The research on thermal and economic performance of solar desalination system with salinity-gradient solar pond

Conventional seawater desalination technology could solve the problem of fresh water shortage, but consumes a large amount of fossil fuel and causes the environmental problems such as global warming, acid rain, etc. On account of this, solar desalination is one of the promising methods. Mathematical and economic models of solar desalination system with salinity-gradient solar pond (SP) which both supplies the energy and store energy in system are established. A Visual Basic and A MATLAB computer programs of solar-powered low temperature multi-effect distillation (LT-MED) processes are developed. It is researched that the effect of the temperature of stream entering into the external heat exchanger and the temperature of stream returning to SP on thermal and economic performance of solar desalination system. The conclusions are helpful to the design and operation of solar desalination plant.