Novel synergetic integration of supercritical carbon dioxide Brayton cycle and adsorption desalination

Abstract High ambient conditions and high energy desalination technologies could penalize power cycle performance and this synergistic integration is proposed as a solution to address this challenge. A novel integration of closed loop recuperative supercritical carbon dioxide Brayton cycle with low temperature adsorption desalination cycle is investigated. Brayton cycle provides the heat source for the adsorption desalination cycle and the latter provides the cooling required for heat rejection in Brayton cycle. The integrated system is modeled and the performance is analyzed through energy, exergy analysis, and parametric studies. Finally, the integrated system performance is compared against a stand-alone cycle and literature for performance gains. A maximum improvement of about 9.1%, 21.1%, and 10.7% for energy efficiency, exergy efficiency, and overall system effectiveness were observed for the lowest chilled water temperature of 25 °C over typical ambient conditions of 35 °C. Maximum specific daily water production and specific cooling output at these conditions were 11.3 kg of water kg of SG and 195 W kg of SG , an improvement of about 26% and 28% over typical ambient conditions. Finally, overall system effectiveness improvement of about 14.3% over a stand-alone system is achieved, compared to a maximum of 10% improvement for supercritical carbon dioxide and multi-effect desalination integrations. Better performance improvement achieved at lower turbine inlet temperatures compared to multi-effect systems warrant the advantage of synergetic integration of power cycles like the supercritical carbon dioxide Brayton cycle with less energy-intensive adsorption desalination.