DESALINATION SYSTEM BASED ON THE FORMATION OF DROPLETS

Abstract

The invention relates to desalination systems for separating water from solids and/or undesirable solutes such as salt (sodium chloride). In particular, the invention relates to a desalination system for producing potable water. In a preferred embodiment, the invention produces potable water from salt water such as naturally occurring salt water. The desalination system uses droplets of salt water suspended in an air stream to evaporate into water vapor and particles of salt to be separated using a commercially available cyclone separator. The water vapor is thereafter condensed into potable water.

Claims

1-3. (canceled)

4. A desalination system comprising: (A) a spraying system operable for being connected to a supply of salt water, and operable for the production of droplets of salt water having diameters less than about 500 microns; (B) a vertical conduit; said spraying system positioned in the lower portion of said vertical conduit for creating a vertical stream of said droplets upward in said vertical conduit; said vertical conduit having a cross section increasing from the lower portion of said vertical conduit to the upper portion of said conduit; whereby if an air stream were moving from the lower portion of said vertical conduit to the upper portion of said vertical conduit the speed of the air stream would slow down due to the increasing cross section of said vertical conduit; (C) a fan system coupled the lower portion of said vertical conduit, and operable for providing a vertical air stream at the lower portion of said vertical conduit to interact with said droplets to provide a vertical force that tends to suspend said droplets in the vertical air stream, and also tends to push droplets to a higher position vertically in said vertical conduit as the droplets become smaller; whereby the interaction of said vertical air stream and said droplets produces water vapor and particles of salt as well as droplets not fully evaporated; (D) a cyclone separator connected to the upper portion of said vertical conduit for receiving said water vapor, said particles of salt, and said droplets not fully evaporated; and (E) a condensing system connected to said cyclone separator for condensing said water vapor from said cyclone separator to obtain relatively salt free water; whereby the condensed water can be recovered from said condensing system.

5. The desalination system as claimed in claim 4, wherein said fan system provides air at a temperature of about 180° F.

6. The desalination system as claimed in claim 4, wherein said spraying system provides droplets having a diameter less than about 100 microns.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

[0057] FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the preferred embodiment of the desalination system according to the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0058] The desalination system 1 according to the invention is shown in FIG. 1 as a block diagram. A supply of salt water 2 can be through a pipe system to a natural source, or a connection to a quantity of salt water transported to the desalination system 1 for processing.

[0059] The supply of salt water 2 connected through connection system 3 to spraying system 4. The spraying system 4 is selected to produce a predetermined spraying pattern, and a predetermined range of droplet sizes into the vertical conduit 5 through connection system 6. If desired, spraying system 4 can be arranged to spray directly into the vertical conduit 5.

[0060] A fans system 7 is operably connected to the vertical conduit 5 through connection system 15 to provide a hot air stream vertically into the vertical conduit 5 to apply a vertical force to the droplets tend to move droplets vertically.

[0061] The vertical conduit 5 has a cross-section that generally transitions from a relatively small cross-section to a relatively large cross-section. The shape of the vertical conduit 5 shown in FIG. 1 suggests a conical shape, but that particular shape is not necessary. The desired shape of the cross-section can be determined experimentally. A conical shape, however, is easy to construct, and may be suitable. It is preferable to have the spraying system 4 produce droplets having diameters less than about 500 microns. A range of droplet diameters less than about 100 microns might be preferable because the evaporation is likely to take much less time than having larger droplets initially.

[0062] The specifications for commercially available spraying systems cannot be relied on for precision in the nominal size of droplets produced. Even if a commercially available spraying system is intended by design to produce droplets having diameters less that about 500 microns, it is likely the distribution of diameters will include droplets exceeding 500 microns. Thus, it is necessary to be certain that the combination of the droplets pushed out to the spraying system 4 in combination with the fan system 7 is sufficient to at least suspend all of the droplets produced by the spraying system, but insufficient to blow all or most of the droplets out of the vertical conduit 6 before most of the droplets evaporate.

[0063] It is important for almost all of the droplets introduced into the vertical conduit 5 to remain in the vertical conduit 5 long enough for most of the droplets to evaporate. Preferably, all of the droplets introduced into the vertical conduit 5 will evaporate. The desired combination of the range of droplet sizes, vertical air flow, and height of the vertical conduit can be estimated theoretically using know physic formulae, and/or experimentally determined using known methods. Experimental confirmation is preferred.

[0064] The water vapor and salt particles remaining from the evaporated droplets are communicated to cyclone separator 8 through connection system 9. It is likely that some tiny droplets of salt water might remain in the vertical conduit 6 and be communicated to the cyclone separator 8. The cyclone separator 8 will separate the salt particles from the water vapor, and it is likely that the tiny droplets will be treated like the salt particles and also be separated. A commercially available cyclone separator is designed in to separate a gaseous state from particles, and it is likely that cyclone operation will differentiate water vapor from tiny droplets and separate the tiny droplets with the salt particles. The few tiny droplets following the water vapor are not likely to seriously impact the resulting potable water.

[0065] The water vapor from the cyclone separator 8 is sent to condensing system 10 through connection system 11. Condensing systems are known system commercially available to change the state of the water vapor to liquid water. The water from the condensing system 11 can exit through pipe system 12 for immediate use of for storage.

[0066] The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and attained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations from the foregoing, and are particularly pointed out in the appended claims.