Mechanical vapor compression desalination system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10399003-B2
Application number	US-201815888373-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 5, 2018
Priority date	Feb 5, 2018
Publication date	Sep 3, 2019
Grant date	Sep 3, 2019

Abstract

A desalination system that includes a plurality of evaporators that are fluidly connected in series, a primary compressor that is fluidly connected to the evaporators to provide a compressed vapor to the evaporators to run the desalination system, and a secondary compressor that is arranged in parallel relative to the primary compressor, wherein the secondary compressor extracts a portion of vapor from a first evaporator and/or one intermediate evaporator in the series and delivers the vapor to the first evaporator. Various combinations of embodiments of the desalination system are provided.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A desalination system, comprising:
a plurality of evaporators that are fluidly connected in series, with a number of evaporators being from 3 to 12, wherein each evaporator comprises
a tube with a tube inlet and a tube outlet, wherein at least a portion of the tube is located in an interior of the evaporator,
a saline water inlet to deliver a saline water to the interior of the evaporator, wherein the saline water is contacted with the tube thereby forming water condensate inside the tube and concurrently forming vapor and brine in the interior of the evaporator,
a vapor outlet to reject the vapor from the interior of the evaporator,
a brine outlet to reject the brine from the interior of the evaporator, and
a vapor line that fluidly connects the vapor outlet to the tube inlet of a subsequent evaporator or a compressor;

a saline water line that is fluidly connected to the saline water inlet of at least one evaporator, wherein the saline water line delivers the saline water to the saline water inlet;
a distillate line that is fluidly connected to the tube outlet of at least one evaporator, wherein the distillate line delivers the water condensate to a downstream unit;
a primary compressor that is fluidly connected to the vapor outlet of a last evaporator in the series and the tube inlet of a first evaporator in the series, wherein the primary compressor compresses a vapor from the interior of the last evaporator and delivers the vapor to the tube of the first evaporator; and
a secondary compressor that is fluidly connected to the vapor outlet of the first evaporator and/or the vapor outlet of at least one intermediate evaporator in the series and the tube inlet of the first evaporator, wherein the secondary compressor compresses a vapor from the interior of the first evaporator and/or the at least one intermediate evaporator and delivers the vapor to the tube of the first evaporator.

2. The desalination system of claim 1 , wherein the secondary compressor is fluidly connected to the vapor outlet of the first evaporator and the vapor outlet of the at least one intermediate evaporator and the tube inlet of the first evaporator.

3. The desalination system of claim 1 , wherein the secondary compressor is fluidly connected to the vapor outlet of the first evaporator and the tube inlet of the first evaporator.

4. The desalination system of claim 1 , wherein the secondary compressor is fluidly connected to the vapor outlet of an intermediate evaporator and the tube inlet of the first evaporator.

5. The desalination system of claim 1 , wherein the primary compressor and the secondary compressor are fluidly connected to the tube inlet of the first evaporator in parallel.

6. The desalination system of claim 1 , wherein a pressure ratio of the secondary compressor is in the range of 1.1 to 3.

7. The desalination system of claim 1 , wherein each evaporator further comprises a demister to remove water droplets from the vapor that is rejected from the interior of the evaporator.

8. The desalination system of claim 1 , wherein the portion of the tube that is located in the interior of the evaporator has a coil shape.

9. The desalination system of claim 1 , further comprising:
a brine line that is fluidly connected to the brine outlet of at least one evaporator, wherein the brine line discharges the brine.

10. The desalination system of claim 9 , further comprising:
a second heat exchanger that is located on the brine line and the saline water line, wherein the second heat exchanger transfers heat from the brine to the saline water.

11. The desalination system of claim 1 , wherein the evaporators are fluidly connected in series with a parallel feed configuration.

12. The desalination system of claim 1 , wherein the evaporators are fluidly connected in series with a parallel/cross feed configuration.

13. The desalination system of claim 1 , wherein the evaporators are fluidly connected in series with a forward feed configuration.

14. The desalination system of claim 1 , further comprising:
a first heat exchanger that is located on the distillate line and the saline water line, wherein the first heat exchanger transfers heat from the water condensate to the saline water.

15. The desalination system of claim 1 , wherein the primary and/or the secondary compressors are powered by solar energy.

16. The desalination system of claim 1 , which does not include a condenser.

Assignees

• Univ King Fahd Pet & Minerals

Inventors

• Antar Mohammad Abdelkarim
• Jaber Saddam Eltayib Ajib

Classifications

• C02F2201/009

  Apparatus with independent power supply, e.g. solar cells, windpower or fuel cells · CPC title

• C02F1/12

  Spray evaporation · CPC title

• B01D5/006

  with evaporation or distillation · CPC title

• B01D3/065

  Multiple-effect flash distillation (more than two traps) · CPC title

• B01D1/2809

  At least two streams are compressed · CPC title