SOLAR CO-GENERATION OF ELECTRICITY AND WATER, LARGE SCALE PHOTOVOLTAIC SYSTEMS – Large Scale
MSF and MED Thermodynamic Modeling and Design - Mohamed A. Sharaf Eldean, Abdelnasser Mabrouk, A. M. Soliman, Hassan
E.S. Fath
LARGE SCALE MSF AND MED THERMODYNAMIC MODELING
AND DESIGN
Mohamed A. Sharaf Eldean
Suez University, Suez, Egypt.
Abdelnasser Mabrouk
Qatar Environment & Energy Research Institute, Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Doha,
Qatar
A. M. Soliman
Jouf University, Sakaka, Kingdom Saudi Arabia.
Hassan E.S. Fath
E-JUST Egypt–Japan University of Science & Technology, Alexandria, Egypt.
Keywords: Multi stage flash, Multi effect distillation, Thermal desalination, Seawater
desalination, Modeling and simulation, Matlab/Simulink.
Contents
1. Introduction
2. Mathematical Modeling
2.1. Multi Stage Flash
2.2. Multi Effect Distillation
3. Matlab/Simulink Modeling Environment
4. Design Results for Large Scale Desalination Plants
4.1. Multi Stage Flash: Large Scale Results
4.2. Multi Effect Distillation: Large Scale Results
5. Conclusions and Perspectives
Glossary
Bibliography
Biographical Sketches
Summary
Water is essential for human life and activities such as agriculture and industry. The
World Health Organization (WHO) has estimated that 1000 cubic meters per person per
year is the benchmark level below which chronic water scarcity is considered to impede
development and harm human health. Access to safe drinking water has improved
steadily and substantially over the last decades in almost every part of the world.
Despite this development, it is estimated that by 2025 more than half of the world
population will still be vulnerable to severe water shortage, a situation that has been
called a water crisis by the United Nations according to which annual renewable
resources of less than 1000 cubic meters per capita per year indicate water stress.
Desalination provides an alternative source, offering water for irrigational, industrial,
and municipal uses. Desalination technologies can be classified by their separation
mechanisms into thermal and membrane-based systems. Thermal desalination separates
©Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS)
SOLAR CO-GENERATION OF ELECTRICITY AND WATER, LARGE SCALE PHOTOVOLTAIC SYSTEMS – Large Scale
MSF and MED Thermodynamic Modeling and Design - Mohamed A. Sharaf Eldean, Abdelnasser Mabrouk, A. M. Soliman, Hassan
E.S. Fath
salt from water by evaporation and condensation. Thermal desalination includes multistage flash, multi-effect distillation, mechanical vapor compression, and thermal vapor
compression. Among these techniques, multi-stage flash and multi effect distillation are
most widely used in the world for large-scale water production. This chapter introduces
the reader to several major topics in design and simulation of large-scale thermal
desalination plants (multi stage flash & multi effect distillation). After a brief
introduction to the process principles, modeling and simulation issues for each type and
configuration are discussed. Special emphasis is placed on design aspects for
optimization. Towards the end a conclusion and perspective section summarizes the
chapter.
1. Introduction
Water and its natural resources are important for life on the earth. Water is particularly
important for activities such as domestic use, agriculture, and industry. However, during
the last few decades water shortage problems appeared in many countries, especially
developing countries. Many remote areas of the world such as coastal desert areas in the
Middle East or some Mediterranean and Caribbean islands are suffering from acute
shortage of drinking water (El-Nashar, 2001). By the year of 2025, about 60% of the
world population will be suffering from serious water shortages. Moreover, common
use of unhealthy water in developing countries causes 80-90% of all diseases and 30%
of all deaths (Fath, 2000). Due to the rapid growth of the worldwide demand for potable
water, several scientists even consider such resource is more crucial than energy for the
future (Dong, 2019). Desalination is a process of removing dissolved minerals from
salty water for producing fresh water. Nowadays, thermal desalination processes
account for more than 65% of the entire capacity of desalination industry (Dong, 2019).
