Current status and future directions of MED-TVC desalination technology

Desalination has now become one of the major water treatment processes in several countries around the world where shortage of water is a serious problem. Energy consumption is a vital economic factor in selecting the type of desalination processes because current desalination processes require large amount of energy which is costly. Multi-effect desalination system with thermal vapor compression (MED-TVC) is particularly more attractive than other thermal desalination systems due to its low energy consumption. MED-TVC is characterized by high performance ratio, easier operation, low maintenance requirements and simple geometry. These attractive features make MED-TVC highly competitive to other well-established desalination techniques that include the reverse osmosis and multi-stage flash desalination. The primary goal of this paper is to present a preview of some aspects related with the theory of the technology, parametric study of the MED-TVC systems and its development. It will analyze the current and future aspects of the MED-TVC technology in view of latest installed plants.