Desalination, 44 (1983) 1 4 3 -151 143

Elsevier Science Publishers EX ., Amsterdam - Printed in The Netherlands

SEAWATER DESALINATION WITH VERY LOW ENERGY CONSUMPTION

L . CAVALIERI and G . NASSER

Bavaria Anlagenbau GmbH, Hasenheide 7, 8080 FUrstenfeldbruck (West Germany)

ABSTRACT
A desalination process is presented, working with a combination of VTE and
MSF process . A new development of compact completely welded titanium plate heat
exchangers allows the vertical arrangement of 55 stages within a pressure box
of 34 m height, 2,5 x 3,2 m ground area, generating a fresh water output of
5000 m 3 /day with a Performance Ratio of >40 (tons of fresh water per ton of
supplied steam) .
I1 y a une presentation d'un desalination de 1'eau de mer . C'est un process
combine de VTE et de MSF . Un developpement nouveau d'echanger de chaleur de
plaques soude completement avec de construction vertical de 55 niveaux de pression
au dedans d'un box pour la desalination de la hauteur de 34 m et de la base de
2,5 x 3,2 m . I1 y a la production de 5 .000 m 3 d'eau douce pour jour un Performance
Ratio de >40 (tons de 1'eau douce pour ton de vapeur alimentee) .
Es wird ein kombinierter VTE (Fallfilmverdampfung) and MSF (Flashverdampfung)
Meerwasser-Entsalzungsprozess vorgestellt . Neu entwickelte komplett verschweiBte
Titan-Plattenwarmetauscher kompakter Bauart, ermdglichen die vertikale Anordnung
von 55 Druckstufen innerhalb einer Entsalzungsbox von 34 m Hdhe and 2,5 x 3,2 m
Grundflache . Gewonnen werden 5 .000 m' SUBwdsser pro Tag mit einem Performance
Ratio von >40 (Tonnen SUBwasser pro Tonne zugef'ihrter Dampf) .

INTRODUCTION

Based on a new developed and patented plate heat exchanger

design a large scale prototype desalination plant, operating as
multiple effect process (vertical tube evaporation VTE + multi
stage flash MSF) has been erected at Bavaria Anlagenbau GmbH
M3
company's site) . Final process capacity of 5 .000 /day is reached
by simply extending the prototyp's cross section width by the
factor 2 .
The plants characteristic advantages are the extrem low heating
steam consumption (Performance Ratio >40 by thermodynamic evalua-
tion) and improved operability due to the following facts :

- Large pressure stage number, feasible in view of a compact heat

exchanger design and arrangement, a stage interconnecting inter-
nal baffle system avoiding external pipework and due to the auto-
matisation of the plate heat exchanger manufacturing methods .

0011-9164/83/$03 .00 © 1983 Elsevier Science Publishers B .V .

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A 55 stage VTE evaporator section is combined with a 75 stage MSF

section, operating from 130 °C down to approx . 30-35 °C for maxi-
mized steam economy .

Corrosive resistance as all heat exchangers are manufactured of

titanium while all internal box surfaces in contact with seawa-
ter are made of monit .

Minimized scaling as brine is passing once through the plant and

operation with reduced pH-values represent no corrosive danger .

Interchangeable VTE-evaporators to be slided into and out off

its position inside the box .

Front and rear side hydraulic locked box covers give access to
the heat exchangers . An inflateable sealing ensures pressure
tight locked box covers .

PROCESS DESCRIPTION

The description refers to Fig . 1, showing the internal structure

of the desalination box .

5 main components have to be discerned :

1 . Preheater (1)

Seawater pumped to the top VTE stage (2) of the box is heated
up from inlet temperature to 130 °C . Heating energy is supplied
by condensing vapors from the MSF stages (3) and partly from the
VTE stages (4) .

2 . VTE-evaporator stages (5)

They are forming the stage pressure room boundaries together

with the vapor guiding baffles (6) and MSF stages (7) .
Over 55 stages the pressure drops from approx . 2,9 bar at the
top to approx . 0 .05 bar vacuum over the bottom stage .
For the sections of normal and vacuum pressure the VTE gapside
width is increased to take account of the dropping vapor density .
Effecting a reduced VTE heat transfer surface, the average driving
temperature is increased to have optimum adaptation to the geometric
and thermodynamic conditions .
Brine Is flashed at each VTE stage inlet point (B) followed
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by the falling film evaporation as the brine is passing through

as vertical downstream .
Starting from the top, seawater of 130 °C is entering the
first VTE-stage (2) to be evaporated by heating steam of 3 bar,
132 °C (A) which is supplied to the VTE stage's gap side . The
steam condenses and forms the initial fresh water passing down
the 75 MSF stages (7) .
Brine and fresh water vapors are leaving the VTE stage on
tube side .
The brine (15) gathers on top of the following VTE-stage
which is covered by water distribution elements (8) . These
elements serve to throttle and to accumulate the brine to a
defined level ensuring equalized brine falling film
characteristics in the tube profiles of the VTE evaporator
below .
The fresh water vapors (10) just having left the VTE evapo-
rator tubes are forced to stream horizontally via the baffle
plates (6) and the centrifugal separators (11) to enter the
next YTE-stage at the gap side and the preheater's tube side
for condensation . The condensation causes a suction effect
drawing continuously vapor to the condensation surfaces .

