plant. The process is designed for 16 hour-per-day operation, requires a seawater feed of 8250 m<sup>3</sup>/hr, and produces 4758 m<sup>3</sup>/hr of purified drinking water alongside a waste stream of 3485 m<sup>3</sup>/hr of concentrated brine. The waste stream is isolated from a recycle stream through a 9.0% purge; this results in an overall product yield of 57.7% on a volume basis. The process requires an additional pretreatment stream of 16.5 kg/hr Belgard EV 2030, which serves as an antiscalant, as well as 9.5 kg/hr chlorine, 352.1 kg/hr lime, and 418.7 kg/hr CO2 for post-treatment purposes.<br />
<br />
The overall capital cost of the plant is expected to be $345MM, with a total operating cost of $103MM/yr, $59MM/yr of which comes from utilities. Due to the low price at which the product water can be sold, the 30-year net present value of the plant, assuming a 6% discount rate, is $-1,035MM. It is thus imperative this plant be constructed with public funds because it cannot return a profit to any private investor. The growing need for water however could justify the cost, because it is important that the residents of the greater Corpus Christi area have access to drinkable water.<br />
<br />
__TOC__<br />
<br />
=Introduction=<br />
==Background==<br />
Clean drinking water is a basic human need that is becoming increasingly difficult to meet. Currently, over 1 billion people live in places where water is considered scarce<ref> Tapping the oceans. The Economist USA. http://www.economist.com/node/11484059. Accessed March 2, 2016. </ref>. Though often thought of as a problem exclusive to third-world countries, the issue is becoming more prevalent in the US as well, with water managers in 40 of 50 states anticipating water shortage conditions in some portion of their state in the next 10 years. These shortages are due to increasing demands on constant or diminishing freshwater resources, therefore, to correct the issue, a new supply must be found<ref> Water Supply in the US. EPA. http://www3.epa.gov/watersense/pubs/supply.html. Accessed March 2, 2016.</ref>. Desalination of seawater is therefore important as a new source for clean drinking water and prevent water shortages. <br />
<br />
==Project Definition==<br />
The overall goal of the project is to investigate the feasibility of a desalination plant in order to meet the needs of growing water demand. The design needs to take health, safety, and environmental concerns into account, while optimizing costs.<br />
<br />
=Design Basis=<br />
Site Location and Conditions<br />
Corpus Christi, TX was chosen as the location for the proposed desalination plant. The city is currently experiencing “Moderate Shortage Conditions”. This issue additionally comes at a time of growing demand with population growth anticipated due to new industry and Eagle Ford Group crude oil production<ref>Stage 2 Measures in the Drought Contingency Plan. Available at http://www.cctexas.com/government/water/conservation/conservation-drought-plans/stage-2-measures. Accessed January 12, 2016. </ref>.<br />
<br />
In June 2014, the city announced the Corpus Christi Desalination Demonstration Project<ref>Corpus Christi Desalination Demonstration Project. Available at http://www.cctexas.com/Assets/Departments/Water/Files/DesalFactSheet.pdf. Published June 2014. Accessed January 12, 2016. <br />
</ref> which seeks to create a demonstration desalination plant capable of producing 20,000 gallons of water per day, with plans to later build a full scale facility generating 20,000,000 gallons of water per day. The desalination demonstration project indicates a clear need for implementation of a desalination plant of this size to accommodate growth in the Corpus Christi area. <br />
<br />
Locating our plant in Corpus Christi will allow us to take advantage of the benefits of cogeneration through a partnership with the Nueces Bay Energy Center. By utilizing their outlet cooling water as a large portion of our feed for the desalination process, we can raise the temperature of our seawater feed, saving on energy costs in the multi stage flash distillation. The proposed location for the desalination plant is immediately west of the Nueces Bay Energy Center. See Appendix A for a map depicting the proposed location for the desalination plant along the coast of Nueces Bay.<br />
<br />
==Feed and Product Definitions==<br />
The proposed desalination facility’s feed and product streams are defined as shown in Table 1. Rationale for these definitions is also described below. The values reported in Table 1 are final derived numbers from HYSYS simulation modeling. <br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 1: Feed and product stream definitions<br />
! &nbsp;<br />
! Salt Concentration<br />
! Temperature <br />
! Amount<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Feed Stream <br />
| 30,500 ppm || 45°C || 8250 m<sup>3</sup>/hr<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Product Stream<br />
| ~ 0 ppm || 35°C || 4758 m<sup>3</sup>/hr<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Byproduct Stream<br />
| 695 ppm || 35°C || 3485 m<sup>3</sup>/hr<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
The process feed will be seawater from Nueces Bay, preheated through the cooling water system of the nearby Nueces Bay Energy Center. Based on calculations developed from NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory) data, it was estimated that the Nueces Bay Energy Center uses approximately 250 million gallons of seawater per day for process and cooling needs. Therefore, the 20 million gallon per day requirement for the desalination facility can easily be met through the power plant’s cooling water<ref>Torcellini P, Long N, Judkoff R. Consumptive Water Use for U.S. Power Consumption. NREL. 2003; TP-550-33905. <br />
</ref>. Note that we are assuming the process will operate 67% of the time (16 hours per day).<br />
<br />
Based on data acquired from two salinity-measuring stations in Nueces Bay, the average salinity of local seawater is 30.5 practical salinity units (psu)<ref>Stations Map & Real - Time Data. The Conrad Blucher Institute for Surveying and Science website. Available at http://www.cbi.tamucc.edu/cbi/data/. Updated January 2016. Accessed January 9, 2016. </ref>, thus setting the concentration of the process feed stream. This translates to a feed stream concentration of 30,500 ppm (parts per million)<ref>Definition and Units. CATD Salinity Expertise Center. Available at http://www.salinityremotesensing.ifremer.fr/home. Accessed January 12, 2016.</ref>. The composition of the salt attributed to this seawater salinity is shown in Table 6 in Appendix B. <br />
<br />
No data on the composition of seawater around the Corpus Christi area was available, but the composition of seawater does not change significantly in different locations. The given composition is considered accurate for our feed stream<ref>Brown E, Colling A, Park D, Phillips J, Rothery D, Wright J. Seawater : Its Composition, Properties and Behaviour. Boston: Butterworth-Heinemann, 1995.<br />
</ref>. Note that seawater salt is primarily sodium chloride - total dissolved solids are 85.7% sodium chloride by mass. As such, the dissolved solids in the feed stream is assumed in this project to be pure NaCl, making the feed composition 96.95% water and 3.05% NaCl by mass. A control system will likely be put in place to ensure feed concentration remains at this level, accounting for natural fluctuations in local seawater salinity.<br />
<br />
The largest byproduct from the process will be a brine slurry with high salt concentrations. An upper corrosion limit of 700 ppm was set for recirculated and purged brine. This undesired byproduct will be sent to a nearby Class I non-hazardous injection well facility operated by GNI Group, which is approximately 12 miles away from the proposed desalination plant location as shown in the figure in Appendix A<ref>Texas Water Code. Availabe at http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/WA/htm/WA.27.htm. Accessed January 14, 2016.<br />
</ref><ref>Google Maps. Available at https://goo.gl/maps/3xcvLZwUCe42 Accessed January 15, 2016.</ref>. Through the incorporation of a Class I injection well, the brine will not have to be treated or diluted before injection. <ref>EPA Regulations on Class I Wells. Available at http://www.epa.gov/uic/class-i-industrial-and-municipal-waste-disposal-wells. Accessed January 14, 2016.<br />
</ref><ref>List of Injection Well Facilities by Location. Available at http://www.ehso.com/cssepa/tsdfdeepwells.php. Accessed January 14, 2016.</ref><br />
<br />
There are no regulations regarding the temperature of city drinking water, so the product stream temperature has no requirements based on regulations. Outlet temperatures of 35<sup>o</sup>C are acceptable for input to the municipal water supply system. Since city water tends to be stored in non-temperature controlled tanks, the temperature will naturally cool to ambient temperature.<ref>Climate Corpus Christi- Texas. US Climate Data. Available at http://www.usclimatedata.com/climate/corpus-christi/texas/united-states/ustx0294. Accessed January 12, 2016. </ref><br />
<br />
==Pre-Treatment and Post-Treatment==<br />
For pretreatment, Belgard EV 2030 is recommended to be added at a concentration of 1.8-2.0 mg/L for a system with top brine temperature approximately 110 °C<ref>BWA Water Additives. Belgard EV2030 Technical Data Sheet. BWA Water Additives. http://www.wateradditives.com/files/products/tech_data_sheets/Belgard%20EV%202030_Technical%20Data%20Sheet_Thermal_8.5x11.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016.<br />
</ref>. Since our process is designed to operate at a slightly higher top brine temperature, 120 °C, we will design for the upper bound concentration: 2.0 mg/L of antiscalant. With a feed flow rate of 8250 m<sup>3</sup>/hr, the process therefore requires 16.5 kg/hr of Belgard EV 2030.<br />
<br />
For disinfection during post-treatment, chlorine addition typically requires a dose of roughly 2.0 mg/L as well<ref>World Health Organization. Desalination for safe water supply. http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/gdwqrevision/desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. With a pure water distillate flow rate of 4758 m<sup>3</sup>/hr, the process requires 9.5 kg/hr of chlorine gas. Approximately 74 mg/L of lime (calcium hydroxide) and 88mg/L of CO2 should be added to the desalinated water to help prevent corrosion and increase alkalinity within acceptable ranges<ref>Vouchkov, N. Re-Mineralization of Desalinated Water. SunCam. https://s3.amazonaws.com/suncam/npdocs/118.pdf. Accessed February 18, 2016.</ref>. With a product stream flow rate of 4758 m3/hr, these concentrations correspond to 352.1 kg/hr of lime and 418.7 kg/hr of CO2. Both of these can be purchased, and it is likely that the CO2 can be procured from the neighboring natural gas power plant.<br />
<br />
==Choice of Desalination Technology==<br />
The two major technologies commonly implemented for desalination include reverse osmosis (RO), and multi-stage flash distillation (MSFD). RO utilizes high pressures to force water through a semipermeable membrane that allows for purified water to pass through, but stops organic and other wastes. Often, the pressures can reach 55 - 68 bar, which requires large pumps to maintain pressure, and introduces safety concerns to the process<ref>Stage 2 Measures in the Drought Contingency Plan. Available at http://www.cctexas.com/government/water/conservation/conservation-drought-plans/stage-2-measures. Accessed January 12, 2016. <br />
</ref>. While RO can be less energy intensive than MSFD, and the membrane can also remove contaminants, it is susceptible to feedwater quality, membrane fouling, and requires more extensive pretreatment and posttreatment than MSFD. The cost of RO is directly proportional to the feed salinity, and so it is less expensive when desalinating low salinity water.<br />
<br />
Multi-stage flash distillation is best selected for areas that have high salinity or low energy costs. The pretreatment process for MSFD is much easier when compared to RO because pretreatment often consists of simply adding anti-corrosives and antiscalants to the feed stream. The process works by heating water in vessels at different pressures to change the boiling point of the water and evaporate it as it passes through the system. After evaporation, the water condenses, leaving pure water as the effluent. MSFD costs are now roughly $1.00/m3, where this cost is mostly independent of salinity, but dependent on energy costs.<ref>Fritzman C, Lowenberg J, Wintgens T, Melin T. State-of-the-art Reverse Osmosis Desalination. Desalination. 2007; 216:1-76. <br />
</ref> In both RO and MSFD a brine is produced which then must be appropriately treated and/or disposed of.<br />
<br />
Multi-stage flash distillation was selected for this process, mainly due to the economic advantages offered by the selected location of Corpus Christi, TX. MSFD is also a well understood process that can be more easily modeled by chemical engineering software.<br />
<br />
=Technical Approach=<br />
Quantitative modeling of the process and all included optimization was conducted using the simulation software Aspen HYSYS. A variety of assumptions were developed to set up and define specific components of the process simulation itself. Within Aspen HYSYS, the NRTL Electrolyte property package was selected to model the behavior of salt water. Each stage of the MSF process is modeled as an individual flash vessel, with individual shell & tube heat exchangers used to model the distillate condensers present in each flash stage in the MSF system.<br />
<br />
The HYSYS simulation model only considers the flash portion of the overall process, allowing establishment of mass and energy balances for the system. Pretreatment and post-treatment were excluded for the HYSYS model, as these steps are simple additions or removals of small concentrations of chemical components. Although the simulation models heat exchangers outside of each flash stage, in the physical design of the plant these heat exchangers will be contained within each flash stage.<br />
<br />
One portion of the process is not modeled, which is the inlet seawater entering the heat rejection stages. As can be seen from the full process flow diagram (Appendix C), the inlet seawater in the heat rejection stage is in high excess to provide maximum cooling capacity; then a significant portion is purged to bring the stream flow rate down to what is needed for the feed stream. It is assumed that the flow rate of cooling water for those three stages is in such high excess that the cooling water does not heat up. Therefore, in the process simulation models, the inlet stream is the feed stream, which enters directly into the heat recovery portion of the process.<br />
<br />
See Appendix D for a screenshot overview of the simulation environment model.<br />
<br />
=Process Overview=<br />
==Process Flowsheet==<br />
The following diagram, Figure 1, shows a basic flowsheet for the process. Process alternatives considered for each stage are discussed below. Please see Appendix C for the full process flowsheet with finalized design decisions.<br />
<br />
[[File:BlockFlowDiagram.png|center|700px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Desalination Facility Block Flow Diagram|Figure 1: Basic block flowsheet of the multi-stage flash desalination process.]]<br />
<br />
==Major Features==<br />
As seen above, there are three primary stages of the desalination process: Pre-treatment, the multi-stage flash distillation, and post-treatment. Seawater enters the pre-treatment phase first to make the feed suitable for the rest of the process by filtering out large particles that could accumulate on pipes, deaerating the water to limit corrosion, and adding an agent to combat fouling. The water then enters the distillation process, which is broken up into two sections: heat recovery and heat rejection. <br />
<br />
In the heat recovery stage, there are 18 flash vessels, each of which separates steam from the salinated liquid water. Each flash vessel has saltwater as its inlet and two outlets: a vapor outlet (steam) that condenses into the final product of purified water and a liquid outlet composed of water with more dissolved solids than the inlet, which is the inlet stream for the next flash vessel. The pipe containing the feed is first mixed with recycled brine, then goes through the top sections of each of the flash vessels, starting with V-118 and ending up at V-101. In this way, the feed stream pipe first serves as a heat exchanger, heating the pre-treated seawater while simultaneously condensing the steam into the final product. The feed then enters a final heat exchanger where it is brought up to 103.6 °C before entering V-101 to be flashed.<br />
<br />
After exiting V-118, the final flash vessel in the heat recovery portion, the water enters the heat rejection portion, which consists of three flash vessels (V-201, V-202, V-203). The flash vessels of this section operate in the same manner as in the heat recovery section, with the exception that condensation occurs using excess cooling water instead of pre-treated seawater. This technique allows excess heat to be rejected into an excess water stream rather than the feed.<br />
<br />
The purified product stream finally enters post-treatment processing in which water is re-aerated and remineralized, disinfected, and pH is adjusted before being delivered to the city. The concentrated brine leftover at the end of the flash cycle is recycled into the feed, although a purge is required to continuously remove some salt from the system. This purged brine is disposed of by use of a Class I injection well, per regional regulations.<br />
<br />
See Appendix E to find detailed stream tables of stream specifications.<br />
<br />
==Process Alternatives==<br />
===Pretreatment===<br />
Multi-stage flash distillation requires significantly less pretreatment than reverse osmosis desalination, but helpful pretreatment techniques still exist. One very inexpensive method of pretreatment is screening/filtration, which is used to filter out large contaminants from intake seawater. Using more complicated membrane technology to accomplish large particle filtration is a possible alternative, but doing so would be much more expensive than using a standard screen or filter, so the latter choice has been selected for this process.<ref>El-Dessouky H., Alatiqi I, Ettouney H. Process synthesis: The multi-stage flash desalination system. Desalination. 1998;115(2):115-179. doi: 10.1016/S0011-9164(98)00035-6.</ref><br />
<br />
The most critical type of fouling in multi-stage flash distillation is scaling - therefore, the most critical step in the pretreatment process will be the inclusion of an anti-scalant. Alkaline scaling can be prevented by acid dosing or polyphosphate addition; however, acid dosing can result in increased corrosion and polyphosphates can lead to non-alkaline calcium phosphate fouling, so these additives will not be considered<ref>Morris, R. The development of the multi-stage flash distillation process: A designer's viewpoint. Desalination. 1993;93(1-3):57-68. doi:10.1016/S0011-9164(93)80096-6.<br />
</ref><ref>Al-Gobaisi, D. A quarter-century of seawater desalination by large multistage flash plants in Abu Dhabi (Plant performance analysis, assessment, present efforts toward enhancement and future hopes). Desalination. 1994;99(2-3):509-512. doi: 10.1016/S0011-9164(94)00196-0.</ref>. As such, a polymer-based additive is recommended for the anti-scalant for this process. The Belgard EV series is designed for use in high-temperature seawater MSF; of these, Belgard EV 2030 is the most neutral in pH<ref>NSF International. NSF Product and Service Listings: Drinking Water Treatment Chemicals - Health Effects. NSF International. http://info.nsf.org/Certified/PwsChemicals/Listings.asp?Company=00300&. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref><ref>BWA Water Additives. Belgard EV2030 Technical Data Sheet. BWA Water Additives. http://www.wateradditives.com/files/products/tech_data_sheets/Belgard%20EV%202030_Technical%20Data%20Sheet_Thermal_8.5x11.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref><ref>BWA Water Additives. Belgard EV2035 Technical Data Sheet. BWA Water Additives. http://www.wateradditives.com/files/products/tech_data_sheets/Belgard%20EV2035_Technical%20Data%20Sheet_Thermal_8.5x11.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref><ref>BioLab Water Additives. Belgard EV Antiscalant for seawater distillation plants. BioLab Water Additives. http://www.lpq.com.mx/pdf/BELGARD%20EV.PDF. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref>. As such, we have selected Belgard EV 2030 for use as an anti-scalant in our process.<br />
<br />
Corrosion control is another significant method of pretreatment in multi-stage flash distillation plants. Using a piping material that has limited susceptibility to corrosion is typically not economically viable for MSF desalination plants due their large size, so using carbon steel for most of the piping is generally used for its economic benefits despite its susceptibility to corrosion<ref>Morris, R. The development of the multi-stage flash distillation process: A designer's viewpoint. Desalination. 1993;93(1-3):57-68. doi:10.1016/S0011-9164(93)80096-6.</ref>. Limiting oxygen concentration is very feasible through the use of deaerators, which can remove oxygen as well as other dissolved gases from the seawater stream. Often, an external deaeration system is used<ref>Morris, R. The development of the multi-stage flash distillation process: A designer's viewpoint. Desalination. 1993;93(1-3):57-68. doi:10.1016/S0011-9164(93)80096-6.</ref><ref>Edwards - Hick Hargreaves. Seawater Deaerators. Edwards - Hick Hargreaves. http://psscorp.co.th/upload/news/20110830105340.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. Given these considerations, using an external deaerator combined with a less-corrosive antiscalant like Belgard EV 2030 is much more practical for the process than using anti-corrosive piping.<br />
<br />
Excessive foam can also be an issue in some MSF distillation facilities, so antifoaming agents are sometimes employed in the pretreatment process as well. However, many plants are operated without foaming issues, and therefore do not need anti-foaming pretreatment at all. Selection of an anti-foaming agent must be carefully weighed with selected of anti-scalant to avoid issues with additive interactions [26]. At this stage in the design process, an anti-foamer will not be included due to the risk of decreasing scalant efficacy, and the likelihood that foam will not be an issue in the desalination plant.<br />
<br />
===Multistage Flash Distillation===<br />
The main objective of the design project is desalinate water. This is done with the main process of multi stage flash distillation (MSF). MSF can be developed using a numerous number of different process configurations, such as Once-Through, Simple Mixer Brine Circulation, and Multi-Stage Heat Rejection Brine Circulation processes. <br />
<br />
The most desired process for the project is the Three Stage Heat Rejection Brine Circulation as it builds on benefits of the other simpler technologies. By combining principles of heat rejection and heat recovery, the required heat transfer area of the process is greatly reduced as compared to once through processes or simple brine recycle processes. It has the highest performance ratio with the lowest specific feed flow rates, therefore greatly lowering the operating costs of the process. It is also known as the industry standard for MSF<ref>Kansas State University ChE 413.. Available at: http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/Almutaz/Documents/ChE-413/Multi-stage%20Flash%20Desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. In addition, since our brine disposal technique involves the pumping of the brine into a Class I well, the high brine outlet salinity is not a drawback for our process since post treatment or dilution of the brine is not necessary.<br />
<br />
===Post Treatment===<br />
After processing the water via multi-stage flash, the water needs to be post-treated to make the water taste as consumers would expect, since distilled water is “flat” and unpleasant, as well as to protect the consumers and the piping through which the water will be passing<ref>Clayton R. A review of current knowledge: Desalination for water supply. Foundation for Water Research. http://www.fwr.org/desal.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. There are multiple alternatives to achieve these objectives of remineralization, aeration, corrosion control, and disinfection.<br />
<br />
Aerating and introducing some dissolved solids back into the product water are effective ways to create a quality product that is not flat, and contains flavoring that is expected of the water when delivered to the consumer. Aeration will be accomplished via an inline spray aerator which will take up less space than cascade aeration.<ref>Minnesota Rural Water Association. Aeration. http://www.mrwa.com/WaterWorksMnl/Chapter%2011%20Aeration.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref> Feed blending will be used to remineralize the water as opposed to a remineralization filter because it does not require additional equipment purchases, and can easily handle the large amounts of throughput required for the process.<ref>Clayton R. A review of current knowledge: Desalination for water supply. Foundation for Water Research. http://www.fwr.org/desal.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref><br />
<br />
Corrosion and pH can be controlled by adding lime (calcium hydroxide) and carbon dioxide to the water. To do so, about 74 mg/L of lime and 88mg/L of CO<sub>2</sub> should be added to the desalinated water to help prevent corrosion and increase alkalinity within acceptable ranges. Sodium hydroxide, soda ash, and sodium bicarbonate are alternatives to altering the alkalinity and pH of the product water, but lime and CO<sub>2</sub> is an industry standard.<ref> Vouchkov, N. Re-Mineralization of Desalinated Water. SunCam. https://s3.amazonaws.com/suncam/npdocs/118.pdf. Accessed February 18, 2016.</ref><br />
<br />
Disinfection needs to be done to prevent microbial growth in the desalinated water and ensure the safety of the general public. Chlorine addition via chlorine gas or sodium hypochlorite is the most common and only requires a dose of 1.5 to 2.5 mg/liter.<ref>World Health Organization. Desalination for safe water supply. http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/gdwqrevision/desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>Other alternatives include ozonation, UV light, and chloramination. Chlorine, as a 5% - 15% sodium hypochlorite solution, is sufficient for our process and relatively inexpensive, and as such will be utilized in the process.<br />
<br />
===Transport of Brine to Well===<br />
Three major possibilities exist for transporting the brine from our desalination plant to the injection well for disposal: rail, trucking, and a pipeline. A pipeline was chosen as the most feasible and cost-effective approach. <br />
<br />
A rail line is not available at this time, and with the cost to construct a rail line at approximately $43 million per mile<ref>About Money. How Much Do Rail Transit Projects Cost to Build and Operate? 2014. Available at: http://publictransport.about.com/od/Transit_Projects/a/How-Much-Do-Rail-Transit-Projects-Cost-To-Build-And-Operate.htm. Accessed January 27, 2016. </ref>, the enormous capital cost makes rail transport infeasible for this site. For large volume operations, pipelines are cheaper than trucking. In a study of wastewater sludge produced from wastewater treatment facilities, it was found that it was more economical for facilities producing over 1200 m<sup>3</sup> per day to utilize pipelines rather than trucking.<ref>Marufuzzaman M, Eskioglu S, Hernandez R. Truck versus pipeline transportation cost analysis of wastewater sludge. Transportation Research. 2015; 74(A): 14-30. </ref> Our facility is producing nearly 3 times this volume at 3485 m<sup>3</sup> per day of brine. Furthermore, brine is a less viscous fluid than wastewater sludge, decreasing pumping costs in the pipeline and further amplifying the benefit of choosing a pipeline over an injection well.<br />
<br />
===Brine Storage===<br />
Due to the choice of a pipeline, rather than trucking, as the method of transport of brine to the injection well, brine storage is unnecessary, so storage solutions such as holding tanks were not investigated. One method of storage compatible with a pipeline is to pump the brine through an evaporation pond. This solution is attractive as it would allow the brine to concentrate, saving some costs of pumping, however, the considerable land usage of evaporation ponds leads them to only be effective for smaller plants. The largest municipal plant utilizing this method produces only 5.7 million liters per day<ref>University of Santa Cruz Center for Integrated Water Research. Concentrate Management: Evaporation Ponds. 2010. Available at: https://ciwr.ucsc.edu/sites/default/files/ICM_D5.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016. </ref>, whereas our desalination plant is proposed to produce 75.7 million liters per day. Therefore, evaporation ponds have been eliminated from consideration.<br />
<br />
==Major Specifications==<br />
===Material of Construction Selection===<br />
While saltwater and desalinated water in general can be corrosive, there are best practices within the desalination industry for material selection. With this in mind, best practice shows carbon steel lifetime can be lengthened by monitoring the oxygen concentration in the water, specifying the paint used to coat any metal, and more expensive materials can be used in areas of extremely high corrosion.<ref>Morris, R. The development of the multi-stage flash distillation process: A designer's viewpoint. Desalination. 1993;93(1-3):57-68. doi:10.1016/S0011-9164(93)80096-6. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0011916493800966<br />
</ref> By following these best practices, it is possible to save significant amounts of money through the use of carbon steel in most areas of the plant, with specific high-corrosion areas being reinforced with, or replaced with, more corrosion resistant materials, such as Cu/Ni 70/30 alloy<ref>Kansas State University ChE 413.. Available at: http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/Almutaz/Documents/ChE-413/Multi-stage%20Flash%20Desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>.<br />
<br />
===Heat Exchanger Sizing===<br />
See Appendix F for heat exchanger sizing data. Heat exchanger sizes appear reasonable for placement in the flash vessels.<br />
<br />
===Flash Vessel Sizing===<br />
The dimensions for the flash drums were obtained through literature values. The flash drums were determined to be 18x4x3 m in width, height, and length.<ref>Kansas State University ChE 413.. Available at: http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/Almutaz/Documents/ChE-413/Multi-stage%20Flash%20Desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref><br />
<br />
Wall thickness was determined using the following conventions: Design pressure is 10% more than the operating pressure, design temperature is 50°F (27.8°C) higher than the operating temperature, a corrosion allowance of 3-mm and an effectiveness of 85% was derived from the assumption of a double-welded butt joint that was spot checked. See Appendix G for wall thicknesses calculated for each pressure vessel. <br />
<br />
The sizing of the vessels to be constructed will be determined after talks with a manufacturer. Due to economies of scale, it may be more cost-effective to buy 21 pressure vessels with the dimensions mentioned above and a wall thickness of 17.1-mm, the highest wall thickness required in the system.<br />
<br />
===Pipe Losses and Pressure Drop===<br />
HYSYS was used to estimate the diameter of a pipe given a specified pressure drop per 100m of pipe. It was determined that for a pressure drop of 0.1 kPa/100m of pipe, a 3.05m diameter pipe is sufficient, which is more than manageable for manufacturers. This pressure drop is mostly insignificant and will be taken care of with the safety factors included in the pumps. The significant pressure drops in our system is accounted for via losses in the flash vessels and heat exchangers, which drive the flash process. Therefore overall pipe losses are insignificant and are built into intentional design losses.<br />
<br />
=Economic Analysis=<br />
==Economic Assumptions==<br />
The sale of purified water yields a revenue stream of $49.5 million per year assuming sale to commercial entities within the city limits of Corpus Christi at $1.7915 per thousand liters.<ref>Water schedule. City of Corpus Christi Utility Business Office. http://www.cctexas.com/Assets/Departments/Financial-Services/Utilities-Business-Office/files/waterrates.pdf Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref> The primary variable costs are utilities and the brine disposal, with minimal raw materials costs due to the primary feedstock, seawater, being free, and minimal amounts of pre- and post-treatment chemicals being used. The cost of brine disposal used in this analysis was high at $2.097 per thousand liters<ref>McCurdy, R. Underground injection wells for produced water disposal. Chesapeake Energy Corporation. http://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/documents/21_McCurdy_-_UIC_Disposal_508.pdf Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref>, an estimate for brine disposal utilizing trucking as the mode of transport. As has been shown through previous analyses, a lower cost can be achieved using a direct pipeline, however, no good estimates for this cost could be found.<br />
<br />
The NPV was calculated using a 6% cost of capital, the approximate interest rate for a municipal bond.<ref>Zirbe, R.O. Jr., Han, X., Layton, D., Leshine, T. A history of discount rates and their use by government agencies. (2002). http://faculty.washington.edu/zerbe/docs/DISCOUNT%20RATE%20HISTORY-latesXIt.doc Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref> It was assumed that the plant can be built within two years, with production at half-scale in its first year. Additionally, one month of variable costs, $10.6 million, was set aside for working capital. See Appendix H for a full table of assumptions. A 30 year NPV calculation was chosen as the decision basis since 30 years is a conservative estimate for the lifetime of a desalination plant [38]. See below for estimates of NPV for the lifetime of the plant under various assumptions and design criteria.<br />
<br />
==Optimization and Sensitivity Analysis==<br />
Looking at the multi-stage flash process, there are a number of opportunities to optimize the process. The major process variables that were investigated were the inlet water temperature, the operating pressure drop per vessel, and the number of stages over which the process takes place. Considering these optimizations, our final process consists of 21 flash vessels (18 heat recovery and 3 heat rejection stages), each with a pressure drop of 5 kPa. See Appendix D for a screenshot of the HYSYS simulation used to model the optimized process.<br />
===Operating Pressure and Pressure Drop===<br />