Seawater desalination is and will be a fundamental process to deal with fresh water
shortage in many regions of the world. Desalination technologies can be classified by
their separation mechanisms into thermal and membrane systems. Thermal desalination
separates salt from water by evaporation and condensation, whereas in membrane
desalination water diffuses through a membrane, while salts are almost completely
retained. Thermal desalination includes multi-stage flash, multi-effect distillation,
mechanical vapor compression, and thermal vapor compression while membrane
desalination contains reverse osmosis, ion exchange, and electro-dialysis processes.
Multi effect distillation and multi-stage flash are the techniques that are most widely
used in the world (Sharaf et al, 2011). Multi-stage flash (MSF) desalination process has
been used for decades for making freshwater from seawater and is now the largest
sector in desalination (Al-Hamahmy et al, 2016).
Multi-Stage Flash (MSF) evaporation process is currently the workhorse of the
desalination industry with a market share close to 60% of the total world production
capacity (El-Dessouky et al, 1999). Multi Stage Flash (MSF) process has also a
possibility for use with solar power. Operation temperatures of multi-stage flash
distillation systems allow the use of different solar collectors in solar powered plants
(Garcia-Rodriguez and G6mez-Camacho, 1999). A conventional multi effect distillation
(MED) process uses about half of the MSF pumping energy, and almost the same
amount of thermal energy used by the MSF, if both have the same gain ratio (Sharaf et
©Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS)
SOLAR CO-GENERATION OF ELECTRICITY AND WATER, LARGE SCALE PHOTOVOLTAIC SYSTEMS – Large Scale
MSF and MED Thermodynamic Modeling and Design - Mohamed A. Sharaf Eldean, Abdelnasser Mabrouk, A. M. Soliman, Hassan
E.S. Fath
al, 2011). However, a recent trend of using low-temperature MED allows the use of low
temperature (in the range of 70oC) steam as heat source, and consequently of low
exergy and low equivalent work. This can bring the MED consumed equivalent
mechanical energy close to that consumed by an efficient RO system. An example
construction in Abu Dhabi of an MED plant with a 240,000m3/day capacity shows a
breakthrough in large-scale MED plants (Bernhard and Zarza, 1996).
It is clear that MSF and MED are considered dominant in large-scale desalination
industry; however, the processes need some improvements in order to compete with the
other desalination technologies such as reverse osmosis and electro-dialysis. Therefore,
modeling and simulation are considered a vital option in order to save time and cost.
The simulation type is considered a very important dimension because it can decide the
direction of the program. Henghua et al (2019) adopted a mathematical model of multistage flash (MSF) chamber based on the volume of fluid (VOF) multiphase modeling.
Tanvir and. Mujtaba (2008) used gPROMS model builder optimal design and operation
of MSF desalination process. Mabrouk et al (2006, 2007a, 2007b) created a software
library by the use of graphical user interface (GUI) model created by the aid of visual
basic toolbox. Thomas et al (Thomas et al, 1998) presented a mathematical model and
its solution procedure to simulate the steady state and dynamic behavior of multistage
flash desalination plants. Gambier and Badreddin, (2004) used Matlab/Simulink for
properties of the flashing process. Al-Hamahmy et al (2016) modeled a special design
for MSF by applying a method named “brine extraction”. The technique involves
extracting a part of the cooling brine from the water boxes and re-injecting this
extracted brine directly into the flashing chambers; i.e., the extracted brine will not pass
through the brine heater or high-temperature flashing stages. Economically speaking,
brine extraction is expected to reduce the surface area of condenser tubes at the brine
heater and high temperature flashing stages, and shift the vapor condensation heat load
to lower temperature flashing stages, where a cheaper condenser tube material is used.
