Energy saving of combined fresh water and cold generation system by compressor intercooler waste heat recovery

Fresh water and cold which are produced by desalination and cooling processes are simultaneously utilized in many factories and industries. Energy saving can be possible by integration of desalination and cooling systems. This paper contributes to a new integration scheme of the reverse osmosis (RO) and refrigeration systems. Compressor intercooler and condenser waste heat are recovered to increase the intake seawater temperature, which causes decrease in RO pump usage and compressor power consumption. The RO system and refrigeration cycle is modeled. Experimental design of central composite design (CCD) is applied to determine the input decision variables, which are consist of intercooler pressure and heat source temperature (T
_H
) responses variables are coefficient of performance (COP) and power consumption of reverse osmosis (P
_RO
). Multi objective optimization to minimize P
_RO
and maximize COP is performed using genetic algorithm (GA) over the ANN model. The input decision variables corresponding to Pareto optimal sets are presented minimum as the optimal design parameters.