Abstract:
This invention improves efficiencies of existing distilling devices and provides the opportunity to utilize latent heat for heating or cooling purposes. Sufficient heat sources or cooling sinks can drive the invention for mechanical power production. The innovative use of an elongated chamber hydraulic column positive pressure at the bottom to drive condensation; and pertaining negative pressure in a sealed volume at the top to evince evaporation give a new capability. Repeated mechanical inversions of the chamber allows the evaporated vapor volumes to be compressed and driven to condense by the fluid hydraulic column as a piston, eliminating requirements for seals. This allows operation with many fluid separations and in many physical environmental regimes, both internal to the elongated chamber and externally. Inverting the chamber uses or produces power efficiently in force fields such as gravity, centrifugal, or linear inertial yielding possibilities for miniaturization and extension of output parameters and throughputs.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0001]    1. Field of Invention 
         [0002]    A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever. 
         [0003]    This invention relates to distillation systems, specifically to those using less or different applications of energy than common practice to achieve separations. 
         [0004]    Class Definition for Class 202—DISTILLATION: APPARATUS as defined by the USPTO fits this invention well as it is directly related to separating two mixed fluids by phase change encouraged by thermal and pressure variations. 
         [0005]    CLASS 203, DISTILLATION: PROCESSES, SEPARATORY is also generally applicable to this invention due to the variable nature of the inputs, throughputs, and outputs viably treated with this device operable with serial stages for fractional distillations. 
         [0006]    Also, CLASS 44, FUEL AND RELATED COMPOSITIONS relates to this invention in that the thermal and pressure regimes extend to the realms of fuels separations by variable distillations. 
         [0007]    CLASS 208, MINERAL OILS: PROCESSES AND PRODUCTS also fits this designation for the same reasons. 
         [0008]    In addition, CLASS 62, REFRIGERATION is referable due to the desirable aspect of this invention to cause the cooling effects attendant to latent heat removal from the distilland whether use is made of the vapor withdrawn or not. 
         [0009]    CLASS 422, CHEMICAL APPARATUS AND PROCESS DISINFECTING, DEODORIZING, PRESERVING, OR STERILIZING discovers the desired endpoint of sterilization which is obtainable by this invention due to the inherent isolation and environmental variability. 
         [0010]    CLASS 261, GAS AND LIQUID CONTACT APPARATUS describes aspects of this invention by keying on the vapor evolution from distilland, transport and condensation. 
         [0011]    2. Description of Prior Art 
         [0012]    The need to separate different materials in mixtures, solutions, and combinations is widely recognized. Further, the need to effect such separations with minimal energy input has recently become more important with the greater costs associated with prime mover energy and greater equipment expenses. 
         [0013]    The earliest historical separations were done in ancient Assyria to create ‘air water’ for the King by distilling water in a boiler, with vapor flow upwards into an upper chamber for condensation. Large amounts of heat were required to gain very little water by this. 
         [0014]    Rainfall was later recognized to be a natural, large-scale distillation of sea and surface waters which then condensed and rained down as relatively pure water. Very large surface areas of water exposed to sunlight are required for significant rainfall due to the very diffuse nature of sun energy. 
         [0015]    Many attempts have been made by inventors to improve thermal and separation efficiencies, throughputs, costs, and lifetimes of distiller designs. The US Navy has used vacuum distillation of seawater for decades to allow production of drinking water at lower temperatures. This avoids attendant spoiling of boilers with sulfate and carbonate depositions due to thermal cycling of the seawater from normal atmospheric boiling and concentration followed by cooling. There are high costs associated with production, maintenance, and containment of vacuum environments by these methods. 
         [0016]    A recognition of these limitations and the requirements of large scale industry has led to several notable improvements such as staged distillation utilizing several temperature and pressure regimes to reuse latent heat energy over several stages, vacuum distillation utilizing reduced pressure to increase evaporation, and fractional distillation for separation of multiple materials in mixtures and solutions. 
         [0017]    Vacuum distillation is utilized industrially to separate high boiling substances by inducing evaporation at a lower temperature by reducing the environmental pressure to below that of the azeotrophic boiling point as in vacuum centrifugal and rotary distillation systems. These systems can be continuous or batch processes although they all suffer from problems of complexity, thermal energy waste, and high material costs. 
