The present invention relates to a device for desalination by liquid water jet compression.
It is known in the state of the art that the density of liquid water at 30° C. is 995,710 g/m3 while that of water vapor is only 29.5 g/m3. Therefore, the evaporation process is explosive with a volume expansion that depends on the temperature of the water and that at 30° C. is more than 33,000 times. The volumetric expansion in an evaporation process occurs at a speed that is limited by the sonic velocity.
The condensation of water vapor is the implosive process symmetrical to evaporation, with a volume contraction of more than 33,000 times that, under ideal conditions, propagates at the sonic velocity.
Inside an evaporator-condenser device under vacuum conditions, that is, in the absence of incondensable gases that would obstruct the flow of vapor, the water vapor flows from the evaporating surface to the condensing surface at high speed, being limited by the sonic velocity in water vapor at its temperature. In Multi-Effect Distillation (MED) desalination devices, the water vapor generated on the evaporating surface of the tubes of one effect flows to the condensing surface of the next effect.
For a flow of water vapor to occur between an evaporating surface and a condensing surface, a temperature gradient must exist.
In phase-change desalination devices, this temperature gradient between the evaporating and condensing surfaces is achieved in two manners: by supplying external heat and by supplying mechanical energy that compresses primary vapor into secondary vapor.
The external supply of heat makes it possible to control the temperature of the water to be evaporated and the temperature of the vapor to be condensed, as occurs in MED devices, in Multi-Stage Flash (MSF) desalination devices and in devices for desalination by vapor thermal compression. The problem with devices based on external heat input is the high specific energy consumption.
The supply of work, of mechanical energy, makes it possible to compress the primary vapor resulting from the evaporation and to obtain a secondary vapor of higher pressure and temperature that condenses on the condensing surface of the tube or chamber on whose evaporating surface the primary vapor is generated as occurs in desalination devices by mechanical vapor compression or recompression, MVC or MVR, in devices raising the pressure of primary vapor through fans or blowers, as described in patent PCTES2018070782, and in devices where injection of pressurized water through an injector that covers the entire section of an accelerator tube through which the liquid water jet entrains the primary water vapor to give it speed, which is transformed into higher pressure, as described in patent RU2234354 C1.
The problem with devices with mechanical input that compresses the primary vapor is that they impose a mechanical obstacle to the flow of vapor that flows from its origin in the explosion of the evaporator to its disappearance by implosion in the condenser, so that the speed of the flow remains limited by the speed of the impeller, compressor, fan, blower or liquid jet, causing inefficiencies due to the reduction in flow resulting from the axial interposition of the physical element that supplies energy to the vapor flow, which becomes an obstacle in the path that reduces the speed of the vapor flow and, with it, the flow rate.
The present invention seeks to solve one or more of the problems and challenges set forth above by means of a device for desalination by liquid water jet compression, as defined in the claims.
The device for desalination by liquid water jet compression is a phase-change desalination device, with at least one high-efficiency latent heat exchanger in which primary vapor evaporation and secondary vapor condensation take place. In a system for desalination by liquid water jet compression, energy is supplied to the vapor flow that flows from the explosion on the evaporating surface to the implosion on the condensing surface by means of at least one liquid water jet, to increase the pressure and temperature of the primary saturated vapor and obtain a secondary saturated vapor.
The energy supplied to the desalination plant by liquid water jet compression is translational kinetic energy, rotational kinetic energy or a combination of both, with the condition of leaving at least one path free of barriers in which there are no obstacles that may slow down the speed of the vapor flow. Barrier-free path to vapor flow can be achieved with a stream tube without physical obstacles and can be achieved with an expansion chamber in which the vapor flow section is increased so that the speed of the vapor flow decreases, and, inside this expansion chamber and while the vapor flow is moving at a lower speed, at least one liquid water jet is applied to it, the drops of which having a speed greater than that of the vapor flow.
