The Heartland Concentrator™ is an award-winning direct-contact evaporator where hot gases are mixed with wastewater in our proprietary Low Momentum—High Turbulence (LM-HT®) process. The patented continuous evaporator replaces heat exchangers by directly contacting hot gas with wastewater feed within a compact turbulent evaporation zone. The evaporation zone creates acres per minute of dynamic renewable surface area between liquid and gas phases stimulating rapid evaporation. An in-line proprietary and patented high efficiency mist eliminator removes the particulate matter and water droplets as the cooled exhaust gas is discharged to atmosphere. Particulate matter and water droplets are returned to evaporation zone as part of the continuous evaporative process.
Key Features
The process is completely “at home” operating in challenging industrial environments.
Expansive renewable surface area of droplets drives very rapid heat and mass transfer by direct contact
No heat exchangers or membranes to foul or corrode
Little-to-no pre-treatment required
Exceedingly reliable with only two moving parts
Low-cost materials of construction
The Process
Wastewater is fed to the Heartland Concentrator™.
Thermal energy is supplied from a variety of possible sources
The hot gas transfer system collects, tempers, and routs hot exhaust gas.
The Concentrator mixes the hot gas with wastewater in the evaporation zone in an adiabatic process.
The vapor stream passes through a high-efficiency, multi-stage entrainment separator where residual water droplets are collected and removed.
An induced draft fan draws the demisted vapor through the system and directs it through the process exhaust stack.
The residual concentrated wastewater is continuously circulated through the system, with a slip stream passing through a liquid/solid separation process (e.g., thickening tank) which collects the concentrated slurry.
The residual concentrated slurry, at a brine/slurry consistency, is periodically purged from the thickening tank for disposal.