         [0018]    These improvements all continue to use heat as the driving force for evaporation with various schemes for returning or reusing latent heat for further evaporation. The disadvantages of driving the entire process with heat are that:
       (a) The inherent losses due to entropy make these approaches inherently inefficient uses of heat. The fact that all of the vapor is formed and then condensed at the same pressure creates necessary temperature differentials to be maintained with external mechanisms. Also, these temperatures are generally elevated in relation to the environment and so must be maintained against environmental as well as latent heat losses.   (b) The inability of existing devices to provide distillation and heat pumping in a consolidated unit limits the desirability of applications.   (c) The application to power production unitized with distillate outputs in a simple and low cost device is lacking with current practice.   (d) The material and financial costs of these approaches are very high due to high or low pressures and corrosive environments. The evaporating and condensing environments are large to accommodate productivity and they suffer from stresses due to the temperatures, pressures, and corrosive natures of many materials to be separated.   (e) The fractional distillation systems also suffer from the need to heat the entire quantity to vapor and then progressively condense lower vapor pressure materials out at a range of temperatures. This undesirable over-heating of the bulk of the materials, including the carrier fluids, is of necessity wasted or at best used at a lower quality.   (f) Carry over of supply fluids is a problem with many attempts to solve with baffles, cyclones (U.S. Pat. No. 4,622,103 Shirley-Elgood, et al. Nov. 11, 1986), and material impingement filters. These increase the costs, complexity and unreliability of these devices.   (g) The direct application of mechanical energy to elicit latent energy evaporation and condensation serially is theoretically much more efficient than using heat to drive it.       
 
         [0026]    In vacuum distillation there have been attempts to purify water while heat pump devices feed latent heat deposited in condensers back into evaporators to augment efficiencies with relatively higher evaporator temperatures and so higher rates and smaller surface areas for evaporation. The problem remains that the external heat pump cycle simply magnifies the thermal transport driving the process to produce more distillate faster while using additional energy. 
         [0027]    There are patents using hydraulic suction and pressure with open bottom chambers oscillating up and down in open bodies of water (such as U.S. Pat. No. 4,954,223 by Leary, et al, Sep. 4, 1990). This fails to use the hydraulic coupling of the fluid column between the two chambers and eliminates the opportunity to seal the systems. 
       SUMMARY 
       [0028]    In accordance with the invention disclosed herein an elongated chamber filled with a fluid acting as a piston alternately lifting and falling causing or caused by evaporation and condensation of the distillate product. 
       OBJECTS AND ADVANTAGES  
       [0029]    Accordingly, besides the objects and advantages of this distilling heat pump described in the complete disclosure, several objects and advantages of the present invention are:
       (a) to provide both purification or separation and heat pump capabilities with a single unit;   (b) to provide a distilling function available with power production by providing heat to the evaporator or cooling to the condenser;   (c) to provide variability in the rates of production of distillates or heating or cooling to match loads;   (d) to provide low cost mechanisms for purification or heating and cooling;   (e) to provide inherently energy efficient purification and heating or cooling;   (f) to provide for extremely simple mechanisms within gravity or much more compact rotating units capable of greater rates;   (g) to provide advantages in accurately separating mixtures of a variety of boiling points with several staged units;   (h) to provide sealed unitary structures to maintain isolation of contained materials;   (i) to provide less failure prone devices for reliability;   (j) to provide a greater degree of safety due to low pressures, temperatures, and speeds;   (k) to provide for a fluid forcing surface and hydraulic force transfer with elastic continuity and surface tension allowing transfer of tensile and compressive forces with low friction, self sealing liquid piston operation;   (l) to provide highly accurate and specific separations of constituents as a detection for materials with a specific vapor pressure profile;   (m) to provide high quality purification by repeated application of the distiller or a series thereof.       