In a device for desalination by liquid water jet compression, a translational kinetic energy supply to at least one vapor flow is carried out by supplying at least one pressurized liquid water jet in the direction of the vapor flow that can be accompanied by one, or more than one, vapor jet leaving a side inlet or an inlet in the center of the liquid water jet, free from physical obstacles, through which at least one vapor flow can flow unhindered from the evaporating surface to the condensing surface. In a device for desalination by liquid water jet compression, a translational kinetic energy contribution to at least one vapor flow is also carried out by supplying at least one pressurized liquid water jet in the direction of the vapor flow that can be accompanied by one, or more than one, vapor jet within an expansion chamber in which the flow of vapor has slowed down and the speed of the droplets of the at least one liquid water jet is greater than the speed of the water vapor flow.
In a device for desalination by liquid water jet compression, rotational kinetic energy is supplied to at least one vapor flow by supplying at least one pressurized liquid water jet, which may be accompanied by at least one jet of vapor, the direction of this jet being tangential to the current tube of the vapor flow that flows from the evaporating surface to the condensing surface, so that this, at least one, tangential jet supplies rotation to the vapor flow and an increase in the total kinetic energy of the primary saturated vapor jet is obtained that is transformed into potential energy of the secondary saturated vapor, thus obtaining the necessary increase in pressure and temperature and this process is carried out inside an expansion chamber in which the flow of vapor has slowed down so that the droplets of the liquid water jet do not act as a brake on the vapor flow or in another space without physical barriers that restrict the vapor flow from the evaporating to the condensing surface. The jets supplying rotational kinetic energy must keep the center of the vapor stream tube free of obstacles in the form of liquid water, so that the vapor can flow at the maximum speed physically possible, and with the highest possible flow rate, all the way between the evaporating and condensing zones upon finding at least one path or space free of obstacles.
The translational kinetic energy input can be used for the start-up function of the system; for the function of maintaining the optimum temperature gradient between the evaporating and condensing surfaces of the device for desalination by liquid water jet compression; and for supplying operational translational kinetic energy in a configuration with a vapor flow expansion chamber. The input of rotational kinetic energy can be used to achieve higher flow rates and efficiency of the device for desalination by liquid water jet compression. The system for desalination by liquid water jet compression is based on the supply of translational and rotational kinetic energy or both with at least one unobstructed vapor flow path, combined with a high-efficiency latent heat exchanger that allows high transfer coefficients and low temperature gradients between the secondary vapor and the aqueous solution to be desalinated and allows desalination or purification of aqueous solutions with a specific energy consumption close to the theoretical minimum, and permits desalination or purification of water at room temperature, without heat input.
Desalination at room temperature allows the device for desalination by liquid water jet compression to reduce mineral crystallization and precipitation phenomena. The device for desalination by liquid water jet compression works under vacuum conditions that reduce the proliferation of biofilms inside. Consequently, the device for desalination by liquid water jet compression has low pretreatment needs for the liquid to be desalinized, which is why the content of chemical products in the resulting brine is drastically reduced, compared to current membrane or phase-change desalination techniques.
The little investment required in the pretreatment of the solution to be desalinated permits to work with a wide range of recovery ratios. The user can decide the range of recovery to use according to their environmental and economic priorities.
Low recovery ratios, that is, the extraction of a small percentage of fresh water from the seawater collected, allow the reduction of the specific energy cost by working with lower elevations of the boiling point and allows a low increase in the salinity of the brine that, added to a low content of chemical products, drastically reduces the environmental impact of the brine returned to the environment. This reduction in brine toxicity and the low specific energy consumption open the door to truly green, sustainable global desalination.
A more detailed explanation of the invention is given in the following description based on the attached figures:
The liquid water jet compression applied to the desalination of seawater or to the purification of another aqueous solution is a phase-change desalination system without external heat input. It is based on providing translational kinetic energy, rotational kinetic energy or both to the primary saturated vapor flow that flows from the evaporating surface to the condensing surface to increase its pressure and temperature and generate a secondary saturated vapor, without creating barriers in the vapor flow, barriers that reduce the speed and rate of the vapor flow.
To achieve greater efficiency by working with low temperature gradients between the evaporating and condensing surfaces, instead of using the current thin water layer latent heat exchangers that have a latent heat exchange coefficient of around 2,000 W/m2K, the device for desalination by liquid water jet compression may comprise at least one high-efficiency latent heat exchanger with tubes or chambers 1 and shell 2 with a latent heat exchange coefficient above 10,000 W/m2K.
