With growing global desalination capacity, brine from desalination plants has become an environmental threat to the ecosystems. One sustainable method for brine treatment is to develop zero liquid discharge systems that completely convert seawater into freshwater and salts. This paper presents a zero liquid discharge system, which consists of multi-effect distillation and evaporative crystallization, to treat desalination brine with a salinity of 70 g/kg. A thermodynamic analysis is firstly conducted for the proposed system. The specific heat consumption, specific heat transfer area, and Second-law efficiency are found to be 600–1100 kJ/kg, 110–340 m²/(kg/s), and 10–17%, respectively. The heat consumption can be effectively reduced by increasing the number of MED stages, while the specific heat transfer area decreases significantly with higher heat source temperatures. Based on the thermodynamic performance, a techno-economic analysis is conducted for the proposed system, and the specific cost is calculated to be $4.17/m³. Cost reduction can be achieved via employing cost-effective heat sources, reducing heat consumption, and scaling up the system. By selling the freshwater and salt crystals, the system will be more competitive than other existing brine treatment methods.

随着全球海水淡化能力的提高，海水淡化厂产生的盐水已成为对生态系统的环境威胁。一种可持续的盐水处理方法是开发零液体排放系统，以将海水完全转化为淡水和盐。本文提出了一种零液体排放系统，该系统由多效蒸馏和蒸发结晶组成，用于处理盐度为70 g / kg的脱盐盐水。首先对所提出的系统进行热力学分析。比热消耗，比热传递面积和二次律效率为600-1100 kJ / kg，110-340 m ²/（kg / s）和10–17％。通过增加MED级数，可以有效地减少热量消耗，而随着较高的热源温度，比热传递面积会显着减少。根据热力学性能，对所提出的系统进行技术经济分析，计算得出的单位成本为$ 4.17 / m ³。通过使用经济高效的热源，减少热量消耗并扩大系统规模，可以降低成本。通过出售淡水和盐晶体，该系统将比其他现有的盐水处理方法更具竞争力。