Wet combustion process

In a process of heating, reacting with an added material, flash evaporating, and condensing vapors so formed of individual batches of an original aqueous liquid wherein there is no mechanical pumping of said liquid during the processing cycle, the steps comprising:

• a. arranging in the order of decreasing temperature a series of batches of said original aqueous liquor, each batch being preheated in one of a series of heat transfer vessels;
• b. supplying heat to heat further at least a major part of the batch of said liquid of the heat transfer vessel which has been preheated to highest temperature, so that this batch is raised to an even higher temperature, the maximum temperature in the process, and said batch becomes the hottest batch of liquid in the process;
• c. contacting said hottest batch with an added material which at said maximum temperature changes the concentration of at least some of the components of the liquid in said hottest batch;
• d. subjecting said hottest batch of liquid, with the concentration of at least some of its components changed, successively to a series of as many individual and separate flash evaporations as there are heat transfer vessels exclusive of the vessel containing said hottest liquid, the first of which individual flash evaporations generations generates an amount of steam at the highest temperature of any of said flash evaporations;
• and each successive flash evaporation generates an amount of steam of a successively lower temperature;
• e. condensing said amount of steam of highest temperature which is generated by said flash evaporation in the condensing zone of the heat transfer vessel of the next highest temperature below said maximum temperature so as to preheat the batch of liquid therein, and condensing said steam generated in each successive flash evaporation at each successively lower temperature in the condensing zone of the heat transfer vessel taken serially in the order of successively lower temperatures, until the steam generated at the lowest temperature condenses to preheat the batch of raw original liquid which is at the lowest temperature of the process;
• f. cooling by each of said individual flash evaporation said liquid of what had been the hottest batch, so that after each of said flash evaporations, its temperature approaches the temperature of the liquid of the batch in the heat transfer vessel wherein was condensed the steam of this particular flash evaporation;
• and
• g. continuing said cooling of said liquid of what had been the hottest batch until its temperature approaches that of the batch of lowest temperature which was the one last charged with the original liquid.