As illustrated in
Referring now to
The secondary vapor condenses on the condensing surface of the latent heat exchanger. The condensation process is implosive in the sense that the volume of the vapor is around 33,000 times greater than the volume of liquid water resulting from the condensation and, under vacuum conditions, without incondensable gases, the speed of this implosion is only limited by the sonic limit for water vapor at its temperature.
In the absence of barriers, and as long as there is a temperature gradient between the secondary vapor that condenses on the condensing surface of the latent heat exchanger and the aqueous solution to be evaporated on the evaporating surface, the sonic velocity is the speed limit of the vapor flow that flows from the evaporative explosion zone to the condensing implosion zone. Current primary vapor compression devices place barriers in the flow of the vapor flowing from the evaporating surface to the condensing surface, such as the blades of a fan or blower, the chambers of a compressor or the water cone of an injector. These barriers strongly reduce the speed of the secondary vapor flow and limit the vapor flow rate, that is, the desalination capacity of the current devices and limit their energy efficiency. The device for desalination by liquid water jet compression leaves a barrier-free open path for vapor to flow from the evaporating surface to the condensing surface or uses a water vapor flow expansion chamber to achieve a reduction of the velocity of the water vapor flow below the droplet velocity of the at least one liquid water jet.
As shown in
A condensation chamber 11 to which the secondary saturated water vapor 16 arrives. In the condensing chamber 11, there is the external condensing surface of the tubes or chambers 1 of the high efficiency latent heat exchanger, the secondary saturated water vapor 16 being condensed on this condensing surface. The secondary saturated water vapor 16 has a temperature and pressure higher than those of the primary vapor 5, the pressure increase depending on the pressure of the primary saturated vapor 5.
As shown in
As shown in
As shown in
Given the small pressure differential required between the primary saturated water vapor of the evaporating surface 5 and the secondary saturated vapor of the condensing surface 16, the device for desalination by liquid water jet compression can obtain this small pressure differential through the system of rotational kinetic energy input described and can start and maintain the temperature gradient in a highly controlled manner with the system of translational kinetic energy input described. In this way, the main work input to the system is in the form of pressurized water by means of a water pump and in a complementary way pressurized vapor can also be provided by means of a fan or blower.
The desalination by liquid water jet compression makes it possible to desalinate seawater or extract water from other aqueous solutions with a low specific energy consumption, around 0.5 kWh/m3 above the specific work imposed by the elevation of the boiling point depending on the salinity of the solution to be desalinated or purified. This low specific consumption, added to the low toxicity of the brine returned to the environment, opens the door to a truly sustainable high-capacity desalination system.
(1)—Latent heat exchanger tubes or chambers
(2)—Shell
(3)—Input of aqueous solution or seawater to be desalinated or purified
(4)—Lower part of the tubes or chambers, brine and evaporated water vapor outlet
(5)—Primary saturated water vapor
(6)—Collection chamber
(7)—Pressurized water nozzle
(8)—Liquid water jet
(9)—Vapor acceleration duct
(10)—Diffuser and phase separation chamber
(11)—Condensation chamber
(12)—Outlet duct, evacuation of liquid water
(13)—Water pressure pump
(14)—Pressurized water flow
(15)—Demisting device
(16)—Secondary saturated water vapor
(17)—Mixture of two phases of liquid water and entrained vapor
(18)—Evaporating surface meniscus
(19)—Condensing surface meniscus
(20)—Thermal energy path
(21)—Chamber surrounding the vapor acceleration duct
(22)—Primary vapor inlet side port in the vapor acceleration duct
(23)—Rotational kinetic energy supply tube
(24)—Vapor path, free of obstacles in the central part of the helical flow
(25)—Tangential pressurized water nozzle
(26)—Tangential pressurized water flow
(27)—Helical vapor flow
(28)—High speed primary vapor flow
(29)—Expansion chamber
(30)—High speed secondary vapor flow
(31)—Primary vapor outlet tube from the collection chamber
(32)—Secondary vapor inlet tube to the condensation chamber
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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U202030617 | Apr 2020 | ES | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/ES2021/070233 | 4/8/2021 | WO |