By entering and passing the VTE via both gap-side ends, the
vapors experience a minimum pressure loss . Inside the VTE-
gap-side structure the condensate runs off vertically (14) due
to gravitation and accumulates for horizontal discharge (13)
in the lowest gap cross section .
In the VTE stage the vapor's heat of condensation is used
as heat of evaporation on the tubeside for vapor generation .
The temperature difference corresponds to the pressure drop
existing at the brine throttling plate (8) .

3 . Baffles (6) with centrifugal separators (11)

As described above vapors are guided to the next following

VTE stage's gap side . Brine droplets are separated out from
the vapors by the centrifugal effect resulting from the radial
baffle-forced vapor flow .
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4 . MSF-flash stages (7)

Condensate effluents from the VTE stages and from the corre-
sponding preheater sections are accumulated to be flashed into
the next pressure room for increased heatingsteam availability
in the preheater section below .
For the 12 lower VTE stages the corresponding MSF stages
are divided up into several pressure steps (12) in order to
provide elevated temperature differences between condensate
and seawater in the preheater section below for optimum use of
the available heat transfer area .

5 . Run-off system (not shown in Fig . 1)

Brine collected over the VTE stages (15) and in the centri-
fugal separators (11) is passed down to the next pressure stage
by means of a run-off system, acting as soon as a maximum liquid
level is reached .

6 . Inert gas discharge (17)

Inert gases are exhausted selectively by means of VTE internal

secondary condensation of remaining vapors along the lowestt gap
cross-section of the VTE evaporator (13) starting as the mid-
point of the VTE gap length (16) .

TABLE 1 :

Data of the DVT-process

Consumption data :

Inlet seawater, preheated 370 t/h

temperature approx . 35 °C
pressure 8 bar
Total Salinity IDS approx .40000 ppr.

Heating steam to 1 . VIE stage 5 .2 t/h

temperature 132 °C
pressure 2 .9 bar


148

Performance data :

Distillate water 210 tfh

temperature approx . 36 °C
pressure 0 .07 bar
flexibility 40-100 %

Seawater concentration factor 2 .3

Performance Ratio P .R . '40

VTE-evaporator :

They are designed as all welded plate heat exchanger of patented

plate profile structure (Fig .2) with plates of 0 .2 mm titan-palladium
material .

In the vertical passage the facing plate profiles form double

fluted tube flow channels of 330 mm length and 5 mm hydraulic dia-
meter (Fig . 3) . In distances of 36 mm the tube profiles are inter-
sected by horizontal tube interconnecting channels acting to
equalize pressure and concentration of fall-film evaporation .
In the horizontal passage all the facing plate profiles form
gaps with sinuous flow channel characteristics providing short
condensate film runoff length (Fig . 4) .

TABLE 2 :
VTE-evaporator data

No . of tubes per VIE stage 18 520

Heat transfer area per VTE sta e
(in medium press . section 491 m2
Heat transfer surface per m' evaporator vol . 200 - 290 m2
Heat transfer surface per kg titanium 1 .1 m2
Average heat transfer coefficient 4180 W/m Z K
Average temperature gradient per stage 1 .74 K
Average temperature difference 1 .0 K
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Fig .2 Plate heat exchanger element

showing tube profile structure

Fig .3 tube-side cross section Fig .4 gap-side cross section

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Fig . 5 Preheater's tube-side condensate cross section

showing a pressure stage boundary (9) :

There, facing profile plates form a tight contact

surface due to the pressure of seawater passing
through the gap-side with lowest pressure losses .


151

-Preheater
The preheater is designed of parallel plate heat exchanger
units using the same plate profile and tube channel length as
the VIE stages but without the double flute tube structure in
the tube profile . Plate elements of 0 .4 mm titan-palladium material
are used .
As vertical upstream seawater is pumped through the gapside
(Fig . 4), generating a sinuous turbulent flow characteristic . .
In the horizontal passage product vapors are condensing in
the tube profiles and the condensate runoff follows the tube
interconnecting channels as vertical downstreams (Figs) .
The condensate is discharged into the adjoining MSF room
along a preheater pressure stage subdivision boundary (9) .This
boundary is formed by an interruption in the plate profile
structure effecting tight contact of facing plates due to the
pressure of seawater passing through the gap-side .

TABLE 3 :

Preheater data

No, of tubes 759 000

No . of pressure stages 75
Heat transfer area 8200 m '
Heat transfer surface per m 3 preheater 220 m 2
Heat transfer surface per kg titanium 0 .5 m 2
Average heat transfer coefficient 4250 W/m 2 K
Average temperature difference 0 .8 K
Maximum pressure (seawater inlet) 8 bar

LETTER SYMBOLS IN THE PROCESS DIAGRAM, FIG . 1 :

A steam inlet 132 °C

B seawater inlet
C distilled water outlet
D brine outlet
E residual steam to final condensor
F inert gases to vacuum pump
numbers shown in Fig .l are explained in the text .