Dynamic modelling and simulation of industrial scale multistage flash desalination process

Multistage Flash (MSF) desalination process is still a dominant process, especially in the Gulf region, to produce high quality freshwater. Although there has been energy price surge in recent years, MSF process will continue to operate in that region for some foreseeable future. The key challenge is how to make such processes still profitable. Understanding the dynamics of any processes under uncertainty and disturbances is very important to make a process operationally feasible and profitable. The main aim of this work is to understand the dynamics of industrial scale MSF process using high fidelity and reliable process model. For this purpose, a detailed dynamic model for the MSF process incorporating key and new features is developed and validated against the actual data of a large-scale seawater desalination plant. The model is then used to study the behaviour of large scale MSF processes for disturbances in steam temperature, feed temperature and the recycle brine flow rate. The simulation results show that the last stage requires a longer time to settle compared to the preceding stages. In addition, steam temperature shows insignificant influence on the performance ratio compared to the inlet seawater temperature and recycle brine flow rate. Furthermore, it is found that the productivity of plant can increase in the winter compared to that in the summer. However, this benefit comes at the expense of increased steam consumption in the winter, resulting in a low performance ratio.

Automated summary

The Multistage Flash (MSF) desalination process is still dominant for producing high quality freshwater in the Gulf region. The challenge is to ensure profitability of such processes. This study develops a detailed dynamic model for the MSF process and investigates its behavior under disturbances. The simulation results indicate that the last stage requires more time to settle and steam temperature has insignificant influence on performance compared to other factors. Additionally, productivity can increase in winter at the expense of lower performance ratio due to increased steam consumption.