Initially our process was designed to pump the inlet seawater and brine to a pressure of 2 bar and allow the pressure drop in each flash stage to end our process downstream at 1 bar to prevent complications associated with designing a system under vacuum. While this provided pumping advantages, the energy in the system was significantly higher due to vapor pressure considerations. Due to this fact, the required heat exchange area for certain exchangers proved to be infeasible (on the order of 80,000m<sup>2</sup>) due to the enormous capital and operating costs that would be associated with such a large heat exchanger.<br />
<br />
The process was optimized to operate under vacuum, requiring additional pumping requirements but much lower required heat exchange area, and therefore lower utility costs. This optimization was done by specifying the pressure of the final flash vessel to 5.7kPa, so that the temperature of the water vapor (~30<sup>o</sup>C) is within approximately 5<sup>o</sup>C of the cooling water (35<sup>o</sup>C) so that condensation can occur within a reasonable approach. This also allows our system to optimally extract pure water from the brine running through the system and reduce energy requirements for cooling the product or the recycle. Our system redesign and optimization reduced the energy in the system and reduce the same heat exchanger area requirements by more than 3 orders of magnitude to approximately 800m<sup>2</sup>. <br />
<br />
Once the process was optimized to operate in a vacuum, the pressure drop per flash stage regulated through values was then optimized. Three pressure drops per stages, 3kPa, 5kPa, and 7kPa, were tested and then an economic analysis was conducted to find the optimal value for the pressure drop. These changes had impacts on both operating and capital costs as they would change initial pumping requirements, the amount of water flowing through the process and recycle (and therefore the flash vessel sizes, heat exchanger sizing), and the efficiency of each stage.<br />
<br />
The various pressure drops (3 kPa, 5 kPa, and 7 kPa) were tested on a system nominally at 24 stages under the assumption that the results would be generalizable to systems with a different number of stages. With increasing pressure drop, we found decreased capital cost but increased utility cost. As can be seen from Table 2 below, a pressure drop of 5 kPa proved to be the best option based on 30 year NPV, with a loss of $838.8 million, a savings of $65.5 million compared to the next-best option with a pressure drop of 7 kPa.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 2: Comparison of profitability for our MSF desalination process with 24 stages with 3 different pressure drops per stage<br />
! Number of Stages <br/> &nbsp;<br />
! Pressure Drop <br/> (kPa)<br />
! Capital Cost <br/> ($MM)<br />
! Utility Cost <br/> ($MM/yr)<br />
! 30 year NPV <br/> ($MM)<br />
! NPV Ratio <br/> (over 5kPa)<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 3 || 362.3 || 39.1 || -905.8 || 1.08<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 5 || 255.1 || 53.6 || -838.8 || 1.00<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
| 24 || 7 || 209.5 || 72.2 || -904.3 || 1.08<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
===Number of Flash Stages===<br />
The number of stages is an important area for optimization. An increased number of stages yields better recovery of purified water, however, requires higher capital cost from the additional pressure vessel. Furthermore, with an increased amount of purified water comes increasingly concentrated brine. This must be taken into account since any brine concentration in excess of about 7% presents a more significant corrosion risk<ref>Kansas State University ChE 413.. Available at: http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/Almutaz/Documents/ChE-413/Multi-stage%20Flash%20Desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>, so increased maintenance costs for the piping or higher capital costs for more corrosion-resistant materials could be necessary for brine concentrations exceeding 7%. Therefore, to recover the same amount of pure water without exceeding corrosion limitations, increasing the number of stages will reduce the overall size of each stage.<br />
<br />
Optimizing based on NPV, it was found that 21 stages is optimal, balancing the increased profits from the additional purified water additional costs of higher capital cost. See Table 3 below to compare the 30-year NPV of the process across various numbers of flash vessels.<br />
<br />
<b>!!!! INSERT TABLE 3!!!! </b><br />
<br />
===Inlet Seawater Temperature===<br />
By pairing our desalination plant with a natural gas power plant and utilizing its cooling water we forgo initial heating of our inlet stream. Normally, water pumped from the ocean would be approximately 25<sup>o</sup>C and by capturing waste heat from the power plant we can reduce utilities with our water inlet of 45<sup>o</sup>C. Through an economic comparison between two plants nominally at 21 flash stages, the plant with an inlet temperature at 25<sup>o</sup>C has a capital cost of $245MM and a utility cost of $77MM/yr and the same facility with an inlet water temperature at 45<sup>o</sup>C has a capital cost of only $226MM and a utility cost of $56MM/yr. As shown in Table 4 below, this $19MM savings in capital costs and $21MM/yr saving in utilities is largely due to reducing the size of the heat exchangers and lowering the steam required for heating duty on the inlet seawater respectively. Therefore our process is optimized by recovering the waste heat water from the gas fired power plant.<br />
<br />
<b>!!!! INSERT TABLE 4!!!! </b><br />
<br />
==Overall Process Economics==<br />
After optimization at fixed flow rates, the process was scaled to meet the the 67% operating percentage and final product definitions as shown in Table 1, which resulted in finalized economics shown in Table 5 below. For a table of the installed costs of each process vessel, see Appendix I. For the finalized NPV calculations, see Appendix J.<br />
<br />
<b>!!!! INSERT TABLE 5!!!! </b><br />
<br />
=Conclusions and Recommendations=<br />
==Project Viability==<br />
Table 5 above demonstrates that the process has reasonable operating and capital costs, but the 30-year NPV is negative by -1035 $MM due to the extremely low sell price capability of desalinated water as a product. Therefore, this plant would have to heavily be supported by the City of Corpus Christi to run as the product revenue will not make it self-sufficient. The acquisition of government subsidies are key operating requirements for all desalination facilities in the United States. <br />
<br />
==Additional Concerns==<br />
Large volumes of water, steam, and energy are needed to ensure the project runs as specified. While most of the water can easily be extracted from the ocean with little to consequence, the fuel used to generate the steam and electricity can have a significant environmental impact. As the plant is located next to a natural gas power plant, this fuel is better than coal with respect to environmental concerns, and utilizing energy from the power plant to preheat the feed stream for the desalination plant helps lower environmental impacts.<br />
<br />
The large amounts of high pressure steam being used represents one of the the largest safety concern in the process, because a high pressure steam release could easily cause severe burns or even death. Proper precautions and control measures must be in place to prevent accidental release. Otherwise, the process does not utilize any known toxic chemicals and is relatively safe from a chemical standpoint. The flash vessels mostly operate below atmospheric pressure, so they must be constructed as vessels that can withstand vacuum without failing.<br />
<br />
<br />
=Appendix A: Proposed Location of Desalination Plant=<br />
Pictured below is the proposed location for the desalination plant, located on Nueces Bay in Corpus Christi, adjacent to the Nueces Bay Energy Center. The plant’s proposed location is shown in the area outlined by the small circle in the upper right of the figure.<br />
<br />
[[File:NuecesBayLocation.png|center|600px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Desalination Facility Location|Figure A.1: Proposed mapped location of Nueces Bay Desalination Facility.]]<br />
[[File:ClassIWell.png|center|700px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Desalination Facility Distance to Injection Well|Figure A.2: Mapped distance from proposed location to Class I Injection Well]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix B: Feed and Product Definitions - Salinity=<br />
<br />
=Appendix C: Process Flow Diagram=<br />
[[File:TeamF_PFD.png|center|1200px|thumb|alt=Process Flow Diagram|Figure C.1: Process Flow Diagram]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix D: HYSYS Simulation Model=<br />
[[File:TeamF_HYSYS_Screenshot.PNG|center|1200px|thumb|alt=HYSYS Simulation Model|Figure D.1: Screenshot of HYSYS Model Simulation.]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix E: Stream Tables=<br />
<br />
=Appendix F: Heat Exchanger Sizing=<br />
<br />
=Appendix G: Pressure Vessel Sizing=<br />
<br />
=Appendix H: Expanded Economic Assumptions=<br />
<br />
=Appendix I: Equipment Cost Summary=<br />
<br />
=Appendix J: Economic NPV Analysis=<br />
<br />
=References=<br />
<references/></div>Kedricdaly2https://processdesign.mccormick.northwestern.edu/index.php?title=Nueces_Desalination_Center:_Production_of_Drinking_Water_by_Multi-Stage_Flash_Distillation&diff=4930Nueces Desalination Center: Production of Drinking Water by Multi-Stage Flash Distillation2016-03-07T03:01:44Z<p>Kedricdaly2: /* Feed and Product Definitions */ Centering Table 1</p>
<hr />
<div>Team F: Rankine 672 Final Report<br />
<br />
Authors: Kedric Daly, Ben Granger, Evan Rosati, Kathleen Zhou<br />
<br />
Instructors: Fengqi You, David Wegerer<br />
<br />
March 11, 2016<br />
<br />
=Executive Summary=<br />
Desalination of seawater to drinking water is a technology of ever-increasing importance given trends of increasingly widespread water shortages around the world. Even in the United States, water shortages are becoming increasingly common in dry, highly-populated such as California and certain areas of the Gulf Coast. Our design team, Rankine 672, was tasked with evaluating the need for and designing a desalination plant to provide purified water in a place of need. Investigation revealed that the city of Corpus Christi, Texas, is a strategic location for development of a desalination facility, as surrounding region is in need of new drinking water sources and the city has expressed serious interest in contracting the development of a large-scale desalination plant. Our proposed solution is a multi-stage flash distillation desalination facility capable of producing 20,000,000 gallons (75,708 m<sup>3</sup>) of purified drinking water for the city and surrounding region per operating day.<br />
<br />
In this design, drinking water is produced from seawater feedstock through a 21-stage flash distillation process. By strategically locating the facility next to an existing natural gas power plant, the Nueces Bay Energy Center, pre-heated feed water can be taken directly from the outbound cooling systems of the power plant, allowing energy savings for our desalination plant. The process is designed for 16 hour-per-day operation, requires a seawater feed of 8250 m<sup>3</sup>/hr, and produces 4758 m<sup>3</sup>/hr of purified drinking water alongside a waste stream of 3485 m<sup>3</sup>/hr of concentrated brine. The waste stream is isolated from a recycle stream through a 9.0% purge; this results in an overall product yield of 57.7% on a volume basis. The process requires an additional pretreatment stream of 16.5 kg/hr Belgard EV 2030, which serves as an antiscalant, as well as 9.5 kg/hr chlorine, 352.1 kg/hr lime, and 418.7 kg/hr CO2 for post-treatment purposes.<br />
<br />
The overall capital cost of the plant is expected to be $345MM, with a total operating cost of $103MM/yr, $59MM/yr of which comes from utilities. Due to the low price at which the product water can be sold, the 30-year net present value of the plant, assuming a 6% discount rate, is $-1,035MM. It is thus imperative this plant be constructed with public funds because it cannot return a profit to any private investor. The growing need for water however could justify the cost, because it is important that the residents of the greater Corpus Christi area have access to drinkable water.<br />
<br />
__TOC__<br />
<br />
=Introduction=<br />
==Background==<br />
Clean drinking water is a basic human need that is becoming increasingly difficult to meet. Currently, over 1 billion people live in places where water is considered scarce<ref> Tapping the oceans. The Economist USA. http://www.economist.com/node/11484059. Accessed March 2, 2016. </ref>. Though often thought of as a problem exclusive to third-world countries, the issue is becoming more prevalent in the US as well, with water managers in 40 of 50 states anticipating water shortage conditions in some portion of their state in the next 10 years. These shortages are due to increasing demands on constant or diminishing freshwater resources, therefore, to correct the issue, a new supply must be found<ref> Water Supply in the US. EPA. http://www3.epa.gov/watersense/pubs/supply.html. Accessed March 2, 2016.</ref>. Desalination of seawater is therefore important as a new source for clean drinking water and prevent water shortages. <br />
<br />
==Project Definition==<br />
The overall goal of the project is to investigate the feasibility of a desalination plant in order to meet the needs of growing water demand. The design needs to take health, safety, and environmental concerns into account, while optimizing costs.<br />
<br />
=Design Basis=<br />
Site Location and Conditions<br />
Corpus Christi, TX was chosen as the location for the proposed desalination plant. The city is currently experiencing “Moderate Shortage Conditions”. This issue additionally comes at a time of growing demand with population growth anticipated due to new industry and Eagle Ford Group crude oil production<ref>Stage 2 Measures in the Drought Contingency Plan. Available at http://www.cctexas.com/government/water/conservation/conservation-drought-plans/stage-2-measures. Accessed January 12, 2016. </ref>.<br />
<br />
In June 2014, the city announced the Corpus Christi Desalination Demonstration Project<ref>Corpus Christi Desalination Demonstration Project. Available at http://www.cctexas.com/Assets/Departments/Water/Files/DesalFactSheet.pdf. Published June 2014. Accessed January 12, 2016. <br />
</ref> which seeks to create a demonstration desalination plant capable of producing 20,000 gallons of water per day, with plans to later build a full scale facility generating 20,000,000 gallons of water per day. The desalination demonstration project indicates a clear need for implementation of a desalination plant of this size to accommodate growth in the Corpus Christi area. <br />
<br />
Locating our plant in Corpus Christi will allow us to take advantage of the benefits of cogeneration through a partnership with the Nueces Bay Energy Center. By utilizing their outlet cooling water as a large portion of our feed for the desalination process, we can raise the temperature of our seawater feed, saving on energy costs in the multi stage flash distillation. The proposed location for the desalination plant is immediately west of the Nueces Bay Energy Center. See Appendix A for a map depicting the proposed location for the desalination plant along the coast of Nueces Bay.<br />
<br />
==Feed and Product Definitions==<br />
The proposed desalination facility’s feed and product streams are defined as shown in Table 1. Rationale for these definitions is also described below. The values reported in Table 1 are final derived numbers from HYSYS simulation modeling. <br />
<br />
<center><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 1: Feed and product stream definitions<br />
! &nbsp;<br />
! Salt Concentration<br />
! Temperature <br />
! Amount<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Feed Stream <br />
| 30,500 ppm || 45°C || 8250 m<sup>3</sup>/hr<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Product Stream<br />
| ~ 0 ppm || 35°C || 4758 m<sup>3</sup>/hr<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Byproduct Stream<br />
| 695 ppm || 35°C || 3485 m<sup>3</sup>/hr<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
The process feed will be seawater from Nueces Bay, preheated through the cooling water system of the nearby Nueces Bay Energy Center. Based on calculations developed from NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory) data, it was estimated that the Nueces Bay Energy Center uses approximately 250 million gallons of seawater per day for process and cooling needs. Therefore, the 20 million gallon per day requirement for the desalination facility can easily be met through the power plant’s cooling water<ref>Torcellini P, Long N, Judkoff R. Consumptive Water Use for U.S. Power Consumption. NREL. 2003; TP-550-33905. <br />
</ref>. Note that we are assuming the process will operate 67% of the time (16 hours per day).<br />
<br />
Based on data acquired from two salinity-measuring stations in Nueces Bay, the average salinity of local seawater is 30.5 practical salinity units (psu)<ref>Stations Map & Real - Time Data. The Conrad Blucher Institute for Surveying and Science website. Available at http://www.cbi.tamucc.edu/cbi/data/. Updated January 2016. Accessed January 9, 2016. </ref>, thus setting the concentration of the process feed stream. This translates to a feed stream concentration of 30,500 ppm (parts per million)<ref>Definition and Units. CATD Salinity Expertise Center. Available at http://www.salinityremotesensing.ifremer.fr/home. Accessed January 12, 2016.</ref>. The composition of the salt attributed to this seawater salinity is shown in Table 6 in Appendix B. <br />
<br />
No data on the composition of seawater around the Corpus Christi area was available, but the composition of seawater does not change significantly in different locations. The given composition is considered accurate for our feed stream<ref>Brown E, Colling A, Park D, Phillips J, Rothery D, Wright J. Seawater : Its Composition, Properties and Behaviour. Boston: Butterworth-Heinemann, 1995.<br />
</ref>. Note that seawater salt is primarily sodium chloride - total dissolved solids are 85.7% sodium chloride by mass. As such, the dissolved solids in the feed stream is assumed in this project to be pure NaCl, making the feed composition 96.95% water and 3.05% NaCl by mass. A control system will likely be put in place to ensure feed concentration remains at this level, accounting for natural fluctuations in local seawater salinity.<br />
<br />
The largest byproduct from the process will be a brine slurry with high salt concentrations. An upper corrosion limit of 700 ppm was set for recirculated and purged brine. This undesired byproduct will be sent to a nearby Class I non-hazardous injection well facility operated by GNI Group, which is approximately 12 miles away from the proposed desalination plant location as shown in the figure in Appendix A<ref>Texas Water Code. Availabe at http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/WA/htm/WA.27.htm. Accessed January 14, 2016.<br />
</ref><ref>Google Maps. Available at https://goo.gl/maps/3xcvLZwUCe42 Accessed January 15, 2016.</ref>. Through the incorporation of a Class I injection well, the brine will not have to be treated or diluted before injection. <ref>EPA Regulations on Class I Wells. Available at http://www.epa.gov/uic/class-i-industrial-and-municipal-waste-disposal-wells. Accessed January 14, 2016.<br />
</ref><ref>List of Injection Well Facilities by Location. Available at http://www.ehso.com/cssepa/tsdfdeepwells.php. Accessed January 14, 2016.</ref><br />
<br />
There are no regulations regarding the temperature of city drinking water, so the product stream temperature has no requirements based on regulations. Outlet temperatures of 35<sup>o</sup>C are acceptable for input to the municipal water supply system. Since city water tends to be stored in non-temperature controlled tanks, the temperature will naturally cool to ambient temperature.<ref>Climate Corpus Christi- Texas. US Climate Data. Available at http://www.usclimatedata.com/climate/corpus-christi/texas/united-states/ustx0294. Accessed January 12, 2016. </ref><br />
<br />
==Pre-Treatment and Post-Treatment==<br />
For pretreatment, Belgard EV 2030 is recommended to be added at a concentration of 1.8-2.0 mg/L for a system with top brine temperature approximately 110 °C<ref>BWA Water Additives. Belgard EV2030 Technical Data Sheet. BWA Water Additives. http://www.wateradditives.com/files/products/tech_data_sheets/Belgard%20EV%202030_Technical%20Data%20Sheet_Thermal_8.5x11.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016.<br />
</ref>. Since our process is designed to operate at a slightly higher top brine temperature, 120 °C, we will design for the upper bound concentration: 2.0 mg/L of antiscalant. With a feed flow rate of 8250 m<sup>3</sup>/hr, the process therefore requires 16.5 kg/hr of Belgard EV 2030.<br />
<br />
For disinfection during post-treatment, chlorine addition typically requires a dose of roughly 2.0 mg/L as well<ref>World Health Organization. Desalination for safe water supply. http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/gdwqrevision/desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. With a pure water distillate flow rate of 4758 m<sup>3</sup>/hr, the process requires 9.5 kg/hr of chlorine gas. Approximately 74 mg/L of lime (calcium hydroxide) and 88mg/L of CO2 should be added to the desalinated water to help prevent corrosion and increase alkalinity within acceptable ranges<ref>Vouchkov, N. Re-Mineralization of Desalinated Water. SunCam. https://s3.amazonaws.com/suncam/npdocs/118.pdf. Accessed February 18, 2016.</ref>. With a product stream flow rate of 4758 m3/hr, these concentrations correspond to 352.1 kg/hr of lime and 418.7 kg/hr of CO2. Both of these can be purchased, and it is likely that the CO2 can be procured from the neighboring natural gas power plant.<br />
<br />
==Choice of Desalination Technology==<br />
The two major technologies commonly implemented for desalination include reverse osmosis (RO), and multi-stage flash distillation (MSFD). RO utilizes high pressures to force water through a semipermeable membrane that allows for purified water to pass through, but stops organic and other wastes. Often, the pressures can reach 55 - 68 bar, which requires large pumps to maintain pressure, and introduces safety concerns to the process<ref>Stage 2 Measures in the Drought Contingency Plan. Available at http://www.cctexas.com/government/water/conservation/conservation-drought-plans/stage-2-measures. Accessed January 12, 2016. <br />
</ref>. While RO can be less energy intensive than MSFD, and the membrane can also remove contaminants, it is susceptible to feedwater quality, membrane fouling, and requires more extensive pretreatment and posttreatment than MSFD. The cost of RO is directly proportional to the feed salinity, and so it is less expensive when desalinating low salinity water.<br />
<br />
Multi-stage flash distillation is best selected for areas that have high salinity or low energy costs. The pretreatment process for MSFD is much easier when compared to RO because pretreatment often consists of simply adding anti-corrosives and antiscalants to the feed stream. The process works by heating water in vessels at different pressures to change the boiling point of the water and evaporate it as it passes through the system. After evaporation, the water condenses, leaving pure water as the effluent. MSFD costs are now roughly $1.00/m3, where this cost is mostly independent of salinity, but dependent on energy costs.<ref>Fritzman C, Lowenberg J, Wintgens T, Melin T. State-of-the-art Reverse Osmosis Desalination. Desalination. 2007; 216:1-76. <br />
</ref> In both RO and MSFD a brine is produced which then must be appropriately treated and/or disposed of.<br />
<br />
Multi-stage flash distillation was selected for this process, mainly due to the economic advantages offered by the selected location of Corpus Christi, TX. MSFD is also a well understood process that can be more easily modeled by chemical engineering software.<br />
<br />
=Technical Approach=<br />
Quantitative modeling of the process and all included optimization was conducted using the simulation software Aspen HYSYS. A variety of assumptions were developed to set up and define specific components of the process simulation itself. Within Aspen HYSYS, the NRTL Electrolyte property package was selected to model the behavior of salt water. Each stage of the MSF process is modeled as an individual flash vessel, with individual shell & tube heat exchangers used to model the distillate condensers present in each flash stage in the MSF system.<br />
<br />
The HYSYS simulation model only considers the flash portion of the overall process, allowing establishment of mass and energy balances for the system. Pretreatment and post-treatment were excluded for the HYSYS model, as these steps are simple additions or removals of small concentrations of chemical components. Although the simulation models heat exchangers outside of each flash stage, in the physical design of the plant these heat exchangers will be contained within each flash stage.<br />
<br />
One portion of the process is not modeled, which is the inlet seawater entering the heat rejection stages. As can be seen from the full process flow diagram (Appendix C), the inlet seawater in the heat rejection stage is in high excess to provide maximum cooling capacity; then a significant portion is purged to bring the stream flow rate down to what is needed for the feed stream. It is assumed that the flow rate of cooling water for those three stages is in such high excess that the cooling water does not heat up. Therefore, in the process simulation models, the inlet stream is the feed stream, which enters directly into the heat recovery portion of the process.<br />
<br />
See Appendix D for a screenshot overview of the simulation environment model.<br />
<br />
=Process Overview=<br />
==Process Flowsheet==<br />
The following diagram, Figure 1, shows a basic flowsheet for the process. Process alternatives considered for each stage are discussed below. Please see Appendix C for the full process flowsheet with finalized design decisions.<br />
<br />
[[File:BlockFlowDiagram.png|center|700px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Desalination Facility Block Flow Diagram|Figure 1: Basic block flowsheet of the multi-stage flash desalination process.]]<br />
<br />
==Major Features==<br />
As seen above, there are three primary stages of the desalination process: Pre-treatment, the multi-stage flash distillation, and post-treatment. Seawater enters the pre-treatment phase first to make the feed suitable for the rest of the process by filtering out large particles that could accumulate on pipes, deaerating the water to limit corrosion, and adding an agent to combat fouling. The water then enters the distillation process, which is broken up into two sections: heat recovery and heat rejection. <br />
<br />
In the heat recovery stage, there are 18 flash vessels, each of which separates steam from the salinated liquid water. Each flash vessel has saltwater as its inlet and two outlets: a vapor outlet (steam) that condenses into the final product of purified water and a liquid outlet composed of water with more dissolved solids than the inlet, which is the inlet stream for the next flash vessel. The pipe containing the feed is first mixed with recycled brine, then goes through the top sections of each of the flash vessels, starting with V-118 and ending up at V-101. In this way, the feed stream pipe first serves as a heat exchanger, heating the pre-treated seawater while simultaneously condensing the steam into the final product. The feed then enters a final heat exchanger where it is brought up to 103.6 °C before entering V-101 to be flashed.<br />
<br />
After exiting V-118, the final flash vessel in the heat recovery portion, the water enters the heat rejection portion, which consists of three flash vessels (V-201, V-202, V-203). The flash vessels of this section operate in the same manner as in the heat recovery section, with the exception that condensation occurs using excess cooling water instead of pre-treated seawater. This technique allows excess heat to be rejected into an excess water stream rather than the feed.<br />
<br />
The purified product stream finally enters post-treatment processing in which water is re-aerated and remineralized, disinfected, and pH is adjusted before being delivered to the city. The concentrated brine leftover at the end of the flash cycle is recycled into the feed, although a purge is required to continuously remove some salt from the system. This purged brine is disposed of by use of a Class I injection well, per regional regulations.<br />
<br />
See Appendix E to find detailed stream tables of stream specifications.<br />
<br />
==Process Alternatives==<br />
===Pretreatment===<br />
Multi-stage flash distillation requires significantly less pretreatment than reverse osmosis desalination, but helpful pretreatment techniques still exist. One very inexpensive method of pretreatment is screening/filtration, which is used to filter out large contaminants from intake seawater. Using more complicated membrane technology to accomplish large particle filtration is a possible alternative, but doing so would be much more expensive than using a standard screen or filter, so the latter choice has been selected for this process.<ref>El-Dessouky H., Alatiqi I, Ettouney H. Process synthesis: The multi-stage flash desalination system. Desalination. 1998;115(2):115-179. doi: 10.1016/S0011-9164(98)00035-6.</ref><br />
<br />
The most critical type of fouling in multi-stage flash distillation is scaling - therefore, the most critical step in the pretreatment process will be the inclusion of an anti-scalant. Alkaline scaling can be prevented by acid dosing or polyphosphate addition; however, acid dosing can result in increased corrosion and polyphosphates can lead to non-alkaline calcium phosphate fouling, so these additives will not be considered<ref>Morris, R. The development of the multi-stage flash distillation process: A designer's viewpoint. Desalination. 1993;93(1-3):57-68. doi:10.1016/S0011-9164(93)80096-6.<br />
</ref><ref>Al-Gobaisi, D. A quarter-century of seawater desalination by large multistage flash plants in Abu Dhabi (Plant performance analysis, assessment, present efforts toward enhancement and future hopes). Desalination. 1994;99(2-3):509-512. doi: 10.1016/S0011-9164(94)00196-0.</ref>. As such, a polymer-based additive is recommended for the anti-scalant for this process. The Belgard EV series is designed for use in high-temperature seawater MSF; of these, Belgard EV 2030 is the most neutral in pH<ref>NSF International. NSF Product and Service Listings: Drinking Water Treatment Chemicals - Health Effects. NSF International. http://info.nsf.org/Certified/PwsChemicals/Listings.asp?Company=00300&. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref><ref>BWA Water Additives. Belgard EV2030 Technical Data Sheet. BWA Water Additives. http://www.wateradditives.com/files/products/tech_data_sheets/Belgard%20EV%202030_Technical%20Data%20Sheet_Thermal_8.5x11.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref><ref>BWA Water Additives. Belgard EV2035 Technical Data Sheet. BWA Water Additives. http://www.wateradditives.com/files/products/tech_data_sheets/Belgard%20EV2035_Technical%20Data%20Sheet_Thermal_8.5x11.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref><ref>BioLab Water Additives. Belgard EV Antiscalant for seawater distillation plants. BioLab Water Additives. http://www.lpq.com.mx/pdf/BELGARD%20EV.PDF. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref>. As such, we have selected Belgard EV 2030 for use as an anti-scalant in our process.<br />
<br />
Corrosion control is another significant method of pretreatment in multi-stage flash distillation plants. Using a piping material that has limited susceptibility to corrosion is typically not economically viable for MSF desalination plants due their large size, so using carbon steel for most of the piping is generally used for its economic benefits despite its susceptibility to corrosion<ref>Morris, R. The development of the multi-stage flash distillation process: A designer's viewpoint. Desalination. 1993;93(1-3):57-68. doi:10.1016/S0011-9164(93)80096-6.</ref>. Limiting oxygen concentration is very feasible through the use of deaerators, which can remove oxygen as well as other dissolved gases from the seawater stream. Often, an external deaeration system is used<ref>Morris, R. The development of the multi-stage flash distillation process: A designer's viewpoint. Desalination. 1993;93(1-3):57-68. doi:10.1016/S0011-9164(93)80096-6.</ref><ref>Edwards - Hick Hargreaves. Seawater Deaerators. Edwards - Hick Hargreaves. http://psscorp.co.th/upload/news/20110830105340.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. Given these considerations, using an external deaerator combined with a less-corrosive antiscalant like Belgard EV 2030 is much more practical for the process than using anti-corrosive piping.<br />
<br />
Excessive foam can also be an issue in some MSF distillation facilities, so antifoaming agents are sometimes employed in the pretreatment process as well. However, many plants are operated without foaming issues, and therefore do not need anti-foaming pretreatment at all. Selection of an anti-foaming agent must be carefully weighed with selected of anti-scalant to avoid issues with additive interactions [26]. At this stage in the design process, an anti-foamer will not be included due to the risk of decreasing scalant efficacy, and the likelihood that foam will not be an issue in the desalination plant.<br />
<br />
===Multistage Flash Distillation===<br />
The main objective of the design project is desalinate water. This is done with the main process of multi stage flash distillation (MSF). MSF can be developed using a numerous number of different process configurations, such as Once-Through, Simple Mixer Brine Circulation, and Multi-Stage Heat Rejection Brine Circulation processes. <br />
<br />
The most desired process for the project is the Three Stage Heat Rejection Brine Circulation as it builds on benefits of the other simpler technologies. By combining principles of heat rejection and heat recovery, the required heat transfer area of the process is greatly reduced as compared to once through processes or simple brine recycle processes. It has the highest performance ratio with the lowest specific feed flow rates, therefore greatly lowering the operating costs of the process. It is also known as the industry standard for MSF<ref>Kansas State University ChE 413.. Available at: http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/Almutaz/Documents/ChE-413/Multi-stage%20Flash%20Desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. In addition, since our brine disposal technique involves the pumping of the brine into a Class I well, the high brine outlet salinity is not a drawback for our process since post treatment or dilution of the brine is not necessary.<br />
<br />
===Post Treatment===<br />
