| Abstract: | The purchased power required for operation of reverse osmosis systems can be greatly reduced or sometimes eliminated by reclaiming waste heat from diesel engines, gas turbines, flare gases, etc. This can be accomplished by using a Biphase turbine to convert low level waste heat to shaft horsepower.The system can be designed to use waste heat from existing installations or to reduce the size of the generating equipment in new supplies.The Biphase conservation turbine is driven by a two phase stream generated by flashing a superheated liquid through a nozzle to the turbine. The turbine can be directly coupled to a pump shaft, to an electrical generator or to a combination of the two. Performance of the turbine is discussed. The waste heat recovery turbine and a hydraulic turbine to recover energy from the high pressure concentrated brine can be combined into one system.This paper describes the design of a seawater reverse osmosis system using waste heat from an existing diesel generating unit. The SeaRO system is designed to produce 750 cmd of 400 ppm water at an energy consumption of approximately 2.5 KWH of purchased power per cubic meter.A discussion of available desalination capacity at various quantities and temperature levels of the waste heat source is presented. A comparison of water costs obtained using this system and a conventional electrical drive is presented. |
