This technology uses wind, a natural renewable energy source, to enhance evaporation form brine ponds (Van der Merwe et al, 2009).
This was tested on a small evaporation pond. The evaporation of the water increased up to 30 times relative to natural evaporation processes from open ponds. This WAIV process has not been implemented on full scale, yet (Van der Merwe et al, 2009).
DEWVAPORATION
This process is base on the natural cycle of humidification and de-humidification. It uses waste heat (a low-energy energy source) to evaporate water from the brine (Van der Merwe et al, 2009). The Dewvaporation system evaporates the water from the liquid surface and therefore, scaling problems are reduced. It also offers the recovery of high quality water as product (Van der Merwe et al, 2009). Another advantage is that the non corrodible material that can be used for construction since the process operates below 100°C. This will significantly reduce the capital and maintenance requirements (Van der Merwe et al, 2009).
The technology was tested in the laboratory. The produced water was comparable to the water produced by a mechanical evaporator (Van der Merwe et al, 2009).
