Meixi Liu
A new desalination technology on LNG powered vessels: LNG cryogenic energy intensified fresh water generation.
Email: m.liu24@ncl.ac.uk
Project supervisors
Project description
The scarcity of freshwater in the marine environment drives the advancement of conventional desalination technologies. But these use intensive energy to convert seawater into freshwater. Recovering waste energy to power the desalination process has enormous appeal.
There has been an exponential increase in LNG powered vessels and terminals. Thus, LNG cryogenic energy, as a form of waste thermal energy, has huge potential for marine desalination applications.
In this project, I will propose a new technology for intensifying the freshwater generator on LNG powered vessels. The technology will use LNG cryogenic energy to increase the freshwater yield and energy efficiency.
I will devise a dynamic model of the proposed system. The model will predict the best performance and optimal parameters.
Three key factors influence the freshwater production rate and LNG cryogenic energy capacity. These are feed-in seawater, cooling medium, and configurations of the evaporator and the condenser.
I will identify the ideal working conditions and optimal component designs using dynamic simulation. This simulation will use real LNG evaporation rates on a case ship, an LNG powered cruise ferry. I will also design an experiment of the condenser cooled by a low temperature cooler. This experiment will observe the condensation phenomenon under various operating parameters.