Chicago Bridge & Iron Company

Ban-Yen Lai

Matloob Husain

Richard L Schmitt

James B Maher

A method for concentrating aqueous mixtures and particularly mixtures which contain volatile desirable components such as flavor constituents is disclosed. An aqueous feed mixture is cooled sufficiently to produce ice crystals therein. The ice crystals are removed from the chilled mixture to produce a liquid phase from which some of the water has been removed and which is therefore concentrated. The concentrated liquid phase is split into two portions, one of which is collected as a first product, the other being first treated to separate the volatile components, which are recycled to the freezing step in which the ice crystals are formed. The residual liquid after the volatile component separation is then concentrated thermally in a conventional fashion to produce a second concentrated product which can be mixed with the first product to produce a product having a desired solids concentration and containing at least a substantial proportion of the original volatile components present in the feed.

Concentration method

Apparatus and method comprising a base cooling system using a refrigeration cycle, a peak-shaving system using a secondary cooling liquid, and a regeneration system for the peak-shaving system secondary cooling liquid. A split or partitioned heat exchanger alternately condenses only the refrigerant in the base cooling system or it condenses that refrigerant and a refrigerant used to cool hot secondary cooling liquid. The apparatus can be used in power generating plants with the split heat exchanger located in a cooling tower.

Cooling system, for power generating plant, using split or partitioned

Spent steam from a steam driven electric generating power plant is condensed by heat rejection to a refrigerant in a closed loop. The closed refrigerant loop contains an expander and a compressor, and a heat exchanger in a cooling tower. The compressor and expander are integrated so that (1) in an upper cooling cycle at the upper end of the ambient or air temperature range, only the compressor is operated within its operating range, (2) in a lower cooling cycle at the lower end of the ambient or air temperature range, only the expander is operated and (3) in a middle cooling cycle at the middle range of the ambient or air temperatures, when the turn-down of either the compressor or the expander is a limiting factor, both of them are operated. The characteristics of the compressor and the expander are advisably matched such that when both are operated the duties on both are balanced above their respective turn-down limits thus minimizing the energy loss and enhancing the power producing capability of the system. The integrated compressor/expander operation, during the middle range of the ambient or air temperatures in which the system is designed to operate, will also provide smoother operation, as the discontinuity going to and from the compressor to the expander mode of operation is eliminated.

Power producing dry cooling apparatus and method

A hot fluid stream is cooled by contacting it, in indirect heat exchange, with a base cooling fluid so long as the base cooling fluid accepts heat rejected from the hot fluid stream and adequately cools the same. When the cooling capacity of the base cooling fluid is inadequate supplemental cooling is provided contemporaneously and indirectly by contacting the hot fluid stream with a secondary cooling liquid which is cold thereby heating the secondary cooling liquid. The heated secondary cooling liquid is delivered to a hot reservoir for storage. The hot secondary cooling liquid is later removed from the hot reservoir, cooled and delivered to a cold reservoir for storage. The cold secondary cooling liquid is removed when needed from the cold reservoir and again delivered into indirect heat exchange with the hot fluid stream when the base cooling fluid provides inadequate cooling for the hot fluid stream. The base cooling fluid can be a refrigerant such as ammonia and the secondary cooling liquid can be water. The hot fluid stream can be steam condensed in a condenser of an electric power generating plant.

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Willowbrook, IL, United States of America

Ban-Yen Lai