After processing the water via multi-stage flash, the water needs to be post-treated to make the water taste as consumers would expect, since distilled water is “flat” and unpleasant, as well as to protect the consumers and the piping through which the water will be passing<ref>Clayton R. A review of current knowledge: Desalination for water supply. Foundation for Water Research. http://www.fwr.org/desal.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. There are multiple alternatives to achieve these objectives of remineralization, aeration, corrosion control, and disinfection.<br />
<br />
Aerating and introducing some dissolved solids back into the product water are effective ways to create a quality product that is not flat, and contains flavoring that is expected of the water when delivered to the consumer. Aeration will be accomplished via an inline spray aerator which will take up less space than cascade aeration.<ref>Minnesota Rural Water Association. Aeration. http://www.mrwa.com/WaterWorksMnl/Chapter%2011%20Aeration.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref> Feed blending will be used to remineralize the water as opposed to a remineralization filter because it does not require additional equipment purchases, and can easily handle the large amounts of throughput required for the process.<ref>Clayton R. A review of current knowledge: Desalination for water supply. Foundation for Water Research. http://www.fwr.org/desal.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref><br />
<br />
Corrosion and pH can be controlled by adding lime (calcium hydroxide) and carbon dioxide to the water. To do so, about 74 mg/L of lime and 88mg/L of CO<sub>2</sub> should be added to the desalinated water to help prevent corrosion and increase alkalinity within acceptable ranges. Sodium hydroxide, soda ash, and sodium bicarbonate are alternatives to altering the alkalinity and pH of the product water, but lime and CO<sub>2</sub> is an industry standard.<ref> Vouchkov, N. Re-Mineralization of Desalinated Water. SunCam. https://s3.amazonaws.com/suncam/npdocs/118.pdf. Accessed February 18, 2016.</ref><br />
<br />
Disinfection needs to be done to prevent microbial growth in the desalinated water and ensure the safety of the general public. Chlorine addition via chlorine gas or sodium hypochlorite is the most common and only requires a dose of 1.5 to 2.5 mg/liter.<ref>World Health Organization. Desalination for safe water supply. http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/gdwqrevision/desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>Other alternatives include ozonation, UV light, and chloramination. Chlorine, as a 5% - 15% sodium hypochlorite solution, is sufficient for our process and relatively inexpensive, and as such will be utilized in the process.<br />
<br />
===Transport of Brine to Well===<br />
Three major possibilities exist for transporting the brine from our desalination plant to the injection well for disposal: rail, trucking, and a pipeline. A pipeline was chosen as the most feasible and cost-effective approach. <br />
<br />
A rail line is not available at this time, and with the cost to construct a rail line at approximately $43 million per mile<ref>About Money. How Much Do Rail Transit Projects Cost to Build and Operate? 2014. Available at: http://publictransport.about.com/od/Transit_Projects/a/How-Much-Do-Rail-Transit-Projects-Cost-To-Build-And-Operate.htm. Accessed January 27, 2016. </ref>, the enormous capital cost makes rail transport infeasible for this site. For large volume operations, pipelines are cheaper than trucking. In a study of wastewater sludge produced from wastewater treatment facilities, it was found that it was more economical for facilities producing over 1200 m<sup>3</sup> per day to utilize pipelines rather than trucking.<ref>Marufuzzaman M, Eskioglu S, Hernandez R. Truck versus pipeline transportation cost analysis of wastewater sludge. Transportation Research. 2015; 74(A): 14-30. </ref> Our facility is producing nearly 3 times this volume at 3485 m<sup>3</sup> per day of brine. Furthermore, brine is a less viscous fluid than wastewater sludge, decreasing pumping costs in the pipeline and further amplifying the benefit of choosing a pipeline over an injection well.<br />
<br />
===Brine Storage===<br />
Due to the choice of a pipeline, rather than trucking, as the method of transport of brine to the injection well, brine storage is unnecessary, so storage solutions such as holding tanks were not investigated. One method of storage compatible with a pipeline is to pump the brine through an evaporation pond. This solution is attractive as it would allow the brine to concentrate, saving some costs of pumping, however, the considerable land usage of evaporation ponds leads them to only be effective for smaller plants. The largest municipal plant utilizing this method produces only 5.7 million liters per day<ref>University of Santa Cruz Center for Integrated Water Research. Concentrate Management: Evaporation Ponds. 2010. Available at: https://ciwr.ucsc.edu/sites/default/files/ICM_D5.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016. </ref>, whereas our desalination plant is proposed to produce 75.7 million liters per day. Therefore, evaporation ponds have been eliminated from consideration.<br />
<br />
==Major Specifications==<br />
===Material of Construction Selection===<br />
While saltwater and desalinated water in general can be corrosive, there are best practices within the desalination industry for material selection. With this in mind, best practice shows carbon steel lifetime can be lengthened by monitoring the oxygen concentration in the water, specifying the paint used to coat any metal, and more expensive materials can be used in areas of extremely high corrosion.<ref>Morris, R. The development of the multi-stage flash distillation process: A designer's viewpoint. Desalination. 1993;93(1-3):57-68. doi:10.1016/S0011-9164(93)80096-6. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0011916493800966<br />
</ref> By following these best practices, it is possible to save significant amounts of money through the use of carbon steel in most areas of the plant, with specific high-corrosion areas being reinforced with, or replaced with, more corrosion resistant materials, such as Cu/Ni 70/30 alloy<ref>Kansas State University ChE 413.. Available at: http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/Almutaz/Documents/ChE-413/Multi-stage%20Flash%20Desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>.<br />
<br />
===Heat Exchanger Sizing===<br />
See Appendix F for heat exchanger sizing data. Heat exchanger sizes appear reasonable for placement in the flash vessels.<br />
<br />
===Flash Vessel Sizing===<br />
The dimensions for the flash drums were obtained through literature values. The flash drums were determined to be 18x4x3 m in width, height, and length.<ref>Kansas State University ChE 413.. Available at: http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/Almutaz/Documents/ChE-413/Multi-stage%20Flash%20Desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref><br />
<br />
Wall thickness was determined using the following conventions: Design pressure is 10% more than the operating pressure, design temperature is 50°F (27.8°C) higher than the operating temperature, a corrosion allowance of 3-mm and an effectiveness of 85% was derived from the assumption of a double-welded butt joint that was spot checked. See Appendix G for wall thicknesses calculated for each pressure vessel. <br />
<br />
The sizing of the vessels to be constructed will be determined after talks with a manufacturer. Due to economies of scale, it may be more cost-effective to buy 21 pressure vessels with the dimensions mentioned above and a wall thickness of 17.1-mm, the highest wall thickness required in the system.<br />
<br />
===Pipe Losses and Pressure Drop===<br />
HYSYS was used to estimate the diameter of a pipe given a specified pressure drop per 100m of pipe. It was determined that for a pressure drop of 0.1 kPa/100m of pipe, a 3.05m diameter pipe is sufficient, which is more than manageable for manufacturers. This pressure drop is mostly insignificant and will be taken care of with the safety factors included in the pumps. The significant pressure drops in our system is accounted for via losses in the flash vessels and heat exchangers, which drive the flash process. Therefore overall pipe losses are insignificant and are built into intentional design losses.<br />
<br />
=Economic Analysis=<br />
==Economic Assumptions==<br />
The sale of purified water yields a revenue stream of $49.5 million per year assuming sale to commercial entities within the city limits of Corpus Christi at $1.7915 per thousand liters.<ref>Water schedule. City of Corpus Christi Utility Business Office. http://www.cctexas.com/Assets/Departments/Financial-Services/Utilities-Business-Office/files/waterrates.pdf Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref> The primary variable costs are utilities and the brine disposal, with minimal raw materials costs due to the primary feedstock, seawater, being free, and minimal amounts of pre- and post-treatment chemicals being used. The cost of brine disposal used in this analysis was high at $2.097 per thousand liters<ref>McCurdy, R. Underground injection wells for produced water disposal. Chesapeake Energy Corporation. http://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/documents/21_McCurdy_-_UIC_Disposal_508.pdf Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref>, an estimate for brine disposal utilizing trucking as the mode of transport. As has been shown through previous analyses, a lower cost can be achieved using a direct pipeline, however, no good estimates for this cost could be found.<br />
<br />
The NPV was calculated using a 6% cost of capital, the approximate interest rate for a municipal bond.<ref>Zirbe, R.O. Jr., Han, X., Layton, D., Leshine, T. A history of discount rates and their use by government agencies. (2002). http://faculty.washington.edu/zerbe/docs/DISCOUNT%20RATE%20HISTORY-latesXIt.doc Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref> It was assumed that the plant can be built within two years, with production at half-scale in its first year. Additionally, one month of variable costs, $10.6 million, was set aside for working capital. See Appendix H for a full table of assumptions. A 30 year NPV calculation was chosen as the decision basis since 30 years is a conservative estimate for the lifetime of a desalination plant [38]. See below for estimates of NPV for the lifetime of the plant under various assumptions and design criteria.<br />
<br />
==Optimization and Sensitivity Analysis==<br />
Looking at the multi-stage flash process, there are a number of opportunities to optimize the process. The major process variables that were investigated were the inlet water temperature, the operating pressure drop per vessel, and the number of stages over which the process takes place. Considering these optimizations, our final process consists of 21 flash vessels (18 heat recovery and 3 heat rejection stages), each with a pressure drop of 5 kPa. See Appendix D for a screenshot of the HYSYS simulation used to model the optimized process.<br />
===Operating Pressure and Pressure Drop===<br />
Initially our process was designed to pump the inlet seawater and brine to a pressure of 2 bar and allow the pressure drop in each flash stage to end our process downstream at 1 bar to prevent complications associated with designing a system under vacuum. While this provided pumping advantages, the energy in the system was significantly higher due to vapor pressure considerations. Due to this fact, the required heat exchange area for certain exchangers proved to be infeasible (on the order of 80,000m<sup>2</sup>) due to the enormous capital and operating costs that would be associated with such a large heat exchanger.<br />
<br />
The process was optimized to operate under vacuum, requiring additional pumping requirements but much lower required heat exchange area, and therefore lower utility costs. This optimization was done by specifying the pressure of the final flash vessel to 5.7kPa, so that the temperature of the water vapor (~30<sup>o</sup>C) is within approximately 5<sup>o</sup>C of the cooling water (35<sup>o</sup>C) so that condensation can occur within a reasonable approach. This also allows our system to optimally extract pure water from the brine running through the system and reduce energy requirements for cooling the product or the recycle. Our system redesign and optimization reduced the energy in the system and reduce the same heat exchanger area requirements by more than 3 orders of magnitude to approximately 800m<sup>2</sup>. <br />
<br />
Once the process was optimized to operate in a vacuum, the pressure drop per flash stage regulated through values was then optimized. Three pressure drops per stages, 3kPa, 5kPa, and 7kPa, were tested and then an economic analysis was conducted to find the optimal value for the pressure drop. These changes had impacts on both operating and capital costs as they would change initial pumping requirements, the amount of water flowing through the process and recycle (and therefore the flash vessel sizes, heat exchanger sizing), and the efficiency of each stage.<br />
<br />
The various pressure drops (3 kPa, 5 kPa, and 7 kPa) were tested on a system nominally at 24 stages under the assumption that the results would be generalizable to systems with a different number of stages. With increasing pressure drop, we found decreased capital cost but increased utility cost. As can be seen from Table 2 below, a pressure drop of 5 kPa proved to be the best option based on 30 year NPV, with a loss of $838.8 million, a savings of $65.5 million compared to the next-best option with a pressure drop of 7 kPa.<br />
<br />
<b>!!!!INSERT TABLE 2!!!!</b><br />
<br />
===Number of Flash Stages===<br />
The number of stages is an important area for optimization. An increased number of stages yields better recovery of purified water, however, requires higher capital cost from the additional pressure vessel. Furthermore, with an increased amount of purified water comes increasingly concentrated brine. This must be taken into account since any brine concentration in excess of about 7% presents a more significant corrosion risk<ref>Kansas State University ChE 413.. Available at: http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/Almutaz/Documents/ChE-413/Multi-stage%20Flash%20Desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>, so increased maintenance costs for the piping or higher capital costs for more corrosion-resistant materials could be necessary for brine concentrations exceeding 7%. Therefore, to recover the same amount of pure water without exceeding corrosion limitations, increasing the number of stages will reduce the overall size of each stage.<br />
<br />
Optimizing based on NPV, it was found that 21 stages is optimal, balancing the increased profits from the additional purified water additional costs of higher capital cost. See Table 3 below to compare the 30-year NPV of the process across various numbers of flash vessels.<br />
<br />
<b>!!!! INSERT TABLE 3!!!! </b><br />
<br />
===Inlet Seawater Temperature===<br />
By pairing our desalination plant with a natural gas power plant and utilizing its cooling water we forgo initial heating of our inlet stream. Normally, water pumped from the ocean would be approximately 25<sup>o</sup>C and by capturing waste heat from the power plant we can reduce utilities with our water inlet of 45<sup>o</sup>C. Through an economic comparison between two plants nominally at 21 flash stages, the plant with an inlet temperature at 25<sup>o</sup>C has a capital cost of $245MM and a utility cost of $77MM/yr and the same facility with an inlet water temperature at 45<sup>o</sup>C has a capital cost of only $226MM and a utility cost of $56MM/yr. As shown in Table 4 below, this $19MM savings in capital costs and $21MM/yr saving in utilities is largely due to reducing the size of the heat exchangers and lowering the steam required for heating duty on the inlet seawater respectively. Therefore our process is optimized by recovering the waste heat water from the gas fired power plant.<br />
<br />
<b>!!!! INSERT TABLE 4!!!! </b><br />
<br />
==Overall Process Economics==<br />
After optimization at fixed flow rates, the process was scaled to meet the the 67% operating percentage and final product definitions as shown in Table 1, which resulted in finalized economics shown in Table 5 below. For a table of the installed costs of each process vessel, see Appendix I. For the finalized NPV calculations, see Appendix J.<br />
<br />
<b>!!!! INSERT TABLE 5!!!! </b><br />
<br />
=Conclusions and Recommendations=<br />
==Project Viability==<br />
Table 5 above demonstrates that the process has reasonable operating and capital costs, but the 30-year NPV is negative by -1035 $MM due to the extremely low sell price capability of desalinated water as a product. Therefore, this plant would have to heavily be supported by the City of Corpus Christi to run as the product revenue will not make it self-sufficient. The acquisition of government subsidies are key operating requirements for all desalination facilities in the United States. <br />
<br />
==Additional Concerns==<br />
Large volumes of water, steam, and energy are needed to ensure the project runs as specified. While most of the water can easily be extracted from the ocean with little to consequence, the fuel used to generate the steam and electricity can have a significant environmental impact. As the plant is located next to a natural gas power plant, this fuel is better than coal with respect to environmental concerns, and utilizing energy from the power plant to preheat the feed stream for the desalination plant helps lower environmental impacts.<br />
<br />
The large amounts of high pressure steam being used represents one of the the largest safety concern in the process, because a high pressure steam release could easily cause severe burns or even death. Proper precautions and control measures must be in place to prevent accidental release. Otherwise, the process does not utilize any known toxic chemicals and is relatively safe from a chemical standpoint. The flash vessels mostly operate below atmospheric pressure, so they must be constructed as vessels that can withstand vacuum without failing.<br />
<br />
<br />
=Appendix A: Proposed Location of Desalination Plant=<br />
Pictured below is the proposed location for the desalination plant, located on Nueces Bay in Corpus Christi, adjacent to the Nueces Bay Energy Center. The plant’s proposed location is shown in the area outlined by the small circle in the upper right of the figure.<br />
<br />
[[File:NuecesBayLocation.png|center|600px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Desalination Facility Location|Figure A.1: Proposed mapped location of Nueces Bay Desalination Facility.]]<br />
[[File:ClassIWell.png|center|700px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Desalination Facility Distance to Injection Well|Figure A.2: Mapped distance from proposed location to Class I Injection Well]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix B: Feed and Product Definitions - Salinity=<br />
<br />
=Appendix C: Process Flow Diagram=<br />
[[File:TeamF_PFD.png|center|1200px|thumb|alt=Process Flow Diagram|Figure C.1: Process Flow Diagram]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix D: HYSYS Simulation Model=<br />
[[File:TeamF_HYSYS_Screenshot.PNG|center|1200px|thumb|alt=HYSYS Simulation Model|Figure D.1: Screenshot of HYSYS Model Simulation.]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix E: Stream Tables=<br />
<br />
=Appendix F: Heat Exchanger Sizing=<br />
<br />
=Appendix G: Pressure Vessel Sizing=<br />
<br />
=Appendix H: Expanded Economic Assumptions=<br />
<br />
=Appendix I: Equipment Cost Summary=<br />
<br />
=Appendix J: Economic NPV Analysis=<br />
<br />
=References=<br />
<references/></div>Kedricdaly2https://processdesign.mccormick.northwestern.edu/index.php?title=Nueces_Desalination_Center:_Production_of_Drinking_Water_by_Multi-Stage_Flash_Distillation&diff=4929Nueces Desalination Center: Production of Drinking Water by Multi-Stage Flash Distillation2016-03-07T03:00:49Z<p>Kedricdaly2: /* Feed and Product Definitions */ Adding Table 1</p>
<hr />
<div>Team F: Rankine 672 Final Report<br />
<br />
Authors: Kedric Daly, Ben Granger, Evan Rosati, Kathleen Zhou<br />
<br />
Instructors: Fengqi You, David Wegerer<br />
<br />
March 11, 2016<br />
<br />
=Executive Summary=<br />
Desalination of seawater to drinking water is a technology of ever-increasing importance given trends of increasingly widespread water shortages around the world. Even in the United States, water shortages are becoming increasingly common in dry, highly-populated such as California and certain areas of the Gulf Coast. Our design team, Rankine 672, was tasked with evaluating the need for and designing a desalination plant to provide purified water in a place of need. Investigation revealed that the city of Corpus Christi, Texas, is a strategic location for development of a desalination facility, as surrounding region is in need of new drinking water sources and the city has expressed serious interest in contracting the development of a large-scale desalination plant. Our proposed solution is a multi-stage flash distillation desalination facility capable of producing 20,000,000 gallons (75,708 m<sup>3</sup>) of purified drinking water for the city and surrounding region per operating day.<br />
<br />
In this design, drinking water is produced from seawater feedstock through a 21-stage flash distillation process. By strategically locating the facility next to an existing natural gas power plant, the Nueces Bay Energy Center, pre-heated feed water can be taken directly from the outbound cooling systems of the power plant, allowing energy savings for our desalination plant. The process is designed for 16 hour-per-day operation, requires a seawater feed of 8250 m<sup>3</sup>/hr, and produces 4758 m<sup>3</sup>/hr of purified drinking water alongside a waste stream of 3485 m<sup>3</sup>/hr of concentrated brine. The waste stream is isolated from a recycle stream through a 9.0% purge; this results in an overall product yield of 57.7% on a volume basis. The process requires an additional pretreatment stream of 16.5 kg/hr Belgard EV 2030, which serves as an antiscalant, as well as 9.5 kg/hr chlorine, 352.1 kg/hr lime, and 418.7 kg/hr CO2 for post-treatment purposes.<br />
<br />
The overall capital cost of the plant is expected to be $345MM, with a total operating cost of $103MM/yr, $59MM/yr of which comes from utilities. Due to the low price at which the product water can be sold, the 30-year net present value of the plant, assuming a 6% discount rate, is $-1,035MM. It is thus imperative this plant be constructed with public funds because it cannot return a profit to any private investor. The growing need for water however could justify the cost, because it is important that the residents of the greater Corpus Christi area have access to drinkable water.<br />
<br />
__TOC__<br />
<br />
=Introduction=<br />
==Background==<br />
Clean drinking water is a basic human need that is becoming increasingly difficult to meet. Currently, over 1 billion people live in places where water is considered scarce<ref> Tapping the oceans. The Economist USA. http://www.economist.com/node/11484059. Accessed March 2, 2016. </ref>. Though often thought of as a problem exclusive to third-world countries, the issue is becoming more prevalent in the US as well, with water managers in 40 of 50 states anticipating water shortage conditions in some portion of their state in the next 10 years. These shortages are due to increasing demands on constant or diminishing freshwater resources, therefore, to correct the issue, a new supply must be found<ref> Water Supply in the US. EPA. http://www3.epa.gov/watersense/pubs/supply.html. Accessed March 2, 2016.</ref>. Desalination of seawater is therefore important as a new source for clean drinking water and prevent water shortages. <br />
<br />
==Project Definition==<br />
The overall goal of the project is to investigate the feasibility of a desalination plant in order to meet the needs of growing water demand. The design needs to take health, safety, and environmental concerns into account, while optimizing costs.<br />
<br />
=Design Basis=<br />
Site Location and Conditions<br />
Corpus Christi, TX was chosen as the location for the proposed desalination plant. The city is currently experiencing “Moderate Shortage Conditions”. This issue additionally comes at a time of growing demand with population growth anticipated due to new industry and Eagle Ford Group crude oil production<ref>Stage 2 Measures in the Drought Contingency Plan. Available at http://www.cctexas.com/government/water/conservation/conservation-drought-plans/stage-2-measures. Accessed January 12, 2016. </ref>.<br />
<br />
In June 2014, the city announced the Corpus Christi Desalination Demonstration Project<ref>Corpus Christi Desalination Demonstration Project. Available at http://www.cctexas.com/Assets/Departments/Water/Files/DesalFactSheet.pdf. Published June 2014. Accessed January 12, 2016. <br />
</ref> which seeks to create a demonstration desalination plant capable of producing 20,000 gallons of water per day, with plans to later build a full scale facility generating 20,000,000 gallons of water per day. The desalination demonstration project indicates a clear need for implementation of a desalination plant of this size to accommodate growth in the Corpus Christi area. <br />
<br />
Locating our plant in Corpus Christi will allow us to take advantage of the benefits of cogeneration through a partnership with the Nueces Bay Energy Center. By utilizing their outlet cooling water as a large portion of our feed for the desalination process, we can raise the temperature of our seawater feed, saving on energy costs in the multi stage flash distillation. The proposed location for the desalination plant is immediately west of the Nueces Bay Energy Center. See Appendix A for a map depicting the proposed location for the desalination plant along the coast of Nueces Bay.<br />
<br />
==Feed and Product Definitions==<br />
The proposed desalination facility’s feed and product streams are defined as shown in Table 1. Rationale for these definitions is also described below. The values reported in Table 1 are final derived numbers from HYSYS simulation modeling. <br />
<br />
<b>!!!!INSERT TABLE 1!!!!</b><br />
{| class = "wikitable"<br />
|+Table 1: Feed and product stream definitions<br />
! &nbsp;<br />
! Salt Concentration<br />
! Temperature <br />
! Amount<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Feed Stream <br />
| 30,500 ppm || 45°C || 8250 m<sup>3</sup>/hr<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Product Stream<br />
| ~ 0 ppm || 35°C || 4758 m<sup>3</sup>/hr<br />
|- style="text-align: center;"<br />
! style="text-align: right;" | Byproduct Stream<br />
| 695 ppm || 35°C || 3485 m<sup>3</sup>/hr<br />
|}<br />
<br />
The process feed will be seawater from Nueces Bay, preheated through the cooling water system of the nearby Nueces Bay Energy Center. Based on calculations developed from NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory) data, it was estimated that the Nueces Bay Energy Center uses approximately 250 million gallons of seawater per day for process and cooling needs. Therefore, the 20 million gallon per day requirement for the desalination facility can easily be met through the power plant’s cooling water<ref>Torcellini P, Long N, Judkoff R. Consumptive Water Use for U.S. Power Consumption. NREL. 2003; TP-550-33905. <br />
</ref>. Note that we are assuming the process will operate 67% of the time (16 hours per day).<br />
<br />
Based on data acquired from two salinity-measuring stations in Nueces Bay, the average salinity of local seawater is 30.5 practical salinity units (psu)<ref>Stations Map & Real - Time Data. The Conrad Blucher Institute for Surveying and Science website. Available at http://www.cbi.tamucc.edu/cbi/data/. Updated January 2016. Accessed January 9, 2016. </ref>, thus setting the concentration of the process feed stream. This translates to a feed stream concentration of 30,500 ppm (parts per million)<ref>Definition and Units. CATD Salinity Expertise Center. Available at http://www.salinityremotesensing.ifremer.fr/home. Accessed January 12, 2016.</ref>. The composition of the salt attributed to this seawater salinity is shown in Table 6 in Appendix B. <br />
<br />
No data on the composition of seawater around the Corpus Christi area was available, but the composition of seawater does not change significantly in different locations. The given composition is considered accurate for our feed stream<ref>Brown E, Colling A, Park D, Phillips J, Rothery D, Wright J. Seawater : Its Composition, Properties and Behaviour. Boston: Butterworth-Heinemann, 1995.<br />
</ref>. Note that seawater salt is primarily sodium chloride - total dissolved solids are 85.7% sodium chloride by mass. As such, the dissolved solids in the feed stream is assumed in this project to be pure NaCl, making the feed composition 96.95% water and 3.05% NaCl by mass. A control system will likely be put in place to ensure feed concentration remains at this level, accounting for natural fluctuations in local seawater salinity.<br />
<br />
The largest byproduct from the process will be a brine slurry with high salt concentrations. An upper corrosion limit of 700 ppm was set for recirculated and purged brine. This undesired byproduct will be sent to a nearby Class I non-hazardous injection well facility operated by GNI Group, which is approximately 12 miles away from the proposed desalination plant location as shown in the figure in Appendix A<ref>Texas Water Code. Availabe at http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/WA/htm/WA.27.htm. Accessed January 14, 2016.<br />
</ref><ref>Google Maps. Available at https://goo.gl/maps/3xcvLZwUCe42 Accessed January 15, 2016.</ref>. Through the incorporation of a Class I injection well, the brine will not have to be treated or diluted before injection. <ref>EPA Regulations on Class I Wells. Available at http://www.epa.gov/uic/class-i-industrial-and-municipal-waste-disposal-wells. Accessed January 14, 2016.<br />
</ref><ref>List of Injection Well Facilities by Location. Available at http://www.ehso.com/cssepa/tsdfdeepwells.php. Accessed January 14, 2016.</ref><br />
<br />
There are no regulations regarding the temperature of city drinking water, so the product stream temperature has no requirements based on regulations. Outlet temperatures of 35<sup>o</sup>C are acceptable for input to the municipal water supply system. Since city water tends to be stored in non-temperature controlled tanks, the temperature will naturally cool to ambient temperature.<ref>Climate Corpus Christi- Texas. US Climate Data. Available at http://www.usclimatedata.com/climate/corpus-christi/texas/united-states/ustx0294. Accessed January 12, 2016. </ref><br />
<br />
==Pre-Treatment and Post-Treatment==<br />
For pretreatment, Belgard EV 2030 is recommended to be added at a concentration of 1.8-2.0 mg/L for a system with top brine temperature approximately 110 °C<ref>BWA Water Additives. Belgard EV2030 Technical Data Sheet. BWA Water Additives. http://www.wateradditives.com/files/products/tech_data_sheets/Belgard%20EV%202030_Technical%20Data%20Sheet_Thermal_8.5x11.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016.<br />
</ref>. Since our process is designed to operate at a slightly higher top brine temperature, 120 °C, we will design for the upper bound concentration: 2.0 mg/L of antiscalant. With a feed flow rate of 8250 m<sup>3</sup>/hr, the process therefore requires 16.5 kg/hr of Belgard EV 2030.<br />
<br />
For disinfection during post-treatment, chlorine addition typically requires a dose of roughly 2.0 mg/L as well<ref>World Health Organization. Desalination for safe water supply. http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/gdwqrevision/desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. With a pure water distillate flow rate of 4758 m<sup>3</sup>/hr, the process requires 9.5 kg/hr of chlorine gas. Approximately 74 mg/L of lime (calcium hydroxide) and 88mg/L of CO2 should be added to the desalinated water to help prevent corrosion and increase alkalinity within acceptable ranges<ref>Vouchkov, N. Re-Mineralization of Desalinated Water. SunCam. https://s3.amazonaws.com/suncam/npdocs/118.pdf. Accessed February 18, 2016.</ref>. With a product stream flow rate of 4758 m3/hr, these concentrations correspond to 352.1 kg/hr of lime and 418.7 kg/hr of CO2. Both of these can be purchased, and it is likely that the CO2 can be procured from the neighboring natural gas power plant.<br />
<br />
==Choice of Desalination Technology==<br />
The two major technologies commonly implemented for desalination include reverse osmosis (RO), and multi-stage flash distillation (MSFD). RO utilizes high pressures to force water through a semipermeable membrane that allows for purified water to pass through, but stops organic and other wastes. Often, the pressures can reach 55 - 68 bar, which requires large pumps to maintain pressure, and introduces safety concerns to the process<ref>Stage 2 Measures in the Drought Contingency Plan. Available at http://www.cctexas.com/government/water/conservation/conservation-drought-plans/stage-2-measures. Accessed January 12, 2016. <br />
</ref>. While RO can be less energy intensive than MSFD, and the membrane can also remove contaminants, it is susceptible to feedwater quality, membrane fouling, and requires more extensive pretreatment and posttreatment than MSFD. The cost of RO is directly proportional to the feed salinity, and so it is less expensive when desalinating low salinity water.<br />
<br />
Multi-stage flash distillation is best selected for areas that have high salinity or low energy costs. The pretreatment process for MSFD is much easier when compared to RO because pretreatment often consists of simply adding anti-corrosives and antiscalants to the feed stream. The process works by heating water in vessels at different pressures to change the boiling point of the water and evaporate it as it passes through the system. After evaporation, the water condenses, leaving pure water as the effluent. MSFD costs are now roughly $1.00/m3, where this cost is mostly independent of salinity, but dependent on energy costs.<ref>Fritzman C, Lowenberg J, Wintgens T, Melin T. State-of-the-art Reverse Osmosis Desalination. Desalination. 2007; 216:1-76. <br />
</ref> In both RO and MSFD a brine is produced which then must be appropriately treated and/or disposed of.<br />
<br />
Multi-stage flash distillation was selected for this process, mainly due to the economic advantages offered by the selected location of Corpus Christi, TX. MSFD is also a well understood process that can be more easily modeled by chemical engineering software.<br />
<br />
=Technical Approach=<br />
Quantitative modeling of the process and all included optimization was conducted using the simulation software Aspen HYSYS. A variety of assumptions were developed to set up and define specific components of the process simulation itself. Within Aspen HYSYS, the NRTL Electrolyte property package was selected to model the behavior of salt water. Each stage of the MSF process is modeled as an individual flash vessel, with individual shell & tube heat exchangers used to model the distillate condensers present in each flash stage in the MSF system.<br />
<br />
