Large-scale water purification and desalination

A water purification and desalination system comprising a plurality of fluid-process components, heat-transfer components, and a control system, wherein:

• the fluid-process components define a fluid-process pathway of fluid flow from a water inlet to outlets for products and for waste, and wherein each component along the fluid-process pathway is in fluid communication with adjacent fluid-process components, and wherein the fluid process components comprise, in order of fluid flow:
• a water inlet, a preheater, a degasser, an evaporation chamber, a demister, a product condenser, and said outlets;
• such that, in operation,
• the degasser removes organics, volatiles, and gasses from the water using steam from the evaporation chamber;
• the evaporation chamber collects water from the degasser and sends steam to the demister;
• the demister separates clean steam from waste steam and sends clean steam to the product condenser;
• the degasser and demister work in cooperation to remove from a contaminated water sample at least one contaminant selected from the group consisting of microbiological contaminants, radiological contaminants, metals, salts, and organics;
• the product condenser yields purified water with levels of all contaminants below the levels shown in the MCL Column of Table 1, when the contaminated water has levels of the contaminants that are up to 25 times greater than the levels shown in the MCL Column of Table 1;
• the heat-transfer components provide distillation energy from a source selected from the group consisting of electricity, waste heat, and combustion, of oil, hydrocarbons, or natural gas;
• and
• and wherein the heat transfer components comprise heat pipes in contact with at least the product condenser and/or the evaporation chamber, and wherein the heat transfer components define a heat-cycling and recovery pathway to permit heat from the product condenser to be cycled back to the preheater and/or to the evaporation chamber;
• and wherein the control system permits continuous purification and desalination of inlet water without requiring user intervention or cleaning;
• and wherein the fluid process removes, from a contaminated water sample, at least one contaminant selected from the group consisting of microbiological contaminants, radiological contaminants, metals, salts, and organics.