Desalination of sea water by high altitude vapour condensation - using current of hydrogen on helium in closed circuit to carry vapour

摘要

In the parent patent, a desalination plant in which purified water is obtained by condensation of water vapour suspended in the air immediately above the surface of an area of hot seawater; the air is blown from the bottom to the top of a very long, flexible tube of which the top is supported at a high altitude by attachment to a balloon or to a mountainside; ambient conditions at the top of the tube cool the air so that vapour is condensed for collection as pure water. In the patent of addtn. the gas, i.e. air, used to carry water vapour up the tube is now continually recycled in a closed circuit and is pref. replaced with a lighter gas such as hydrogen or helium. Pref. also, the vapour condenses on a heat-exchange surface used to warm up the gas being returned to the bottom of the tube. It is suggested that this process of intense, continuous evaporation can be used to enrich the lower layers of the evaporated solution in heavy isotope material.