Cogeneration for power and desalination ¯¯ state of the art review

This paper reviews the state of the art of cogeneration for power and distillation. The performance of several cogeneration options are considered in association with the MSF process for seawater desalination. Both full load and part load characteristics of each major commercial cogeneration process is reviewed both from a technical and economic viewpoint. A methodology for selecting the optimum cogeneration option to satisfy a given demand of power and water is described and an example is given for a cogeneration plant having a power rating of 300 MW and 50 MIGD of potable water. The life cycle cost analysis is used to select the optimum cogeneration system and the exergy analysis method is used for allocating the costs between electricity and water.