The HYSYS simulation model only considers the flash portion of the overall process, allowing establishment of mass and energy balances for the system. Pretreatment and post-treatment were excluded for the HYSYS model, as these steps are simple additions or removals of small concentrations of chemical components. Although the simulation models heat exchangers outside of each flash stage, in the physical design of the plant these heat exchangers will be contained within each flash stage.<br />
<br />
One portion of the process is not modeled, which is the inlet seawater entering the heat rejection stages. As can be seen from the full process flow diagram (Appendix C), the inlet seawater in the heat rejection stage is in high excess to provide maximum cooling capacity; then a significant portion is purged to bring the stream flow rate down to what is needed for the feed stream. It is assumed that the flow rate of cooling water for those three stages is in such high excess that the cooling water does not heat up. Therefore, in the process simulation models, the inlet stream is the feed stream, which enters directly into the heat recovery portion of the process.<br />
<br />
See Appendix D for a screenshot overview of the simulation environment model.<br />
<br />
=Process Overview=<br />
==Process Flowsheet==<br />
The following diagram, Figure 1, shows a basic flowsheet for the process. Process alternatives considered for each stage are discussed below. Please see Appendix C for the full process flowsheet with finalized design decisions.<br />
<br />
[[File:BlockFlowDiagram.png|center|700px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Desalination Facility Block Flow Diagram|Figure 1: Basic block flowsheet of the multi-stage flash desalination process.]]<br />
<br />
==Major Features==<br />
As seen above, there are three primary stages of the desalination process: Pre-treatment, the multi-stage flash distillation, and post-treatment. Seawater enters the pre-treatment phase first to make the feed suitable for the rest of the process by filtering out large particles that could accumulate on pipes, deaerating the water to limit corrosion, and adding an agent to combat fouling. The water then enters the distillation process, which is broken up into two sections: heat recovery and heat rejection. <br />
<br />
In the heat recovery stage, there are 18 flash vessels, each of which separates steam from the salinated liquid water. Each flash vessel has saltwater as its inlet and two outlets: a vapor outlet (steam) that condenses into the final product of purified water and a liquid outlet composed of water with more dissolved solids than the inlet, which is the inlet stream for the next flash vessel. The pipe containing the feed is first mixed with recycled brine, then goes through the top sections of each of the flash vessels, starting with V-118 and ending up at V-101. In this way, the feed stream pipe first serves as a heat exchanger, heating the pre-treated seawater while simultaneously condensing the steam into the final product. The feed then enters a final heat exchanger where it is brought up to 103.6 °C before entering V-101 to be flashed.<br />
<br />
After exiting V-118, the final flash vessel in the heat recovery portion, the water enters the heat rejection portion, which consists of three flash vessels (V-201, V-202, V-203). The flash vessels of this section operate in the same manner as in the heat recovery section, with the exception that condensation occurs using excess cooling water instead of pre-treated seawater. This technique allows excess heat to be rejected into an excess water stream rather than the feed.<br />
<br />
The purified product stream finally enters post-treatment processing in which water is re-aerated and remineralized, disinfected, and pH is adjusted before being delivered to the city. The concentrated brine leftover at the end of the flash cycle is recycled into the feed, although a purge is required to continuously remove some salt from the system. This purged brine is disposed of by use of a Class I injection well, per regional regulations.<br />
<br />
See Appendix E to find detailed stream tables of stream specifications.<br />
<br />
==Process Alternatives==<br />
===Pretreatment===<br />
Multi-stage flash distillation requires significantly less pretreatment than reverse osmosis desalination, but helpful pretreatment techniques still exist. One very inexpensive method of pretreatment is screening/filtration, which is used to filter out large contaminants from intake seawater. Using more complicated membrane technology to accomplish large particle filtration is a possible alternative, but doing so would be much more expensive than using a standard screen or filter, so the latter choice has been selected for this process.<ref>El-Dessouky H., Alatiqi I, Ettouney H. Process synthesis: The multi-stage flash desalination system. Desalination. 1998;115(2):115-179. doi: 10.1016/S0011-9164(98)00035-6.</ref><br />
<br />
The most critical type of fouling in multi-stage flash distillation is scaling - therefore, the most critical step in the pretreatment process will be the inclusion of an anti-scalant. Alkaline scaling can be prevented by acid dosing or polyphosphate addition; however, acid dosing can result in increased corrosion and polyphosphates can lead to non-alkaline calcium phosphate fouling, so these additives will not be considered<ref>Morris, R. The development of the multi-stage flash distillation process: A designer's viewpoint. Desalination. 1993;93(1-3):57-68. doi:10.1016/S0011-9164(93)80096-6.<br />
</ref><ref>Al-Gobaisi, D. A quarter-century of seawater desalination by large multistage flash plants in Abu Dhabi (Plant performance analysis, assessment, present efforts toward enhancement and future hopes). Desalination. 1994;99(2-3):509-512. doi: 10.1016/S0011-9164(94)00196-0.</ref>. As such, a polymer-based additive is recommended for the anti-scalant for this process. The Belgard EV series is designed for use in high-temperature seawater MSF; of these, Belgard EV 2030 is the most neutral in pH<ref>NSF International. NSF Product and Service Listings: Drinking Water Treatment Chemicals - Health Effects. NSF International. http://info.nsf.org/Certified/PwsChemicals/Listings.asp?Company=00300&. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref><ref>BWA Water Additives. Belgard EV2030 Technical Data Sheet. BWA Water Additives. http://www.wateradditives.com/files/products/tech_data_sheets/Belgard%20EV%202030_Technical%20Data%20Sheet_Thermal_8.5x11.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref><ref>BWA Water Additives. Belgard EV2035 Technical Data Sheet. BWA Water Additives. http://www.wateradditives.com/files/products/tech_data_sheets/Belgard%20EV2035_Technical%20Data%20Sheet_Thermal_8.5x11.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref><ref>BioLab Water Additives. Belgard EV Antiscalant for seawater distillation plants. BioLab Water Additives. http://www.lpq.com.mx/pdf/BELGARD%20EV.PDF. Accessed January 27, 2016.</ref>. As such, we have selected Belgard EV 2030 for use as an anti-scalant in our process.<br />
<br />
Corrosion control is another significant method of pretreatment in multi-stage flash distillation plants. Using a piping material that has limited susceptibility to corrosion is typically not economically viable for MSF desalination plants due their large size, so using carbon steel for most of the piping is generally used for its economic benefits despite its susceptibility to corrosion<ref>Morris, R. The development of the multi-stage flash distillation process: A designer's viewpoint. Desalination. 1993;93(1-3):57-68. doi:10.1016/S0011-9164(93)80096-6.</ref>. Limiting oxygen concentration is very feasible through the use of deaerators, which can remove oxygen as well as other dissolved gases from the seawater stream. Often, an external deaeration system is used<ref>Morris, R. The development of the multi-stage flash distillation process: A designer's viewpoint. Desalination. 1993;93(1-3):57-68. doi:10.1016/S0011-9164(93)80096-6.</ref><ref>Edwards - Hick Hargreaves. Seawater Deaerators. Edwards - Hick Hargreaves. http://psscorp.co.th/upload/news/20110830105340.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. Given these considerations, using an external deaerator combined with a less-corrosive antiscalant like Belgard EV 2030 is much more practical for the process than using anti-corrosive piping.<br />
<br />
Excessive foam can also be an issue in some MSF distillation facilities, so antifoaming agents are sometimes employed in the pretreatment process as well. However, many plants are operated without foaming issues, and therefore do not need anti-foaming pretreatment at all. Selection of an anti-foaming agent must be carefully weighed with selected of anti-scalant to avoid issues with additive interactions [26]. At this stage in the design process, an anti-foamer will not be included due to the risk of decreasing scalant efficacy, and the likelihood that foam will not be an issue in the desalination plant.<br />
<br />
===Multistage Flash Distillation===<br />
The main objective of the design project is desalinate water. This is done with the main process of multi stage flash distillation (MSF). MSF can be developed using a numerous number of different process configurations, such as Once-Through, Simple Mixer Brine Circulation, and Multi-Stage Heat Rejection Brine Circulation processes. <br />
<br />
The most desired process for the project is the Three Stage Heat Rejection Brine Circulation as it builds on benefits of the other simpler technologies. By combining principles of heat rejection and heat recovery, the required heat transfer area of the process is greatly reduced as compared to once through processes or simple brine recycle processes. It has the highest performance ratio with the lowest specific feed flow rates, therefore greatly lowering the operating costs of the process. It is also known as the industry standard for MSF<ref>Kansas State University ChE 413.. Available at: http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/Almutaz/Documents/ChE-413/Multi-stage%20Flash%20Desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. In addition, since our brine disposal technique involves the pumping of the brine into a Class I well, the high brine outlet salinity is not a drawback for our process since post treatment or dilution of the brine is not necessary.<br />
<br />
===Post Treatment===<br />
After processing the water via multi-stage flash, the water needs to be post-treated to make the water taste as consumers would expect, since distilled water is “flat” and unpleasant, as well as to protect the consumers and the piping through which the water will be passing<ref>Clayton R. A review of current knowledge: Desalination for water supply. Foundation for Water Research. http://www.fwr.org/desal.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>. There are multiple alternatives to achieve these objectives of remineralization, aeration, corrosion control, and disinfection.<br />
<br />
Aerating and introducing some dissolved solids back into the product water are effective ways to create a quality product that is not flat, and contains flavoring that is expected of the water when delivered to the consumer. Aeration will be accomplished via an inline spray aerator which will take up less space than cascade aeration.<ref>Minnesota Rural Water Association. Aeration. http://www.mrwa.com/WaterWorksMnl/Chapter%2011%20Aeration.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref> Feed blending will be used to remineralize the water as opposed to a remineralization filter because it does not require additional equipment purchases, and can easily handle the large amounts of throughput required for the process.<ref>Clayton R. A review of current knowledge: Desalination for water supply. Foundation for Water Research. http://www.fwr.org/desal.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref><br />
<br />
Corrosion and pH can be controlled by adding lime (calcium hydroxide) and carbon dioxide to the water. To do so, about 74 mg/L of lime and 88mg/L of CO<sub>2</sub> should be added to the desalinated water to help prevent corrosion and increase alkalinity within acceptable ranges. Sodium hydroxide, soda ash, and sodium bicarbonate are alternatives to altering the alkalinity and pH of the product water, but lime and CO<sub>2</sub> is an industry standard.<ref> Vouchkov, N. Re-Mineralization of Desalinated Water. SunCam. https://s3.amazonaws.com/suncam/npdocs/118.pdf. Accessed February 18, 2016.</ref><br />
<br />
Disinfection needs to be done to prevent microbial growth in the desalinated water and ensure the safety of the general public. Chlorine addition via chlorine gas or sodium hypochlorite is the most common and only requires a dose of 1.5 to 2.5 mg/liter.<ref>World Health Organization. Desalination for safe water supply. http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/gdwqrevision/desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>Other alternatives include ozonation, UV light, and chloramination. Chlorine, as a 5% - 15% sodium hypochlorite solution, is sufficient for our process and relatively inexpensive, and as such will be utilized in the process.<br />
<br />
===Transport of Brine to Well===<br />
Three major possibilities exist for transporting the brine from our desalination plant to the injection well for disposal: rail, trucking, and a pipeline. A pipeline was chosen as the most feasible and cost-effective approach. <br />
<br />
A rail line is not available at this time, and with the cost to construct a rail line at approximately $43 million per mile<ref>About Money. How Much Do Rail Transit Projects Cost to Build and Operate? 2014. Available at: http://publictransport.about.com/od/Transit_Projects/a/How-Much-Do-Rail-Transit-Projects-Cost-To-Build-And-Operate.htm. Accessed January 27, 2016. </ref>, the enormous capital cost makes rail transport infeasible for this site. For large volume operations, pipelines are cheaper than trucking. In a study of wastewater sludge produced from wastewater treatment facilities, it was found that it was more economical for facilities producing over 1200 m<sup>3</sup> per day to utilize pipelines rather than trucking.<ref>Marufuzzaman M, Eskioglu S, Hernandez R. Truck versus pipeline transportation cost analysis of wastewater sludge. Transportation Research. 2015; 74(A): 14-30. </ref> Our facility is producing nearly 3 times this volume at 3485 m<sup>3</sup> per day of brine. Furthermore, brine is a less viscous fluid than wastewater sludge, decreasing pumping costs in the pipeline and further amplifying the benefit of choosing a pipeline over an injection well.<br />
<br />
===Brine Storage===<br />
Due to the choice of a pipeline, rather than trucking, as the method of transport of brine to the injection well, brine storage is unnecessary, so storage solutions such as holding tanks were not investigated. One method of storage compatible with a pipeline is to pump the brine through an evaporation pond. This solution is attractive as it would allow the brine to concentrate, saving some costs of pumping, however, the considerable land usage of evaporation ponds leads them to only be effective for smaller plants. The largest municipal plant utilizing this method produces only 5.7 million liters per day<ref>University of Santa Cruz Center for Integrated Water Research. Concentrate Management: Evaporation Ponds. 2010. Available at: https://ciwr.ucsc.edu/sites/default/files/ICM_D5.pdf. Accessed January 27, 2016. </ref>, whereas our desalination plant is proposed to produce 75.7 million liters per day. Therefore, evaporation ponds have been eliminated from consideration.<br />
<br />
==Major Specifications==<br />
===Material of Construction Selection===<br />
While saltwater and desalinated water in general can be corrosive, there are best practices within the desalination industry for material selection. With this in mind, best practice shows carbon steel lifetime can be lengthened by monitoring the oxygen concentration in the water, specifying the paint used to coat any metal, and more expensive materials can be used in areas of extremely high corrosion.<ref>Morris, R. The development of the multi-stage flash distillation process: A designer's viewpoint. Desalination. 1993;93(1-3):57-68. doi:10.1016/S0011-9164(93)80096-6. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0011916493800966<br />
</ref> By following these best practices, it is possible to save significant amounts of money through the use of carbon steel in most areas of the plant, with specific high-corrosion areas being reinforced with, or replaced with, more corrosion resistant materials, such as Cu/Ni 70/30 alloy<ref>Kansas State University ChE 413.. Available at: http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/Almutaz/Documents/ChE-413/Multi-stage%20Flash%20Desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>.<br />
<br />
===Heat Exchanger Sizing===<br />
See Appendix F for heat exchanger sizing data. Heat exchanger sizes appear reasonable for placement in the flash vessels.<br />
<br />
===Flash Vessel Sizing===<br />
The dimensions for the flash drums were obtained through literature values. The flash drums were determined to be 18x4x3 m in width, height, and length.<ref>Kansas State University ChE 413.. Available at: http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/Almutaz/Documents/ChE-413/Multi-stage%20Flash%20Desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref><br />
<br />
Wall thickness was determined using the following conventions: Design pressure is 10% more than the operating pressure, design temperature is 50°F (27.8°C) higher than the operating temperature, a corrosion allowance of 3-mm and an effectiveness of 85% was derived from the assumption of a double-welded butt joint that was spot checked. See Appendix G for wall thicknesses calculated for each pressure vessel. <br />
<br />
The sizing of the vessels to be constructed will be determined after talks with a manufacturer. Due to economies of scale, it may be more cost-effective to buy 21 pressure vessels with the dimensions mentioned above and a wall thickness of 17.1-mm, the highest wall thickness required in the system.<br />
<br />
===Pipe Losses and Pressure Drop===<br />
HYSYS was used to estimate the diameter of a pipe given a specified pressure drop per 100m of pipe. It was determined that for a pressure drop of 0.1 kPa/100m of pipe, a 3.05m diameter pipe is sufficient, which is more than manageable for manufacturers. This pressure drop is mostly insignificant and will be taken care of with the safety factors included in the pumps. The significant pressure drops in our system is accounted for via losses in the flash vessels and heat exchangers, which drive the flash process. Therefore overall pipe losses are insignificant and are built into intentional design losses.<br />
<br />
=Economic Analysis=<br />
==Economic Assumptions==<br />
The sale of purified water yields a revenue stream of $49.5 million per year assuming sale to commercial entities within the city limits of Corpus Christi at $1.7915 per thousand liters.<ref>Water schedule. City of Corpus Christi Utility Business Office. http://www.cctexas.com/Assets/Departments/Financial-Services/Utilities-Business-Office/files/waterrates.pdf Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref> The primary variable costs are utilities and the brine disposal, with minimal raw materials costs due to the primary feedstock, seawater, being free, and minimal amounts of pre- and post-treatment chemicals being used. The cost of brine disposal used in this analysis was high at $2.097 per thousand liters<ref>McCurdy, R. Underground injection wells for produced water disposal. Chesapeake Energy Corporation. http://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/documents/21_McCurdy_-_UIC_Disposal_508.pdf Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref>, an estimate for brine disposal utilizing trucking as the mode of transport. As has been shown through previous analyses, a lower cost can be achieved using a direct pipeline, however, no good estimates for this cost could be found.<br />
<br />
The NPV was calculated using a 6% cost of capital, the approximate interest rate for a municipal bond.<ref>Zirbe, R.O. Jr., Han, X., Layton, D., Leshine, T. A history of discount rates and their use by government agencies. (2002). http://faculty.washington.edu/zerbe/docs/DISCOUNT%20RATE%20HISTORY-latesXIt.doc Accessed February 28, 2016.</ref> It was assumed that the plant can be built within two years, with production at half-scale in its first year. Additionally, one month of variable costs, $10.6 million, was set aside for working capital. See Appendix H for a full table of assumptions. A 30 year NPV calculation was chosen as the decision basis since 30 years is a conservative estimate for the lifetime of a desalination plant [38]. See below for estimates of NPV for the lifetime of the plant under various assumptions and design criteria.<br />
<br />
==Optimization and Sensitivity Analysis==<br />
Looking at the multi-stage flash process, there are a number of opportunities to optimize the process. The major process variables that were investigated were the inlet water temperature, the operating pressure drop per vessel, and the number of stages over which the process takes place. Considering these optimizations, our final process consists of 21 flash vessels (18 heat recovery and 3 heat rejection stages), each with a pressure drop of 5 kPa. See Appendix D for a screenshot of the HYSYS simulation used to model the optimized process.<br />
===Operating Pressure and Pressure Drop===<br />
Initially our process was designed to pump the inlet seawater and brine to a pressure of 2 bar and allow the pressure drop in each flash stage to end our process downstream at 1 bar to prevent complications associated with designing a system under vacuum. While this provided pumping advantages, the energy in the system was significantly higher due to vapor pressure considerations. Due to this fact, the required heat exchange area for certain exchangers proved to be infeasible (on the order of 80,000m<sup>2</sup>) due to the enormous capital and operating costs that would be associated with such a large heat exchanger.<br />
<br />
The process was optimized to operate under vacuum, requiring additional pumping requirements but much lower required heat exchange area, and therefore lower utility costs. This optimization was done by specifying the pressure of the final flash vessel to 5.7kPa, so that the temperature of the water vapor (~30<sup>o</sup>C) is within approximately 5<sup>o</sup>C of the cooling water (35<sup>o</sup>C) so that condensation can occur within a reasonable approach. This also allows our system to optimally extract pure water from the brine running through the system and reduce energy requirements for cooling the product or the recycle. Our system redesign and optimization reduced the energy in the system and reduce the same heat exchanger area requirements by more than 3 orders of magnitude to approximately 800m<sup>2</sup>. <br />
<br />
Once the process was optimized to operate in a vacuum, the pressure drop per flash stage regulated through values was then optimized. Three pressure drops per stages, 3kPa, 5kPa, and 7kPa, were tested and then an economic analysis was conducted to find the optimal value for the pressure drop. These changes had impacts on both operating and capital costs as they would change initial pumping requirements, the amount of water flowing through the process and recycle (and therefore the flash vessel sizes, heat exchanger sizing), and the efficiency of each stage.<br />
<br />
The various pressure drops (3 kPa, 5 kPa, and 7 kPa) were tested on a system nominally at 24 stages under the assumption that the results would be generalizable to systems with a different number of stages. With increasing pressure drop, we found decreased capital cost but increased utility cost. As can be seen from Table 2 below, a pressure drop of 5 kPa proved to be the best option based on 30 year NPV, with a loss of $838.8 million, a savings of $65.5 million compared to the next-best option with a pressure drop of 7 kPa.<br />
<br />
<b>!!!!INSERT TABLE 2!!!!</b><br />
<br />
===Number of Flash Stages===<br />
The number of stages is an important area for optimization. An increased number of stages yields better recovery of purified water, however, requires higher capital cost from the additional pressure vessel. Furthermore, with an increased amount of purified water comes increasingly concentrated brine. This must be taken into account since any brine concentration in excess of about 7% presents a more significant corrosion risk<ref>Kansas State University ChE 413.. Available at: http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/Almutaz/Documents/ChE-413/Multi-stage%20Flash%20Desalination.pdf. Accessed January 26, 2016.</ref>, so increased maintenance costs for the piping or higher capital costs for more corrosion-resistant materials could be necessary for brine concentrations exceeding 7%. Therefore, to recover the same amount of pure water without exceeding corrosion limitations, increasing the number of stages will reduce the overall size of each stage.<br />
<br />
Optimizing based on NPV, it was found that 21 stages is optimal, balancing the increased profits from the additional purified water additional costs of higher capital cost. See Table 3 below to compare the 30-year NPV of the process across various numbers of flash vessels.<br />
<br />
<b>!!!! INSERT TABLE 3!!!! </b><br />
<br />
===Inlet Seawater Temperature===<br />
By pairing our desalination plant with a natural gas power plant and utilizing its cooling water we forgo initial heating of our inlet stream. Normally, water pumped from the ocean would be approximately 25<sup>o</sup>C and by capturing waste heat from the power plant we can reduce utilities with our water inlet of 45<sup>o</sup>C. Through an economic comparison between two plants nominally at 21 flash stages, the plant with an inlet temperature at 25<sup>o</sup>C has a capital cost of $245MM and a utility cost of $77MM/yr and the same facility with an inlet water temperature at 45<sup>o</sup>C has a capital cost of only $226MM and a utility cost of $56MM/yr. As shown in Table 4 below, this $19MM savings in capital costs and $21MM/yr saving in utilities is largely due to reducing the size of the heat exchangers and lowering the steam required for heating duty on the inlet seawater respectively. Therefore our process is optimized by recovering the waste heat water from the gas fired power plant.<br />
<br />
<b>!!!! INSERT TABLE 4!!!! </b><br />
<br />
==Overall Process Economics==<br />
After optimization at fixed flow rates, the process was scaled to meet the the 67% operating percentage and final product definitions as shown in Table 1, which resulted in finalized economics shown in Table 5 below. For a table of the installed costs of each process vessel, see Appendix I. For the finalized NPV calculations, see Appendix J.<br />
<br />
<b>!!!! INSERT TABLE 5!!!! </b><br />
<br />
=Conclusions and Recommendations=<br />
==Project Viability==<br />
Table 5 above demonstrates that the process has reasonable operating and capital costs, but the 30-year NPV is negative by -1035 $MM due to the extremely low sell price capability of desalinated water as a product. Therefore, this plant would have to heavily be supported by the City of Corpus Christi to run as the product revenue will not make it self-sufficient. The acquisition of government subsidies are key operating requirements for all desalination facilities in the United States. <br />
<br />
==Additional Concerns==<br />
Large volumes of water, steam, and energy are needed to ensure the project runs as specified. While most of the water can easily be extracted from the ocean with little to consequence, the fuel used to generate the steam and electricity can have a significant environmental impact. As the plant is located next to a natural gas power plant, this fuel is better than coal with respect to environmental concerns, and utilizing energy from the power plant to preheat the feed stream for the desalination plant helps lower environmental impacts.<br />
<br />
The large amounts of high pressure steam being used represents one of the the largest safety concern in the process, because a high pressure steam release could easily cause severe burns or even death. Proper precautions and control measures must be in place to prevent accidental release. Otherwise, the process does not utilize any known toxic chemicals and is relatively safe from a chemical standpoint. The flash vessels mostly operate below atmospheric pressure, so they must be constructed as vessels that can withstand vacuum without failing.<br />
<br />
<br />
=Appendix A: Proposed Location of Desalination Plant=<br />
Pictured below is the proposed location for the desalination plant, located on Nueces Bay in Corpus Christi, adjacent to the Nueces Bay Energy Center. The plant’s proposed location is shown in the area outlined by the small circle in the upper right of the figure.<br />
<br />
[[File:NuecesBayLocation.png|center|600px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Desalination Facility Location|Figure A.1: Proposed mapped location of Nueces Bay Desalination Facility.]]<br />
[[File:ClassIWell.png|center|700px|thumb|alt=Nueces Bay Desalination Facility Distance to Injection Well|Figure A.2: Mapped distance from proposed location to Class I Injection Well]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix B: Feed and Product Definitions - Salinity=<br />
<br />
=Appendix C: Process Flow Diagram=<br />
[[File:TeamF_PFD.png|center|1200px|thumb|alt=Process Flow Diagram|Figure C.1: Process Flow Diagram]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix D: HYSYS Simulation Model=<br />
[[File:TeamF_HYSYS_Screenshot.PNG|center|1200px|thumb|alt=HYSYS Simulation Model|Figure D.1: Screenshot of HYSYS Model Simulation.]]<br />
<br />
=Appendix E: Stream Tables=<br />
<br />
=Appendix F: Heat Exchanger Sizing=<br />
<br />
=Appendix G: Pressure Vessel Sizing=<br />
<br />
=Appendix H: Expanded Economic Assumptions=<br />
<br />
=Appendix I: Equipment Cost Summary=<br />
<br />
=Appendix J: Economic NPV Analysis=<br />
<br />
=References=<br />
<references/></div>Kedricdaly2https://processdesign.mccormick.northwestern.edu/index.php?title=Pressure_changer&diff=4583Pressure changer2016-02-21T21:33:11Z<p>Kedricdaly2: Updated "date presented" to final due date</p>
<hr />
<div>Authors: Kedric Daly<sup> [2016] </sup><br />
<br />
Stewards: David Garcia, Fengqi You<br />
<br />
Date Presented: February 21, 2016<br />
<br />
<!-- Table of Contents --><br />
__TOC__<br />
<br />
=Introduction=<br />
Pressure changers are any piece of equipment where the main goal is to increase or decrease the pressure of a stream. Typically, pressure changers are used mostly for increasing pressure, due to the fact that pressure losses occur within a system due to friction with pipes, pipe bends, valves, and other pieces of equipment <ref name="Towler">G.P. Towler, R. Sinnott. Chemical Engineering Design: Principles, Practice and Economics of Plant and Process Design. Elsevier, 2012.</ref>. Lowering the pressure of a system can also be useful however, such as to favor the products of a chemical reaction through Le Chatelier's principle. It is important however to ensure proper pressure is maintained throughout a chemical process so that blowback does not occur, and any fluids actually reach their destination as expected, at the proper conditions.<br />
<br><br><br />
There are many different types of modeling software for chemical processing, Aspen HYSYS, and Aspen Plus being well known. Like any piece of process equipment, it is necessary to specify a number of independent variables in order for the simulation to converge and produce unknown values. There are different combinations of independent variables that will suffice and cause the model to converge. Typically, the inlet and outlet pressures are specified (pressure drop, or ΔP), rather than pump duty, because these variables are important to ensure process design specifications are met.<ref name="Biegler">L.T. Biegler, I.E. Grossmann, A.W. Westerberg. Systematic Methods of Chemical Process Design. Prentice-Hall: Upper Saddle River, 1997.</ref> Different parameters of the pump or compressor can also be specified, such as efficiency, which will impact the results of the simulation. It is therefore important to ensure the equipment is correctly specified to ensure accurate results.<br />
<br />
=Pumps=<br />
<br />
Pumps do work on fluids, causing them to increase in pressure at a constant volume, due to the assumption that liquids that enter pumps are mostly incompressible. For more information on different types of pumps, see [[Process hydraulics|Pumps]].<br />
<br/><br />
<br/><br />
To find the power outlet required by a pump to pressurize a fluid, an energy balance can be done on the system. The result is the mechanical balance equation, below:<br/><br />
<br />
<center><br />
<math> \mathbf{P} = -mW_s = m\left ( \Delta \left (\frac{u^2}{2\alpha} \right ) +g\Delta z + \int_{P_1}^{P_2} vdP + F \right ) </math><br />
</center><br />
Where <math> \mathbf{P} </math> is the power required, <math> m </math> is the mass flow rate, <math> W_s </math> is that shaft work, <math> u </math> is the velocity of the fluid, <math> \alpha </math> describes the flow in the system (0.5 for laminar, 1 for turbulent), <math> g </math> is the gravitational acceleration, <math> \Delta z </math> is the change in height, <math> \int_{P_1}^{P_2} vdP </math> is the constant volume PV work done, and <math> F </math> is the force acting on the fluid. Each grouping deals with different aspects of the fluid flow. The first term deals with the kinetics, the second term with the statics, the third term with the pressure head, and the fourth term with the viscous losses. <ref name="Pressure Changers"> YA Hussein. Pressure Changers. Available at http://www.just.edu.jo/~yahussain/files/Pressure%20Changers.pdf Accessed February 3, 2016</ref> It should also be noted that a pressure head is the height of a fluid that results in an equivalent pressure via the <math> P = \rho g h </math> relation. <br />
<br/><br />
<br/><br/><br />
While the mechanical balance equation can be used to find the outlet power required, no pump is 100% efficient. The efficiency, <math> \eta </math>, of a pump is defined as:<br />
<br />
<center><br />
<math> \eta = \frac{\mathbf{P_{out}}}{\mathbf{P_{in}}} </math><br />
</center><br />
<br />
The efficiency of a pump is related to the pressure head and the fluid flow rate because the work can be converted to either a higher velocity or a larger pressure head.<ref name="Pressure Changers" />. Manufacturers often supply characteristic pump curves in order to inform their customers which pumps will meet their needs. Using these types of curves, it can be seen where the best operating range is for a pump in order to maximize efficiency, and therefore minimize losses in the system. An example curve can be seen below.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
[[File:PrCh_Pump_Char_Curve.PNG|center|500px|caption]] Characteristic Pump Curve Example <ref name="Towler" /><br />
</center><br />
<br />
<br/><br />
<br/><br />
<br />
