IL29503A - Condenser construction and fresh water recovery system - Google Patents

Description

Condenser construction and fresh water recovery SALUTE WATER CORPORATION 27945 S P E C I F I C A T I O N Invention relates to vapor condensation and more particularly it concerns novel surface condenser arrangements useful recovering fresh water from Surface condensers are used in connection with steam power plants in order to reduce the volume and therefore the back pressure of exhausted steam so that a greater measure of power may be obtained from the Surface condensers have also been used systems for the recovery of fresh water from saline o otherwise contaminated solutions The basic constructural configuration of a surface condenser involves an enclosure or outer elongated covering which is closed at each end by means of a tube A plurality of tubes extend along the interior of the enclosure and pass through the tube sheets at each end A cooling fluid is caused to pass through the condenser tubes and serves to maintain their surfaces at a low Steam or other vapor to be condensed then admitted into the and when it contacts the cooler surface of the condenser tubes it condenfies thereon into liquid form and drips down into a fresh water collection trough located below the In order to obtain maximum cooling it has been the practice to increase the condenser tube surface area to the greatest extent possible and to distribute this area throughout as much of the condenser interior as conventional condenser condenser tubes nested within the interior of the Typical prior art condensers have anywhere 22 to of the area of their tube sheets occupied by the condensing The large of condensing tubes used in prior condensers accounts for a major portion of the expense of these In structural problems from the use of a large number of condensing since very little the tube sheet remains at each end of the condenser to provide support for these condenser a reinforcing structures have to be This also contributes greatly to the cost of the The present Invention provides a surface condenser arrangement which is less complex and therefore is more economical to construct than prior condensers of comparable such condenser does not suffer from the structural difficulties encountered by prior art condenser According to one aspect of the present there provided a surface condenser unit within which a plurality of condenser tubes extend and are arranged such as to be in so that no condenser tube extends directly another With this the condensate which forms at any location along any of the drops directly down from that location and avoids all further contact with the a result the The present in another utilizes only about 2 to of the tuba sheet area to be occupied by the condenser While this a considerable reduction in area of the condensing it has been found that such reduction is more than for the increased availability increased heat transfer per square foot of tube surface of the condenser surfaces to the vapors to be In the where steam had to be forced through a congested nest of condenser it was not possible to utilise each tube to its fullest capacity since the incoming steam would initially contact the forwardmo3t tubes and be condensed prior to contacting the Further the rearward tubes vera contacted by steam to be condensed only after had forced through the entire tube and the rearward tubes would become effective to condense the steam only after the forward tubes were rendered less effective by the thereon of a film of in the conventional condenser there is a substantial press drop through the tube bank which i3 eliminated in this arrangement The present invention involves the use of relatively few condenser tubes so that incoming vapors to be condensed are not forced over one tube prior to contacting the upon which they are but instead they are caused to be condensed directl u on the first tube The present invention in a still further aspect involves the of the novel condensing concepts above into a controlled flash evaporation system to provide a structure for the recovery of fresh water from salt or other contaminated According to this aspect of the invention there are controlled flash evaporation channels down through which water to be evaporated from a higher to a lower In the lower pressure region there are provided condenser tubes and baffle along fresh vrater collection trough and unevaporated trough for separating and distributing the unevaporated solution and the recovered fresh This arrangement lends itself particularly well to in an constructed Specific of the invention have been chosen for purposes of illustration and and are shown in the accompanying forming a part of the 1 is a fragmentary section view of an evaporator system embodying novel condenser according to the present 2 is a side partially broken away illustratin water recovery system of 3 a section in elevation illustrating a second embodiment of the present is a partially broken illustrating a condenser arrangement to the present section view taken in elevation a portion of a multistage controlled flash evaporator type fr sh recovery system having integrated therein novel condenser means according to the present any liquid droplets from directly down the separator As shown in cross section in 1 there is provided an upper set of condenser tubes and 30c within the condenser region There is additionally a lower set of condensing tubes and 31c Just under the upper set within the condenser The condenser tubes extend horizontally from the front to the of the device are supplied with coolant liquid 32 from an external source It will be noted that the condenser tubes each of the sets are arranged along a triangula pattern so that no in set is directly above another tube in that This vertical disallgn ent of the tubes serves to prevent drippage of condensate from any one tube dovm upon another tube in the Λη intermediate baffle placed between the two sets of tubes 3 and in order to direct the condensate falls the upper set away from the tubes of the lower The system thu3 far described operates in the following The saline water 12 located above the upper is maintained at pressure and temperature conditions corresponding to That any Increase in temperature or any in pressure will cease of the water The saline water flows gradually down through the evaporation channels 20 in the channel members 18 toward the condenser regions 22 During such downward flow the water experiences a gradual In this controlled flash type a portion of the saline water thereby extracting heat from the unevaporated This vapor occupies a much greater volume and has much less inertia than the unevaporated Accordingly it is impelled at a rapid rate downwardly through the channel This rapid movement of vapor is accompanied by a smoothly distributed pressure gradient along the channel which results in a gradual or controlled flash along the This controlled flash evaporation is similar to that achieved according to Patent Both vapor and unevaporated saline water are discharged from the bottom of the channels 20 into the condenser region The unevaporated liquid tends to adhere to the liner 24 in the condenser region and thus for the most follows the walls of the condenser region 22 down to saline water collection trough 3 the bottom of the condenser region Any premature drippage of the unevaporated saline water is prevented by the upper baffle 28 from entering the interior of the separator The vapors which issue from the descending saline water in the channels 20 fill the greater portion of the interior of the condenser regions and through spaces the upper baffle 28 and the top of the o element These vapors enter into the interior of the separator element insufficientOCRQuality

Claims (1)

1. A condenser comprising a chamber into which to be condensed can be and plurality of tally extending condenser tubes in the chaiaber arranged so that condensate forming on the exterior of any tube at any location along its length will drop down from the location into a condensate collection trough positioned under the tubes avoiding further contact with the other the condenser tubes occupying a volume in the range of substantially 2 to of the total volume of the A condenser according to claim 1 wherein at least some of the tubes are vertically staggered so that none of the tubes is directly above A condenser according to 1 or 2 wherein the a housing in the of a horizontally extending tubular and a generally horizontal inlet plate positioned above the tubes for dividing the housing into upper and lower the plate being perforated to effect distributed entry into the lower region of vapors introduced into the upper A fresh water recovery system using one or more condensers according to claims 1 or including an elongated supporting structure positioned above the the structure having an upper portion defining a reservoir surface for holding the fluid from which fresh water is to be and flow channels downwardly from the surface and connecting into the chambers of the A fresh water recovery system according to claim 4 wherein the fluid held by the supporting structure is a saline water solution at a teiaperature d presaure close to and the flow channels are of restricted area for effecting partial evaporation as the solution flows downwardly through the A fresh water recovery according to either of claims 4 or 5 wherein the condensate collection trough is A fresh water recovery according to any of claiias 5 and 6 wherein a shield is positioned above the condenser A fresh water recovery system according to any of claims 4 6 wherein the flow channels are displaced one above the other with interposed and are provided to direct unevaporated fluid upper flow channel around the condenser therebelow and the next lower flow condenser substantially as described above by way of example and with reference to the accompanying A fresh water recovery ste substantially as described above by way of example and with reference to the accompanying For the Applicants PARTNERS 19 insufficientOCRQuality