Brine dispersal system
AssigneeNatural Ocean Well Co.
InventorRobert A. Bergstrom
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Abstract
A desalination brine dispersal apparatus and method employ airlift to remove, oxygenate and disperse brine from a desalination apparatus. The apparatus includes a brine removal conduit having a brine inlet that receives brine from the desalination apparatus, a plurality of brine outlets submerged in seawater and one or more air introduction points located at depths below the brine outlets. The supplied air oxygenates and moves brine through the brine removal conduit and outlets via airlift and disperses the brine into seawater away from the brine removal conduit. The apparatus avoids the formation of concentrated, high shear brine plumes and can disperse brine into seawater over a wide area well away from the brine removal conduit.
Claims27
A wide-area desalination brine dispersal system for a submerged seawater desalination apparatus, the seawater desalination apparatus having submerged components comprising distillation equipment, evaporation equipment or separation membranes;
- one or more pumps;
- and a brine removal conduit;
- the brine removal conduit having:
- a) a fluid introduction point that receives brine from the submerged seawater desalination apparatus;
- and
- b) a plurality of spaced fluid outlets submerged in seawater at lesser depths than the fluid introduction point;
- wherein the brine removal conduit fluid outlets disperse the brine into seawater away from the brine removal conduit, at a lesser depth than such desalination apparatus components, and without causing seafloor pooling of brine.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.