IDE’s first MVC plant, Canary Islands

This is IDE’s first commercial low-temperature, horizontal tube, falling film, mechanical vapour compression (MVC) distillation plant.

IDE's first MVC plant, with Danny Hoffman. – Danny Hoffman

IDE sold this unit to Hotel Maxorata, Fuerteventura, Canary Islands, in 1968, and it had a capacity of 150m³/d. Dozens of the same model were sold to hotels in the Canary Islands, and more sophisticated designs sold in their hundreds in the Balearic Islands, Iran, Taiwan, the Caribbean, and Central and South America. Using multiple units operating in parallel, the installations had capacities that ranged from 50m³/d to 4,000m³/d.