Peltier effect concentric still with high temperature heat supplying means

Claim 2

The apparatus as defined in claim 1 in which said means for preheating and descaling said feed fluid includes a preheater descaler apparatus having a housing, a series of tubular members extending through said housing, a heat source transmitted through said tubular members, means for conducting said fluid through said housing in thermal contact with said tubular members, scrapper blades mechanically movable over the exterior surface of said tubular members, and means for passing effluent liquid through said housing alternately to said feed fluid passing therethrough.

Claim 3

The apparatus as defined in claim 3 in which said heat source is a high temperature fluid passing through said tubular members.

Claim 4

The apparatus of claim 3 in which said heat source is the coolant from a nuclear reactor.

Claim 5

The apparatus of claim 3 in which said heat source is a nuclear reactor core.

Claim 6

The apparatus as defined in claim 1 in which said means for supplying heat to said higher temperature junction of said thermoelectric elements is a solar energy heat transmission element.

Claim 7

The apparatus as defined in claim 1 in which the means for supplying heat to said higher temperature junction of said thermoelectric element is provided by a nuclear reactor.

Claim 8

The apparatus as defined in claim 1 in which said diffusion still also includes a plurality of preheating feed flow passages extending through a high temperature portion of one of said endless spaces for conducting feed fluid therethrough as a heat sink and a series of fluid passages extending through the low temperature portion of said endless spaces for conducting high temperature fluid therethrough as a heat source.

Claim 9

The apparatus as defined in claim 9 in which said high temperature fluid is a coolant fluid from a nuclear reactor.

Claim 10

The apparatus as defined in claim 9 wherein said fluid passages for conducting high temperature fluid are portions of a nuclear reactor.

Claim 11

The apparatus as defined in claim 1 in which said diffusion still includes a starting column.

Claim 12

The apparatus as defined in claim 1 wherein solar energy conversion means for converting solar energy to electrical energy is connected to predetermined ones of said thermoelectric elements whereby electric power is transmitted thereto.

Claim 13

Distillation apparatus for separating lighter fraction distillate from a feed fluid comprisIng: a thermoelectric diffusion still including a series of endless walled sections, which sections are spaced to define endless spaces between an outer evaporating surface of one section and the juxtaposed condensing inner surface of the next adjacent section, said inner surface over substantially its entire area being closer to substantially the entire area of said outer surface than any other surface in said apparatus and less than one-half the height of said sections; a series of thermoelectric elements positioned within such sections between the inner and outer walls thereof having conductor means connected to said elements for supplying electric energy thereto whereby said series of thermoelectric elements pumps heat; means for conducting feed fluid as a liquid film to the evaporating surface of each of said sections; means for collecting condensate from the opposite condensing surface of each of said sections, said thermoelectric elements within said sections having a high temperature junction and a low temperature junction and being so constructed and arranged as to maintain a temperature differential between the evaporating and condensing surfaces thereof; said condensing surface being lower in temperature than said evaporating surface; means for maintaining said spaces between said sections at a predetermined positive pressure of approximately atmospheric and above; means for preheating and descaling said feed fluid prior to entering said diffusion still; at least one of said sections further comprising an electric generator comprising a second series of thermoelectric elements having hot and cold junctions, means for supplying heat to said hot junctions and for extracting heat from said cold junctions, means for connecting said electric generator to said conductor means; and, means for exhausting effluent from said apparatus.