Experimental investigation of a novel sea water desalination system using ranque-hilsch vortex tube

Abstract

This study is experimentally targeting to develop an effective novel system to produce fresh water, by sea water desalination using vortex tube. The vortex tube used compressed air as a power source, and produced hot air stream from one end and cold air stream from the other, taking that advantage in water desalination technology, with low consumption of heating energy under vacuum condition. Using four modes of compressor operation, mode I of continuous operation, mode II of five minutes on then ten minutes off, mode III of ten minutes on then five minutes off and mode IV of ten minutes on then ten minutes off. The following results are obtained: the quantity of the desalinated water was, 26% of the initial sea water quantity for mode II, while for mode IV, it was about 34%, for mode III, it was about 51%, while the maximum desalinated water quantity of 68% is obtained at mode I. Finally, the total dissolved solids in the produced desalinated water were about 480 mg/l. Therefore, using Ranque-Hilsch vortex tube in sea water desalination is highly recommended to be used as an effective agent to initiate sea water evaporation and desalinated water condensation.