Process of water recovery and removal

A process for recovering relatively pure water from aqueous feed solutions, comprising:

• (1) evaporating the feed solution under vacuum in an evaporation zone as water vapor, producing a more concentrated feed solution;
• (2) absorbing substantially all of the vaporized water in a relatively concentrated absorbent/water solution in an abosrption zone, the absorption producing concurrent generation of heat and a more dilute absorbent/water solution;
• (3) removing the heat released in the absorption zone;
• (4) passing the more dilute absorbent/water solution at a higher pressure than the absorption zone to a generation zone maintained at the higher pressure;
• (5) applying heat to the more dilute absorbent/water solution in the generation zone to evaporate fresh water vapor therefrom, producing thereby a relatively concentrated absorbent/water solution;
• (6) condensing the water vapor from (5) in a condensation zone by heat removal for discharge as relatively pure water;
• and
• (7) providing a common stream of heat transfer liquid passing through a heat exchanger in the generation zone, to and through a heat exchanger in the absorption zone and to and through a heat exchanger in the condensation zone, the heat transfer fluid providing thermal energy for water evaporation in the evaporation zone and the generation zone and acting as a heat sink for thermal energy removal from the absorption and the condensation zones.