EVAPORATION

Type of evaporation equipment and

operation methods, calculation method for
single effect and multiple effect
evaporators.
 TYPES OF EVAPORATORS
The chief types of steam-heated tubular
evaporators are:
1.Long-tube vertical evaporator
a) Upward flow (climbing-film)
b) Downward flow (falling-film)
c) Forced circulation
2.Agitated-film evaporators

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 Long‐tube evaporator with upward 
flow
Essential parts:
1) A tubular exchanger with steam
2) A separator or a vapor
in the shell and liquid to be
space for removing
concentrated in the tubes
entrained liquid from the
vapor.

3) When operated as a
circulation unit, a return
leg for the liquid from the
separator to the bottom of
the exchanger.

Fig. 16.1: Evaporators: (a) vertical climbing film, long-tube unit

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 Fig. 16.1: Evaporators: (b) forced-circulation unit with separate two-
pass horizontal heating element.

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 Falling‐film evaporators
O Used for heat-sensitive materials such as fruit juices
and milk.

O Liquidenters topflows downstream inside the

heated tube as a film leaves bottom

O Vapor evolved from the liquid is usually carried

downward with the liquid and leaves from the
bottom.

O These evaporators resemble long, vertical, tubular

exchangers with a liquid-vapor separators at the
bottom and a distributor fro the liquid at the top.
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 Example 16.1
O Condensed milk is produced by evaporation of milk in a falling-film
evaporator containing stainless steel tubes 32 mm in diameter
and 6 m long. Evaporation takes place at 60oC, which is the boiling
point of milk at 2.7lbf/in2.absolute, using steam at 70oC. The feed
rate is 40 kg/h per tube at 60oC.
a) Estimate the internal coefficient hi and overall coefficient U.
b) What is the evaporation rate per tube?
c) If the raw milk has 13.5% fat plus solids, what is the concentration
of the condensed milk?
d) Calculate the average residence time in the evaporator.
milk at 60oCΡ,are:
The propertiesµ,ofcP kg/m3 Κ, W/m.K λ, J/g
Raw milk 0.94 1010 0.62 2357
25% solids 1.6 1030 0.55 2357

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 O From the solution given, derive the following:
i. k = 0.662 W/m.K
ii. µ = 0.406 cP
iii. λ = 2,331 J/g @ 70oC

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 Performance of tubular 
evaporator
O The principal measures of the performance:
i. Capacity = the number of kgs of water vaporized
per hour.
ii. Economy = the number of kgs vaporized per kg of
steam fed to the unit.
O In a single-effect evaporator the economy is nearly
always < 1
O In multiple-effect equipment it way considerably
greater.
O Steam consumption (kg/h) = Capacity / economy.

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 Evaporator capacity
O The rate of heat transfer, q = product of
three factors: Area of the heat-transfer
surface A, the overall heat-transfer
coefficient U, and the overall temperature
drop, ∆T or
q = UA∆T (16.1)

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 O Flash evaporation:
O If feed is at a temperature above the boiling point in
the vapor space, a portion of the feed evaporates
spontaneously by adiabatic equilibrium with the
vapor-space pressure and the capacity is greater than
that corresponding to q.
O Actual temperature drop across the heating surface
depends on:
1. the solution being evaporated
2. The difference in pressure between the steam chest
and the vapor space above the boiling liquid
3. Depth of liquid in the tubes, due to frictional loss in
the tubes which increases the effective pressure of
the liquid.

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 Boiling‐point elevation and 
Dühring’s rule
O The vapor pressure of aqueous solution is less
than that of water at the same temperature.
O Consequently, for a given pressure the boiling
point of the solution is higher than that of pure
water.
O Boiling-point elevation (BPE): the increase of
boiling point over that of water.
O Dühring’s rule: the boiling point of a given
solution is a linear function of the boiling point of
pure water at the same pressure.

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 Fig. 16.3: Dühring lines, system sodium hydroxide-water (After McCabe)

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 Effect of liquid head and 
friction on temperature drop
O When velocity of liquid is large, frictional
loss in the tubes further increases the
average pressure of the liquid.
O Therefore, in any actual evaporator, the
average boiling point of the liquid in the
tubes is higher than the boiling point
corresponding to the pressure in the vapor
space.

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 • Relation between the
temperature in an evaporator
and the distance along the
tube, measured from the
bottom.

• Applies to a long-tube vertical

evaporator with upflow of
liquid.