Hamid Rezvani Dastgerdi et al, (2016) developed a new distributed boosted multi-effect
distillation process to effectively harness low-grade “waste heat” in the temperature
range 65°C-90°C. Palenzuela et al (2014) introduced a steady-state mathematical model
of a vertically stacked forward feed multi-effect distillation (MED) plant. The model
has been developed taking into consideration the same design and operational
characteristics as the pilot MED plant at Plataforma Solar de Almería (PSA), in the
southeast of Spain. Seungwon Ihm et al, (2016) introduced and energy cost comparison
between MSF, MED and SWRO in order to investigate energy consumption.
Peyman Talebbeydokhti et al, (2017) presented a Low Temperature-MED system
integrated with a novel Parabolic Trough Concentrated Solar Power plant. The study
explored the use of the waste heat in CSP-DES plant to feed a Low Temperature-MED
technology. Nannarone et al (2017) investigated an accurate and flexible model of the
MED desalination process, implemented within the CAMEL-ProTM Process Simulator.
The model validation embraced some case studies, to prove the reliability of the tool. A
remarkable result returned by the code, in terms of process variables and plant
operational parameters, guaranteed an effective support in each design step. Zhe Dong
et al (2019) introduced a lumped-parameter dynamic model for MED-TVC process. The
plant control design is deployed as a program on Matlab/Simulink platform. It is quite
clear from the literature that modeling techniques are diverse.
©Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS)
SOLAR CO-GENERATION OF ELECTRICITY AND WATER, LARGE SCALE PHOTOVOLTAIC SYSTEMS – Large Scale
MSF and MED Thermodynamic Modeling and Design - Mohamed A. Sharaf Eldean, Abdelnasser Mabrouk, A. M. Soliman, Hassan
E.S. Fath
Modeling techniques and simulation studies are considered a vital tool for design and
optimization for both MSF and MED. As mentioned in the previous paragraph, a
number of computer programs have been developed for desalination processes
simulation, design and optimization. The available software packages of HOMER,
Hybrid2, RETScreen, iHOGA, INSEL, TRNSYS, HYBRIDS, SOMES, SOLSTOR,
IPSYS, ARES, and SOLSIM can only solve special cases of solar thermal or
desalination systems. Some of these programs are focused only on Renewable Energies
(RE) and the rest focus only on desalination without any combination between the two
technologies. Moreover, most of these codes have no more than one or two modeling
dimensions i.e., some focus on performance and others focus on cost calculation—not
thermo-economic analysis that includes both energy and exergy with optimization
routines.
In addition, most of these programs are rigid, on-off simulators, fixed-point calculators
and step forward. These computer programs were developed in three stages. In the first
stage, a special purpose program (one-off program) is used to solve the problem. For a
particular solar heating process (or unit) with a fixed configuration, it is possible to
write a mathematical model describing the process in the form of an ‘on-off’ computer
program. The structure of these programs is rigid, simple, and straightforward. All that
the user has to do is to supply is the data and the executive handles the program in the
same way, irrespective of the nature of the process simulated. The disadvantage of such
programs is that a model exists for only one process and any changes made to that
process might require extensive re-programming. However, the specialized program
makes it much easier to produce mathematical models of sufficient realism. It is obvious
from the literature that the modeling software packages are presented to solve a special
case where some of it is focused on renewable and the rest are focused on only
desalination without any combination between the two technologies. Moreover; most of
it has no more than one or two modeling dimensions i.e., part focused on performance
and other focused on cost not thermo-economic and/or energy not exergy. Therefore,
the need for a general, flexible, accurate, and visualized software package for renewable
desalination systems has become an urgent need. In this chapter, a new software
package for modeling and simulation for MED and MSF desalination systems is
presented. The technique of modeling, the process description, the modeling dimension,
the software features, capabilities, and the interface explanation are also presented. The
developed model should be implemented for some capabilities to overcome previous
programming problems and limitations; such as the brine recycle streams. The
developed model overcomes the problem that appears in other techniques of simulation
such as sequential approach, and matrix manipulation technique. MSF brine recycle and
MED parallel feed configurations are considered for study in this chapter.
