Method and apparatus for high volume distillation of liquids

摘要

A method and apparatus for high volume distillation of impure liquid comprises evaporating the impure liquid in an evaporator to form a vapor at a temperature above the freezing point and at or below the boiling point of said liquid at atmospheric pressure and at a pressure corresponding to the evaporation temperature under saturated conditions; compressing said vapor adiabatically; admixing in a mixing chamber the compressed vapor under substantially isobaric conditions directly with hot gases having a temperature sufficiently greater than the temperature of the compressed vapor that the resulting vapor-gas mixture temperature is greater than the temperature of the compressed vapor prior to the mixing; passing the vapor-gas mixture through an expansion engine to motivate the engine and to produce shaft energy, whereby the vapor-gas mixture adiabatically expands and cools; compressing the expanded vapor-gas mixture adiabatically in an independently powered compressor to a predetermined pressure corresponding to a predetermined temperature differential between the compressed vapor-gas mixture and the impure liquid; cooling the vapor-gas mixture in heat transfer relation with the impure liquid whereby the vapor at least partially condenses, transferring sufficient heat to the impure liquid for evaporating the liquid and to form the aforementioned vapor; and collecting the condensed vapor.