Carrier-Gas Enhanced Atmospheric Pressure Desalination

Arizona State University; Tempe AZ.
October 2002

Report #92 - Abstract -

The 1,000 gal/day units have been developed costing less than $2,000 and operate from $3.70 to $1.70/1,000 gal distillate for small facilities. The energy reduction effect of using liquid desiccant lithium bromide solutions was successfully investigated. The feasibility of desiccant heat pumping was confirmed at 180^oF. Implementation of the desiccant technique with boiling regeneration should reduce the water cost from $3.50 to $2.70/1,000 gal for small seawater plants and to less than $0.80 for 100,000 gal/day facilities. Such areas as Yuma, AZ and the desert regions of California could produce low cost water from the sea by taking advantage of their dry year round environments. Other similar areas of the world would also benefit from this development. The applications for water reclamation were further extended from brackish and seawater to include RO plant effluent waters, evaporation pond waters, and CMP slurries which contain sub-micron particles. The Salt River Project and ASU are currently sponsoring the evaporation pond waters investigation.