2. Mathematical Modeling
Engineering processes (especially renewable energy combined with desalination
processes) consist of a number of interactive units. Using these units in a wide range of
processes and configurations can be obtained. To understand the behavior of these
processes under different design and/or operating conditions, the proposed flexible
computer program will manipulate large number of flow sheeting problems. The
©Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS)
SOLAR CO-GENERATION OF ELECTRICITY AND WATER, LARGE SCALE PHOTOVOLTAIC SYSTEMS – Large Scale
MSF and MED Thermodynamic Modeling and Design - Mohamed A. Sharaf Eldean, Abdelnasser Mabrouk, A. M. Soliman, Hassan
E.S. Fath
process modeling technique will have some requisites such as the dimension of the
technique utilized. The main modeling dimensions are:
• The mathematical technique environment (MTE).
• The simulation types.
• The data analysis type.
The MTE is normally decided by the programmer from the beginning by choosing the
program language or technique. The MTE is also divided into three main categories: the
first is called special purpose program (sequential or simultaneous marching), the
second is a general-purpose program (sequential or simultaneous modular approaches),
and the third is a new visual system program (subsystems are broken to physical,
functional, or both concepts). The simulation type is considered a very important
dimension because it can decide the direction of the program. This simulation type can
be generally divided into three classes: (a) performance, (b) design, and (c)
optimization. In the performance type (a), the variables associated with the feed streams
to a process unit and all design parameters (such as PV module area, PV panel’s
dimensions, etc.) are assumed to be known. The variables associated with the internal
and output streams are the unknowns. In the design problem (b) (the present work),
some design parameters (areas, dimensions, voltage, current, number of cells, unit cost,
etc.) and/or feed variables are left unspecified and become unknown. The known
streams are the broader streams of the process such as the power of the PV module or
the system productive. The optimization problem (c) differs from the design problem in
that the number of equality constraints is smaller than that of the variables left
unspecified. The unspecified variables are now calculated so as to minimize an
objective function (usually the cost or specific power consumption), normally of
economic nature. The data analysis dimension depends on the programmer’s choice.
More analyses mean more generality and more capabilities added to the developed
code. For this work, the available analyses are: (i) energy, (ii) exergy, (iii) cost, and (iv)
thermo-economic. The programmer has to decide the methodology from the beginning
i.e., building the numerical model according to the dimension. Therefore, a new visual
system program by the use of MatLab/SimuLink should be built to solve design,
performance and optimization types of simulation and to run all possible types of output
data analyses of energy, exergy, cost, and thermos-economic. The mathematical
approaches that are used in the analysis for solar desalination plants are basically
preformed according to the 1st and 2nd laws of thermodynamics. For any system under
steady state, the mass, energy, and entropy balances equations under steady state
condition should be developed as follows:
∑ m in − ∑ m out = 0 ( kg/s ) ,
(1)
∑ ein − ∑ eout = 0 ( kJ/kg ) ,
(2)
∑ sin − ∑ sout = 0 ( kJ/kgoC ) .