Another important consideration for pumps is that a Net Positive Suction Head (<math>NPSH</math>) must be maintained within the pump, in order to avoid cavitation.<ref name="Turton">R.T. Turton, R.C. Bailie, W.B. Whiting, J.A. Shaeiwitz. Analysis, Synthesis, and Design of Chemical Processes. Prentice Hall: Upper Saddle River, 2003.</ref> Cavitation occurs because as fluid enters a pump, frictional losses near the pump entrance cause a pressure drop, leading to a minimum pressure somewhere in the pump, and if the fluid is close to saturation, bubbles can form within the pump<ref name ="Turton" />. Specifically, to avoid cavitation, the available NPSH (<math> NPSH_{avail} </math>) must exceed the required NPSH (<math> NPSH_{reqd} </math>), which is specified by the manufacturer of the pump because <math> NPSH_{reqd} </math> depends on the pump design. The <math> NPSH_{avail} </math> can be found by using equation (20.21) in Towler, below: <ref name ="Towler" /><br />
<br />
<center><br />
<math> NPSH_{avail} = \frac{P}{\rho g} + H - \frac{P_f}{\rho g} - \frac{P_v}{\rho g} </math><br />
</center><br />
<br />
Where <math> P </math> is the pressure above the liquid in the feed vessel, <math> H </math> is the height of the liquid above the pump section, <math>P_f</math> is the pressure loss in the suction piping, <math> P_v </math> is the vapor pressure of the liquid at the pump suction, <math> \rho </math> is the density of the liquid, and <math> g </math> is the acceleration due to gravity. Regardless of what <math> NPSH_{reqd} </math> is, the <math> NPSH_{avail} </math> from the above equation must exceed it to avoid cavitation.<br />
<br />
==Modeling Pumps with HYSYS==<br />
Pumps can be modeled in Aspen HYSYS using the pump unit operation. Modeling can be done because while the specific thermodynamics, physical properties, and kinetics may differ from process to process, the conservation equations remain the same for similar process units, pumps included.<ref name="Seider"> W.D. Seider, J.D. Seader, D.R. Lewin. Process Design Principles: Synthesis, Analysis, and Evaluation. Wiley: New York, 2004.</ref>. In order to model a pump, it pump requires an inlet stream, an outlet stream, and an energy stream, as can be seen in the figure below.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
[[File:PrCh_Basic_Setup.PNG|center|500px|unspecified pump]]A basic setup for a pump in Aspen HYSYS.<br />
</center><br />
<br />
In order for any useful information to be gleaned from the model, certain combinations of specifications must be made. There are multiple ways of going about the specification process, depending on what information is known and what information the modeler wants to know. In general, two of the three steams will need to be specified, in order to calculate the third stream. For example, specifying the inlet and outlet will allow for the pump duty to be calculated. This is a common specification because processing conditions are often known, but the modeler would want to know how powerful of a pump they will need for this specific pump, so they need to know the pump duty.<br />
<br />
One basic example is if we want to pressurize a stream of water from 1 bar and 40C to 2 bar, and see how much energy the pump will require to do so. To specify the inlet stream, double click on it it HYSYS, and specify the molar flow rate, and other process variables, as well as the stream composition. In this example, the non-random two liquid (NRTL) fluid package is used, with the temperature of the inlet stream specified as 40C, the pressure as 1 bar (100 kPa), the mass flow rate as 10 m<sup>3</sup>/h, and a water mole fraction of 1. Then, if the outlet stream is specified to be at a pressure of 2 bar (200 kPa), there is enough information for HYSYS to calculate the pump duty, as well as the other outlet stream conditions via mass and energy balances. The specifications can be seen below, and the inlet and outlet stream should change from a light blue to a dark blue in HYSYS when they are specified and solved correctly. HYSYS also calculates the <math> NPSH_{avail} </math>, which can be seen in the rating tab of the pump and is 9.585 m in this case.<br />
<br />
{| style="width: 100%;"<br />
|-<br />
| || [[File:Pr_Ch_In_Out_Spec.PNG|right|400px|change in color observed on pump when properly specified]]||<br />
|<br />
|- style="height: 50px;"<br />
| ||Change in color observed on pump when properly specified||<br />
|-<br />
|[[File:Pr_Ch_In_Out_Spec_wkbk.PNG|left|400px|inlet and outlet specifications]]<br />
|<br />
|[[File:Pr_Ch_In_Out_Spec_NPSHavail.PNG|center|400px|NPSH available can be calculated by HYSYS]]<br />
|}<br />
<br/> <br />
<br />
<br/><br/>The result is that the pump requires 1336 kJ/h, which equates to 0.3711 kW for the pump, indicating this is a fairly low power operation to perform.<br />
<br />
=Compressors=<br />
For background on different types of compressors, see [[Process hydraulics|Compressors]]. Typically centrifugal compressors are used for compressing higher volumes of gas to moderate pressures, whereas positive-displacement compressors are use for compressing low volumes to high pressures.<ref name="Turton"/><br />
<br />
Centrifugal compressors are similar to centrifugal pumps, with the major difference being the fluid going into the compressors are compressible. <ref name="Turton"/> This fact makes the math behind modeling compressors more complex than for pumps where an incompressible fluid assumption is made. There are still similarities however, in that a performance curve is often provided by the manufacturer so that outlet pressure can be related to inlet pressure and flow rates. One major difference between pump and compressor performance curves is that compressor performance curves deal with a pressure ratio, rather than a pressure difference, and a surge line is often included as well. <ref name="Turton"/> The surge line is important because it marks the point where a lower flowrate would result in backflow, which could lead to a reversal of flow direction and would damage the compressor.<ref name="Turton"/>.<br />
<br />
==Modeling Compressors with HYSYS==<br />
Compressors are extremely similar to pumps in HYSYS, in that they need an inlet, and outlet, and a duty stream in order to be modeled properly, as seen in the figure below.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
[[File:PC_compressor_initial.PNG|center|500px]]<br />
</center><br />
<br />
Likewise, specifying an inlet and outlet stream conditions will cause the compressor to converge. Another option for more specific information to be included in the simulation is by adding performance curves to the equipment. To add a performance curve, double click the compressor and go to the rating tab, then the curve page, check the "Enable Curves" check box, and then hit the add curve button and fill out the data from the table below.<ref name="Compressor Tutorial">N. Brownrigg. Jump start: Compressor modeling in Aspen HYSYS® Dynamics. Aspen Tech, 2015. Available at http://www.aspentech.com/compressor_modeling_jump_start.pdf Accessed 2/21/2016</ref><br />
<br />
<center><br />
{|<br />
|[[File:PC_compressor_add_curve.PNG|500px]] || [[File:PC_compressor_add_curve_4900data.PNG|500px]]<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
After setting the compressor speed to 4900 rpm (as seen in the top right of the figure to the left, above), the inlet stream can be specified. In this example, set the temperature to 110 C, the pressure to 100 kPa, the std. ideal liq flow to 9 m<sup>3</sup>/h, and the composition of the stream to 100 water. After specifying the stream, the compressor will have enough information to converge without specifying any outlet stream conditions. This is because the performance curve relates the flow rate to the possible pressure change, and combined with information such as adiabatic pump efficiency, HYSYS can calculate any changes the pump has on the inlet stream. This type of specification is useful when you know what compressor will be used in the process design, as more accurate utility costs can be calculated.<br />
<br />
Once data for the performance curves are input, they can also be viewed by clicking "plot curves". This can be convenient to ensure the operating point of the pump falls where the modeler wants it because the operating point of the pump is also placed on the same plot. The figure below shows the compressor curve with an additional performance curve added. The large red dot is the operating point, and it falls on the red 4900 rpm performance curve because this rpm was specified for the pump.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
[[File:PC_compressor_curve_4900rpm.PNG|500px]]<br />
</center><br />
<br />
It is also possible to plot a surge curve on the same plot to easily ensure operation above the surge line. To do so, click on the flow limits page under the rating tab within the compressor and click the surge curve button, then input whatever data fits the surge curve for the pump.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{|<br />
|[[File:PC_compressor_add_surge_curve.PNG|500px]]||[[File:PC_compressor_surge_curve_data.PNG]]<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
The resulting plot makes it easy to see whether or not an operating point is above the surge line in order to ensure blowback does not occur.<br />
[[File:PC_compressor_perf_curve_with_surge.PNG|center|500px]]<br />
We can see the operating point is to the right of the surge curve, so blowback should not be a problem for these specifications. The resulting outlet stream conditions for these specifications should be 154.7 C, and 145.7 kPa.<br />
<br />
=Modeling Other Pressure Changers=<br />
[[File:PC_valve_converged.PNG|thumb|A converged valve in HYSYS]]<br />
When modeling valves in HYSYS, they also require an inlet and outlet stream, the same as pumps and compressors, but do not require a duty stream. For steady state simulation, as long as a pressure drop is specified along in some form, the valve should converge. This can be done by specifying inlet and outlet pressures (and other conditions required for stream convergence), or by specifying the pressure drop across the valve and the inlet or outlet pressure, although inlet pressure is preferred in most cases because then HYSYS does not need to try and backward solve for the inlet pressure in complicated systems.<br />
<br/><br />
<br/><br />
Even piping itself can change the pressure of a stream due to viscous losses. When modeling a process, it is often best to initially estimate this based on pipe length and any fittings the piping will need, by using relations that can be found in the table below in equations found in [[Process hydraulics|Pressure Drop in Pipes]], taken from Towler. <ref name="Towler"/> When final instrumentation drawings are completed for the process, ore rigorous hydraulic calculations should be completed to ensure there is enough pressure head throughout the process.<br />
<br />
[[File:Towler-Table 20.4.PNG|center]]<br />
=Summary=<br />
<br />
When modeling pressure changers with computer software, it is important to not over-specify them, as for any other piece of equipment. Failing to include them in the final process simulation may lead to odd results, such as a negative pressure drop through a heater or cooler in order to meet pressure or temperature specifications on a material stream. Should this situation occur, a pump or compressor should be added to ensure that a physically possible pressure drop takes place in the processing equipment. Pumps and compressors will use electricity to perform their pressure changes, and if many pumps or a large compressor is used in the process, this can have impacts on the process economics, so it is important to model pressure changers when designing a chemical process. Estimates for piping and valves also need to be included in the simulation so that proper pressure heads are maintained throughout the process simulation.<br />
<br />
=References=<br />
<references /></div>Kedricdaly2https://processdesign.mccormick.northwestern.edu/index.php?title=Pressure_changer&diff=4581Pressure changer2016-02-21T21:29:22Z<p>Kedricdaly2: Other pressure changers and slight summary modification and internal link modifications</p>
<hr />
<div>Authors: Kedric Daly<sup> [2016] </sup><br />
<br />
Stewards: David Garcia, Fengqi You<br />
<br />
Date Presented: February 5, 2016<br />
<br />
<!-- Table of Contents --><br />
__TOC__<br />
<br />
=Introduction=<br />
Pressure changers are any piece of equipment where the main goal is to increase or decrease the pressure of a stream. Typically, pressure changers are used mostly for increasing pressure, due to the fact that pressure losses occur within a system due to friction with pipes, pipe bends, valves, and other pieces of equipment <ref name="Towler">G.P. Towler, R. Sinnott. Chemical Engineering Design: Principles, Practice and Economics of Plant and Process Design. Elsevier, 2012.</ref>. Lowering the pressure of a system can also be useful however, such as to favor the products of a chemical reaction through Le Chatelier's principle. It is important however to ensure proper pressure is maintained throughout a chemical process so that blowback does not occur, and any fluids actually reach their destination as expected, at the proper conditions.<br />
<br><br><br />
There are many different types of modeling software for chemical processing, Aspen HYSYS, and Aspen Plus being well known. Like any piece of process equipment, it is necessary to specify a number of independent variables in order for the simulation to converge and produce unknown values. There are different combinations of independent variables that will suffice and cause the model to converge. Typically, the inlet and outlet pressures are specified (pressure drop, or ΔP), rather than pump duty, because these variables are important to ensure process design specifications are met.<ref name="Biegler">L.T. Biegler, I.E. Grossmann, A.W. Westerberg. Systematic Methods of Chemical Process Design. Prentice-Hall: Upper Saddle River, 1997.</ref> Different parameters of the pump or compressor can also be specified, such as efficiency, which will impact the results of the simulation. It is therefore important to ensure the equipment is correctly specified to ensure accurate results.<br />
<br />
=Pumps=<br />
<br />
Pumps do work on fluids, causing them to increase in pressure at a constant volume, due to the assumption that liquids that enter pumps are mostly incompressible. For more information on different types of pumps, see [[Process hydraulics|Pumps]].<br />
<br/><br />
<br/><br />
To find the power outlet required by a pump to pressurize a fluid, an energy balance can be done on the system. The result is the mechanical balance equation, below:<br/><br />
<br />
<center><br />
<math> \mathbf{P} = -mW_s = m\left ( \Delta \left (\frac{u^2}{2\alpha} \right ) +g\Delta z + \int_{P_1}^{P_2} vdP + F \right ) </math><br />
</center><br />
Where <math> \mathbf{P} </math> is the power required, <math> m </math> is the mass flow rate, <math> W_s </math> is that shaft work, <math> u </math> is the velocity of the fluid, <math> \alpha </math> describes the flow in the system (0.5 for laminar, 1 for turbulent), <math> g </math> is the gravitational acceleration, <math> \Delta z </math> is the change in height, <math> \int_{P_1}^{P_2} vdP </math> is the constant volume PV work done, and <math> F </math> is the force acting on the fluid. Each grouping deals with different aspects of the fluid flow. The first term deals with the kinetics, the second term with the statics, the third term with the pressure head, and the fourth term with the viscous losses. <ref name="Pressure Changers"> YA Hussein. Pressure Changers. Available at http://www.just.edu.jo/~yahussain/files/Pressure%20Changers.pdf Accessed February 3, 2016</ref> It should also be noted that a pressure head is the height of a fluid that results in an equivalent pressure via the <math> P = \rho g h </math> relation. <br />
<br/><br />
<br/><br/><br />
While the mechanical balance equation can be used to find the outlet power required, no pump is 100% efficient. The efficiency, <math> \eta </math>, of a pump is defined as:<br />
<br />
<center><br />
<math> \eta = \frac{\mathbf{P_{out}}}{\mathbf{P_{in}}} </math><br />
</center><br />
<br />
The efficiency of a pump is related to the pressure head and the fluid flow rate because the work can be converted to either a higher velocity or a larger pressure head.<ref name="Pressure Changers" />. Manufacturers often supply characteristic pump curves in order to inform their customers which pumps will meet their needs. Using these types of curves, it can be seen where the best operating range is for a pump in order to maximize efficiency, and therefore minimize losses in the system. An example curve can be seen below.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
[[File:PrCh_Pump_Char_Curve.PNG|center|500px|caption]] Characteristic Pump Curve Example <ref name="Towler" /><br />
</center><br />
<br />
<br/><br />
<br/><br />
<br />
Another important consideration for pumps is that a Net Positive Suction Head (<math>NPSH</math>) must be maintained within the pump, in order to avoid cavitation.<ref name="Turton">R.T. Turton, R.C. Bailie, W.B. Whiting, J.A. Shaeiwitz. Analysis, Synthesis, and Design of Chemical Processes. Prentice Hall: Upper Saddle River, 2003.</ref> Cavitation occurs because as fluid enters a pump, frictional losses near the pump entrance cause a pressure drop, leading to a minimum pressure somewhere in the pump, and if the fluid is close to saturation, bubbles can form within the pump<ref name ="Turton" />. Specifically, to avoid cavitation, the available NPSH (<math> NPSH_{avail} </math>) must exceed the required NPSH (<math> NPSH_{reqd} </math>), which is specified by the manufacturer of the pump because <math> NPSH_{reqd} </math> depends on the pump design. The <math> NPSH_{avail} </math> can be found by using equation (20.21) in Towler, below: <ref name ="Towler" /><br />
<br />
<center><br />
<math> NPSH_{avail} = \frac{P}{\rho g} + H - \frac{P_f}{\rho g} - \frac{P_v}{\rho g} </math><br />
</center><br />
<br />
Where <math> P </math> is the pressure above the liquid in the feed vessel, <math> H </math> is the height of the liquid above the pump section, <math>P_f</math> is the pressure loss in the suction piping, <math> P_v </math> is the vapor pressure of the liquid at the pump suction, <math> \rho </math> is the density of the liquid, and <math> g </math> is the acceleration due to gravity. Regardless of what <math> NPSH_{reqd} </math> is, the <math> NPSH_{avail} </math> from the above equation must exceed it to avoid cavitation.<br />
<br />
==Modeling Pumps with HYSYS==<br />
Pumps can be modeled in Aspen HYSYS using the pump unit operation. Modeling can be done because while the specific thermodynamics, physical properties, and kinetics may differ from process to process, the conservation equations remain the same for similar process units, pumps included.<ref name="Seider"> W.D. Seider, J.D. Seader, D.R. Lewin. Process Design Principles: Synthesis, Analysis, and Evaluation. Wiley: New York, 2004.</ref>. In order to model a pump, it pump requires an inlet stream, an outlet stream, and an energy stream, as can be seen in the figure below.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
[[File:PrCh_Basic_Setup.PNG|center|500px|unspecified pump]]A basic setup for a pump in Aspen HYSYS.<br />
</center><br />
<br />
In order for any useful information to be gleaned from the model, certain combinations of specifications must be made. There are multiple ways of going about the specification process, depending on what information is known and what information the modeler wants to know. In general, two of the three steams will need to be specified, in order to calculate the third stream. For example, specifying the inlet and outlet will allow for the pump duty to be calculated. This is a common specification because processing conditions are often known, but the modeler would want to know how powerful of a pump they will need for this specific pump, so they need to know the pump duty.<br />
<br />
One basic example is if we want to pressurize a stream of water from 1 bar and 40C to 2 bar, and see how much energy the pump will require to do so. To specify the inlet stream, double click on it it HYSYS, and specify the molar flow rate, and other process variables, as well as the stream composition. In this example, the non-random two liquid (NRTL) fluid package is used, with the temperature of the inlet stream specified as 40C, the pressure as 1 bar (100 kPa), the mass flow rate as 10 m<sup>3</sup>/h, and a water mole fraction of 1. Then, if the outlet stream is specified to be at a pressure of 2 bar (200 kPa), there is enough information for HYSYS to calculate the pump duty, as well as the other outlet stream conditions via mass and energy balances. The specifications can be seen below, and the inlet and outlet stream should change from a light blue to a dark blue in HYSYS when they are specified and solved correctly. HYSYS also calculates the <math> NPSH_{avail} </math>, which can be seen in the rating tab of the pump and is 9.585 m in this case.<br />
<br />
{| style="width: 100%;"<br />
|-<br />
| || [[File:Pr_Ch_In_Out_Spec.PNG|right|400px|change in color observed on pump when properly specified]]||<br />
|<br />
|- style="height: 50px;"<br />
| ||Change in color observed on pump when properly specified||<br />
|-<br />
|[[File:Pr_Ch_In_Out_Spec_wkbk.PNG|left|400px|inlet and outlet specifications]]<br />
|<br />
|[[File:Pr_Ch_In_Out_Spec_NPSHavail.PNG|center|400px|NPSH available can be calculated by HYSYS]]<br />
|}<br />
<br/> <br />
<br />
<br/><br/>The result is that the pump requires 1336 kJ/h, which equates to 0.3711 kW for the pump, indicating this is a fairly low power operation to perform.<br />
<br />
=Compressors=<br />
For background on different types of compressors, see [[Process hydraulics|Compressors]]. Typically centrifugal compressors are used for compressing higher volumes of gas to moderate pressures, whereas positive-displacement compressors are use for compressing low volumes to high pressures.<ref name="Turton"/><br />
<br />
Centrifugal compressors are similar to centrifugal pumps, with the major difference being the fluid going into the compressors are compressible. <ref name="Turton"/> This fact makes the math behind modeling compressors more complex than for pumps where an incompressible fluid assumption is made. There are still similarities however, in that a performance curve is often provided by the manufacturer so that outlet pressure can be related to inlet pressure and flow rates. One major difference between pump and compressor performance curves is that compressor performance curves deal with a pressure ratio, rather than a pressure difference, and a surge line is often included as well. <ref name="Turton"/> The surge line is important because it marks the point where a lower flowrate would result in backflow, which could lead to a reversal of flow direction and would damage the compressor.<ref name="Turton"/>.<br />
<br />
==Modeling Compressors with HYSYS==<br />
Compressors are extremely similar to pumps in HYSYS, in that they need an inlet, and outlet, and a duty stream in order to be modeled properly, as seen in the figure below.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
[[File:PC_compressor_initial.PNG|center|500px]]<br />
</center><br />
<br />
Likewise, specifying an inlet and outlet stream conditions will cause the compressor to converge. Another option for more specific information to be included in the simulation is by adding performance curves to the equipment. To add a performance curve, double click the compressor and go to the rating tab, then the curve page, check the "Enable Curves" check box, and then hit the add curve button and fill out the data from the table below.<ref name="Compressor Tutorial">N. Brownrigg. Jump start: Compressor modeling in Aspen HYSYS® Dynamics. Aspen Tech, 2015. Available at http://www.aspentech.com/compressor_modeling_jump_start.pdf Accessed 2/21/2016</ref><br />
<br />
<center><br />
{|<br />
|[[File:PC_compressor_add_curve.PNG|500px]] || [[File:PC_compressor_add_curve_4900data.PNG|500px]]<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
After setting the compressor speed to 4900 rpm (as seen in the top right of the figure to the left, above), the inlet stream can be specified. In this example, set the temperature to 110 C, the pressure to 100 kPa, the std. ideal liq flow to 9 m<sup>3</sup>/h, and the composition of the stream to 100 water. After specifying the stream, the compressor will have enough information to converge without specifying any outlet stream conditions. This is because the performance curve relates the flow rate to the possible pressure change, and combined with information such as adiabatic pump efficiency, HYSYS can calculate any changes the pump has on the inlet stream. This type of specification is useful when you know what compressor will be used in the process design, as more accurate utility costs can be calculated.<br />
<br />
Once data for the performance curves are input, they can also be viewed by clicking "plot curves". This can be convenient to ensure the operating point of the pump falls where the modeler wants it because the operating point of the pump is also placed on the same plot. The figure below shows the compressor curve with an additional performance curve added. The large red dot is the operating point, and it falls on the red 4900 rpm performance curve because this rpm was specified for the pump.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
[[File:PC_compressor_curve_4900rpm.PNG|500px]]<br />
</center><br />
<br />
It is also possible to plot a surge curve on the same plot to easily ensure operation above the surge line. To do so, click on the flow limits page under the rating tab within the compressor and click the surge curve button, then input whatever data fits the surge curve for the pump.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{|<br />
|[[File:PC_compressor_add_surge_curve.PNG|500px]]||[[File:PC_compressor_surge_curve_data.PNG]]<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
The resulting plot makes it easy to see whether or not an operating point is above the surge line in order to ensure blowback does not occur.<br />
[[File:PC_compressor_perf_curve_with_surge.PNG|center|500px]]<br />
We can see the operating point is to the right of the surge curve, so blowback should not be a problem for these specifications. The resulting outlet stream conditions for these specifications should be 154.7 C, and 145.7 kPa.<br />
<br />
=Modeling Other Pressure Changers=<br />
[[File:PC_valve_converged.PNG|thumb|A converged valve in HYSYS]]<br />
When modeling valves in HYSYS, they also require an inlet and outlet stream, the same as pumps and compressors, but do not require a duty stream. For steady state simulation, as long as a pressure drop is specified along in some form, the valve should converge. This can be done by specifying inlet and outlet pressures (and other conditions required for stream convergence), or by specifying the pressure drop across the valve and the inlet or outlet pressure, although inlet pressure is preferred in most cases because then HYSYS does not need to try and backward solve for the inlet pressure in complicated systems.<br />
<br/><br />
<br/><br />
Even piping itself can change the pressure of a stream due to viscous losses. When modeling a process, it is often best to initially estimate this based on pipe length and any fittings the piping will need, by using relations that can be found in the table below in equations found in [[Process hydraulics|Pressure Drop in Pipes]], taken from Towler. <ref name="Towler"/> When final instrumentation drawings are completed for the process, ore rigorous hydraulic calculations should be completed to ensure there is enough pressure head throughout the process.<br />
<br />
[[File:Towler-Table 20.4.PNG|center]]<br />
=Summary=<br />
<br />
When modeling pressure changers with computer software, it is important to not over-specify them, as for any other piece of equipment. Failing to include them in the final process simulation may lead to odd results, such as a negative pressure drop through a heater or cooler in order to meet pressure or temperature specifications on a material stream. Should this situation occur, a pump or compressor should be added to ensure that a physically possible pressure drop takes place in the processing equipment. Pumps and compressors will use electricity to perform their pressure changes, and if many pumps or a large compressor is used in the process, this can have impacts on the process economics, so it is important to model pressure changers when designing a chemical process. Estimates for piping and valves also need to be included in the simulation so that proper pressure heads are maintained throughout the process simulation.<br />
<br />
=References=<br />
<references /></div>Kedricdaly2https://processdesign.mccormick.northwestern.edu/index.php?title=File:Towler-Table_20.4.PNG&diff=4580File:Towler-Table 20.4.PNG2016-02-21T21:18:44Z<p>Kedricdaly2: Towler Table 20.4 - Pressure loss in pipe fittings and valves for turbulent flow</p>
<hr />
<div>Towler Table 20.4 - Pressure loss in pipe fittings and valves for turbulent flow</div>Kedricdaly2https://processdesign.mccormick.northwestern.edu/index.php?title=File:PC_valve_converged.PNG&diff=4579File:PC valve converged.PNG2016-02-21T21:03:07Z<p>Kedricdaly2: Pressure changers - valve - converged</p>
<hr />
<div>Pressure changers - valve - converged</div>Kedricdaly2https://processdesign.mccormick.northwestern.edu/index.php?title=Pressure_changer&diff=4572Pressure changer2016-02-21T20:26:52Z<p>Kedricdaly2: /* Modeling Compressors with HYSYS */</p>
<hr />
<div>Authors: Kedric Daly<sup> [2016] </sup><br />
<br />
Stewards: David Garcia, Fengqi You<br />
<br />
Date Presented: February 5, 2016<br />
<br />
<!-- Table of Contents --><br />
__TOC__<br />
<br />
=Introduction=<br />
Pressure changers are any piece of equipment where the main goal is to increase or decrease the pressure of a stream. Typically, pressure changers are used mostly for increasing pressure, due to the fact that pressure losses occur within a system due to friction with pipes, pipe bends, valves, and other pieces of equipment <ref name="Towler">G.P. Towler, R. Sinnott. Chemical Engineering Design: Principles, Practice and Economics of Plant and Process Design. Elsevier, 2012.</ref>. Lowering the pressure of a system can also be useful however, such as to favor the products of a chemical reaction through Le Chatelier's principle. It is important however to ensure proper pressure is maintained throughout a chemical process so that blowback does not occur, and any fluids actually reach their destination as expected, at the proper conditions.<br />
<br><br><br />
There are many different types of modeling software for chemical processing, Aspen HYSYS, and Aspen Plus being well known. Like any piece of process equipment, it is necessary to specify a number of independent variables in order for the simulation to converge and produce unknown values. There are different combinations of independent variables that will suffice and cause the model to converge. Typically, the inlet and outlet pressures are specified (pressure drop, or ΔP), rather than pump duty, because these variables are important to ensure process design specifications are met.<ref name="Biegler">L.T. Biegler, I.E. Grossmann, A.W. Westerberg. Systematic Methods of Chemical Process Design. Prentice-Hall: Upper Saddle River, 1997.</ref> Different parameters of the pump or compressor can also be specified, such as efficiency, which will impact the results of the simulation. It is therefore important to ensure the equipment is correctly specified to ensure accurate results.<br />
<br />
=Pumps=<br />
<br />
Pumps do work on fluids, causing them to increase in pressure at a constant volume, due to the assumption that liquids that enter pumps are mostly incompressible. For more information on different types of pumps and other pressure changers, see [[Process hydraulics]].<br />
<br/><br />
<br/><br />
To find the power outlet required by a pump to pressurize a fluid, an energy balance can be done on the system. The result is the mechanical balance equation, below:<br/><br />
<br />
<center><br />
<math> \mathbf{P} = -mW_s = m\left ( \Delta \left (\frac{u^2}{2\alpha} \right ) +g\Delta z + \int_{P_1}^{P_2} vdP + F \right ) </math><br />
</center><br />
Where <math> \mathbf{P} </math> is the power required, <math> m </math> is the mass flow rate, <math> W_s </math> is that shaft work, <math> u </math> is the velocity of the fluid, <math> \alpha </math> describes the flow in the system (0.5 for laminar, 1 for turbulent), <math> g </math> is the gravitational acceleration, <math> \Delta z </math> is the change in height, <math> \int_{P_1}^{P_2} vdP </math> is the constant volume PV work done, and <math> F </math> is the force acting on the fluid. Each grouping deals with different aspects of the fluid flow. The first term deals with the kinetics, the second term with the statics, the third term with the pressure head, and the fourth term with the viscous losses. <ref name="Pressure Changers"> YA Hussein. Pressure Changers. Available at http://www.just.edu.jo/~yahussain/files/Pressure%20Changers.pdf Accessed February 3, 2016</ref> It should also be noted that a pressure head is the height of a fluid that results in an equivalent pressure via the <math> P = \rho g h </math> relation. <br />
<br/><br />
<br/><br/><br />
While the mechanical balance equation can be used to find the outlet power required, no pump is 100% efficient. The efficiency, <math> \eta </math>, of a pump is defined as:<br />
<br />
<center><br />
<math> \eta = \frac{\mathbf{P_{out}}}{\mathbf{P_{in}}} </math><br />
</center><br />
<br />
The efficiency of a pump is related to the pressure head and the fluid flow rate because the work can be converted to either a higher velocity or a larger pressure head.<ref name="Pressure Changers" />. Manufacturers often supply characteristic pump curves in order to inform their customers which pumps will meet their needs. Using these types of curves, it can be seen where the best operating range is for a pump in order to maximize efficiency, and therefore minimize losses in the system. An example curve can be seen below.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
[[File:PrCh_Pump_Char_Curve.PNG|center|500px|caption]] Characteristic Pump Curve Example <ref name="Towler" /><br />
</center><br />
<br />
<br/><br />
<br/><br />
<br />
Another important consideration for pumps is that a Net Positive Suction Head (<math>NPSH</math>) must be maintained within the pump, in order to avoid cavitation.<ref name="Turton">R.T. Turton, R.C. Bailie, W.B. Whiting, J.A. Shaeiwitz. Analysis, Synthesis, and Design of Chemical Processes. Prentice Hall: Upper Saddle River, 2003.</ref> Cavitation occurs because as fluid enters a pump, frictional losses near the pump entrance cause a pressure drop, leading to a minimum pressure somewhere in the pump, and if the fluid is close to saturation, bubbles can form within the pump<ref name ="Turton" />. Specifically, to avoid cavitation, the available NPSH (<math> NPSH_{avail} </math>) must exceed the required NPSH (<math> NPSH_{reqd} </math>), which is specified by the manufacturer of the pump because <math> NPSH_{reqd} </math> depends on the pump design. The <math> NPSH_{avail} </math> can be found by using equation (20.21) in Towler, below: <ref name ="Towler" /><br />
<br />
<center><br />
<math> NPSH_{avail} = \frac{P}{\rho g} + H - \frac{P_f}{\rho g} - \frac{P_v}{\rho g} </math><br />
</center><br />
<br />
