Overview
The SeaWaterDistiller is working on the well-known vacuum distillation principle. Waste heat from the main engine on board is utilized as heating medium for evaporation. The evaporation takes place in the evaporation plate bundle located in the lower part of the housing. A part of the incoming sea water evaporates due to the high vacuum inside the housing. The generated vapor is cleaned from sea water droplets while flowing through a wire mesh demister.

The condensation takes place in the condenser plate bundle located in the upper part of the housing. The condenser is cooled by sea water. The latent heat from condensation is transferred to the sea water. The condensation / evaporation temperature varies with the sea water temperature. A small portion of the heated sea water is utilized as feed water for the evaporator bundle. The biggest part is used as driving medium for the combined air- / brine ejector.
This ejector has a double function: Extraction of the surplus sea water (so-called brine) out of the housing and vacuum creation by exhaust of the non-condensable gases. The distillate quality (salinity) is monitored at the control panel. If the salinity exceeds the adjusted set point (2 – 10 ppm) the distillate is rejected back to the evaporator via a solenoid valve.
Last year was not a year of hyped-up headlines for alternative proteins. Perhaps that is precisely why it was an important year for food biotech, the biotechnology behind everyday foods and ingredients. While the sector worked through a difficult funding environment, approvals were still granted, pilot lines set up and new platforms tested in the background. In short: headlines are turning into infrastructure. Frederieke Reiners heads GEA’s New Food business. She and her team work at the intersection of biotechnology and industrial food production. In this interview, she takes us on a world tour of food biotech in seven questions.