(3)
©Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS)
SOLAR CO-GENERATION OF ELECTRICITY AND WATER, LARGE SCALE PHOTOVOLTAIC SYSTEMS – Large Scale
MSF and MED Thermodynamic Modeling and Design - Mohamed A. Sharaf Eldean, Abdelnasser Mabrouk, A. M. Soliman, Hassan
E.S. Fath
Unlike energy, which is conserved in any process according to the first law of
thermodynamics, exergy is destroyed due to irreversibility taking place in any process,
which manifests itself in entropy creation or entropy increase. The general form of the
availability is defined by the following equation;
A2 − A1 = Aq + Aw + Afi − Afo − I ,
(4)
where A2 − A1 = 0 is the non-flow availability change in steady state condition,
⎛ T ⎞
Aq = ∑ ⎜1 − amb ⎟ Q j
⎜
T j ⎟⎠
j ⎝
is the availability transfer due to the heat transfer between the control volume and its
surroundings, Aq = −Wcv + Po (V2 − V1 ) is equal to the negative value of the work
produced by the control volume but in most cases the control volume has a constant
value; therefore Aw can be further simplified. And I = Tamb × Sgen is the availability
destruction in the process. The flow availability expressed as
Afi − Afo = ∑ i m i ai − ∑ o m o ao
So the general form in steady state condition would become;
0 = Aq + Aw + Afi − Afo − I .
(5)
Thermo-economics is the branch of engineering that combines exergy analysis and
economic principles to provide the system designer or operator with information not
available through conventional energy analysis and economic evaluations but is crucial
to the design and operation of a cost effective system. In a conventional economic
analysis, a cost balance is usually formulated for the overall system operating at steady
state as follows:
∑ C = ∑ C + Z IC&OM
out
,
(6)
in
where C denotes the cost rate for the inlet/outlet streams, and Z IC&OM is the capital
investment and operating and maintenance costs. In exergy costing a cost is associated
with each exergy stream. Thus, for inlet and outlet streams of matter with associated
rates of exergy transfer Ei,o , power W , and the exergy transfer rate associated with heat
transfer Eq it can be written as follows;
Ci = ci Ei , C o = co E o
©Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS)
(7)
SOLAR CO-GENERATION OF ELECTRICITY AND WATER, LARGE SCALE PHOTOVOLTAIC SYSTEMS – Large Scale
MSF and MED Thermodynamic Modeling and Design - Mohamed A. Sharaf Eldean, Abdelnasser Mabrouk, A. M. Soliman, Hassan
E.S. Fath
C w = cwW ,
(8)
C q = cq E q ,
(9)
where ci,o,w,q denote average costs per unit of exergy in $/kJ for inlet (i), outlet (o),
power (w), and energy (q) respectively. Figure 1 shows the flow diagram of the process
energy flow.
Figure 1. Flow streams considered across any process.
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Bibliography
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mechanical vapor compression desalination process, Desalination 204 482–500. [This is a research paper
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desalination processes, Desalination 205 354–373.[This paper addressed the exergy and cost analysis of
some desalination processes such as MED, MSF, and reverse osmosis.]
©Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS)
SOLAR CO-GENERATION OF ELECTRICITY AND WATER, LARGE SCALE PHOTOVOLTAIC SYSTEMS – Large Scale
MSF and MED Thermodynamic Modeling and Design - Mohamed A. Sharaf Eldean, Abdelnasser Mabrouk, A. M. Soliman, Hassan
E.S. Fath
Mabrouk, A.A., A. S. Nafey, H. E. S. Fath, (2006) Thermo-economic investigation of multi effect
evaporation (MEE) and hybrid multi effect evaporation-multi stage flash (MEE-MSF) systems,
Desalination 201, 241–254. [This paper addressed the exergy and cost analysis of the combination
between MSF and MED processes.]
Gambier Adrian, Essameddin Badreddin, (2004) Dynamic modelling of MSF plants for automatic control
and simulation purposes: a survey, Desalination 166, 191-204. [This paper is about a survey related to
modeling techniques that been used for the simulation of MSF processes.]
El-Nashar Ali M., (2001) The economic feasibility of small solar MED seawater desalination plants for
remote arid areas, Desalination 134, 173–186. [This paper is about a feasibility study related to solar
desalination system. MED has been combined with solar thermal energy for arid and semi-arid regions.]
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Process: Modeling and Simulation, proceedings of ECOS -the 30th international conference on efficiency,
cost, optimization, simulation and environmental impact of energy systems July 2-july 6, 2017, San
Diego, California, USA, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/318207357. [This conference paper is
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paper is about MED combination with solar PTC where the test rig location was in Plataforma solar de
Almeria, Spain.]
