Abstract: The invention relates to a low pressure heat exchanger for use in an environment where metal parts would be subject to corrosion or scaling comprising a plurality of vertically disposed mutually parallel membranes acting as heat transfer surfaces and including fluid distributors and dispensing nozzles disposed near the top edge of the membranes so as to distribute hot liquid as a falling film down the membrane surface. From a second distributor set, a second liquid may be passed down the opposite surface of each membrane to provide liquid-to-liquid heat transfer. A draft producing device is employed to either allow a gas to flow directly over the heat transfer membrane or over the second liquid as it falls down the membrane surface to obtain a liquid-to-gas heat transfer or evaporative cooling of the second liquid.

Abstract: Heat transfer and exchange apparatus having a plurality of double-sheeted wettable flow-through pockets suspended from an overhead liquid supplying support in spaced apart and essentially parallel relationship. A downwardly flowing liquid curtain exists within the innerspace of each of the pockets, the liquid curtain bonding the wettable side-forming sheets of each pocket together through cohesive, adhesive and pressure forces. Flow characteristics within the liquid curtain automatically adjust to create a condition of zero pressure differential across each of the wettable sheets which form a pocket pair so that pressure inside and outside the pocket are equal at all unconfined points over the surfaces of the sheets irrespective of flow rate, temperature viscosity, density or composition of the liquid curtain.

Abstract: The invention is method and apparatus for removing dissolved solids from water by creating a condition of super-saturation of the solids material within a confined water circuit, propagating the formation of solids by a process of crystal nucleation and crystal growth and separating the crystallized solids. The invention also involves the apparatus for carrying out the process including a continuous process circuit for circulating a super-saturated liquor, which circuit comprises a source of heat energy for propelling the process and a cooling tower to provide evaporation and super-saturation, and further including a separator to remove crystallized solids from the liquor.

Abstract: This invention relates to an improved waste heat disposal process characterized primarily by splitting the total cooling load between two or more open-looped evaporative cooling circuits, staging the circuits in series such that each successive circuit has a greater dissolved solids carrying capacity than the preceding one, using the brine blown down from a preceding circuit as the coolant circulated within the next succeeding one, and treating only the blowdown from one circuit to the relatively greater extent necessary to accommodate the increased solids-carrying capacity of the next. The invention also includes the feature of essentially staging the heat load by dividing same into two or more parts and handling the different parts by separate and distinct evaporative cooling loops.

Abstract: The invention is a method for removing dissolved solids from water by creating a condition of super-saturation of the solid material within a confined water circuit, propagating the formation of solids by a slurry process of evaporative crystallization which utilizes waste heat energy and separating the crystalized solids; the invention also involves the apparatus for carrying out the process which includes a continuous process circuit for circulating a super-saturated liquid and slurry, which circuit comprises a source of waste heat energy for propelling the process and cooling tower to provide evaporation, and further including a separator to remove crystallized solids from the slurry.