Liquid concentration method
AssigneeEcodyne Corporation
InventorHenry G. Lankenau
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An evaporator for increasing the solids content of a liquid-solids mixture employs vapor compressor means to recycle superheated vapors that are boiled off the mixture by a heat transfer fluid. The super-heated vapors are forced into the mixture before the mixture is heated by passage over a heat transfer surface, and the vapors cause the mixture to flow past such heat transfer surface at sufficient velocity to prevent excessive solids from depositing on the heat transfer surface.
Claims9
The process for increasing the solids content of a liquid-solids mixture by evaporation, comprising:
- A. passing said mixture from an entrance end to a discharge end of an concentrator;
- B. passing a high temperature fluid through said concentrator in heat transfer relationship with said mixture so as to convert some of the liquid of said mixture to a heated vapor and to concentrate the solids in the remaining liquid;
- C. removing said heated vapor from said concentrator;
- D. recovering at least some of the removed heated vapor;
- E. passing a sufficient amount of the recovered vapor into the entrance end of said concentrator so as to provide a predetermined fluid velocity through said concentrator sufficient to substantially prevent deposit of solids therewithin.
The method of preventing solids from depositing on a heat exchange surface of apparatus which increases the solids content of a liquid-solids mixture by evaporating liquid from said mixture thereby providing a vapor as it contacts said surface, comprising feeding a sufficient amount of said vapor into said mixture so as to provide a velocity greater than about 20 feet per second over said surface.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.