Patent ID: 8920658

Claim:
A method for evaporating liquid from an inlet fluid stream that comprises a predominant proportion of a liquid/solvent component and at least intermittently minor proportions of one of more liquid and/or solid solute components which is/are different from the liquid/solvent component and which have a low volatility relative to the liquid/solvent component, said solute component(s) being dispersed, suspended or dissolved in aerosol droplets of the liquid/solvent component, using an apparatus that comprises in combination: (a) a chamber having a chamber cavity of generally circular cross section along a chamber axis, said chamber cavity defined in part by a cavity side wall; (b) a source of heat for the cavity side wall that is located outside the chamber cavity in combination with a cavity side wall heat controller set to establish and maintain a solute-concentrator operating temperature, said solute-concentrator operating temperature being a temperature that is at least 20° C. greater than the boiling point of the liquid/solvent component of the fluid stream at the operating pressure inside the chamber cavity, whereby vaporization of the liquid/solvent component creates a gas layer adjacent the heated cavity side wall that substantially prevents aerosol droplet contact with the cavity side wall while a substantial portion of at least one of the solute components is not vaporized; (c) a chamber inlet extending from outside the chamber into the chamber cavity; (d) one or more chamber outlets extending from the chamber cavity to outside the chamber; and, (e) a fluid vortical direction imparting element in or associated with said chamber cavity, the vortical element acting to impart a rotational direction to a fluid stream and selected from the group consisting of: (i) a fluid inlet that directs the fluid stream so as to have a net tangential component relative to the cavity side wall; (ii) a rotating element in said chamber cavity on which the fluid stream impinges and at least a portion of which fluid stream is thereby directed outwards toward the cavity side wall with a net circumferential directional component; (iii) a source of moving gas in said chamber cavity that provides moving gas directed so as to impart motion having a net circumferential component to the fluid stream; and, (iv) a rotational device that rotates the chamber cavity; said method comprising the steps of: introducing the inlet fluid stream into the chamber cavity; imparting a rotational direction to the inlet fluid stream; maintaining the cavity side wall at a temperature at least 20° C. greater than the boiling point of the liquid/solvent component of the inlet fluid stream; and, producing at at least one of the one or more chamber outlets a concentrated fluid stream in which the concentration of solute is significantly greater than the concentration of solute in the inlet fluid stream.