TY - JOUR U1 - Zeitschriftenartikel, wissenschaftlich - begutachtet (reviewed) A1 - Stengler, Jana A1 - Schaber, Karheinz A1 - Mall-Gleißle, Susanne T1 - Experimental study on low temperature desalination by flash evaporation in a novel compact chamber design JF - Desalination : The International Journal on the Science and Technology of Desalting and Water Purification N2 - The production of potable water in dry areas nowadays is mainly done by the desalination of seawater. State of the art desalination plants usually are built with high production capacities and consume a lot of electrical energy or energy from primary resources such as oil. This causes difficulties in rural areas, where no infrastructure is available neither for the plants’ energy supply nor the distribution of the produced potable water. To address this need, small, self-sustaining and locally operated desalination plants came into the focus of research. In this work, a novel flash evaporator design is proposed which can be driven either by solar power or by low temperature waste heat. It offers low operation costs as well as easy maintenance. The results of an experimental setup operated with water at a feed flow rate of up to 1,600 l/h are presented. It is shown that the proof of concept regarding efficient evaporation as well as efficient gas-liquid separation is provided successfully. The experimental evaporation yield counts for 98 % of the vapor content that is expected from the vapor pressure curve of water. Neither measurements of the electrical conductivity of the gained condensate, nor the analysis of the vapor flow by optical methods show significant droplet entrainment, so there are no concerns regarding the purity of the produced condensate for the use as drinking water. KW - flash evaporation KW - solar thermal energy KW - waste heat utilization KW - seawater desalination KW - flash chamber design Y1 - 2018 SN - 0011-9164 SS - 0011-9164 U6 - https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.desal.2018.09.021 DO - https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.desal.2018.09.021 VL - 448 SP - 103 EP - 112 S1 - 10 PB - Elsevier Verlag ER -