Feed, Preheat, And Blowdown Loop¶
This module decides whether the rest of the machine stays efficient or spends its life fighting cold feed and concentrated waste.
Basis From Public Material And Shared Notes¶
The shared thread proposed:
- a 50 µm strainer
- a tube-in-tube or similar preheater
- heat recovery from both clean product and blowdown
- a manual or semi-manual blowdown control approach for the first open build1
OpenSling Reference Choice¶
The reference loop includes:
- feed tank or source connection
- cleanable coarse strainer
- counterflow preheat section
- manual blowdown needle valve
- routed drains and sample points
Design Goals¶
- preheat feed before it enters the core
- reject concentrated waste in a controlled way
- expose fouling behavior instead of hiding it
- make all dirty-side maintenance obvious
Things To Measure¶
- feed temperature before and after preheat
- blowdown flow rate
- concentrate conductivity or salinity trend
- strainer fouling interval
Common Failure Modes¶
- preheater clogging
- thermal losses in long exposed lines
- blowdown set too low, causing salt buildup
- blowdown set too high, wasting water and energy