Patent ID: 7070121

Claim:
A method of evaporating a multi-component liquid solution comprising the steps of: ejecting a mist or cloud of small liquid droplets from an atomizer placed on a surface, into the atmosphere above the surface; the liquid solution comprising a plurality of components having respective vapor pressures, the component having substantially the lowest vapor pressure being related to those droplets having the larger diameters such that 1.2×10 12 ×D p 4 /[H×P v ]≦1 where D p is the diameter, in centimeters, of the larger diameter droplets, H is substantially the height, in centimeters, to which said larger diameter droplets are ejected, and P v is the vapor pressure, in millimeters of Hg, of the component having substantially the lowest vapor pressure; whereby the amount of unevaporated liquid that falls back upon said adjacent surface is minimized.