Assessment of freeze desalination in a triple-piped continuous crystallizer

Freeze Desalination (FD) is an emerging thermal desalination technology that holds great promise due to its lower energy requirements, reduced chemical impact, minimal maintenance, and higher water recovery efficiency. Continuous crystallizers have gained attention as an effective method, addressing the limitations of the current batch methods by enabling steady-state ice formation and improved separation rendering efficiency and reliability. However, operational challenges, such as salt entrapment and ice scaling, affect their desalination performance. In this study, a robust high-fidelity Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model based on the enthalpy-porosity method and a low-fidelity regression model are developed to simulate and assess ice production and desalination efficiency of a novel continuous crystallizer design under different salinity, flow rate, and supercooling degree conditions. Results indicate that salinity had the most significant impact on the performance of the crystallizer compared to the flow rate represented by residence time as secondary impact and the supercooling degree as tertiary impact. These findings offer valuable tool for crystallizer design supporting the practical implementation of FD.