The invention relates to a mechanical vapour compression (MVC) desalination arrangement having a low compression ratio, with latent-heat exchangers having a high latent-heat exchange coefficient, with a temperature gradient between primary vapour and secondary vapour of approximately 1° C. or less, a compression ratio of 1.11 or less, high vapour volume, low overheating and a low-temperature saline solution to be desalinated, which arrangement allows industrial desalination with less specific energy per unit of desalinated water and is coupled to 100% renewable off-grid energy sources.

An evaporator with integrated heat recovery incorporates a vapor tube in a combustion chamber surrounded by a water jacket. The water jacket is in fluid communication with an exhaust gas heat exchanger. Coolant circulates in series or parallel first and second coolant flows through the exhaust gas heat exchanger to recover heat from exhaust gasses leaving the combustion chamber and through the water jacket surrounding the combustion chamber to recover heat not delivered to the operating fluid. The evaporator may incorporate a condenser within the housing and in fluid communication with the exhaust gas heat exchanger and/or water jacket. The evaporator may be divided to flow in parallel through the condenser the exhaust gas heat exchanger. The water jacket may be fluidly connected with one or the other of the condenser or the exhaust gas heat exchanger.

A membrane evaporative condenser (MEC) includes a repeating sequence of channels for evaporation and/or condensation are arranged, each sequence of channels includes a condensation channel for condensation of a vapor to a liquid, an evaporation channel, and zero to one hundred evaporation-condensation channels. The condensation channel has walls of a non-permeable material which exterior to the condensation channel share the wall with a liquid evaporative medium (LEM) conduit that contains a LEM. The LEM conduit includes a moisture transfer membrane (MTM), where the LEM can evaporate into an evaporation channel or an evaporation-condensation channel that can amplify the effect of the heat transfer for additional mass transfer.

A distillation apparatus includes an evaporator-condenser heat exchanger in combination with a compressor. The heat exchanger is mounted to float in an at least partially immersed position in a sump of liquid. The liquid may be a sap, or may be soiled water, and may have suspended solid. Heating of the liquid yield steam, the steam is compressed, and the heated, compressed steam is fed back into the heat exchanger to provide further heat to the liquid. The process yields a concentrated in the liquid bath and distilled water, each of which may be a desired product. The system may include a pre-heater that exchanges residual heat from the hot distillate with the cooler input liquid. The apparatus and process may have multiple stages.

A heat exchanger can be configured to utilize multiple sections of hardway fins that can be configured so that an upper first section of the fins can build up liquid head and a second lower section of the fins can be configured to distribute liquid in an even, or uniform, manner. The first section of fins can utilize a different type of hole arrangement than the second section of fins. For instance, the diameter or width of the holes in the first section may differ from the diameter or width of the holes of the second section. In addition (or as an alternative), fin frequency and/or spacing between immediately adjacent holes in the first section of fins may be different from the spacing between immediately adjacent holes in the second section of fins.

One object of the present invention is to provide a compact multistage liquid storage-type condenser-evaporator capable of producing two kinds of gases having different compositions without increasing power, and a nitrogen production device using the multistage liquid storage-type condenser-evaporator without increasing the power for producing nitrogen, and the present invention provides a multistage liquid storage-type condenser-evaporator including a bottom liquid storage section which is configured to store the liquid supplied into the bottom evaporation passage without circulating, and a fluid collection section which is configured to collect the fluid which flows out from the bottom evaporation passage and discharge to the outside without returning into the bottom liquid storage section.

A heat exchanger can be configured to utilize multiple sections of hardway fins that can be configured so that an upper first section of the fins can build up liquid head and a second lower section of the fins can be configured to distribute liquid in an even, or uniform, manner. The first section of fins can utilize a different type of hole arrangement than the second section of fins. For instance, the diameter or width of the holes in the first section may differ from the diameter or width of the holes of the second section. In addition (or as an alternative), fin frequency and/or spacing between immediately adjacent holes in the first section of fins may be different from the spacing between immediately adjacent holes in the second section of fins.

A fluid vapor distillation apparatus. The apparatus includes a source fluid input, and an evaporator condenser apparatus. The evaporator condenser apparatus includes a substantially cylindrical housing and a plurality of tubes in the housing. The source fluid input is fluidly connected to the evaporator condenser and the evaporator condenser transforms source fluid into steam and transforms compressed steam into product fluid. Also included in the fluid vapor distillation apparatus is a heat exchanger fluidly connected to the source fluid input and a product fluid output. The heat exchanger includes an outer tube and at least one inner tube. Also included in the fluid vapor distillation apparatus is a regenerative blower fluidly connected to the evaporator condenser. The regenerative blower compresses steam, and the compressed steam flows to the evaporative condenser where compressed steam is transformed into product fluid.

A distillation apparatus includes an evaporator-condenser heat exchanger in combination with a compressor. The heat exchanger is mounted to float in an at least partially immersed position in a sump of liquid. The liquid may be a sap, or may be soiled water, and may have suspended solid. Heating of the liquid yield steam, the steam is compressed, and the heated, compressed steam is fed back into the heat exchanger to provide further heat to the liquid. The process yields a concentrated in the liquid bath and distilled water, each of which may be a desired product. The system may include a pre-heater that exchanges residual heat from the hot distillate with the cooler input liquid. The apparatus and process may have multiple stages.

The present invention relates to a plate heat exchanger for treatment of a feed. The plate heat exchanger includes a plate package comprising a plurality of heat exchanging plates and defining a heating volume, a cooling volume and a plurality of process volumes. Each of the process volumes includes an evaporation section for evaporation of a part of the feed, a separation section for separating a non-evaporated part from an evaporated part of the feed, and a condensation section being arranged to condense the evaporated part of the feed. Each heat exchanging plate defines a first thermal interface between the heating volume and the evaporation section of a first process volume, a second thermal interface between the cooling volume and the condensation section of a second process volume, and at least one further thermal interface between an evaporation section and a condensation section of two adjacent process volumes.