Sea Water Desalination

Storing large quantities of fresh water not only generates significant costs but also takes up a correspondingly large amount of space. A sensible alternative is sea water desalination for which GEA Westfalia Separator has a special process. This can be used to generate up to 65 tons of fresh water a day from salt water.

Desalination is based on the evaporation principle: sea water which has been filtered through a coarse mesh is evaporated in a heat exchanger plate stack made of titanium to precipitate salt and impurities. A further plate stack condenses the steam into drinking water. A salt measuring cell now checks residual salt content which is usually below four ppm. If a value below this is reliably maintained, the fresh water can be passed into a storage tank and subjected to further treatment in the form of UV sterilization.

A re-hardening filter then finally returns enough hardness to the fully demineralized water to make it potable for humans. Whether for the shower room, for the galley or for scrubbing – output ranges between 5 and 65 tons a day easily cover the usual requirements of container ships, LNG tankers, bulk carriers or freighters.