 
         [0043]    Further objects and advantages are to provide a system which can provide greater efficiency of heating, cooling, and purification, which is easily sized for distributed application, which can be built with very low cost materials, which is simple enough for anyone to construct or maintain, which can be used in a staged, varying, or repetitive manner to separate complex mixtures, which operates slowly, coolly, and at low pressure for safety, which uses gravity or other imposed force to develop pressures and vacuums by accelerating a fluid column, which can supply heating, cooling, and purified water with the same unit, which can be reversed to produce mechanical power from heat, which can be operated iteratively or slowly to obtain arbitrary levels of purity in the distillate or distilland. 
     
    
     
       DRAWING FIGURES 
         [0044]    In the drawings each figure indicates a possible conformation of the invention. Many others are possible provided they yield the necessary fluid flows and arrangements within the force fields. 
           [0045]      FIG. 1  is a suspended variety of elongated chamber produced with a flexible connecting transfer tube as the body of the elongated chamber. 
           [0046]      FIG. 2  is a simple embodiment (as built) of principles for the sealed elongated chamber with hydraulic bubble control and valving to auxiliary condensation and evaporation chambers. 
           [0047]      FIG. 3  is a third possible embodiment of principles for the sealed elongated chamber with a piston bubble suppressor and valving to auxiliary condensation and evaporation chambers. 
           [0048]      FIG. 4  demonstrates viable modification for engine operation for the device elucidated in either  FIG. 2  or  FIG. 3 . 
       
    
    
     REFERENCE NUMERALS IN DRAWINGS  
       [0049]      10  sealed elongated chamber 
         [0050]      12  condensation chamber 
         [0051]      14  evaporation chamber 
         [0052]      16  condensation valves 
         [0053]      18  evaporation valves 
         [0054]      20  transfer tubes 
         [0055]      22  rotation axis 
         [0056]      24  bubble control piston 
         [0057]      30  fixed alternately reversing drive pulley 
         [0058]      32  flexible support cable 
         [0059]      36  Force field direction (down in gravity field) 
         [0060]      40  transfer tube shutoff valve for power production 
         [0061]      42  transfer tube used for power production 
       DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
       [0062]    Herewith is disclosed a mechanical distilling heat pump in which an evacuated sealed elongated chamber is partially filled with degassed fluid. Inversion or reorientation occurs with blocked vapor back flow within a force field such as gravity, rotational inertia, or other force. 
         [0063]    This inversion or reorientation can also be driven by thermal energy. Sufficient net pressure in the lower end can force the fluid upward in the force field. The chamber then reorients, falling in the force field while drawing off power. The driving pressure vapor is then drawn off during the rise of the fluid piston during the next reorientation, and so on. 
         [0064]    A partial vacuum is produced at the top of the elongated chamber due to hydraulic suction from suspended fluid. An increased pressure is also realized at the bottom of the elongated chamber due to hydraulic force from above. Reversal of the ends of the elongated chamber within the force field yields a reversal of the fluid column height. This causes an increase in pressure in the bottom end of the elongated chamber. A concomitant decrease of the pressure in the now upper end in the elongated chamber. This is due to the force from the accelerated fluid column pulling down. 
         [0065]    The partial vacuum or lower pressure at the upper end is ported to a sealed, isolated, and evacuated evaporator. This has a large surface area wet with feed fluid where vapor is evolved. 
         [0066]    The increased pressure at the bottom end is ported to a large surface area condenser. It is sealed, isolated, and evacuated. We obtain both separation of the evaporated fluid and also separation of the attendant latent heat. This heat is carried by the vapor transferred from a lower pressure to higher pressure. 
         [0067]    Some of the evolved vapor will condense during the compressive inversions of the elongated chamber. The respective surface areas of the evaporator and condenser are much greater than the fluid piston area. The rates of evaporation and condensation depend on the relative surface areas and temperatures. Careful design and rate control produces significant distillate throughput. 
         [0068]    The process is easily reversible. Extra heat is given to the evaporator to relatively increase the pressure therein. This positive pressure is connected to the lower end of the sealed elongated chamber. This pressure drives the fluid to the upwards end of the sealed elongated chamber. This now unbalanced end is allowed to fall in gravity or other force field. During this fall we can tap the mechanical power off. This yields pure fluids, mechanical energy output, and lower grade heat into the condenser. 
