Performance of a seawater desalination system coupled with a nuclear heating reactor under off-design operating conditions Original Research Article

In order to understand the performance of a large-capacity VTE-MED nuclear seawater desalination system thoroughly, the responding characteristics of the system to the off-design operating conditions were studied. The influence of scale deposit in tubes on the heat transfer areas needed and on the heat transfer coefficients with high top boiling temperature (TBT) was illustrated. The decrease of GOR, and also the damage to the normal operation of the system caused by temperature drop of feed brine because of seasonal variation, were explored, based on which a corresponding approach for adjusting feed brine flow rate was proposed. An optimal brine feed flow rate was also proposed to obtain the highest GOR under different heat loadings. The work could be helpful for the efficient and safe operation of nuclear VTE-MED desalination plants.