Patent ID: 7368039

Claim:
For generating vapor from a liquid, a method comprising: A) providing a distillation device that includes heat-transfer surfaces, forming at least one condensation chamber and at least one evaporation chamber, by which heat passes from the at least one condensation chamber to the at least one evaporation chamber; B) irrigating each said evaporation chamber with a liquid: i) at a respective irrigation rate, whose average is a respective average irrigation rate, that so varies as repeatedly to reach a respective peak irrigation rate that is at least twice the respective average irrigation rate; ii) in such a manner that liquid in the at least one evaporation chamber absorbs heat from the heat-transfer surfaces and thereby produces vapor; and C) so directing the thus-produced vapor into the at least one condensation chamber vapor that the heat-transfer surfaces absorb from the vapor the heat absorbed from the heat-transfer surfaces by the liquid in the at least one evaporation chamber.