         [0069]    The vapor enclosed must be primarily that which will condense within the condenser. This will avoid turbulent flows, dead space, and functional losses. Build up of incondensable gases must be avoided. These can be removed from the feed fluids before induction to the evaporator. Alternatively these incondensable gases can be removed from the condenser as they accumulate. Removal by pumping or using a second stage of this device as a degassing step is viable. 
         [0070]    The fluid flow path within the seated elongated chamber may need to vary. The mechanical energy input or output modes of the distiller require different fluid path attributes. The fluids need to drain completely from the upper end during mechanical energy input mode. During the energy output mode the vapor from the evaporator must be fluid locked. This allows the vapor to push the fluid piston upwards against the force gradient. This is obviated in the suspended variety heat pump distiller ( FIG. 1 ). In this the fluid connection is always sealed with the fluid due to the geometry. 
         [0071]    The driving of or by the variable potential energy of the fluid within the elongated chamber is used. It provides distilled components of a fluid as well as pumped latent heat. These benefits are accomplished whether mechanical energy is produced or utilized. 
         [0072]    The elongated chamber must be structurally capable of sustaining the requisite net pressure or vacuum within. Material selections are depending on liquid characteristics and throughput requirements. The structural design will depend on the vapor pressures at desired operating temperatures. This can require elevated or depressed temperatures, pressures, or physical dimensions. Also, esoteric material choices for solubility and corrosion issues may be necessary. 
         [0073]    Included in this disclosure is the application to fractional distillation. Attendant heat pumping and/or mechanical energy generation is included. Multiple elongated chambers are provided in series and/or parallel formations. These with differing operating parameters as the feed fluid is passed along. 
         [0074]    Alternatively, a single elongated chamber can be operated with a variable set of input parameters. Variations in temperature, pressure, and physical dimensions allow various feed fluid components to be vaporized at differing times. This allows separations of various components of complex mixtures temporally. 
         [0075]    In addition, the input parameters to the elongated chamber can be varied within a consistent fluid environment. This can evince repeated distillation of the same fraction until great purity is obtained. 
       Description —FIG.  1 —Preferred Embodiment 
       [0076]    A preferred embodiment of the distilling heat pump wherein the elongated chamber  10  and the condensation and evaporation chambers  12  and  14  are interconnected and sealed. All chambers and conduits are initially filled with degassed fluid and then evacuated with all valves open to form a pure vapor space within. 
         [0077]    This suspended variety of elongated chamber  10  is produced with a flexible connecting transfer tube  20  connecting the two large volume chamber ends. It is actuated by moving each chamber end of the elongated chamber  10  alternately up and down while suspended over the drive pulley  30  in the force field  36 . 
         [0078]    One chamber end of the elongated chamber  10  is then raised up by the cable  32  and power pulley  30  by the rotation about axis  22 . The fluid runs down into the now lower end. All of the valves  16  and  18  are closed. 
         [0079]    The opposing end of the elongated chamber  10  is then raised up by the cable  32  and power pulley  30  by the opposite rotation about axis  22 . The ends of the elongated chamber  10  are so reversed in positions up and down relative to the impressed force field. 
         [0080]    The upper evaporation valve  18  and the lower condensation valve  16  are then opened and the fluid is allowed to drain into the now lower end of the elongated chamber  10 , forcing the vapor into the condensation chamber  12  and pulling vapor from the evaporation chamber  14 . 
         [0081]    Upon completion of the fluid transfer through the transfer tube  20  the valves are again closed. The elongated chamber  10  is again reoriented in the opposite direction raising the lower end and lowering the higher end. This is accomplished by actuating the power pulley  30  in the opposite direction. 
         [0082]    The upper evaporation valve  18  and the lower condensation valve  16  are then opened and the fluid is allowed to drain into the now lower end of the elongated chamber  10 , forcing the vapor therein into the condensation chamber  12  and pulling further vapor from the evaporation chamber  14  into the upper end of the elongated chamber  10 . 