• The entering steam may be

Fig. 16.4: Temperature history of liquor in tubes and
temperature drops in long-tube vertical evaporator
(Detail of the description can be found in the text
book on page 495. )
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slightly superheated at Th.
• The superheated is quickly
given up, an the steam drops
to saturation temperature, Ts.
• Before the condensate leaves
the steam space, it may be
cooled slightly to temperature
T c. 14
 Pressure change
O When the velocity inside an evaporator tube is
such that boiling starts inside the tube, the
liquid in the nonboiling section moves slowly and
pressure drop from friction is small.

O In the boiling section, the mixture of vapor and

liquid has a high velocity, and the friction loss is
large.

O Thus the pressure in the tube falls slowly in the

lower part of the tubes and much more rapidly in
the upper section, where the velocity is high.
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 Heat‐transfer coefficients
O The heat flux and the evaporator capacity are affected by
changes both in the temperature drop and in the overall heat-
transfer coefficient.

O The overall coefficient is strongly influenced by the design ad

method of operation of the evaporator.

O The overall resistance to heat transfer between the steam and

the boiling liquid = ΣThe steam-film resistance+2 scale
resistance (inside and outside the tube)+ tube wall resistance
+resistance from the boiling liquid.

O The overall coefficient = 1/the overall resistance.

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 Heat‐transfer coefficients
Steam‐film coefficients
O The steam-film coefficient is characteristically high
even when condensation is filmwise. Promoters are
sometimes added to the steam to give dropwise
condensation and still higher coefficient.

O Since the presence of noncondensable gas

seriously reduces the steam-film coefficient,
provision must be made to vent noncondensables
fro the steam chest and to prevent leakage of air
inward when the steam is at a pressure below atm.
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 Heat‐transfer coefficients
Liquid‐side coefficients
O The liquid-side coefficient depends to a large
extent on the velocity of the liquor over the
heated surface.
O For falling-film evaporators the inside coefficient
is about the same as that for film-type
condensation on a vertical surface.
O Most of the evaporation takes plave at the
liquid-vapor interface.
O The film coefficient is greater than for purely
laminar flow and can be estimated using Fig.
13.2.

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 Overall coefficient
• Due to the difficulty of measuring the high individual film-coefficients in
an evaporator, experimental results are usually expressed in terms of
overall coefficients.

Table 16.1: Typical overall coefficients in evaporators

Type Overall coefficient U

W/m2 .°C Btu/ft2 .h.°F

Long-tube vertical evaporators

Natural circulation 1000-2500 200-500
Forced circulation 2000-5000 400-1000
Agitated-film evaporator, newtonian liquid, viscosity
1 cP 2000 400
1P 1500 300
100P 600 120

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 Evaporator Economy
O The main factor influencing the economy of an
evaporator system is te number of effects.
O The economy also is influenced by the temperature of
the feed.
O If the temperature:
O Below the boiling pointin the first effect, the heating
load uses a part of the enthalpy of vaporization of the
steam and only a fraction is left for evaporation.
O above the boiling , the accompanying flash contributes
some evaporation over and above that generated by
the enthalpy of evaportaion in the steam.
O Quantitatively, evaporator economy is entirely a
matter of enthalpy balances.

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 Enthalpy balances for single‐
effect evaporator
O The latent heat of condensation of the
steam is transferred through a heating
surface to vaporize water from a boiling
solution.
O 2 enthalpy balances are needed, 1 for the
steam and one for the vapor or liquid side.

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 (16.2)

(16.3)
Where q = rate of heat transfer from
heating surface to liquid
Hv = specific enthalpy of vapor
Hc = specific enthalpy of thin liquor
H = specific enthalpy of thick liquor

Fig. 16.5: Material and enthalpy Combining Eq. 16.2 and 16.3 becomes
balances in evaporator

(16.4)
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 Enthalpy balance with  
negligible heat of dilution
O The heat-transfer rate q on liquor sides is
(16.5)
O If the specific heat of the thin liquor is assumed constant
over the temperature range from Tf to T then,
(16.6)
(16.7)
O Where cpf = specific heat of thin liquor, λv = latent heat of
vaporization from thick liquor
O If the boiling-point elevation of the thick liquor is negligible,
λv = λ
(16.8)

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 Enthalpy balance with appreciable 
heat of dilution; enthalpy‐
concentration diagram
O If the heat of dilution of the liquor being
concentrated is too large to be neglected, an
enthalpy-concentration diagram is used for
the values of Hf and H in Eq. (16.4).
O Fig. 16.6 is an enthalpy-concentration
diagram for solution of sodium hydroxide
and water.

