Seawater pre-deaerator process for open-cycle ocean thermal energy conversion applications
AssigneeUniversity of Hawaii
InventorsManfred J. Zapka, Hans-Jurgen Krock
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Abstract
A seawater deaerator has a large reservoir through which seawater slowly flows. Gas is injected into the bottom of the reservoir through porous aeration stones forming bubble nuclei. The seed bubbles move upward through the seawater in the reservoir expanding but not coalescing, and withdrawing dissolved gas from the seawater. The deaerated seawater flows out of the reservoir and subsequently flows through spouts into a flash evaporator. Gas is withdrawn from a low pressure gas chamber at the top of the reservoir by a vacuum pump. The exhaust of the vacuum pump supplies gas to the air injectors.
Claims9
A method of deaerating seawater comprising the steps of supplying seawater to a reservoir, releasing seed bubbles of gas into the seawater supplied to the reservoir by means of gas injectors located at a bottom of the reservoir, bubbling the gas through the reservoir, withdrawing dissolved gas from the seawater in the reservoir with the bubbles to a top of the reservoir, removing the withdrawn gas from the reservoir by means of a vacuum pump, recycling the removed gas by supplying the gas from the vacuum pump to the gas injectors, and flowing out deaerated seawater from the reservoir.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.