Design, Fabrication and Start-Up of a 25,000 GPD Absorption Freezing Vapor Compression Desalination Pilot Plant

摘要

Concentration Specialists, Inc. designed, built, initiated start-up and began operational testing of a 25,000 gallons per day absorption freezing vapor compression (AFVC) sea water desalination plant at the Office of Water Research and Technology's Test Facility at Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina. The AFVC process is a novel freezing process based upon an absorption cycle powered by a heat pump. The energy savings and lack of corrosion of freezing compared to evaporative processes is a significant feature of this process. The pilot plant was designed to produce 25,000 gallons per day of fresh water while consuming 49 kWh of energy per 1000 gallons of product water. Upon design and fabrication, start-up and operational testing of the pilot plant has shown the need for considerable process and component modification as would be expected with a developmental process. By the end of the contract period, June 1980, the pilot plant produced 8000 gallons per day of product water under non-steady state operating conditions. Equipment modification continues toward increasing plant capacity and achieving steady state production.