Where <math> P </math> is the pressure above the liquid in the feed vessel, <math> H </math> is the height of the liquid above the pump section, <math>P_f</math> is the pressure loss in the suction piping, <math> P_v </math> is the vapor pressure of the liquid at the pump suction, <math> \rho </math> is the density of the liquid, and <math> g </math> is the acceleration due to gravity. Regardless of what <math> NPSH_{reqd} </math> is, the <math> NPSH_{avail} </math> from the above equation must exceed it to avoid cavitation.<br />
<br />
==Modeling Pumps with HYSYS==<br />
Pumps can be modeled in Aspen HYSYS using the pump unit operation. Modeling can be done because while the specific thermodynamics, physical properties, and kinetics may differ from process to process, the conservation equations remain the same for similar process units, pumps included.<ref name="Seider"> W.D. Seider, J.D. Seader, D.R. Lewin. Process Design Principles: Synthesis, Analysis, and Evaluation. Wiley: New York, 2004.</ref>. In order to model a pump, it pump requires an inlet stream, an outlet stream, and an energy stream, as can be seen in the figure below.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
[[File:PrCh_Basic_Setup.PNG|center|500px|unspecified pump]]A basic setup for a pump in Aspen HYSYS.<br />
</center><br />
<br />
In order for any useful information to be gleaned from the model, certain combinations of specifications must be made. There are multiple ways of going about the specification process, depending on what information is known and what information the modeler wants to know. In general, two of the three steams will need to be specified, in order to calculate the third stream. For example, specifying the inlet and outlet will allow for the pump duty to be calculated. This is a common specification because processing conditions are often known, but the modeler would want to know how powerful of a pump they will need for this specific pump, so they need to know the pump duty.<br />
<br />
One basic example is if we want to pressurize a stream of water from 1 bar and 40C to 2 bar, and see how much energy the pump will require to do so. To specify the inlet stream, double click on it it HYSYS, and specify the molar flow rate, and other process variables, as well as the stream composition. In this example, the non-random two liquid (NRTL) fluid package is used, with the temperature of the inlet stream specified as 40C, the pressure as 1 bar (100 kPa), the mass flow rate as 10 m<sup>3</sup>/h, and a water mole fraction of 1. Then, if the outlet stream is specified to be at a pressure of 2 bar (200 kPa), there is enough information for HYSYS to calculate the pump duty, as well as the other outlet stream conditions via mass and energy balances. The specifications can be seen below, and the inlet and outlet stream should change from a light blue to a dark blue in HYSYS when they are specified and solved correctly. HYSYS also calculates the <math> NPSH_{avail} </math>, which can be seen in the rating tab of the pump and is 9.585 m in this case.<br />
<br />
{| style="width: 100%;"<br />
|-<br />
| || [[File:Pr_Ch_In_Out_Spec.PNG|right|400px|change in color observed on pump when properly specified]]||<br />
|<br />
|- style="height: 50px;"<br />
| ||Change in color observed on pump when properly specified||<br />
|-<br />
|[[File:Pr_Ch_In_Out_Spec_wkbk.PNG|left|400px|inlet and outlet specifications]]<br />
|<br />
|[[File:Pr_Ch_In_Out_Spec_NPSHavail.PNG|center|400px|NPSH available can be calculated by HYSYS]]<br />
|}<br />
<br/> <br />
<br />
<br/><br/>The result is that the pump requires 1336 kJ/h, which equates to 0.3711 kW for the pump, indicating this is a fairly low power operation to perform.<br />
<br />
=Compressors=<br />
For background on different types of compressors, see [[Process hydraulics]]. Typically centrifugal compressors are used for compressing higher volumes of gas to moderate pressures, whereas positive-displacement compressors are use for compressing low volumes to high pressures.<ref name="Turton"/><br />
<br />
Centrifugal compressors are similar to centrifugal pumps, with the major difference being the fluid going into the compressors are compressible. <ref name="Turton"/> This fact makes the math behind modeling compressors more complex than for pumps where an incompressible fluid assumption is made. There are still similarities however, in that a performance curve is often provided by the manufacturer so that outlet pressure can be related to inlet pressure and flow rates. One major difference between pump and compressor performance curves is that compressor performance curves deal with a pressure ratio, rather than a pressure difference, and a surge line is often included as well. <ref name="Turton"/> The surge line is important because it marks the point where a lower flowrate would result in backflow, which could lead to a reversal of flow direction and would damage the compressor.<ref name="Turton"/>.<br />
<br />
==Modeling Compressors with HYSYS==<br />
Compressors are extremely similar to pumps in HYSYS, in that they need an inlet, and outlet, and a duty stream in order to be modeled properly, as seen in the figure below.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
[[File:PC_compressor_initial.PNG|center|500px]]<br />
</center><br />
<br />
Likewise, specifying an inlet and outlet stream conditions will cause the compressor to converge. Another option for more specific information to be included in the simulation is by adding performance curves to the equipment. To add a performance curve, double click the compressor and go to the rating tab, then the curve page, check the "Enable Curves" check box, and then hit the add curve button and fill out the data from the table below.<ref name="Compressor Tutorial">N. Brownrigg. Jump start: Compressor modeling in Aspen HYSYS® Dynamics. Aspen Tech, 2015. Available at http://www.aspentech.com/compressor_modeling_jump_start.pdf Accessed 2/21/2016</ref><br />
<br />
<center><br />
{|<br />
|[[File:PC_compressor_add_curve.PNG|500px]] || [[File:PC_compressor_add_curve_4900data.PNG|500px]]<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
After setting the compressor speed to 4900 rpm (as seen in the top right of the figure to the left, above), the inlet stream can be specified. In this example, set the temperature to 110 C, the pressure to 100 kPa, the std. ideal liq flow to 9 m<sup>3</sup>/h, and the composition of the stream to 100 water. After specifying the stream, the compressor will have enough information to converge without specifying any outlet stream conditions. This is because the performance curve relates the flow rate to the possible pressure change, and combined with information such as adiabatic pump efficiency, HYSYS can calculate any changes the pump has on the inlet stream. This type of specification is useful when you know what compressor will be used in the process design, as more accurate utility costs can be calculated.<br />
<br />
Once data for the performance curves are input, they can also be viewed by clicking "plot curves". This can be convenient to ensure the operating point of the pump falls where the modeler wants it because the operating point of the pump is also placed on the same plot. The figure below shows the compressor curve with an additional performance curve added. The large red dot is the operating point, and it falls on the red 4900 rpm performance curve because this rpm was specified for the pump.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
[[File:PC_compressor_curve_4900rpm.PNG|500px]]<br />
</center><br />
<br />
It is also possible to plot a surge curve on the same plot to easily ensure operation above the surge line. To do so, click on the flow limits page under the rating tab within the compressor and click the surge curve button, then input whatever data fits the surge curve for the pump.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{|<br />
|[[File:PC_compressor_add_surge_curve.PNG|500px]]||[[File:PC_compressor_surge_curve_data.PNG]]<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
The resulting plot makes it easy to see whether or not an operating point is above the surge line in order to ensure blowback does not occur.<br />
[[File:PC_compressor_perf_curve_with_surge.PNG|center|500px]]<br />
We can see the operating point is to the right of the surge curve, so blowback should not be a problem for these specifications. The resulting outlet stream conditions for these specifications should be 154.7 C, and 145.7 kPa.<br />
<br />
=Summary=<br />
<br />
When modeling pressure changers with computer software, it is important to not over-specify them, as for any other piece of equipment. Failing to include them in the final process simulation may lead to odd results, such as a negative pressure drop through a heater or cooler in order to meet pressure or temperature specifications on a material stream. Should this situation occur, a pump or compressor should be added to ensure that a physically possible pressure drop takes place in the processing equipment. Pumps and compressors will use electricity to perform their pressure changes, and if many pumps or a large compressor is used in the process, this can have impacts on the process economics, so it is important to model pressure changers when designing a chemical process.<br />
<br />
=References=<br />
<references /></div>Kedricdaly2https://processdesign.mccormick.northwestern.edu/index.php?title=File:PC_compressor_perf_curve_with_surge.PNG&diff=4571File:PC compressor perf curve with surge.PNG2016-02-21T20:22:41Z<p>Kedricdaly2: Kedricdaly2 uploaded a new version of &quot;File:PC compressor perf curve with surge.PNG&quot;</p>
<hr />
<div>Pressure changers - compressors - performance curve with surge data</div>Kedricdaly2https://processdesign.mccormick.northwestern.edu/index.php?title=File:PC_compressor_perf_curve_with_surge.PNG&diff=4570File:PC compressor perf curve with surge.PNG2016-02-21T20:21:24Z<p>Kedricdaly2: Pressure changers - compressors - performance curve with surge data</p>
<hr />
<div>Pressure changers - compressors - performance curve with surge data</div>Kedricdaly2https://processdesign.mccormick.northwestern.edu/index.php?title=File:PC_compressor_pref_curve_with_surge.PNG&diff=4569File:PC compressor pref curve with surge.PNG2016-02-21T20:17:53Z<p>Kedricdaly2: Pressure changers - compressors - performance curve with surge data plotted</p>
<hr />
<div>Pressure changers - compressors - performance curve with surge data plotted</div>Kedricdaly2https://processdesign.mccormick.northwestern.edu/index.php?title=Pressure_changer&diff=4566Pressure changer2016-02-21T20:14:28Z<p>Kedricdaly2: /* Modeling Compressors with HYSYS */ added surge curve data</p>
<hr />
<div>Authors: Kedric Daly<sup> [2016] </sup><br />
<br />
Stewards: David Garcia, Fengqi You<br />
<br />
Date Presented: February 5, 2016<br />
<br />
<!-- Table of Contents --><br />
__TOC__<br />
<br />
=Introduction=<br />
Pressure changers are any piece of equipment where the main goal is to increase or decrease the pressure of a stream. Typically, pressure changers are used mostly for increasing pressure, due to the fact that pressure losses occur within a system due to friction with pipes, pipe bends, valves, and other pieces of equipment <ref name="Towler">G.P. Towler, R. Sinnott. Chemical Engineering Design: Principles, Practice and Economics of Plant and Process Design. Elsevier, 2012.</ref>. Lowering the pressure of a system can also be useful however, such as to favor the products of a chemical reaction through Le Chatelier's principle. It is important however to ensure proper pressure is maintained throughout a chemical process so that blowback does not occur, and any fluids actually reach their destination as expected, at the proper conditions.<br />
<br><br><br />
There are many different types of modeling software for chemical processing, Aspen HYSYS, and Aspen Plus being well known. Like any piece of process equipment, it is necessary to specify a number of independent variables in order for the simulation to converge and produce unknown values. There are different combinations of independent variables that will suffice and cause the model to converge. Typically, the inlet and outlet pressures are specified (pressure drop, or ΔP), rather than pump duty, because these variables are important to ensure process design specifications are met.<ref name="Biegler">L.T. Biegler, I.E. Grossmann, A.W. Westerberg. Systematic Methods of Chemical Process Design. Prentice-Hall: Upper Saddle River, 1997.</ref> Different parameters of the pump or compressor can also be specified, such as efficiency, which will impact the results of the simulation. It is therefore important to ensure the equipment is correctly specified to ensure accurate results.<br />
<br />
=Pumps=<br />
<br />
Pumps do work on fluids, causing them to increase in pressure at a constant volume, due to the assumption that liquids that enter pumps are mostly incompressible. For more information on different types of pumps and other pressure changers, see [[Process hydraulics]].<br />
<br/><br />
<br/><br />
To find the power outlet required by a pump to pressurize a fluid, an energy balance can be done on the system. The result is the mechanical balance equation, below:<br/><br />
<br />
<center><br />
<math> \mathbf{P} = -mW_s = m\left ( \Delta \left (\frac{u^2}{2\alpha} \right ) +g\Delta z + \int_{P_1}^{P_2} vdP + F \right ) </math><br />
</center><br />
Where <math> \mathbf{P} </math> is the power required, <math> m </math> is the mass flow rate, <math> W_s </math> is that shaft work, <math> u </math> is the velocity of the fluid, <math> \alpha </math> describes the flow in the system (0.5 for laminar, 1 for turbulent), <math> g </math> is the gravitational acceleration, <math> \Delta z </math> is the change in height, <math> \int_{P_1}^{P_2} vdP </math> is the constant volume PV work done, and <math> F </math> is the force acting on the fluid. Each grouping deals with different aspects of the fluid flow. The first term deals with the kinetics, the second term with the statics, the third term with the pressure head, and the fourth term with the viscous losses. <ref name="Pressure Changers"> YA Hussein. Pressure Changers. Available at http://www.just.edu.jo/~yahussain/files/Pressure%20Changers.pdf Accessed February 3, 2016</ref> It should also be noted that a pressure head is the height of a fluid that results in an equivalent pressure via the <math> P = \rho g h </math> relation. <br />
<br/><br />
<br/><br/><br />
While the mechanical balance equation can be used to find the outlet power required, no pump is 100% efficient. The efficiency, <math> \eta </math>, of a pump is defined as:<br />
<br />
<center><br />
<math> \eta = \frac{\mathbf{P_{out}}}{\mathbf{P_{in}}} </math><br />
</center><br />
<br />
The efficiency of a pump is related to the pressure head and the fluid flow rate because the work can be converted to either a higher velocity or a larger pressure head.<ref name="Pressure Changers" />. Manufacturers often supply characteristic pump curves in order to inform their customers which pumps will meet their needs. Using these types of curves, it can be seen where the best operating range is for a pump in order to maximize efficiency, and therefore minimize losses in the system. An example curve can be seen below.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
[[File:PrCh_Pump_Char_Curve.PNG|center|500px|caption]] Characteristic Pump Curve Example <ref name="Towler" /><br />
</center><br />
<br />
<br/><br />
<br/><br />
<br />
Another important consideration for pumps is that a Net Positive Suction Head (<math>NPSH</math>) must be maintained within the pump, in order to avoid cavitation.<ref name="Turton">R.T. Turton, R.C. Bailie, W.B. Whiting, J.A. Shaeiwitz. Analysis, Synthesis, and Design of Chemical Processes. Prentice Hall: Upper Saddle River, 2003.</ref> Cavitation occurs because as fluid enters a pump, frictional losses near the pump entrance cause a pressure drop, leading to a minimum pressure somewhere in the pump, and if the fluid is close to saturation, bubbles can form within the pump<ref name ="Turton" />. Specifically, to avoid cavitation, the available NPSH (<math> NPSH_{avail} </math>) must exceed the required NPSH (<math> NPSH_{reqd} </math>), which is specified by the manufacturer of the pump because <math> NPSH_{reqd} </math> depends on the pump design. The <math> NPSH_{avail} </math> can be found by using equation (20.21) in Towler, below: <ref name ="Towler" /><br />
<br />
<center><br />
<math> NPSH_{avail} = \frac{P}{\rho g} + H - \frac{P_f}{\rho g} - \frac{P_v}{\rho g} </math><br />
</center><br />
<br />
Where <math> P </math> is the pressure above the liquid in the feed vessel, <math> H </math> is the height of the liquid above the pump section, <math>P_f</math> is the pressure loss in the suction piping, <math> P_v </math> is the vapor pressure of the liquid at the pump suction, <math> \rho </math> is the density of the liquid, and <math> g </math> is the acceleration due to gravity. Regardless of what <math> NPSH_{reqd} </math> is, the <math> NPSH_{avail} </math> from the above equation must exceed it to avoid cavitation.<br />
<br />
==Modeling Pumps with HYSYS==<br />
Pumps can be modeled in Aspen HYSYS using the pump unit operation. Modeling can be done because while the specific thermodynamics, physical properties, and kinetics may differ from process to process, the conservation equations remain the same for similar process units, pumps included.<ref name="Seider"> W.D. Seider, J.D. Seader, D.R. Lewin. Process Design Principles: Synthesis, Analysis, and Evaluation. Wiley: New York, 2004.</ref>. In order to model a pump, it pump requires an inlet stream, an outlet stream, and an energy stream, as can be seen in the figure below.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
[[File:PrCh_Basic_Setup.PNG|center|500px|unspecified pump]]A basic setup for a pump in Aspen HYSYS.<br />
</center><br />
<br />
In order for any useful information to be gleaned from the model, certain combinations of specifications must be made. There are multiple ways of going about the specification process, depending on what information is known and what information the modeler wants to know. In general, two of the three steams will need to be specified, in order to calculate the third stream. For example, specifying the inlet and outlet will allow for the pump duty to be calculated. This is a common specification because processing conditions are often known, but the modeler would want to know how powerful of a pump they will need for this specific pump, so they need to know the pump duty.<br />
<br />
One basic example is if we want to pressurize a stream of water from 1 bar and 40C to 2 bar, and see how much energy the pump will require to do so. To specify the inlet stream, double click on it it HYSYS, and specify the molar flow rate, and other process variables, as well as the stream composition. In this example, the non-random two liquid (NRTL) fluid package is used, with the temperature of the inlet stream specified as 40C, the pressure as 1 bar (100 kPa), the mass flow rate as 10 m<sup>3</sup>/h, and a water mole fraction of 1. Then, if the outlet stream is specified to be at a pressure of 2 bar (200 kPa), there is enough information for HYSYS to calculate the pump duty, as well as the other outlet stream conditions via mass and energy balances. The specifications can be seen below, and the inlet and outlet stream should change from a light blue to a dark blue in HYSYS when they are specified and solved correctly. HYSYS also calculates the <math> NPSH_{avail} </math>, which can be seen in the rating tab of the pump and is 9.585 m in this case.<br />
<br />
{| style="width: 100%;"<br />
|-<br />
| || [[File:Pr_Ch_In_Out_Spec.PNG|right|400px|change in color observed on pump when properly specified]]||<br />
|<br />
|- style="height: 50px;"<br />
| ||Change in color observed on pump when properly specified||<br />
|-<br />
|[[File:Pr_Ch_In_Out_Spec_wkbk.PNG|left|400px|inlet and outlet specifications]]<br />
|<br />
|[[File:Pr_Ch_In_Out_Spec_NPSHavail.PNG|center|400px|NPSH available can be calculated by HYSYS]]<br />
|}<br />
<br/> <br />
<br />
<br/><br/>The result is that the pump requires 1336 kJ/h, which equates to 0.3711 kW for the pump, indicating this is a fairly low power operation to perform.<br />
<br />
=Compressors=<br />
For background on different types of compressors, see [[Process hydraulics]]. Typically centrifugal compressors are used for compressing higher volumes of gas to moderate pressures, whereas positive-displacement compressors are use for compressing low volumes to high pressures.<ref name="Turton"/><br />
<br />
Centrifugal compressors are similar to centrifugal pumps, with the major difference being the fluid going into the compressors are compressible. <ref name="Turton"/> This fact makes the math behind modeling compressors more complex than for pumps where an incompressible fluid assumption is made. There are still similarities however, in that a performance curve is often provided by the manufacturer so that outlet pressure can be related to inlet pressure and flow rates. One major difference between pump and compressor performance curves is that compressor performance curves deal with a pressure ratio, rather than a pressure difference, and a surge line is often included as well. <ref name="Turton"/> The surge line is important because it marks the point where a lower flowrate would result in backflow, which could lead to a reversal of flow direction and would damage the compressor.<ref name="Turton"/>.<br />
<br />
==Modeling Compressors with HYSYS==<br />
Compressors are extremely similar to pumps in HYSYS, in that they need an inlet, and outlet, and a duty stream in order to be modeled properly, as seen in the figure below.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
[[File:PC_compressor_initial.PNG|center|500px]]<br />
</center><br />
<br />
Likewise, specifying an inlet and outlet stream conditions will cause the compressor to converge. Another option for more specific information to be included in the simulation is by adding performance curves to the equipment. To add a performance curve, double click the compressor and go to the rating tab, then the curve page, check the "Enable Curves" check box, and then hit the add curve button and fill out the data from the table below.<ref name="Compressor Tutorial">N. Brownrigg. Jump start: Compressor modeling in Aspen HYSYS® Dynamics. Aspen Tech, 2015. Available at http://www.aspentech.com/compressor_modeling_jump_start.pdf Accessed 2/21/2016</ref><br />
<br />
<center><br />
{|<br />
|[[File:PC_compressor_add_curve.PNG|500px]] || [[File:PC_compressor_add_curve_4900data.PNG|500px]]<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
After setting the compressor speed to 4900 rpm (as seen in the top right of the figure to the left, above), the inlet stream can be specified. In this example, set the temperature to 110 C, the pressure to 100 kPa, the std. ideal liq flow to 9 m<sup>3</sup>/h, and the composition of the stream to 100 water. After specifying the stream, the compressor will have enough information to converge without specifying any outlet stream conditions. This is because the performance curve relates the flow rate to the possible pressure change, and combined with information such as adiabatic pump efficiency, HYSYS can calculate any changes the pump has on the inlet stream. This type of specification is useful when you know what compressor will be used in the process design, as more accurate utility costs can be calculated.<br />
<br />
Once data for the performance curves are input, they can also be viewed by clicking "plot curves". This can be convenient to ensure the operating point of the pump falls where the modeler wants it because the operating point of the pump is also placed on the same plot. The figure below shows the compressor curve with an additional performance curve added. The large red dot is the operating point, and it falls on the red 4900 rpm performance curve because this rpm was specified for the pump.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
[[File:PC_compressor_curve_4900rpm.PNG|500px]]<br />
</center><br />
<br />
It is also possible to plot a surge curve on the same plot to easily ensure operation above the surge line. To do so, click on the flow limits page under the rating tab within the compressor and click the surge curve button, then input whatever data fits the surge curve for the pump.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
{|<br />
|[[File:PC_compressor_add_surge_curve.PNG]]||[[File:PC_compressor_surge_curve_data.PNG]]<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
=Summary=<br />
<br />
When modeling pressure changers with computer software, it is important to not over-specify them, as for any other piece of equipment. Failing to include them in the final process simulation may lead to odd results, such as a negative pressure drop through a heater or cooler in order to meet pressure or temperature specifications on a material stream. Should this situation occur, a pump or compressor should be added to ensure that a physically possible pressure drop takes place in the processing equipment. Pumps and compressors will use electricity to perform their pressure changes, and if many pumps or a large compressor is used in the process, this can have impacts on the process economics, so it is important to model pressure changers when designing a chemical process.<br />
<br />
=References=<br />
<references /></div>Kedricdaly2https://processdesign.mccormick.northwestern.edu/index.php?title=File:PC_compressor_surge_curve_data.PNG&diff=4565File:PC compressor surge curve data.PNG2016-02-21T20:14:01Z<p>Kedricdaly2: Pressure changers - compressor - surge curve data</p>
<hr />
<div>Pressure changers - compressor - surge curve data</div>Kedricdaly2https://processdesign.mccormick.northwestern.edu/index.php?title=File:PC_compressor_add_surge_curve.PNG&diff=4563File:PC compressor add surge curve.PNG2016-02-21T20:08:01Z<p>Kedricdaly2: Pressure changers - compressor - add surge curve</p>
<hr />
<div>Pressure changers - compressor - add surge curve</div>Kedricdaly2https://processdesign.mccormick.northwestern.edu/index.php?title=File:PC_compressor_curve_4900rpm.PNG&diff=4562File:PC compressor curve 4900rpm.PNG2016-02-21T20:04:51Z<p>Kedricdaly2: Pressure changers - compressor performance curve with 4900 rpm and 5513 rpm data</p>
<hr />
<div>Pressure changers - compressor performance curve with 4900 rpm and 5513 rpm data</div>Kedricdaly2https://processdesign.mccormick.northwestern.edu/index.php?title=Pressure_changer&diff=4556Pressure changer2016-02-21T19:54:21Z<p>Kedricdaly2: /* Modeling Compressors with HYSYS */ minor capitalization</p>
<hr />
<div>Authors: Kedric Daly<sup> [2016] </sup><br />
<br />
Stewards: David Garcia, Fengqi You<br />
<br />
Date Presented: February 5, 2016<br />
<br />
<!-- Table of Contents --><br />
__TOC__<br />
<br />
=Introduction=<br />
Pressure changers are any piece of equipment where the main goal is to increase or decrease the pressure of a stream. Typically, pressure changers are used mostly for increasing pressure, due to the fact that pressure losses occur within a system due to friction with pipes, pipe bends, valves, and other pieces of equipment <ref name="Towler">G.P. Towler, R. Sinnott. Chemical Engineering Design: Principles, Practice and Economics of Plant and Process Design. Elsevier, 2012.</ref>. Lowering the pressure of a system can also be useful however, such as to favor the products of a chemical reaction through Le Chatelier's principle. It is important however to ensure proper pressure is maintained throughout a chemical process so that blowback does not occur, and any fluids actually reach their destination as expected, at the proper conditions.<br />
<br><br><br />
There are many different types of modeling software for chemical processing, Aspen HYSYS, and Aspen Plus being well known. Like any piece of process equipment, it is necessary to specify a number of independent variables in order for the simulation to converge and produce unknown values. There are different combinations of independent variables that will suffice and cause the model to converge. Typically, the inlet and outlet pressures are specified (pressure drop, or ΔP), rather than pump duty, because these variables are important to ensure process design specifications are met.<ref name="Biegler">L.T. Biegler, I.E. Grossmann, A.W. Westerberg. Systematic Methods of Chemical Process Design. Prentice-Hall: Upper Saddle River, 1997.</ref> Different parameters of the pump or compressor can also be specified, such as efficiency, which will impact the results of the simulation. It is therefore important to ensure the equipment is correctly specified to ensure accurate results.<br />
<br />
=Pumps=<br />
<br />
Pumps do work on fluids, causing them to increase in pressure at a constant volume, due to the assumption that liquids that enter pumps are mostly incompressible. For more information on different types of pumps and other pressure changers, see [[Process hydraulics]].<br />
<br/><br />
<br/><br />
To find the power outlet required by a pump to pressurize a fluid, an energy balance can be done on the system. The result is the mechanical balance equation, below:<br/><br />
<br />
<center><br />
<math> \mathbf{P} = -mW_s = m\left ( \Delta \left (\frac{u^2}{2\alpha} \right ) +g\Delta z + \int_{P_1}^{P_2} vdP + F \right ) </math><br />
</center><br />
Where <math> \mathbf{P} </math> is the power required, <math> m </math> is the mass flow rate, <math> W_s </math> is that shaft work, <math> u </math> is the velocity of the fluid, <math> \alpha </math> describes the flow in the system (0.5 for laminar, 1 for turbulent), <math> g </math> is the gravitational acceleration, <math> \Delta z </math> is the change in height, <math> \int_{P_1}^{P_2} vdP </math> is the constant volume PV work done, and <math> F </math> is the force acting on the fluid. Each grouping deals with different aspects of the fluid flow. The first term deals with the kinetics, the second term with the statics, the third term with the pressure head, and the fourth term with the viscous losses. <ref name="Pressure Changers"> YA Hussein. Pressure Changers. Available at http://www.just.edu.jo/~yahussain/files/Pressure%20Changers.pdf Accessed February 3, 2016</ref> It should also be noted that a pressure head is the height of a fluid that results in an equivalent pressure via the <math> P = \rho g h </math> relation. <br />
<br/><br />
<br/><br/><br />
While the mechanical balance equation can be used to find the outlet power required, no pump is 100% efficient. The efficiency, <math> \eta </math>, of a pump is defined as:<br />
<br />
<center><br />
<math> \eta = \frac{\mathbf{P_{out}}}{\mathbf{P_{in}}} </math><br />
</center><br />
<br />
The efficiency of a pump is related to the pressure head and the fluid flow rate because the work can be converted to either a higher velocity or a larger pressure head.<ref name="Pressure Changers" />. Manufacturers often supply characteristic pump curves in order to inform their customers which pumps will meet their needs. Using these types of curves, it can be seen where the best operating range is for a pump in order to maximize efficiency, and therefore minimize losses in the system. An example curve can be seen below.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
[[File:PrCh_Pump_Char_Curve.PNG|center|500px|caption]] Characteristic Pump Curve Example <ref name="Towler" /><br />
</center><br />
<br />
<br/><br />
<br/><br />
<br />
Another important consideration for pumps is that a Net Positive Suction Head (<math>NPSH</math>) must be maintained within the pump, in order to avoid cavitation.<ref name="Turton">R.T. Turton, R.C. Bailie, W.B. Whiting, J.A. Shaeiwitz. Analysis, Synthesis, and Design of Chemical Processes. Prentice Hall: Upper Saddle River, 2003.</ref> Cavitation occurs because as fluid enters a pump, frictional losses near the pump entrance cause a pressure drop, leading to a minimum pressure somewhere in the pump, and if the fluid is close to saturation, bubbles can form within the pump<ref name ="Turton" />. Specifically, to avoid cavitation, the available NPSH (<math> NPSH_{avail} </math>) must exceed the required NPSH (<math> NPSH_{reqd} </math>), which is specified by the manufacturer of the pump because <math> NPSH_{reqd} </math> depends on the pump design. The <math> NPSH_{avail} </math> can be found by using equation (20.21) in Towler, below: <ref name ="Towler" /><br />
<br />
<center><br />
<math> NPSH_{avail} = \frac{P}{\rho g} + H - \frac{P_f}{\rho g} - \frac{P_v}{\rho g} </math><br />
</center><br />
<br />
Where <math> P </math> is the pressure above the liquid in the feed vessel, <math> H </math> is the height of the liquid above the pump section, <math>P_f</math> is the pressure loss in the suction piping, <math> P_v </math> is the vapor pressure of the liquid at the pump suction, <math> \rho </math> is the density of the liquid, and <math> g </math> is the acceleration due to gravity. Regardless of what <math> NPSH_{reqd} </math> is, the <math> NPSH_{avail} </math> from the above equation must exceed it to avoid cavitation.<br />
<br />
==Modeling Pumps with HYSYS==<br />
Pumps can be modeled in Aspen HYSYS using the pump unit operation. Modeling can be done because while the specific thermodynamics, physical properties, and kinetics may differ from process to process, the conservation equations remain the same for similar process units, pumps included.<ref name="Seider"> W.D. Seider, J.D. Seader, D.R. Lewin. Process Design Principles: Synthesis, Analysis, and Evaluation. Wiley: New York, 2004.</ref>. In order to model a pump, it pump requires an inlet stream, an outlet stream, and an energy stream, as can be seen in the figure below.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
[[File:PrCh_Basic_Setup.PNG|center|500px|unspecified pump]]A basic setup for a pump in Aspen HYSYS.<br />
</center><br />
<br />
In order for any useful information to be gleaned from the model, certain combinations of specifications must be made. There are multiple ways of going about the specification process, depending on what information is known and what information the modeler wants to know. In general, two of the three steams will need to be specified, in order to calculate the third stream. For example, specifying the inlet and outlet will allow for the pump duty to be calculated. This is a common specification because processing conditions are often known, but the modeler would want to know how powerful of a pump they will need for this specific pump, so they need to know the pump duty.<br />
<br />
One basic example is if we want to pressurize a stream of water from 1 bar and 40C to 2 bar, and see how much energy the pump will require to do so. To specify the inlet stream, double click on it it HYSYS, and specify the molar flow rate, and other process variables, as well as the stream composition. In this example, the non-random two liquid (NRTL) fluid package is used, with the temperature of the inlet stream specified as 40C, the pressure as 1 bar (100 kPa), the mass flow rate as 10 m<sup>3</sup>/h, and a water mole fraction of 1. Then, if the outlet stream is specified to be at a pressure of 2 bar (200 kPa), there is enough information for HYSYS to calculate the pump duty, as well as the other outlet stream conditions via mass and energy balances. The specifications can be seen below, and the inlet and outlet stream should change from a light blue to a dark blue in HYSYS when they are specified and solved correctly. HYSYS also calculates the <math> NPSH_{avail} </math>, which can be seen in the rating tab of the pump and is 9.585 m in this case.<br />
