Design and optimization of an integrated novel desalination system based on the temperature difference between the sea and mountain

As the world's population and increasing urbanization continue to grow, freshwater needs have risen dramatically. A desalination process based on a natural vacuum and pipeline desalination method that can produce freshwater and transfer it simultaneously is designed and modeled comprehensively in this research. It has been demonstrated that the effect of compressibility is negligible for pressure and temperature ranges of the system, indicating that the first system model using incompressible flow assumption is valid. Solar thermal energy was also utilized to improve the system's efficiency. The results are investigated for three scenarios for Bandar-Abbas and the adjacent mountain, Genu. The first, second, and third scenarios are associated with the initial model based on pipeline desalination, the model utilizing solar cooling to reduce the temperature in the condensation section, and the model using solar energy to increase the temperature in the evaporation section, respectively. The results show that the highest freshwater production is estimated at 125,842,962 and 21,101,132 kg per year for a tube diameter of 2 and 1 m, respectively. Furthermore, the annual production rate of distilled water in scenarios #2 and #3 increased by 13.85% and 139.1% compared to scenario #1, with a tube diameter of 2 m.