         [0083]    This alternating reversal of position of the elongated chamber  10  end for end continues. This functions as long as there is source fluid in the evaporating chamber  14  and it is kept sufficiently warm. Space in the condensing chamber  12  and sufficiently cool conditions there along with power to drive the reorienting elongated chamber  10  is necessary. Sufficient temperatures to allow vapor transports to and from the chambers  12  and  14  must be maintained. 
         [0084]    In addition, the feed fluid in the evaporating chamber  14  must be replaced as it concentrates or evaporates and the product distillate must be removed from the condensation chamber  12 . 
         [0085]    This embodiment allows for heat flow simply through the environment without forced flow. Heat flow can be provided by heat exchange or heat pumping between the condensing chamber  12  and evaporating chamber  14 . Removal of sensible heat from the condensing chamber  12  for use and/or provision of heat to the evaporating chamber  16  for cooling purposes is a major gain. 
         [0086]    Additional heat to the evaporating chamber  14  can be low grade. This heat can be provided by cooling space or materials or supplied by sources including environmental, geothermal, chemical, electrical, friction, chilling, or others. Excess heat can be wasted to sinks including environmental, geothermal, chemical, electrical, phase change, sensible heat, or others. 
         [0087]    To maximize distillate production the latent heat flow into the condensing chamber  12  would be recirculated as efficiently as possible back into the evaporating chamber  14 . Otherwise the heater or chiller features can be optimized. 
         [0088]    Operation as a heat engine is accomplished simply by heating the evaporating chamber  14  and/or chilling the condensing chamber  12 . Also opening the evaporator valve  18  to the elongated chamber  10  end that is down and opening the condenser valve  16  to the elongated chamber  10  end that is up. 
         [0089]    This causes the pressure from the evaporating chamber  14  to push up the fluid within the low end of the elongated chamber  10  through the transfer tube  20 . This push against the force  36  such as gravity plus the counter pressure of the condensing chamber  12  must be supplied by the pressure in the evaporating chamber  14 . 
         [0090]    As this fluid accumulates within the higher end of the elongated chamber, the potential energy increases. When the filled upper end of the elongated chamber is allowed to fall, the potential energy can be tapped off from the cable  32  driving the power pulley  30  which drives a useful load such as a generator or machine. 
       FIG.  2 —Additional Embodiment 
       [0091]    The operation of the elongated chamber  10  and valving  16  and  18  is the same as that for  FIG. 1 . The control of the floating bubble is done hydraulically by impeding vapor flow with the fluid column pressure. This rocks like a teeter totter rotating about the axis  22 . 
         [0092]    The valving mimics that of previous embodiments wherein the condensing valves  16  are open only whilst in the lower positions and the evaporator valves  18  are open only whilst in the upper positions. 
         [0093]    Modifications to make the fluid flow upward by pressure from the evaporating chamber  14  during operation as an engine can be made. One method would be to valve off (not shown) the existing transfer tube  20  when engine operation is prescribed. Then open a valve in an alternate transfer tube (not shown) which sources in the extreme ends of the elongated chamber  10 . 
         [0094]    This then forces the fluid to move into the transfer tube and upward when excess vapor pressure from the evaporating chamber  14  is valved into the lower end of the elongated chamber  20  to drive the fluid up. 
         [0095]    The mechanical energy is taken off when the raised fluid forces the raised end of the elongated chamber  10  downward. So torque is produced at the rotation axis  22  to be taken off to power a useful load such as a generator or machine. 
       FIG.  3 —Additional Embodiment 
       [0096]    The operation of the elongated chamber  10  and valving is the same as that for  FIG. 2 . The control of the floating bubble is done by impeding vapor flow with the bubble control piston  24 . This rocks like that in  FIG. 2 . 
         [0097]    A similar modification to that in  FIG. 2  is needed to operate this embodiment as a heat engine (not shown). This will provide pure distillate, mechanical energy, and low grade waste heat. 
       FIG.  4 —Additional Embodiment Detail 
       [0098]    One possible embodiment of principles for operating  FIG. 2  or  FIG. 3  as heat engines; showing the rotational axis out of the page. Here, valve  40  eliminates vapor bypass through the transfer tube  20 . Instead, fluid will be pumped up through transfer tube  42  during the power strokes.