<br />
{| style="width: 100%;"<br />
|-<br />
| || [[File:Pr_Ch_In_Out_Spec.PNG|right|400px|change in color observed on pump when properly specified]]||<br />
|<br />
|- style="height: 50px;"<br />
| ||Change in color observed on pump when properly specified||<br />
|-<br />
|[[File:Pr_Ch_In_Out_Spec_wkbk.PNG|left|400px|inlet and outlet specifications]]<br />
|<br />
|[[File:Pr_Ch_In_Out_Spec_NPSHavail.PNG|center|400px|NPSH available can be calculated by HYSYS]]<br />
|}<br />
<br/> <br />
<br />
<br/><br/>The result is that the pump requires 1336 kJ/h, which equates to 0.3711 kW for the pump, indicating this is a fairly low power operation to perform.<br />
<br />
=Compressors=<br />
For background on different types of compressors, see [[Process hydraulics]]. Typically centrifugal compressors are used for compressing higher volumes of gas to moderate pressures, whereas positive-displacement compressors are use for compressing low volumes to high pressures.<ref name="Turton"/><br />
<br />
Centrifugal compressors are similar to centrifugal pumps, with the major difference being the fluid going into the compressors are compressible. <ref name="Turton"/> This fact makes the math behind modeling compressors more complex than for pumps where an incompressible fluid assumption is made. There are still similarities however, in that a performance curve is often provided by the manufacturer so that outlet pressure can be related to inlet pressure and flow rates. One major difference between pump and compressor performance curves is that compressor performance curves deal with a pressure ratio, rather than a pressure difference, and a surge line is often included as well. <ref name="Turton"/> The surge line is important because it marks the point where a lower flowrate would result in backflow, which could lead to a reversal of flow direction and would damage the compressor.<ref name="Turton"/>.<br />
<br />
==Modeling Compressors with HYSYS==<br />
Compressors are extremely similar to pumps in HYSYS, in that they need an inlet, and outlet, and a duty stream in order to be modeled properly, as seen in the figure below.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
[[File:PC_compressor_initial.PNG|center|500px]]<br />
</center><br />
<br />
Likewise, specifying an inlet and outlet stream conditions will cause the compressor to converge. Another option for more specific information to be included in the simulation is by adding performance curves to the equipment. To add a performance curve, double click the compressor and go to the rating tab, then the curve page, check the "Enable Curves" check box, and then hit the add curve button and fill out the data from the table below.<ref name="Compressor Tutorial">N. Brownrigg. Jump start: Compressor modeling in Aspen HYSYS® Dynamics. Aspen Tech, 2015. Available at http://www.aspentech.com/compressor_modeling_jump_start.pdf Accessed 2/21/2016</ref><br />
<br />
<center><br />
{|<br />
|[[File:PC_compressor_add_curve.PNG|500px]] || [[File:PC_compressor_add_curve_4900data.PNG|500px]]<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
After setting the compressor speed to 4900 rpm (as seen in the top right of the figure to the left, above), the inlet stream can be specified. In this example, set the temperature to 110 C, the pressure to 100 kPa, the std. ideal liq flow to 9 m<sup>3</sup>/h, and the composition of the stream to 100 water. After specifying the stream, the compressor will have enough information to converge without specifying any outlet stream conditions. This is because the performance curve relates the flow rate to the possible pressure change, and combined with information such as adiabatic pump efficiency, HYSYS can calculate any changes the pump has on the inlet stream. This type of specification is useful when you know what compressor will be used in the process design, as more accurate utility costs can be calculated.<br />
<br />
=Summary=<br />
<br />
When modeling pressure changers with computer software, it is important to not over-specify them, as for any other piece of equipment. Failing to include them in the final process simulation may lead to odd results, such as a negative pressure drop through a heater or cooler in order to meet pressure or temperature specifications on a material stream. Should this situation occur, a pump or compressor should be added to ensure that a physically possible pressure drop takes place in the processing equipment. Pumps and compressors will use electricity to perform their pressure changes, and if many pumps or a large compressor is used in the process, this can have impacts on the process economics, so it is important to model pressure changers when designing a chemical process.<br />
<br />
=References=<br />
<references /></div>Kedricdaly2https://processdesign.mccormick.northwestern.edu/index.php?title=Pressure_changer&diff=4555Pressure changer2016-02-21T19:53:49Z<p>Kedricdaly2: /* Modeling Compressors with HYSYS */</p>
<hr />
<div>Authors: Kedric Daly<sup> [2016] </sup><br />
<br />
Stewards: David Garcia, Fengqi You<br />
<br />
Date Presented: February 5, 2016<br />
<br />
<!-- Table of Contents --><br />
__TOC__<br />
<br />
=Introduction=<br />
Pressure changers are any piece of equipment where the main goal is to increase or decrease the pressure of a stream. Typically, pressure changers are used mostly for increasing pressure, due to the fact that pressure losses occur within a system due to friction with pipes, pipe bends, valves, and other pieces of equipment <ref name="Towler">G.P. Towler, R. Sinnott. Chemical Engineering Design: Principles, Practice and Economics of Plant and Process Design. Elsevier, 2012.</ref>. Lowering the pressure of a system can also be useful however, such as to favor the products of a chemical reaction through Le Chatelier's principle. It is important however to ensure proper pressure is maintained throughout a chemical process so that blowback does not occur, and any fluids actually reach their destination as expected, at the proper conditions.<br />
<br><br><br />
There are many different types of modeling software for chemical processing, Aspen HYSYS, and Aspen Plus being well known. Like any piece of process equipment, it is necessary to specify a number of independent variables in order for the simulation to converge and produce unknown values. There are different combinations of independent variables that will suffice and cause the model to converge. Typically, the inlet and outlet pressures are specified (pressure drop, or ΔP), rather than pump duty, because these variables are important to ensure process design specifications are met.<ref name="Biegler">L.T. Biegler, I.E. Grossmann, A.W. Westerberg. Systematic Methods of Chemical Process Design. Prentice-Hall: Upper Saddle River, 1997.</ref> Different parameters of the pump or compressor can also be specified, such as efficiency, which will impact the results of the simulation. It is therefore important to ensure the equipment is correctly specified to ensure accurate results.<br />
<br />
=Pumps=<br />
<br />
Pumps do work on fluids, causing them to increase in pressure at a constant volume, due to the assumption that liquids that enter pumps are mostly incompressible. For more information on different types of pumps and other pressure changers, see [[Process hydraulics]].<br />
<br/><br />
<br/><br />
To find the power outlet required by a pump to pressurize a fluid, an energy balance can be done on the system. The result is the mechanical balance equation, below:<br/><br />
<br />
<center><br />
<math> \mathbf{P} = -mW_s = m\left ( \Delta \left (\frac{u^2}{2\alpha} \right ) +g\Delta z + \int_{P_1}^{P_2} vdP + F \right ) </math><br />
</center><br />
Where <math> \mathbf{P} </math> is the power required, <math> m </math> is the mass flow rate, <math> W_s </math> is that shaft work, <math> u </math> is the velocity of the fluid, <math> \alpha </math> describes the flow in the system (0.5 for laminar, 1 for turbulent), <math> g </math> is the gravitational acceleration, <math> \Delta z </math> is the change in height, <math> \int_{P_1}^{P_2} vdP </math> is the constant volume PV work done, and <math> F </math> is the force acting on the fluid. Each grouping deals with different aspects of the fluid flow. The first term deals with the kinetics, the second term with the statics, the third term with the pressure head, and the fourth term with the viscous losses. <ref name="Pressure Changers"> YA Hussein. Pressure Changers. Available at http://www.just.edu.jo/~yahussain/files/Pressure%20Changers.pdf Accessed February 3, 2016</ref> It should also be noted that a pressure head is the height of a fluid that results in an equivalent pressure via the <math> P = \rho g h </math> relation. <br />
<br/><br />
<br/><br/><br />
While the mechanical balance equation can be used to find the outlet power required, no pump is 100% efficient. The efficiency, <math> \eta </math>, of a pump is defined as:<br />
<br />
<center><br />
<math> \eta = \frac{\mathbf{P_{out}}}{\mathbf{P_{in}}} </math><br />
</center><br />
<br />
The efficiency of a pump is related to the pressure head and the fluid flow rate because the work can be converted to either a higher velocity or a larger pressure head.<ref name="Pressure Changers" />. Manufacturers often supply characteristic pump curves in order to inform their customers which pumps will meet their needs. Using these types of curves, it can be seen where the best operating range is for a pump in order to maximize efficiency, and therefore minimize losses in the system. An example curve can be seen below.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
[[File:PrCh_Pump_Char_Curve.PNG|center|500px|caption]] Characteristic Pump Curve Example <ref name="Towler" /><br />
</center><br />
<br />
<br/><br />
<br/><br />
<br />
Another important consideration for pumps is that a Net Positive Suction Head (<math>NPSH</math>) must be maintained within the pump, in order to avoid cavitation.<ref name="Turton">R.T. Turton, R.C. Bailie, W.B. Whiting, J.A. Shaeiwitz. Analysis, Synthesis, and Design of Chemical Processes. Prentice Hall: Upper Saddle River, 2003.</ref> Cavitation occurs because as fluid enters a pump, frictional losses near the pump entrance cause a pressure drop, leading to a minimum pressure somewhere in the pump, and if the fluid is close to saturation, bubbles can form within the pump<ref name ="Turton" />. Specifically, to avoid cavitation, the available NPSH (<math> NPSH_{avail} </math>) must exceed the required NPSH (<math> NPSH_{reqd} </math>), which is specified by the manufacturer of the pump because <math> NPSH_{reqd} </math> depends on the pump design. The <math> NPSH_{avail} </math> can be found by using equation (20.21) in Towler, below: <ref name ="Towler" /><br />
<br />
<center><br />
<math> NPSH_{avail} = \frac{P}{\rho g} + H - \frac{P_f}{\rho g} - \frac{P_v}{\rho g} </math><br />
</center><br />
<br />
Where <math> P </math> is the pressure above the liquid in the feed vessel, <math> H </math> is the height of the liquid above the pump section, <math>P_f</math> is the pressure loss in the suction piping, <math> P_v </math> is the vapor pressure of the liquid at the pump suction, <math> \rho </math> is the density of the liquid, and <math> g </math> is the acceleration due to gravity. Regardless of what <math> NPSH_{reqd} </math> is, the <math> NPSH_{avail} </math> from the above equation must exceed it to avoid cavitation.<br />
<br />
==Modeling Pumps with HYSYS==<br />
Pumps can be modeled in Aspen HYSYS using the pump unit operation. Modeling can be done because while the specific thermodynamics, physical properties, and kinetics may differ from process to process, the conservation equations remain the same for similar process units, pumps included.<ref name="Seider"> W.D. Seider, J.D. Seader, D.R. Lewin. Process Design Principles: Synthesis, Analysis, and Evaluation. Wiley: New York, 2004.</ref>. In order to model a pump, it pump requires an inlet stream, an outlet stream, and an energy stream, as can be seen in the figure below.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
[[File:PrCh_Basic_Setup.PNG|center|500px|unspecified pump]]A basic setup for a pump in Aspen HYSYS.<br />
</center><br />
<br />
In order for any useful information to be gleaned from the model, certain combinations of specifications must be made. There are multiple ways of going about the specification process, depending on what information is known and what information the modeler wants to know. In general, two of the three steams will need to be specified, in order to calculate the third stream. For example, specifying the inlet and outlet will allow for the pump duty to be calculated. This is a common specification because processing conditions are often known, but the modeler would want to know how powerful of a pump they will need for this specific pump, so they need to know the pump duty.<br />
<br />
One basic example is if we want to pressurize a stream of water from 1 bar and 40C to 2 bar, and see how much energy the pump will require to do so. To specify the inlet stream, double click on it it HYSYS, and specify the molar flow rate, and other process variables, as well as the stream composition. In this example, the non-random two liquid (NRTL) fluid package is used, with the temperature of the inlet stream specified as 40C, the pressure as 1 bar (100 kPa), the mass flow rate as 10 m<sup>3</sup>/h, and a water mole fraction of 1. Then, if the outlet stream is specified to be at a pressure of 2 bar (200 kPa), there is enough information for HYSYS to calculate the pump duty, as well as the other outlet stream conditions via mass and energy balances. The specifications can be seen below, and the inlet and outlet stream should change from a light blue to a dark blue in HYSYS when they are specified and solved correctly. HYSYS also calculates the <math> NPSH_{avail} </math>, which can be seen in the rating tab of the pump and is 9.585 m in this case.<br />
<br />
{| style="width: 100%;"<br />
|-<br />
| || [[File:Pr_Ch_In_Out_Spec.PNG|right|400px|change in color observed on pump when properly specified]]||<br />
|<br />
|- style="height: 50px;"<br />
| ||Change in color observed on pump when properly specified||<br />
|-<br />
|[[File:Pr_Ch_In_Out_Spec_wkbk.PNG|left|400px|inlet and outlet specifications]]<br />
|<br />
|[[File:Pr_Ch_In_Out_Spec_NPSHavail.PNG|center|400px|NPSH available can be calculated by HYSYS]]<br />
|}<br />
<br/> <br />
<br />
<br/><br/>The result is that the pump requires 1336 kJ/h, which equates to 0.3711 kW for the pump, indicating this is a fairly low power operation to perform.<br />
<br />
=Compressors=<br />
For background on different types of compressors, see [[Process hydraulics]]. Typically centrifugal compressors are used for compressing higher volumes of gas to moderate pressures, whereas positive-displacement compressors are use for compressing low volumes to high pressures.<ref name="Turton"/><br />
<br />
Centrifugal compressors are similar to centrifugal pumps, with the major difference being the fluid going into the compressors are compressible. <ref name="Turton"/> This fact makes the math behind modeling compressors more complex than for pumps where an incompressible fluid assumption is made. There are still similarities however, in that a performance curve is often provided by the manufacturer so that outlet pressure can be related to inlet pressure and flow rates. One major difference between pump and compressor performance curves is that compressor performance curves deal with a pressure ratio, rather than a pressure difference, and a surge line is often included as well. <ref name="Turton"/> The surge line is important because it marks the point where a lower flowrate would result in backflow, which could lead to a reversal of flow direction and would damage the compressor.<ref name="Turton"/>.<br />
<br />
==Modeling Compressors with HYSYS==<br />
Compressors are extremely similar to pumps in HYSYS, in that they need an inlet, and outlet, and a duty stream in order to be modeled properly, as seen in the figure below.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
[[File:PC_compressor_initial.PNG|center|500px]]<br />
</center><br />
<br />
Likewise, specifying an inlet and outlet stream conditions will cause the compressor to converge. Another option for more specific information to be included in the simulation is by adding performance curves to the equipment. To add a performance curve, double click the compressor and go to the rating tab, then the curve page, check the "Enable Curves" check box, and then hit the add curve button and fill out the data from the table below.<ref name="Compressor Tutorial">N. Brownrigg. Jump start: Compressor modeling in Aspen HYSYS® Dynamics. Aspen Tech, 2015. Available at http://www.aspentech.com/compressor_modeling_jump_start.pdf Accessed 2/21/2016</ref><br />
<br />
<center><br />
{|<br />
|[[File:PC_compressor_add_curve.PNG|500px]] || [[File:PC_compressor_add_curve_4900data.PNG|500px]]<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
After setting the compressor speed to 4900 rpm (as seen in the top right of the figure to the left, above), the inlet stream can be specified. In this example, set the temperature to 110 C, the pressure to 100 kPa, the Std. ideal liq flow to 9 m<sup>3</sup>/h, and the composition of the stream to 100 water. After specifying the stream, the compressor will have enough information to converge without specifying any outlet stream conditions. This is because the performance curve relates the flow rate to the possible pressure change, and combined with information such as adiabatic pump efficiency, HYSYS can calculate any changes the pump has on the inlet stream. This type of specification is useful when you know what compressor will be used in the process design, as more accurate utility costs can be calculated.<br />
<br />
=Summary=<br />
<br />
When modeling pressure changers with computer software, it is important to not over-specify them, as for any other piece of equipment. Failing to include them in the final process simulation may lead to odd results, such as a negative pressure drop through a heater or cooler in order to meet pressure or temperature specifications on a material stream. Should this situation occur, a pump or compressor should be added to ensure that a physically possible pressure drop takes place in the processing equipment. Pumps and compressors will use electricity to perform their pressure changes, and if many pumps or a large compressor is used in the process, this can have impacts on the process economics, so it is important to model pressure changers when designing a chemical process.<br />
<br />
=References=<br />
<references /></div>Kedricdaly2https://processdesign.mccormick.northwestern.edu/index.php?title=Pressure_changer&diff=4547Pressure changer2016-02-21T19:28:06Z<p>Kedricdaly2: /* Modeling Compressors with HYSYS */</p>
<hr />
<div>Authors: Kedric Daly<sup> [2016] </sup><br />
<br />
Stewards: David Garcia, Fengqi You<br />
<br />
Date Presented: February 5, 2016<br />
<br />
<!-- Table of Contents --><br />
__TOC__<br />
<br />
=Introduction=<br />
Pressure changers are any piece of equipment where the main goal is to increase or decrease the pressure of a stream. Typically, pressure changers are used mostly for increasing pressure, due to the fact that pressure losses occur within a system due to friction with pipes, pipe bends, valves, and other pieces of equipment <ref name="Towler">G.P. Towler, R. Sinnott. Chemical Engineering Design: Principles, Practice and Economics of Plant and Process Design. Elsevier, 2012.</ref>. Lowering the pressure of a system can also be useful however, such as to favor the products of a chemical reaction through Le Chatelier's principle. It is important however to ensure proper pressure is maintained throughout a chemical process so that blowback does not occur, and any fluids actually reach their destination as expected, at the proper conditions.<br />
<br><br><br />
There are many different types of modeling software for chemical processing, Aspen HYSYS, and Aspen Plus being well known. Like any piece of process equipment, it is necessary to specify a number of independent variables in order for the simulation to converge and produce unknown values. There are different combinations of independent variables that will suffice and cause the model to converge. Typically, the inlet and outlet pressures are specified (pressure drop, or ΔP), rather than pump duty, because these variables are important to ensure process design specifications are met.<ref name="Biegler">L.T. Biegler, I.E. Grossmann, A.W. Westerberg. Systematic Methods of Chemical Process Design. Prentice-Hall: Upper Saddle River, 1997.</ref> Different parameters of the pump or compressor can also be specified, such as efficiency, which will impact the results of the simulation. It is therefore important to ensure the equipment is correctly specified to ensure accurate results.<br />
<br />
=Pumps=<br />
<br />
Pumps do work on fluids, causing them to increase in pressure at a constant volume, due to the assumption that liquids that enter pumps are mostly incompressible. For more information on different types of pumps and other pressure changers, see [[Process hydraulics]].<br />
<br/><br />
<br/><br />
To find the power outlet required by a pump to pressurize a fluid, an energy balance can be done on the system. The result is the mechanical balance equation, below:<br/><br />
<br />
<center><br />
<math> \mathbf{P} = -mW_s = m\left ( \Delta \left (\frac{u^2}{2\alpha} \right ) +g\Delta z + \int_{P_1}^{P_2} vdP + F \right ) </math><br />
</center><br />
Where <math> \mathbf{P} </math> is the power required, <math> m </math> is the mass flow rate, <math> W_s </math> is that shaft work, <math> u </math> is the velocity of the fluid, <math> \alpha </math> describes the flow in the system (0.5 for laminar, 1 for turbulent), <math> g </math> is the gravitational acceleration, <math> \Delta z </math> is the change in height, <math> \int_{P_1}^{P_2} vdP </math> is the constant volume PV work done, and <math> F </math> is the force acting on the fluid. Each grouping deals with different aspects of the fluid flow. The first term deals with the kinetics, the second term with the statics, the third term with the pressure head, and the fourth term with the viscous losses. <ref name="Pressure Changers"> YA Hussein. Pressure Changers. Available at http://www.just.edu.jo/~yahussain/files/Pressure%20Changers.pdf Accessed February 3, 2016</ref> It should also be noted that a pressure head is the height of a fluid that results in an equivalent pressure via the <math> P = \rho g h </math> relation. <br />
<br/><br />
<br/><br/><br />
While the mechanical balance equation can be used to find the outlet power required, no pump is 100% efficient. The efficiency, <math> \eta </math>, of a pump is defined as:<br />
<br />
<center><br />
<math> \eta = \frac{\mathbf{P_{out}}}{\mathbf{P_{in}}} </math><br />
</center><br />
<br />
The efficiency of a pump is related to the pressure head and the fluid flow rate because the work can be converted to either a higher velocity or a larger pressure head.<ref name="Pressure Changers" />. Manufacturers often supply characteristic pump curves in order to inform their customers which pumps will meet their needs. Using these types of curves, it can be seen where the best operating range is for a pump in order to maximize efficiency, and therefore minimize losses in the system. An example curve can be seen below.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
[[File:PrCh_Pump_Char_Curve.PNG|center|500px|caption]] Characteristic Pump Curve Example <ref name="Towler" /><br />
</center><br />
<br />
<br/><br />
<br/><br />
<br />
Another important consideration for pumps is that a Net Positive Suction Head (<math>NPSH</math>) must be maintained within the pump, in order to avoid cavitation.<ref name="Turton">R.T. Turton, R.C. Bailie, W.B. Whiting, J.A. Shaeiwitz. Analysis, Synthesis, and Design of Chemical Processes. Prentice Hall: Upper Saddle River, 2003.</ref> Cavitation occurs because as fluid enters a pump, frictional losses near the pump entrance cause a pressure drop, leading to a minimum pressure somewhere in the pump, and if the fluid is close to saturation, bubbles can form within the pump<ref name ="Turton" />. Specifically, to avoid cavitation, the available NPSH (<math> NPSH_{avail} </math>) must exceed the required NPSH (<math> NPSH_{reqd} </math>), which is specified by the manufacturer of the pump because <math> NPSH_{reqd} </math> depends on the pump design. The <math> NPSH_{avail} </math> can be found by using equation (20.21) in Towler, below: <ref name ="Towler" /><br />
<br />
<center><br />
<math> NPSH_{avail} = \frac{P}{\rho g} + H - \frac{P_f}{\rho g} - \frac{P_v}{\rho g} </math><br />
</center><br />
<br />
Where <math> P </math> is the pressure above the liquid in the feed vessel, <math> H </math> is the height of the liquid above the pump section, <math>P_f</math> is the pressure loss in the suction piping, <math> P_v </math> is the vapor pressure of the liquid at the pump suction, <math> \rho </math> is the density of the liquid, and <math> g </math> is the acceleration due to gravity. Regardless of what <math> NPSH_{reqd} </math> is, the <math> NPSH_{avail} </math> from the above equation must exceed it to avoid cavitation.<br />
<br />
==Modeling Pumps with HYSYS==<br />
Pumps can be modeled in Aspen HYSYS using the pump unit operation. Modeling can be done because while the specific thermodynamics, physical properties, and kinetics may differ from process to process, the conservation equations remain the same for similar process units, pumps included.<ref name="Seider"> W.D. Seider, J.D. Seader, D.R. Lewin. Process Design Principles: Synthesis, Analysis, and Evaluation. Wiley: New York, 2004.</ref>. In order to model a pump, it pump requires an inlet stream, an outlet stream, and an energy stream, as can be seen in the figure below.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
[[File:PrCh_Basic_Setup.PNG|center|500px|unspecified pump]]A basic setup for a pump in Aspen HYSYS.<br />
</center><br />
<br />
In order for any useful information to be gleaned from the model, certain combinations of specifications must be made. There are multiple ways of going about the specification process, depending on what information is known and what information the modeler wants to know. In general, two of the three steams will need to be specified, in order to calculate the third stream. For example, specifying the inlet and outlet will allow for the pump duty to be calculated. This is a common specification because processing conditions are often known, but the modeler would want to know how powerful of a pump they will need for this specific pump, so they need to know the pump duty.<br />
<br />
One basic example is if we want to pressurize a stream of water from 1 bar and 40C to 2 bar, and see how much energy the pump will require to do so. To specify the inlet stream, double click on it it HYSYS, and specify the molar flow rate, and other process variables, as well as the stream composition. In this example, the non-random two liquid (NRTL) fluid package is used, with the temperature of the inlet stream specified as 40C, the pressure as 1 bar (100 kPa), the mass flow rate as 10 m<sup>3</sup>/h, and a water mole fraction of 1. Then, if the outlet stream is specified to be at a pressure of 2 bar (200 kPa), there is enough information for HYSYS to calculate the pump duty, as well as the other outlet stream conditions via mass and energy balances. The specifications can be seen below, and the inlet and outlet stream should change from a light blue to a dark blue in HYSYS when they are specified and solved correctly. HYSYS also calculates the <math> NPSH_{avail} </math>, which can be seen in the rating tab of the pump and is 9.585 m in this case.<br />
<br />
{| style="width: 100%;"<br />
|-<br />
| || [[File:Pr_Ch_In_Out_Spec.PNG|right|400px|change in color observed on pump when properly specified]]||<br />
|<br />
|- style="height: 50px;"<br />
| ||Change in color observed on pump when properly specified||<br />
|-<br />
|[[File:Pr_Ch_In_Out_Spec_wkbk.PNG|left|400px|inlet and outlet specifications]]<br />
|<br />
|[[File:Pr_Ch_In_Out_Spec_NPSHavail.PNG|center|400px|NPSH available can be calculated by HYSYS]]<br />
|}<br />
<br/> <br />
<br />
<br/><br/>The result is that the pump requires 1336 kJ/h, which equates to 0.3711 kW for the pump, indicating this is a fairly low power operation to perform.<br />
<br />
=Compressors=<br />
For background on different types of compressors, see [[Process hydraulics]]. Typically centrifugal compressors are used for compressing higher volumes of gas to moderate pressures, whereas positive-displacement compressors are use for compressing low volumes to high pressures.<ref name="Turton"/><br />
<br />
Centrifugal compressors are similar to centrifugal pumps, with the major difference being the fluid going into the compressors are compressible. <ref name="Turton"/> This fact makes the math behind modeling compressors more complex than for pumps where an incompressible fluid assumption is made. There are still similarities however, in that a performance curve is often provided by the manufacturer so that outlet pressure can be related to inlet pressure and flow rates. One major difference between pump and compressor performance curves is that compressor performance curves deal with a pressure ratio, rather than a pressure difference, and a surge line is often included as well. <ref name="Turton"/> The surge line is important because it marks the point where a lower flowrate would result in backflow, which could lead to a reversal of flow direction and would damage the compressor.<ref name="Turton"/>.<br />
<br />
==Modeling Compressors with HYSYS==<br />
Compressors are extremely similar to pumps in HYSYS, in that they need an inlet, and outlet, and a duty stream in order to be modeled properly, as seen in the figure below.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
[[File:PC_compressor_initial.PNG|center|500px]]<br />
</center><br />
<br />
Likewise, specifying an inlet and outlet stream conditions will cause the compressor to converge. Another option for more specific information to be included in the simulation is by adding performance curves to the equipment. To add a performance curve, double click the compressor and go to the rating tab, then the curve page, check the "Enable Curves" check box, and then hit the add curve button and fill out the data from the table below.<ref name="Compressor Tutorial">N. Brownrigg. Jump start: Compressor modeling in Aspen HYSYS® Dynamics. Aspen Tech, 2015. Available at http://www.aspentech.com/compressor_modeling_jump_start.pdf Accessed 2/21/2016</ref><br />
<br />
<center><br />
{|<br />
|[[File:PC_compressor_add_curve.PNG|500px]] || [[File:PC_compressor_add_curve_4900data.PNG|500px]]<br />
|}<br />
</center><br />
<br />
=Summary=<br />
<br />
When modeling pressure changers with computer software, it is important to not over-specify them, as for any other piece of equipment. Failing to include them in the final process simulation may lead to odd results, such as a negative pressure drop through a heater or cooler in order to meet pressure or temperature specifications on a material stream. Should this situation occur, a pump or compressor should be added to ensure that a physically possible pressure drop takes place in the processing equipment. Pumps and compressors will use electricity to perform their pressure changes, and if many pumps or a large compressor is used in the process, this can have impacts on the process economics, so it is important to model pressure changers when designing a chemical process.<br />
<br />
=References=<br />
<references /></div>Kedricdaly2https://processdesign.mccormick.northwestern.edu/index.php?title=File:PC_compressor_add_curve_4900data.PNG&diff=4544File:PC compressor add curve 4900data.PNG2016-02-21T19:25:52Z<p>Kedricdaly2: Pressure changers - compressors - data for 4900 rpm compressor curve</p>
<hr />
<div>Pressure changers - compressors - data for 4900 rpm compressor curve</div>Kedricdaly2https://processdesign.mccormick.northwestern.edu/index.php?title=Pressure_changer&diff=4541Pressure changer2016-02-21T19:23:33Z<p>Kedricdaly2: Changed reference punctuation</p>
<hr />
<div>Authors: Kedric Daly<sup> [2016] </sup><br />
<br />
Stewards: David Garcia, Fengqi You<br />
<br />
Date Presented: February 5, 2016<br />
<br />
<!-- Table of Contents --><br />
__TOC__<br />
<br />
=Introduction=<br />
Pressure changers are any piece of equipment where the main goal is to increase or decrease the pressure of a stream. Typically, pressure changers are used mostly for increasing pressure, due to the fact that pressure losses occur within a system due to friction with pipes, pipe bends, valves, and other pieces of equipment <ref name="Towler">G.P. Towler, R. Sinnott. Chemical Engineering Design: Principles, Practice and Economics of Plant and Process Design. Elsevier, 2012.</ref>. Lowering the pressure of a system can also be useful however, such as to favor the products of a chemical reaction through Le Chatelier's principle. It is important however to ensure proper pressure is maintained throughout a chemical process so that blowback does not occur, and any fluids actually reach their destination as expected, at the proper conditions.<br />
<br><br><br />
There are many different types of modeling software for chemical processing, Aspen HYSYS, and Aspen Plus being well known. Like any piece of process equipment, it is necessary to specify a number of independent variables in order for the simulation to converge and produce unknown values. There are different combinations of independent variables that will suffice and cause the model to converge. Typically, the inlet and outlet pressures are specified (pressure drop, or ΔP), rather than pump duty, because these variables are important to ensure process design specifications are met.<ref name="Biegler">L.T. Biegler, I.E. Grossmann, A.W. Westerberg. Systematic Methods of Chemical Process Design. Prentice-Hall: Upper Saddle River, 1997.</ref> Different parameters of the pump or compressor can also be specified, such as efficiency, which will impact the results of the simulation. It is therefore important to ensure the equipment is correctly specified to ensure accurate results.<br />
<br />
=Pumps=<br />
<br />
Pumps do work on fluids, causing them to increase in pressure at a constant volume, due to the assumption that liquids that enter pumps are mostly incompressible. For more information on different types of pumps and other pressure changers, see [[Process hydraulics]].<br />
<br/><br />
<br/><br />
To find the power outlet required by a pump to pressurize a fluid, an energy balance can be done on the system. The result is the mechanical balance equation, below:<br/><br />
<br />
<center><br />
<math> \mathbf{P} = -mW_s = m\left ( \Delta \left (\frac{u^2}{2\alpha} \right ) +g\Delta z + \int_{P_1}^{P_2} vdP + F \right ) </math><br />
</center><br />
