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US 2013/0075245 A1Published application
Methods and systems for heating and manipulating fluids
OwnerF. Alan Frickinventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Systems and methods are provided for heating and manipulating a fluid to heat the fluid, evaporate water from the fluid, concentrate the fluid, separate the fluid into fractions; and/or pasteurize the fluid, comprising a closed-loop heating subsystem coupled to a primary fluid-to-fluid heat exchanger, and one or more fluid manipulation subsystems also coupled to the primary fluid-to-fluid heat exchanger.
Claims22
A method of concentrating a fluid, comprising:
- providing a closed-loop heating subsystem comprising a thermal energy device, a fluid circulation pump, a first path through a fluid-to-fluid heat exchanger, all configured to heat and circulate a first fluid to less than its atmospheric boiling point;
- providing a fluid concentrating subsystem comprising a flash tank, a second path through the fluid-to-fluid heat exchanger and a condensing heat exchanger;
- pumping a second fluid through the second path in the fluid-to-fluid heat exchanger;
- transferring heat from the first fluid to the second fluid in the fluid-to-fluid heat exchanger;
- flashing the second fluid into its liquid and vapor phases in the flash tank to evaporate at least a portion of water from the second fluid;
- drawing the second fluid vapor from the flash tank into the condensing heat exchanger to condense the vapor to liquid by transferring heat from the vapor;
- and
- removing a portion of the liquid phase from the flash tank as concentrated fluid when a pre-determined property of the liquid phase is reached.
5 more elements
A fluid concentrating system, comprising:
- a closed-loop heating subsystem comprising a thermal energy device, a fluid circulation pump, a first path through a fluid-to-fluid heat exchanger, all configured to heat and circulate a first fluid to less than its atmospheric boiling point;
- a fluid concentrating subsystem comprising:
- a second path through the fluid-to-fluid heat exchanger;
- a pump for pumping a second fluid through the second path in the fluid-to-fluid heat exchanger to transfer heat from the first fluid to the second fluid in the fluid-to-fluid heat exchanger;
- a flash tank having an orifice through which the heated second fluid is flashed into its liquid and vapor phases to evaporate at least a portion of water from the second fluid;,
- a condensing heat exchanger to condense vapor withdrawn from the flash tank to liquid by transferring heat from the vapor;
- and
- an extraction system for removing a portion of the liquid phase from the flash tank as concentrated fluid when a pre-determined property of the liquid phase is reached.
5 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.