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Technology Conference, Alexandria, Egypt. [This conference paper is about the desalination situation in
Egypt as a review case study.]
Henghua Lv, Yan Wang, Lianying Wu, Yangdong Hu, (2019) Numerical simulation and optimization of
the flash chamber for multi-stage flash seawater desalination, Desalination 465, 69–78. [This paper is
about modeling and simulation of the flashing process.]
Hamid Rezvani Dastgerdi, Peter B. Whittaker, Hui Tong Chua, (2016) New MED based desalination
process for low-grade waste heat, Desalination 395, 57–71. [This paper is about the use of waste heat as a
driving power for the MED desalination process.]
El-Dessouky Hisham T., Hisham M. Ettouney, Yousef Al-Roumi, (1999) Multi-stage flash desalination:
present and future outlook, Chemical Engineering Journal, 73, 173-190. [This paperwork is a review
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[This book is about the modeling and simulation of different desalination techniques. Energy, cost and
thermo-economic have been presented. Most of all types of desalination processes has been presented.]
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combined solar organic cycle with multi effect distillation (MED) desalination process. Desalination 272,
135–147. [This paper is about the analysis of different configurations of the MED. Optimization of
different configurations has been presented with the combination with solar organic Rankine cycle.]
Darwish M.A., A. Alsairafi, (2004) Technical comparison between TVC/MED and MSF, Desalination
170 (3), 223–239. [This paper is about the comparison between TVC and MSF desalination techniques.]
Darwish M.A., Hassan K. Abdulrahim, (2008) Feed water arrangements in a multi-effect desalting
system, Desalination 228, 30–54. [This paper is about the comparison between different feed
configurations through the MED desalination. Forward feed, backward feed, forward feed heaters, and
parallel feed configurations have been compared to each other’s.]
Darwish M.A., Faisal Al-Juwayhel, Hassan K. Abdulraheim, (2006) Multi-effect boiling systems from an
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©Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS)
SOLAR CO-GENERATION OF ELECTRICITY AND WATER, LARGE SCALE PHOTOVOLTAIC SYSTEMS – Large Scale
MSF and MED Thermodynamic Modeling and Design - Mohamed A. Sharaf Eldean, Abdelnasser Mabrouk, A. M. Soliman, Hassan
E.S. Fath
Al-Hamahmy Mohamed, Hassan E.S.Fath, Khalil Khanafer, (2016) Techno-economical simulation and
study of a novel MSF desalination process, Desalination 386, 1–12. [This paper is about exergy and
thermo-economic analysis of MSF desalination process. A new thermo-economic cost analysis terms
have adopted.]
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using MINLP technique in gPROMS, Desalination 222, 419–430.[This paper is about the use of
gPROMS in order to optimize and enhance the MSF for higher production rate.]
Patricia Palenzuela, Ashraf S. Hassan, Guillermo Zaragoza, Diego-C. Alarcón-Padilla, (2014) Steady
state model for multi-effect distillation case study: Plataforma Solar de Almería MED pilot plant,
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MED.]
Thomas P.J., Souvik Bhattacharyya, A.Patra and G.P. Rao, Steady state and dynamic simulation of multistage flash desalination plants: A case study, Computers and Chem. Engg., Vol. 22, No. 10, pp. 15151529, 1998. [This paper is about modeling and simulation processes under dynamic modeling for MSF.]
