Guernsey MSF, 1960, UK
This plant was supplied by Weir in 1960, one of the first projects for which there was actual competition between two MSF bidders: Richardson Westgarth and Weir.
Bob Silver’s unpublished (and highly opinionated!) autobiography mentions this as Weir’s second commercial MSF project, following its Kuwait installation. The company were still struggling to find the optimum design, and this single-purpose plant operated in recirculation mode, with 3 heat rejection and 37 heat recovery stages – an unprecedented 40 stages in total. The unit was cross-tubed with all heat exchanger tubing, including the brine heater, of aluminium-brass. It was rated to achieve efficiency of 11.4 and production of 2,271m3/d at a maximum brine temperature of 98.3ºC.
Changing water demands and leakage problems combined to cut short the life of the plant, but it did succeed in meeting its original design constraints and bid commitments – not an inconsiderable achievement, considering how untested the fundamental concept was at the time.