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DESALINATION
THE DESALINATION TECHNOLOGY |
Lion Energy has a solar desalination technology which currently has the lowest cost. By incorporating a number of proprietary technologies, and by the use of new materials, the technology realizes substantial cost reductions and can operate in conjunction with various sources of energy: solar, residual heat from power plants, refineries and other industrial processes, geothermal sources and is able to operate with low temperature heat input without loss of efficiency.
The system used by Lion Energy is a thermal process falling into the mechanical vapor compression distillation category. The system consists of polymer low cost, high efficiency solar collectors, an evaporating vessel with vertical architecture and a proprietary steam turbine which provides low cost energy using the solar heat generated by the solar collectors or by any alternative heat source (with a temperature over 70 C)
The water quality resulting from thermal distillation processes in general (and from the vapor compression method in particular) is much higher than from membrane processes. At the same time, usual disadvantages of thermal systems as compared with RO (higher capital costs, higher energy consumption, scaling, higher corrosion and low recovery ratios) are not present in the Enelin technology.
Scaling (increasing with temperature) is a major operating problem in case of thermal distillation plants Most of the components of the system in direct contact with the water are made out of special polymers, making unnecessary the use of special preventive measures and additional components, (deaerator, etc.) related to scaling and corrosion, avoiding the high costs of aluminum, titanium or other anti corrosive special alloys and at the same time reducing the maintenance/operating costs.
The capital cost of the system is lower than in the case of RO systems due to the low cost of the solar energy system, use of polymer materials with low capital & shipping costs, less components required (to eliminate corrosiveness & scaling), fast installation, fast & low cost replacement. (see example of specific parameters for a 50,000gallon/day module).
The plants have a recovery ratio of 65% reflecting the high efficiency of the process.
The system is simple, reliable and effective over an extended period of operation (of 15-25 years) with robust components, including the main component: the proprietary low temperature steam turbine. The modular structure (module consisting of the steam turbine, compressor and evaporator vessel) allows total flexibility in design and adaptation to any site and application and for fast expansion.
If extremely pure water is desired, the system could use proprietary polymer demisters. The very pure water could be also mixed in some applications with brackish water which would increase the resulting potable water quantity and further reduce the final water costs.
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