Study on performance of brine spray concentration/air condensation system coupled with air source heat pump

Aspen Plus software establishes the simulation model of brine spray concentration and air condensation system (BCDS) based on an air source heat pump. Under the initial conditions of inlet brine temperature (IBT) 30°C, brine mass flow (BMF) 100 kg/h, salinity 3.5%, inlet air volume (IAV) 9,000 m³/h, inlet air temperature (IAT) 25°C, and inlet air relative humidity (IARH) 40%, this study investigates the influence of BMF, IAT, IARH, IAV, and IBT on system performance parameters including m sim,wt (condensate water volume), η cond (condensation efficiency), C conc (seawater salinity), and γ conc (concentration ratio). Based on the simulation results, it is known that increasing the IAT, IAV and, IBT will improve the system performance parameters, such as m sim,wt , η cond , C conc and γ conc . With the increase of IARH, m sim,wt and, η cond will increase, while C conc and γ conc will decrease. Increasing the BMF will decrease η cond , C conc and γ conc , while m sim,wt and m sim,wt will increase with the increase of BMF. The research results provide data reference and potential guidance for the brine concentration/desalination process.