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Fig. 16.6: Enthalpy-concentration diagram, system sodium hydroxide-water.

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 Single‐effect calculations
O The use of material balances, enthalpy
balances, and the capacity equation (16.1)
in the design of single-effect evaporators is
shown in Example 16.2.

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 Multiple‐effect evaporators
O Fig. 16.7 shows 3 long-tube natural-circulation
evaporators connected to form a triple-effect system.

Fig. 16.7: Triple-effect evaporator: I, II, III, first, second and third effects; F1, F2, F3 feed or
liquor control valves; S1, steam valve, p1, p2 , p3 pressures; Ts, T1, T2, T3, temperatures.
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 The heating surface in the first effect will transmit per hour an amount
of heat given by the equation
(16.9)
The heat transmitted in the second effect, however, is given by the
equation
(16.10)

As has just been shown, q1 and q2 are nearly equal, and therefore
(16.11)

This same reasoning may be extended to show that, roughly

(16.12)

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 O In ordinary practice the heating areas in all
the effects of a multiple=effect evaporator
are equal. This is to obtain economy of
construction. Since q1 = q2 = q3,

(16.13)

O From this, it follows that the temperature

drops in a multiple-effect evaporator are
approximately inversely proportional to the
heat-transfer coefficient.

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 Example 16.3
O A triple-effect evaporator is concentrating a
liquid that has no appreciable elevation in
boiling point. The temperature of steam to
the first effect is 108oC, and the boiling
point of the solution in the last effect is
52oC. The overall heat transfer coefficient,
in W/m2.oC, are 2,500 in the first effect,
2,000 in the second effect. And 1,500 in the
third effect. At what temperature will the
liquid boil in the first and second effects?

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 Method of feeding
O Forward feed
O Backward feed
O Mixed feed
O Parallel feed

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 Capacity and economy of 
multiple‐effect evaporators
(16.14)

(16.15)

(16.16)

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 Fig. 16.8: Patterns of liquor flow in multiple-effect evaporators: (a) Forward feed; (b)
backward feed; (c) mixed feed; (d) parallel feed (-----) Liquor stream (-----) Steam and vapor
condensate streams.
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 Effect of liquid head and boiling-point elevation.

Fig. 16.9: Effect of boiling-point elevation on capacity of evaporators.

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 Optimum number of effects
O The cost of each effect of an evaporator per square
meter or square foot of surface is a function of its
total area and decreases with area, approaching an
asymptote for very large installation.

O Thus the investment required for an N-effect

evaporator is about N times that for single-effect
evaporator of the same capacity.

O The optimum number of effects must be found from

an economic balance between the savings in steam
obtained by multiple-effect operation and added
investment required.
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 Multiple‐effect calculations
O For a triple-effect evaporator, 7 equations may be written.
i. An enthalpy balance for each effect
ii. A capacity equation for each effect
iii. The known total evaporation
iv. The difference between the thin-and thick liquor rate
O If the amount of heating surface in each effect is assumed to
be the same, there are 7 unknowns in these equations:
1. The rate of steam flow to the first effect
2. (2) to (4) the rate of flow from each effect
5. The boiling temperature in the first effect
6. The boiling temperature in the second effect
7. The heating surface per effect

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 O Another method of calculation is as follow:
1. Assume values for the boiling temperatures in
the first and second effects.
2. From enthalpy balances find the rates of
steam flow and of liquor from effect to effect.
3. Calculate the heating surface needed in each
effect from the capacity equations.
4. If the heating areas so found are not nearly
equal, estimate new values for the boiling
temperatures and repeat items 2 and 3 until
the heating surfaces are equal.
O In practice these calculation are done by
computer.
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 Example 16.4
O A triple-effect forced-circulation evaporator is to be fed with
60,000 lb/h (27,215 kg/h) of 10% caustic soda solution at a
temperature 180oF (82.2oC). The concentrated liquor is to be
50% NaOH. Saturated steam at 50 lbf /in2 (3.43mm) abs is to
be used, and the condensing temperature of vapor from the
third effect is 100oF (37.8oC). The feed order is II, III, I.
Radiation and undercooling of condensate may be neglected.
Estimated overall coefficients corrected for boiling-point
elevationb are given in Table 16.2. Calculate:
a) The heating surface required in each effect, assuming equal
surfaces in each
b) The steam consumption
c) The steam economy.

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 Tutorial 3: Due 22/10/15
O Problems:
O 16.1
O 16.2
O 16.12

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