Horizontal Spray Film (HTEX) and Vertical Tube (VTEX) Evaporator, OSW San Diego Test Facility.

摘要

To investigate and verify horizontal tube evaporation (HTME) performance,construction was begun on the horizontal tube evaporator test vehicle (HTEX) at the San Diego Test Facility. The plant was designed and built by Aqua-Chem,Inc. This report summarizes the work carried out at the HTEX,since completion of the unit in October 1972. As a result of the phaseout of the San Diego Test Facility,performance testing was carried out on a 7-day, 3-shift basis to permit maximum data recovery. All performance data were obtained during the month of February 1973. HTEX operations ceased on March 2, 1973. The overall evaluation of the HTEX indicates the horizontal tube spray film process for seawater evaporation is very stable,feasible,and has a greater potential than the multi-stage flash distillation (MSF) process because the overall heat transfer coefficients for smooth tubes are about twice those of the MSF process and it suffers no submergence or nonequilibrium losses. The shell cost and therefore coating costs in the HTME are lower,and smaller pumps are required compared to the large recycle pumps in the MSF process. The HTME process is superior to the vertical tube multiple effect process if the premium price for the double fluted tube in the VTE is high. The HTME process still has however some problems,such as uniformly distributing the brine spray over large bundles,and uniformly distributing the vapor over the tubesheet in a large bundle.