Q: What is the dewvaporation™ water treatment process and what makes it different from other technologies?
Q: Is there a diagram to illustrate the overall process?
Q: Can you describe the process in detail?
Q: Why is there so little corrosion or fouling?
Q: What features contribute to the reliability and low maintenance of these systems?
Q: Why is the process energy-efficient?
Q: What form of energy does the dewvaporation process use?
Q: Can the dewvaporation process be applied to the removal of volatiles, including volatile organics, from contaminated water sources?
Q: What technical publications are available on the dewvaporation process?
A: The process begins by dribbling dirty water down the evaporation side of the heat transfer wall (1). At the same time, air is brought into the tower and is run past the water up the heat transfer wall (2). As the air travels past the water, it is constantly picking up moisture. This is due in part to the fact that the air is getting heated up as it travels up the heat transfer wall, thus is can hold more water than at colder temperatures. Once the air reaches the top of the tower, it is 93.3 °C and contains more than twice as much water vapor as air by weight (3).
The air is turned around and is sent back down the tower, but before it does, heat is added in the form of steam (4). Since steam was added to the gas stream, the temperature slightly rises. This slightly warmer gas stream is then sent back down the tower along the dew formation side.
Because the gas stream up along the top of the heat transfer wall is warmer on the dew formation side, there will be a flow of heat to the gas stream coming up on the evaporation side. It s true that the gas stream on the Dew Formation side is always slightly warmer than the gas stream coming up the Evaporation side, thus there is a continuous flow of heat from the Dew Formation side to the Evaporation side (5). This flow of energy provides the heating up of the gas stream along the Evaporation side. Since heat is flowing from the gas stream on the Dew Formation side, it is getting colder. Since it is getting colder, it can no longer hold the water vapor that it had picked up coming up the Evaporation side, and the water condenses out (6). Salts do not vaporize, so the water that condenses is pure distilled water.