SEA WATER DISTILLERS

The economics of onboard production of fresh water and an increase in its per capita usage by ships' personnel together with the advent of the unmanned machinery space have given impetus to the development of the automatic sea water distiller. The factors governing the choice of plant type for any vessel are briefly discussed. Single effect high vacuum distillers arranged to accept diesel engine jacket cooling water or low pressure bled or exhaust steam as the heating medium are described in detail with emphasis on the automatic control of the vital processes, the ease of remote control and other special features. The design principles of other types of sea water distillers, flash distillation plant and vapor compression distillers are given and typical plant are described. Automatic and remote control are again discussed and comparisons are made of the attainable distillate output/heat input gain ratio. A brief reference is made to scale deposition on the heat transfer surfaces of sea water distillers and associated topics of continuous feed treatment and intermittent acid cleaning. The paper concludes that distillation is the only viable form of desalination and future developments will be the direct result of commercial pressures.

• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/03093948
• Corporate Authors:

  Institute of Marine Engineers

  Memorial Building, 76 Mark Lane
  London EC3R 7JN,   England 
• Authors:
  • Gilchrist, A
• Publication Date: 1976

Media Info

• Pagination: p. 33-53
• Serial:
  • Institute of Marine Engineers Transactions
  • Volume: 88
  • ISSN: 0309-3948

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Chemical processes; Distillation; Evaporators
• Old TRIS Terms: Salt water distillation
• Subject Areas: Marine Transportation;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00152470
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Engineering Index
• Report/Paper Numbers: Series A, Pt 1
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Apr 27 1977 12:00AM