Patent ID: 7166188

Claim:
An evaporation device for increasing a concentration of a solid in a body of a liquid comprising the solid, said evaporation device comprising: (a) at least one evaporation element comprising evaporation surface means for facilitating evaporation of the liquid by heat and mass transfer when the evaporation surface means is wetted with the liquid and exposed to wind at an outdoor environment, said at least one evaporation element being free of any external enclosure surrounding the evaporation element and preventing its exposure to said outdoor environment, (b) wetting means for wetting at least one portion of the evaporation surface means of the at least one evaporation element with liquid from the body of liquid, either by displacement of liquid from the body of liquid to the at least one portion or by immersion of the at least one portion into the body of liquid, so as to facilitate evaporation of the liquid by heat and mass transfer and thereby to increase concentration of the solid in the body of liquid; (c) orientation means for orienting said evaporation surface means in a direction at least approximately parallel to the wind direction; and (d) support means for supporting the at least one evaporation element, wetting means and orientation means with the wetting means disposed for wetting the evaporation surface means of the at least one evaporation element whereby the rate of said evaporation and the total evaporation area of a surface of the body of liquid are increased.