Where <math> \mathbf{P} </math> is the power required, <math> m </math> is the mass flow rate, <math> W_s </math> is that shaft work, <math> u </math> is the velocity of the fluid, <math> \alpha </math> describes the flow in the system (0.5 for laminar, 1 for turbulent), <math> g </math> is the gravitational acceleration, <math> \Delta z </math> is the change in height, <math> \int_{P_1}^{P_2} vdP </math> is the constant volume PV work done, and <math> F </math> is the force acting on the fluid. Each grouping deals with different aspects of the fluid flow. The first term deals with the kinetics, the second term with the statics, the third term with the pressure head, and the fourth term with the viscous losses. <ref name="Pressure Changers"> YA Hussein. Pressure Changers. Available at http://www.just.edu.jo/~yahussain/files/Pressure%20Changers.pdf Accessed February 3, 2016</ref> It should also be noted that a pressure head is the height of a fluid that results in an equivalent pressure via the <math> P = \rho g h </math> relation. <br />
<br/><br />
<br/><br/><br />
While the mechanical balance equation can be used to find the outlet power required, no pump is 100% efficient. The efficiency, <math> \eta </math>, of a pump is defined as:<br />
<br />
<center><br />
<math> \eta = \frac{\mathbf{P_{out}}}{\mathbf{P_{in}}} </math><br />
</center><br />
<br />
The efficiency of a pump is related to the pressure head and the fluid flow rate because the work can be converted to either a higher velocity or a larger pressure head.<ref name="Pressure Changers" />. Manufacturers often supply characteristic pump curves in order to inform their customers which pumps will meet their needs. Using these types of curves, it can be seen where the best operating range is for a pump in order to maximize efficiency, and therefore minimize losses in the system. An example curve can be seen below.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
[[File:PrCh_Pump_Char_Curve.PNG|center|500px|caption]] Characteristic Pump Curve Example <ref name="Towler" /><br />
</center><br />
<br />
<br/><br />
<br/><br />
<br />
Another important consideration for pumps is that a Net Positive Suction Head (<math>NPSH</math>) must be maintained within the pump, in order to avoid cavitation.<ref name="Turton">R.T. Turton, R.C. Bailie, W.B. Whiting, J.A. Shaeiwitz. Analysis, Synthesis, and Design of Chemical Processes. Prentice Hall: Upper Saddle River, 2003.</ref> Cavitation occurs because as fluid enters a pump, frictional losses near the pump entrance cause a pressure drop, leading to a minimum pressure somewhere in the pump, and if the fluid is close to saturation, bubbles can form within the pump<ref name ="Turton" />. Specifically, to avoid cavitation, the available NPSH (<math> NPSH_{avail} </math>) must exceed the required NPSH (<math> NPSH_{reqd} </math>), which is specified by the manufacturer of the pump because <math> NPSH_{reqd} </math> depends on the pump design. The <math> NPSH_{avail} </math> can be found by using equation (20.21) in Towler, below: <ref name ="Towler" /><br />
<br />
<center><br />
<math> NPSH_{avail} = \frac{P}{\rho g} + H - \frac{P_f}{\rho g} - \frac{P_v}{\rho g} </math><br />
</center><br />
<br />
Where <math> P </math> is the pressure above the liquid in the feed vessel, <math> H </math> is the height of the liquid above the pump section, <math>P_f</math> is the pressure loss in the suction piping, <math> P_v </math> is the vapor pressure of the liquid at the pump suction, <math> \rho </math> is the density of the liquid, and <math> g </math> is the acceleration due to gravity. Regardless of what <math> NPSH_{reqd} </math> is, the <math> NPSH_{avail} </math> from the above equation must exceed it to avoid cavitation.<br />
<br />
==Modeling Pumps with HYSYS==<br />
Pumps can be modeled in Aspen HYSYS using the pump unit operation. Modeling can be done because while the specific thermodynamics, physical properties, and kinetics may differ from process to process, the conservation equations remain the same for similar process units, pumps included.<ref name="Seider"> W.D. Seider, J.D. Seader, D.R. Lewin. Process Design Principles: Synthesis, Analysis, and Evaluation. Wiley: New York, 2004.</ref>. In order to model a pump, it pump requires an inlet stream, an outlet stream, and an energy stream, as can be seen in the figure below.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
[[File:PrCh_Basic_Setup.PNG|center|500px|unspecified pump]]A basic setup for a pump in Aspen HYSYS.<br />
</center><br />
<br />
In order for any useful information to be gleaned from the model, certain combinations of specifications must be made. There are multiple ways of going about the specification process, depending on what information is known and what information the modeler wants to know. In general, two of the three steams will need to be specified, in order to calculate the third stream. For example, specifying the inlet and outlet will allow for the pump duty to be calculated. This is a common specification because processing conditions are often known, but the modeler would want to know how powerful of a pump they will need for this specific pump, so they need to know the pump duty.<br />
<br />
One basic example is if we want to pressurize a stream of water from 1 bar and 40C to 2 bar, and see how much energy the pump will require to do so. To specify the inlet stream, double click on it it HYSYS, and specify the molar flow rate, and other process variables, as well as the stream composition. In this example, the non-random two liquid (NRTL) fluid package is used, with the temperature of the inlet stream specified as 40C, the pressure as 1 bar (100 kPa), the mass flow rate as 10 m<sup>3</sup>/h, and a water mole fraction of 1. Then, if the outlet stream is specified to be at a pressure of 2 bar (200 kPa), there is enough information for HYSYS to calculate the pump duty, as well as the other outlet stream conditions via mass and energy balances. The specifications can be seen below, and the inlet and outlet stream should change from a light blue to a dark blue in HYSYS when they are specified and solved correctly. HYSYS also calculates the <math> NPSH_{avail} </math>, which can be seen in the rating tab of the pump and is 9.585 m in this case.<br />
<br />
{| style="width: 100%;"<br />
|-<br />
| || [[File:Pr_Ch_In_Out_Spec.PNG|right|400px|change in color observed on pump when properly specified]]||<br />
|<br />
|- style="height: 50px;"<br />
| ||Change in color observed on pump when properly specified||<br />
|-<br />
|[[File:Pr_Ch_In_Out_Spec_wkbk.PNG|left|400px|inlet and outlet specifications]]<br />
|<br />
|[[File:Pr_Ch_In_Out_Spec_NPSHavail.PNG|center|400px|NPSH available can be calculated by HYSYS]]<br />
|}<br />
<br/> <br />
<br />
<br/><br/>The result is that the pump requires 1336 kJ/h, which equates to 0.3711 kW for the pump, indicating this is a fairly low power operation to perform.<br />
<br />
=Compressors=<br />
For background on different types of compressors, see [[Process hydraulics]]. Typically centrifugal compressors are used for compressing higher volumes of gas to moderate pressures, whereas positive-displacement compressors are use for compressing low volumes to high pressures.<ref name="Turton"/><br />
<br />
Centrifugal compressors are similar to centrifugal pumps, with the major difference being the fluid going into the compressors are compressible. <ref name="Turton"/> This fact makes the math behind modeling compressors more complex than for pumps where an incompressible fluid assumption is made. There are still similarities however, in that a performance curve is often provided by the manufacturer so that outlet pressure can be related to inlet pressure and flow rates. One major difference between pump and compressor performance curves is that compressor performance curves deal with a pressure ratio, rather than a pressure difference, and a surge line is often included as well. <ref name="Turton"/> The surge line is important because it marks the point where a lower flowrate would result in backflow, which could lead to a reversal of flow direction and would damage the compressor.<ref name="Turton"/>.<br />
<br />
==Modeling Compressors with HYSYS==<br />
Compressors are extremely similar to pumps in HYSYS, in that they need an inlet, and outlet, and a duty stream in order to be modeled properly, as seen in the figure below.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
[[File:PC_compressor_initial.PNG|center|500px]]<br />
</center><br />
<br />
Likewise, specifying an inlet and outlet stream conditions will cause the compressor to converge. Another option for more specific information to be included in the simulation is by adding performance curves to the equipment. To add a performance curve, double click the compressor and go to the rating tab, then the curve page, check the "Enable Curves" check box, and then hit the add curve button.<ref name="Compressor Tutorial">N. Brownrigg. Jump start: Compressor modeling in Aspen HYSYS® Dynamics. Aspen Tech, 2015. Available at http://www.aspentech.com/compressor_modeling_jump_start.pdf Accessed 2/21/2016</ref><br />
<br />
<center><br />
[[File:PC_compressor_add_curve.PNG]]<br />
</center><br />
<br />
=Summary=<br />
<br />
When modeling pressure changers with computer software, it is important to not over-specify them, as for any other piece of equipment. Failing to include them in the final process simulation may lead to odd results, such as a negative pressure drop through a heater or cooler in order to meet pressure or temperature specifications on a material stream. Should this situation occur, a pump or compressor should be added to ensure that a physically possible pressure drop takes place in the processing equipment. Pumps and compressors will use electricity to perform their pressure changes, and if many pumps or a large compressor is used in the process, this can have impacts on the process economics, so it is important to model pressure changers when designing a chemical process.<br />
<br />
=References=<br />
<references /></div>Kedricdaly2https://processdesign.mccormick.northwestern.edu/index.php?title=Pressure_changer&diff=4540Pressure changer2016-02-21T19:21:46Z<p>Kedricdaly2: /* Modeling Compressors with HYSYS */</p>
<hr />
<div>Authors: Kedric Daly<sup> [2016] </sup><br />
<br />
Stewards: David Garcia, Fengqi You<br />
<br />
Date Presented: February 5, 2016<br />
<br />
<!-- Table of Contents --><br />
__TOC__<br />
<br />
=Introduction=<br />
Pressure changers are any piece of equipment where the main goal is to increase or decrease the pressure of a stream. Typically, pressure changers are used mostly for increasing pressure, due to the fact that pressure losses occur within a system due to friction with pipes, pipe bends, valves, and other pieces of equipment <ref name="Towler">G.P. Towler, R. Sinnott, Chemical Engineering Design: Principles, Practice and Economics of Plant and Process Design, Elsevier, 2012.</ref>. Lowering the pressure of a system can also be useful however, such as to favor the products of a chemical reaction through Le Chatelier's principle. It is important however to ensure proper pressure is maintained throughout a chemical process so that blowback does not occur, and any fluids actually reach their destination as expected, at the proper conditions.<br />
<br><br><br />
There are many different types of modeling software for chemical processing, Aspen HYSYS, and Aspen Plus being well known. Like any piece of process equipment, it is necessary to specify a number of independent variables in order for the simulation to converge and produce unknown values. There are different combinations of independent variables that will suffice and cause the model to converge. Typically, the inlet and outlet pressures are specified (pressure drop, or ΔP), rather than pump duty, because these variables are important to ensure process design specifications are met.<ref name="Biegler">L.T. Biegler, I.E. Grossmann, A.W. Westerberg, Systematic Methods of Chemical Process Design, Prentice-Hall: Upper Saddle River, 1997.</ref> Different parameters of the pump or compressor can also be specified, such as efficiency, which will impact the results of the simulation. It is therefore important to ensure the equipment is correctly specified to ensure accurate results.<br />
<br />
=Pumps=<br />
<br />
Pumps do work on fluids, causing them to increase in pressure at a constant volume, due to the assumption that liquids that enter pumps are mostly incompressible. For more information on different types of pumps and other pressure changers, see [[Process hydraulics]].<br />
<br/><br />
<br/><br />
To find the power outlet required by a pump to pressurize a fluid, an energy balance can be done on the system. The result is the mechanical balance equation, below:<br/><br />
<br />
<center><br />
<math> \mathbf{P} = -mW_s = m\left ( \Delta \left (\frac{u^2}{2\alpha} \right ) +g\Delta z + \int_{P_1}^{P_2} vdP + F \right ) </math><br />
</center><br />
Where <math> \mathbf{P} </math> is the power required, <math> m </math> is the mass flow rate, <math> W_s </math> is that shaft work, <math> u </math> is the velocity of the fluid, <math> \alpha </math> describes the flow in the system (0.5 for laminar, 1 for turbulent), <math> g </math> is the gravitational acceleration, <math> \Delta z </math> is the change in height, <math> \int_{P_1}^{P_2} vdP </math> is the constant volume PV work done, and <math> F </math> is the force acting on the fluid. Each grouping deals with different aspects of the fluid flow. The first term deals with the kinetics, the second term with the statics, the third term with the pressure head, and the fourth term with the viscous losses. <ref name="Pressure Changers"> YA Hussein. Pressure Changers. Available at http://www.just.edu.jo/~yahussain/files/Pressure%20Changers.pdf Accessed February 3, 2016</ref> It should also be noted that a pressure head is the height of a fluid that results in an equivalent pressure via the <math> P = \rho g h </math> relation. <br />
<br/><br />
<br/><br/><br />
While the mechanical balance equation can be used to find the outlet power required, no pump is 100% efficient. The efficiency, <math> \eta </math>, of a pump is defined as:<br />
<br />
<center><br />
<math> \eta = \frac{\mathbf{P_{out}}}{\mathbf{P_{in}}} </math><br />
</center><br />
<br />
The efficiency of a pump is related to the pressure head and the fluid flow rate because the work can be converted to either a higher velocity or a larger pressure head.<ref name="Pressure Changers" />. Manufacturers often supply characteristic pump curves in order to inform their customers which pumps will meet their needs. Using these types of curves, it can be seen where the best operating range is for a pump in order to maximize efficiency, and therefore minimize losses in the system. An example curve can be seen below.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
[[File:PrCh_Pump_Char_Curve.PNG|center|500px|caption]] Characteristic Pump Curve Example <ref name="Towler" /><br />
</center><br />
<br />
<br/><br />
<br/><br />
<br />
Another important consideration for pumps is that a Net Positive Suction Head (<math>NPSH</math>) must be maintained within the pump, in order to avoid cavitation.<ref name="Turton">R.T. Turton, R.C. Bailie, W.B. Whiting, J.A. Shaeiwitz, Analysis, Synthesis, and Design of Chemical Processes, Prentice Hall: Upper Saddle River, 2003.</ref> Cavitation occurs because as fluid enters a pump, frictional losses near the pump entrance cause a pressure drop, leading to a minimum pressure somewhere in the pump, and if the fluid is close to saturation, bubbles can form within the pump<ref name ="Turton" />. Specifically, to avoid cavitation, the available NPSH (<math> NPSH_{avail} </math>) must exceed the required NPSH (<math> NPSH_{reqd} </math>), which is specified by the manufacturer of the pump because <math> NPSH_{reqd} </math> depends on the pump design. The <math> NPSH_{avail} </math> can be found by using equation (20.21) in Towler, below: <ref name ="Towler" /><br />
<br />
<center><br />
<math> NPSH_{avail} = \frac{P}{\rho g} + H - \frac{P_f}{\rho g} - \frac{P_v}{\rho g} </math><br />
</center><br />
<br />
Where <math> P </math> is the pressure above the liquid in the feed vessel, <math> H </math> is the height of the liquid above the pump section, <math>P_f</math> is the pressure loss in the suction piping, <math> P_v </math> is the vapor pressure of the liquid at the pump suction, <math> \rho </math> is the density of the liquid, and <math> g </math> is the acceleration due to gravity. Regardless of what <math> NPSH_{reqd} </math> is, the <math> NPSH_{avail} </math> from the above equation must exceed it to avoid cavitation.<br />
<br />
==Modeling Pumps with HYSYS==<br />
Pumps can be modeled in Aspen HYSYS using the pump unit operation. Modeling can be done because while the specific thermodynamics, physical properties, and kinetics may differ from process to process, the conservation equations remain the same for similar process units, pumps included.<ref name="Seider"> W.D. Seider, J.D. Seader, D.R. Lewin, Process Design Principles: Synthesis, Analysis, and Evaluation, Wiley: New York, 2004.</ref>. In order to model a pump, it pump requires an inlet stream, an outlet stream, and an energy stream, as can be seen in the figure below.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
[[File:PrCh_Basic_Setup.PNG|center|500px|unspecified pump]]A basic setup for a pump in Aspen HYSYS.<br />
</center><br />
<br />
In order for any useful information to be gleaned from the model, certain combinations of specifications must be made. There are multiple ways of going about the specification process, depending on what information is known and what information the modeler wants to know. In general, two of the three steams will need to be specified, in order to calculate the third stream. For example, specifying the inlet and outlet will allow for the pump duty to be calculated. This is a common specification because processing conditions are often known, but the modeler would want to know how powerful of a pump they will need for this specific pump, so they need to know the pump duty.<br />
<br />
One basic example is if we want to pressurize a stream of water from 1 bar and 40C to 2 bar, and see how much energy the pump will require to do so. To specify the inlet stream, double click on it it HYSYS, and specify the molar flow rate, and other process variables, as well as the stream composition. In this example, the non-random two liquid (NRTL) fluid package is used, with the temperature of the inlet stream specified as 40C, the pressure as 1 bar (100 kPa), the mass flow rate as 10 m<sup>3</sup>/h, and a water mole fraction of 1. Then, if the outlet stream is specified to be at a pressure of 2 bar (200 kPa), there is enough information for HYSYS to calculate the pump duty, as well as the other outlet stream conditions via mass and energy balances. The specifications can be seen below, and the inlet and outlet stream should change from a light blue to a dark blue in HYSYS when they are specified and solved correctly. HYSYS also calculates the <math> NPSH_{avail} </math>, which can be seen in the rating tab of the pump and is 9.585 m in this case.<br />
<br />
{| style="width: 100%;"<br />
|-<br />
| || [[File:Pr_Ch_In_Out_Spec.PNG|right|400px|change in color observed on pump when properly specified]]||<br />
|<br />
|- style="height: 50px;"<br />
| ||Change in color observed on pump when properly specified||<br />
|-<br />
|[[File:Pr_Ch_In_Out_Spec_wkbk.PNG|left|400px|inlet and outlet specifications]]<br />
|<br />
|[[File:Pr_Ch_In_Out_Spec_NPSHavail.PNG|center|400px|NPSH available can be calculated by HYSYS]]<br />
|}<br />
<br/> <br />
<br />
<br/><br/>The result is that the pump requires 1336 kJ/h, which equates to 0.3711 kW for the pump, indicating this is a fairly low power operation to perform.<br />
<br />
=Compressors=<br />
For background on different types of compressors, see [[Process hydraulics]]. Typically centrifugal compressors are used for compressing higher volumes of gas to moderate pressures, whereas positive-displacement compressors are use for compressing low volumes to high pressures.<ref name="Turton"/><br />
<br />
Centrifugal compressors are similar to centrifugal pumps, with the major difference being the fluid going into the compressors are compressible. <ref name="Turton"/> This fact makes the math behind modeling compressors more complex than for pumps where an incompressible fluid assumption is made. There are still similarities however, in that a performance curve is often provided by the manufacturer so that outlet pressure can be related to inlet pressure and flow rates. One major difference between pump and compressor performance curves is that compressor performance curves deal with a pressure ratio, rather than a pressure difference, and a surge line is often included as well. <ref name="Turton"/> The surge line is important because it marks the point where a lower flowrate would result in backflow, which could lead to a reversal of flow direction and would damage the compressor.<ref name="Turton"/>.<br />
<br />
==Modeling Compressors with HYSYS==<br />
Compressors are extremely similar to pumps in HYSYS, in that they need an inlet, and outlet, and a duty stream in order to be modeled properly, as seen in the figure below.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
[[File:PC_compressor_initial.PNG|center|500px]]<br />
</center><br />
<br />
Likewise, specifying an inlet and outlet stream conditions will cause the compressor to converge. Another option for more specific information to be included in the simulation is by adding performance curves to the equipment. To add a performance curve, double click the compressor and go to the rating tab, then the curve page, check the "Enable Curves" check box, and then hit the add curve button.<ref name="Compressor Tutorial">N. Brownrigg. Jump start: Compressor modeling in Aspen HYSYS® Dynamics. Aspen Tech. 2015. Available at http://www.aspentech.com/compressor_modeling_jump_start.pdf Accessed 2/21/2016</ref><br />
<br />
<center><br />
[[File:PC_compressor_add_curve.PNG]]<br />
</center><br />
<br />
=Summary=<br />
<br />
When modeling pressure changers with computer software, it is important to not over-specify them, as for any other piece of equipment. Failing to include them in the final process simulation may lead to odd results, such as a negative pressure drop through a heater or cooler in order to meet pressure or temperature specifications on a material stream. Should this situation occur, a pump or compressor should be added to ensure that a physically possible pressure drop takes place in the processing equipment. Pumps and compressors will use electricity to perform their pressure changes, and if many pumps or a large compressor is used in the process, this can have impacts on the process economics, so it is important to model pressure changers when designing a chemical process.<br />
<br />
=References=<br />
<references /></div>Kedricdaly2https://processdesign.mccormick.northwestern.edu/index.php?title=File:PC_compressor_add_curve.PNG&diff=4537File:PC compressor add curve.PNG2016-02-21T19:15:31Z<p>Kedricdaly2: Pressure changers - compressor add curve button</p>
<hr />
<div>Pressure changers - compressor add curve button</div>Kedricdaly2https://processdesign.mccormick.northwestern.edu/index.php?title=Pressure_changer&diff=4535Pressure changer2016-02-21T19:12:28Z<p>Kedricdaly2: </p>
<hr />
<div>Authors: Kedric Daly<sup> [2016] </sup><br />
<br />
Stewards: David Garcia, Fengqi You<br />
<br />
Date Presented: February 5, 2016<br />
<br />
<!-- Table of Contents --><br />
__TOC__<br />
<br />
=Introduction=<br />
Pressure changers are any piece of equipment where the main goal is to increase or decrease the pressure of a stream. Typically, pressure changers are used mostly for increasing pressure, due to the fact that pressure losses occur within a system due to friction with pipes, pipe bends, valves, and other pieces of equipment <ref name="Towler">G.P. Towler, R. Sinnott, Chemical Engineering Design: Principles, Practice and Economics of Plant and Process Design, Elsevier, 2012.</ref>. Lowering the pressure of a system can also be useful however, such as to favor the products of a chemical reaction through Le Chatelier's principle. It is important however to ensure proper pressure is maintained throughout a chemical process so that blowback does not occur, and any fluids actually reach their destination as expected, at the proper conditions.<br />
<br><br><br />
There are many different types of modeling software for chemical processing, Aspen HYSYS, and Aspen Plus being well known. Like any piece of process equipment, it is necessary to specify a number of independent variables in order for the simulation to converge and produce unknown values. There are different combinations of independent variables that will suffice and cause the model to converge. Typically, the inlet and outlet pressures are specified (pressure drop, or ΔP), rather than pump duty, because these variables are important to ensure process design specifications are met.<ref name="Biegler">L.T. Biegler, I.E. Grossmann, A.W. Westerberg, Systematic Methods of Chemical Process Design, Prentice-Hall: Upper Saddle River, 1997.</ref> Different parameters of the pump or compressor can also be specified, such as efficiency, which will impact the results of the simulation. It is therefore important to ensure the equipment is correctly specified to ensure accurate results.<br />
<br />
=Pumps=<br />
<br />
Pumps do work on fluids, causing them to increase in pressure at a constant volume, due to the assumption that liquids that enter pumps are mostly incompressible. For more information on different types of pumps and other pressure changers, see [[Process hydraulics]].<br />
<br/><br />
<br/><br />
To find the power outlet required by a pump to pressurize a fluid, an energy balance can be done on the system. The result is the mechanical balance equation, below:<br/><br />
<br />
<center><br />
<math> \mathbf{P} = -mW_s = m\left ( \Delta \left (\frac{u^2}{2\alpha} \right ) +g\Delta z + \int_{P_1}^{P_2} vdP + F \right ) </math><br />
</center><br />
Where <math> \mathbf{P} </math> is the power required, <math> m </math> is the mass flow rate, <math> W_s </math> is that shaft work, <math> u </math> is the velocity of the fluid, <math> \alpha </math> describes the flow in the system (0.5 for laminar, 1 for turbulent), <math> g </math> is the gravitational acceleration, <math> \Delta z </math> is the change in height, <math> \int_{P_1}^{P_2} vdP </math> is the constant volume PV work done, and <math> F </math> is the force acting on the fluid. Each grouping deals with different aspects of the fluid flow. The first term deals with the kinetics, the second term with the statics, the third term with the pressure head, and the fourth term with the viscous losses. <ref name="Pressure Changers"> YA Hussein. Pressure Changers. Available at http://www.just.edu.jo/~yahussain/files/Pressure%20Changers.pdf Accessed February 3, 2016</ref> It should also be noted that a pressure head is the height of a fluid that results in an equivalent pressure via the <math> P = \rho g h </math> relation. <br />
<br/><br />
<br/><br/><br />
While the mechanical balance equation can be used to find the outlet power required, no pump is 100% efficient. The efficiency, <math> \eta </math>, of a pump is defined as:<br />
<br />
<center><br />
<math> \eta = \frac{\mathbf{P_{out}}}{\mathbf{P_{in}}} </math><br />
</center><br />
<br />
The efficiency of a pump is related to the pressure head and the fluid flow rate because the work can be converted to either a higher velocity or a larger pressure head.<ref name="Pressure Changers" />. Manufacturers often supply characteristic pump curves in order to inform their customers which pumps will meet their needs. Using these types of curves, it can be seen where the best operating range is for a pump in order to maximize efficiency, and therefore minimize losses in the system. An example curve can be seen below.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
[[File:PrCh_Pump_Char_Curve.PNG|center|500px|caption]] Characteristic Pump Curve Example <ref name="Towler" /><br />
</center><br />
<br />
<br/><br />
<br/><br />
<br />
Another important consideration for pumps is that a Net Positive Suction Head (<math>NPSH</math>) must be maintained within the pump, in order to avoid cavitation.<ref name="Turton">R.T. Turton, R.C. Bailie, W.B. Whiting, J.A. Shaeiwitz, Analysis, Synthesis, and Design of Chemical Processes, Prentice Hall: Upper Saddle River, 2003.</ref> Cavitation occurs because as fluid enters a pump, frictional losses near the pump entrance cause a pressure drop, leading to a minimum pressure somewhere in the pump, and if the fluid is close to saturation, bubbles can form within the pump<ref name ="Turton" />. Specifically, to avoid cavitation, the available NPSH (<math> NPSH_{avail} </math>) must exceed the required NPSH (<math> NPSH_{reqd} </math>), which is specified by the manufacturer of the pump because <math> NPSH_{reqd} </math> depends on the pump design. The <math> NPSH_{avail} </math> can be found by using equation (20.21) in Towler, below: <ref name ="Towler" /><br />
<br />
<center><br />
<math> NPSH_{avail} = \frac{P}{\rho g} + H - \frac{P_f}{\rho g} - \frac{P_v}{\rho g} </math><br />
</center><br />
<br />
Where <math> P </math> is the pressure above the liquid in the feed vessel, <math> H </math> is the height of the liquid above the pump section, <math>P_f</math> is the pressure loss in the suction piping, <math> P_v </math> is the vapor pressure of the liquid at the pump suction, <math> \rho </math> is the density of the liquid, and <math> g </math> is the acceleration due to gravity. Regardless of what <math> NPSH_{reqd} </math> is, the <math> NPSH_{avail} </math> from the above equation must exceed it to avoid cavitation.<br />
<br />
==Modeling Pumps with HYSYS==<br />
Pumps can be modeled in Aspen HYSYS using the pump unit operation. Modeling can be done because while the specific thermodynamics, physical properties, and kinetics may differ from process to process, the conservation equations remain the same for similar process units, pumps included.<ref name="Seider"> W.D. Seider, J.D. Seader, D.R. Lewin, Process Design Principles: Synthesis, Analysis, and Evaluation, Wiley: New York, 2004.</ref>. In order to model a pump, it pump requires an inlet stream, an outlet stream, and an energy stream, as can be seen in the figure below.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
[[File:PrCh_Basic_Setup.PNG|center|500px|unspecified pump]]A basic setup for a pump in Aspen HYSYS.<br />
</center><br />
<br />
In order for any useful information to be gleaned from the model, certain combinations of specifications must be made. There are multiple ways of going about the specification process, depending on what information is known and what information the modeler wants to know. In general, two of the three steams will need to be specified, in order to calculate the third stream. For example, specifying the inlet and outlet will allow for the pump duty to be calculated. This is a common specification because processing conditions are often known, but the modeler would want to know how powerful of a pump they will need for this specific pump, so they need to know the pump duty.<br />
<br />
One basic example is if we want to pressurize a stream of water from 1 bar and 40C to 2 bar, and see how much energy the pump will require to do so. To specify the inlet stream, double click on it it HYSYS, and specify the molar flow rate, and other process variables, as well as the stream composition. In this example, the non-random two liquid (NRTL) fluid package is used, with the temperature of the inlet stream specified as 40C, the pressure as 1 bar (100 kPa), the mass flow rate as 10 m<sup>3</sup>/h, and a water mole fraction of 1. Then, if the outlet stream is specified to be at a pressure of 2 bar (200 kPa), there is enough information for HYSYS to calculate the pump duty, as well as the other outlet stream conditions via mass and energy balances. The specifications can be seen below, and the inlet and outlet stream should change from a light blue to a dark blue in HYSYS when they are specified and solved correctly. HYSYS also calculates the <math> NPSH_{avail} </math>, which can be seen in the rating tab of the pump and is 9.585 m in this case.<br />
<br />
{| style="width: 100%;"<br />
|-<br />
| || [[File:Pr_Ch_In_Out_Spec.PNG|right|400px|change in color observed on pump when properly specified]]||<br />
|<br />
|- style="height: 50px;"<br />
| ||Change in color observed on pump when properly specified||<br />
|-<br />
|[[File:Pr_Ch_In_Out_Spec_wkbk.PNG|left|400px|inlet and outlet specifications]]<br />
|<br />
|[[File:Pr_Ch_In_Out_Spec_NPSHavail.PNG|center|400px|NPSH available can be calculated by HYSYS]]<br />
|}<br />
<br/> <br />
<br />
<br/><br/>The result is that the pump requires 1336 kJ/h, which equates to 0.3711 kW for the pump, indicating this is a fairly low power operation to perform.<br />
<br />
=Compressors=<br />
For background on different types of compressors, see [[Process hydraulics]]. Typically centrifugal compressors are used for compressing higher volumes of gas to moderate pressures, whereas positive-displacement compressors are use for compressing low volumes to high pressures.<ref name="Turton"/><br />
<br />
Centrifugal compressors are similar to centrifugal pumps, with the major difference being the fluid going into the compressors are compressible. <ref name="Turton"/> This fact makes the math behind modeling compressors more complex than for pumps where an incompressible fluid assumption is made. There are still similarities however, in that a performance curve is often provided by the manufacturer so that outlet pressure can be related to inlet pressure and flow rates. One major difference between pump and compressor performance curves is that compressor performance curves deal with a pressure ratio, rather than a pressure difference, and a surge line is often included as well. <ref name="Turton"/> The surge line is important because it marks the point where a lower flowrate would result in backflow, which could lead to a reversal of flow direction and would damage the compressor.<ref name="Turton"/>.<br />
<br />
==Modeling Compressors with HYSYS==<br />
Compressors are extremely similar to pumps in HYSYS, in that they need an inlet, and outlet, and a duty stream in order to be modeled properly, as seen in the figure below.<br />
<br />
<center><br />
[[File:PC_compressor_initial.PNG|center|500px]]<br />
</center><br />
<br />
Likewise, specifying an inlet and outlet stream conditions will cause the compressor to converge. Another option for more specific information to be included in the simulation is by adding performance curves to the equipment.<br />
<br />
<br />
=Summary=<br />
<br />
When modeling pressure changers with computer software, it is important to not over-specify them, as for any other piece of equipment. Failing to include them in the final process simulation may lead to odd results, such as a negative pressure drop through a heater or cooler in order to meet pressure or temperature specifications on a material stream. Should this situation occur, a pump or compressor should be added to ensure that a physically possible pressure drop takes place in the processing equipment. Pumps and compressors will use electricity to perform their pressure changes, and if many pumps or a large compressor is used in the process, this can have impacts on the process economics, so it is important to model pressure changers when designing a chemical process.<br />
<br />
=References=<br />
<references /></div>Kedricdaly2https://processdesign.mccormick.northwestern.edu/index.php?title=File:PC_compressor_initial.PNG&diff=4534File:PC compressor initial.PNG2016-02-21T19:11:08Z<p>Kedricdaly2: Pressure changers - initial compressor setup</p>
<hr />
<div>Pressure changers - initial compressor setup</div>Kedricdaly2