RESEARCH ARTICLE
Mass and Heat Transfer at Different Heat Exchange Surfaces and Their Suitability for Use in Thermal Desalination Plants
T. Schwarzer1, *, H.J. Bart2
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2016Volume: 10
First Page: 74
Last Page: 86
Publisher ID: TOCENGJ-10-74
DOI: 10.2174/1874123101610010074
Article History:
Received Date: 20/10/2015Revision Received Date: 15/03/2016
Acceptance Date: 16/03/2016
Electronic publication date: 03/06/2016
Collection year: 2016

open-access license: This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 4.0 International Public License (CC BY-NC 4.0) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/legalcode), which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited.
Abstract
A new concept for small scale multi-stage distillation (MSD) desalination plants is presented allowing an installation in remote rural areal due to low maintenance, operating and investment costs. It is based on extensive studies on heat and mass transfer using 6 different condensation / heat transfer surfaces or material combinations. Basically all 6 condensation surfaces except glass are of a sheet metal or an expanded metal (to the evaporation side) in combination to an acid- and heat-resistant foil (on the salt water side). The basic experiments were performed in a "lab scale" unit to determine their thermodynamic and structural characteristics and user-friendliness. After validation in a prototype novel oxidic condensation surfaces (AF) and material combinations are in actual use in the new MSD systems, following the requirements, including a good wetting and condensation behavior and a good heat transfer.