초록 ▼

Embodiments of the invention provide systems and methods for water purification and desalination. The systems have a preheater, a degasser, multiple evaporation chambers with demisters, heat pipes, and a control system, wherein the control system permits continuous operation of the purification and

Embodiments of the invention provide systems and methods for water purification and desalination. The systems have a preheater, a degasser, multiple evaporation chambers with demisters, heat pipes, and a control system, wherein the control system permits continuous operation of the purification and desalination system without requiring user intervention or cleaning. The systems are capable of recovering hear from each distillation stage, while removing, from a contaminated water sample, a plurality of contaminants including: microbiological contaminants, radiological contaminants, metals, salts, and organics.

대표청구항 ▼

1. 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

1. 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; andand 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. 2. The system of claim 1, wherein the volume of purified water produced is between 20% and 95% of a volume of input water. 3. The system of claim 1, wherein the system does not require cleaning through at least two months of use. 4. The system of claim 1, wherein the system does not require cleaning through at least one year of use or longer. 5. The system of claim 1, further comprising an inlet switch to regulate flow of water through the inlet. 6. The system of claim 5, wherein the inlet switch comprises a mechanism selected from the group consisting of a solenoid, a valve, and an aperture. 7. The system of claim 5, wherein the inlet switch is controlled by the control system. 8. The system of claim 5, wherein the control system controls the switch based upon feedback from the purification system. 9. The system of claim 8, wherein the feedback is based upon at least one characteristic selected from the group consisting of: amount of water in a product water container, flow of product water through the product outlet, time of water flow, time of no water flow, amount of water in the evaporation chamber, detection of a leak, evaporation chamber pressure, output water quality as determined by measuring total dissolved solids, pressure differential across the evaporation chamber, and movement of water across an evaporation chamber overflow weir float. 10. The system of claim 1, further comprising a shutdown control. 11. The system of claim 10, wherein the shutdown control is selected from the group consisting of a manual control, a flood control, a condenser capacity control, and an evaporation chamber capacity control. 12. The system of claim 11, wherein the control system controls the inlet based upon feedback from at least one of a temperature sensor in an evaporation chamber, a condenser float, and a flood detector. 13. The system of claim 1, further comprising a flow controller. 14. The system of claim 13, wherein the flow controller comprises a pressure regulator. 15. The system of claim 14, wherein the pressure regulator maintains water pressure between 0 kPa and 250 kPa. 16. The system of claim 1, further comprising a sediment trap. 17. The system of claim 1, wherein water exiting the preheater has a temperature of at least 96° C. 18. The system of claim 1, wherein the degasser is in a substantially vertical orientation, having an upper end and a lower end. 19. The system of claim 18, wherein heated water from the preheater enters the degasser proximate to the upper end. 20. A method of using the water purification and desalination system of claim 1 to purify and desalinate water, comprising the steps of: providing to the inlet a contaminated water sample comprising at least one contaminant in a first concentration;passing the contaminated water sample through the preheater;removing from the contaminated water sample at least one contaminant selected from the group consisting of microbiological contaminants, radiological contaminants, metals, salts, and organics by counterflowing the contaminated water sample against an opposite directional flow of a gas in a degasser;maintaining the water from which contaminants have been removed in an evaporation chamber for a length of time under conditions permitting formation of steam;discharging steam from the evaporation chamber to a demister;separating clean steam from contaminant-containing waste in the demister;condensing the clean steam in a condenser to yield purified water; andrecovering and transferring heat from the condenser into an upper evaporation chamber or preheater.