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http://www.mathworks.com/index.html
Biographical Sketches
Mohamed A. Sharaf Eldean is a specialist in modeling, design, and simulation of renewable
desalination systems. He is awarded the PhD in design and simulation of solar desalination systems. His
master’s degree was in the field of manufacturing a small solar desalination unit (solar-MSF type). He
was awarded his B.Sc degree in mechanical engineering. Currently, he is a full-time teacher at the
University of Suez-the College of Petroleum and Mining - Energy Engineering Department. He is also a
member of the Board of Suez and Engineers Association official of the Cultural Committee. He is a
permanent reviewer (Editorial Board Member) of Modern Applied Science Journal-Canadian Center of
Science and Education and Editorial Board of our journal, entitled Insight - Energy Science. He also
participated in several international projects with the European Union in the field of solar energy and
water desalination. Moreover, he has many of the research papers in the field of solar desalination. He has
awarded a top reviewer certificate in 2011 and 2012 from Desalination Journal. He is the creator and
owner of REDS software library (www.redslibrary.com).
Abdelnasser Mabrouk is currently working at Qatar Environment and Energy Research Institute in
desalination technology development from prototype to pilot scale. He is leading the advanced MED
desalination technology using pilot plant facility which is based on novel ideas to reduce energy
consumption and reduce water cost. He is also working at the College of Science and Engineering,
HBKU to teach desalination technology and rolling scientific advisory for MSc and PhD students. He has
©Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS)
SOLAR CO-GENERATION OF ELECTRICITY AND WATER, LARGE SCALE PHOTOVOLTAIC SYSTEMS – Large Scale
MSF and MED Thermodynamic Modeling and Design - Mohamed A. Sharaf Eldean, Abdelnasser Mabrouk, A. M. Soliman, Hassan
E.S. Fath
worked at the Desalination R&D Center based company (Doosan Heavy industries, South Korea, UAE
and KSA) and contributed to the development of the commercial desalination plants in the GCC countries
through pilot programs including Multi Stage Flash (MSF), Multi Effect Distillation (MED), Reverse
Osmosis (RO). During his work at Suez University, Egypt, he has participated in several EC funded
projects in solar desalination (CSP, PV, Wind, MSF, MED, NF) in direct collaboration with several
European institutes (Spain, Italy, Germany, Swiss, and France). He has published about 39 journal papers
and 34 conference papers. He authored one book and 2 book-chapters. He has 4 GCC patents-pending
and 1 PCT patent. He developed a Visual Simulation Software (VSP) for process design and techno economics of desalination processes.
A. M. Soliman is a specialist in modeling, design, and simulation of renewable desalination systems. He
was awarded a PhD in Energy Engineering Systems. Currently he is a full-time Asst. Prof. in Mechanical
Engineering Department, Engineering College, Jouf University, KSA. He is also a member of the
American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Board of Suez and Engineers Association, official of
the Cultural Committee. He also participated in several international and local projects in the field of solar
energy and water desalination.
Hassan E.S. Fath is a well-known expert in desalination and energy technologies with wide academic
and industrial experience in solar thermal desalination systems. Prof. Fath got his B.Sc. & M.Sc. from
Alexandria University (Egypt) and M. Eng. & Ph.D. from Mc Master University (Canada). His Academic
experience was in different Middle East universities including; Egypt-Japan University of Science and
Technology (E-JUST), Egypt, American University of Sharjah, UAE, Masdar Institute (MI) of Science
and Technology, UAE, Alexandria University (AU), Egypt, King Abdul Aziz University, KSA. His
industrial experience includes; Leader of New Thermal Desalination processes in Doosan Heavy
Industries, Korea, Senior Engineer and Head of Efficiency and Statistics Dept., Saline Water Conversion
Corporation (SWCC), KSA, Process Engineer, Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL), Ontario
Hydro (Canada). Prof. Fath has established different desalination laboratories, e-learning institute, Water
& Energy associations, and centers. Prof. Fath has lead (as PI, Co-PI and consultant) many R&D funded
projects, authored a Book “Desalination Technology”, Co-authored for Encyclopedia of Desalination &
Water Resources (DESWARE), filed two patents in integrated MSF/MED thermal desalination and
published over 150 papers, in desalination & energy technologies.
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