JIMMA UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE

OF TECHNOLOGY

Submitted to: - Mohamed. s

submission date: -4/23/2023

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 Student design project
Group Member
No Name Id no

1 Abele Neberga Ru 2116/12

2 Eyob Bezu Ru 0360/12

3 Eyob kassa Ru 3507/11

4 Eyuel Eshetu Ru 1196/12

5 Yilma Wendayehu Ru 0060/12

6 Desalew Assefa Ru 3167/11

7 Robel Getachew Ru 1728/12

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 EVAPORATOR
1.INTRODUCTION
Evaporation is a process by which a liquid turns into a gas or vapor. This transformation occurs
when a liquid substance gains enough energy to overcome its intermolecular forces and turn into
a gaseous state. Evaporation is a natural phenomenon that occurs everywhere around us, such as
when water evaporates from the surface of a lake or when sweat evaporates from our skin. This
process plays a crucial role in the water cycle by allowing water to move from the Earth's surface
into the atmosphere, where it can form clouds and ultimately fall back to the ground as
precipitation.

The rate of evaporation is influenced by several factors, including temperature, humidity, and air
pressure. Higher temperatures and lower humidity levels speed up the rate of evaporation, while
increased air pressure slows it down. Understanding the principles of evaporation is important in
a variety of fields, such as meteorology, chemistry, and engineering. Additionally, evaporation is
a key process in many industrial applications, such as the production of pharmaceuticals, food
products, and chemicals.

2.TYPE OF EVAPORATORS
Evaporator consists of a heat exchanger for boiling the solution with special provisions for
separation of liquid and vapor phases. Most of the industrial evaporators have tubular heating
surfaces. The tubes may be horizontal or vertical, long or short; the liquid may be inside or outside
the tubes.
2.1. Short-Tube Vertical Evaporators
Short-tube vertical evaporators are the oldest but still widely used in sugar industry in evaporation
of cane-sugar juice. These are also known as calandria or Robert evaporators.

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 Figure 1. Calandria type evaporator.
2.2. Basket-type Vertical Evaporators
The construction and operational features of basket-type evaporators are very similar to those of
the standard evaporator except that the down take is annular. The tube bundle with fixed tube
sheets forms a basket hung in the center of the evaporator from internal brackets. The diameter of
the tube bundle is smaller than the diameter of evaporator vessel, thus forming an annular space
for circulation of liquid. The tube bundle can be removed for the purpose of cleaning and
maintenance and thus basket evaporators are more suitable than standard evaporators for scale
forming solutions. The vapor generated strikes a deflector plate fixed close to the steam pipe that
reduces entrained liquid droplets from the vapor.
2.3. Long-Tube Vertical Evaporators
This is another most widely employed natural circulation evaporator because it is often the
cheapest per unit of capacity. The long vertical tube bundle is fixed with a shell that extends into
a larger diameter vapor chamber at the top. The long-tube vertical (LTV) evaporator consists of
one pass shell and tube heat exchanger

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 Figure 2. Long-Tube Vertical Evaporators
4. Falling Film Evaporators
In a falling film evaporator, the liquid is fed at the top of the tubes in a vertical tube bundle. The
liquid is allowed to flow down through the inner wall of the tubes as a film. As the liquid travels
down the tubes the solvent vaporizes and the concentration gradually increases. Vapor and liquid
are usually separated at the bottom of the tubes and the thick liquor is taken out. Evaporator liquid
is recirculated through the tubes by a pump below the vapor-liquid separator.
The distribution of liquid in the inner wall of the tubes greatly affects the performance of this type
of evaporator. The falling film evaporator is largely used for concentration of fruit juices and heat
sensitive materials because of the low holdup time. The device is suitable for scale
forming solutions as boiling occur on the surface of the film.

Figure 3. Falling-film evaporator

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liquid flows as a thin film along the tube wall. This co-current upward movement against gravity
has the advantageous effect of creating a high degree of turbulence in the liquid. This is useful
during evaporation of highly viscous and fouling solutions.
6. Forced Circulation Evaporators
Forced circulation evaporators are usually more costly than natural circulation evaporators.
However, the natural circulation evaporators are not suitable under some situations such as:
• highly viscous solutions due to low heat transfer coefficient
• solution containing suspended particles
• for heat sensitive materials
All these problems may be overcome when the liquid is circulated at high velocity through the at
exchanger tubes to enhance the heat transfer rate and inhibit particle deposition. Any evaporator
that uses pump to ensure higher circulation velocity is called a forced circulation evaporator. The
main components of a forced circulation evaporator are a tubular shell and tube heat exchanger
(either horizontal or vertical), a flash chamber (separator) mounted above the heat exchanger and
a circulating pump. The solution is heated in the heat exchanger without boiling and the
superheated solution flashes off (partially evaporated) at a lower pressure are reduced in the flash
chamber. The pump pumps feed and liquor from the flash chamber and forces it through the heat
exchanger tubes back to the flash chamber.
Forced circulation evaporator is commonly used for concentration of caustic and brine solutions
and also in evaporation of corrosive solution.

Figure 3.4. Vertical tube forced-circulation evaporator

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7. Agitated Thin Film Evaporator
Agitated thin film evaporator consists of a vertical steam-jacketed cylinder and the feed solution
flows down as a film along the inner surface of large diameter jacket. Liquid is distributed on the
tube wall by a rotating assembly of blades mounted on shaft placed coaxially with the inner tube.
The blades maintain a close clearance of around 1.5 mm or less from the inner tube wall.
The main advantage is that rotating blades permits handling of extremely viscous solutions. The
device is suitable to concentrate solutions having viscosity as high as up to 100 P.
3. Performance of evaporators (capacity
And economy)
The performance of a steam-heated evaporator is measured in terms of its capacity and economy.
Capacity is defined as the number of kilograms of water vaporized per hour. Economy (or steam
economy) is the number kilogram of water vaporized from all the effects per kilogram of steam
used. For single effect evaporator, the steam economy is about 0.8 (<1). The capacity is about
times that of a single effect evaporator and the economy is about 0.8n for a n-effect evaporators.
However, pumps, interconnecting pipes and valves are required for transfer of liquid from one
effect to another effect that increases both equipment and operating costs.
4. Thermal/ process design considerations
Many factors must be carefully considered when designing evaporators. The type of evaporator or
heat exchangers, forced or natural circulation, feeding arrangement, boiling point elevation, heat
transfer coefficient, fouling, tube size and arrangement are all very important.
Heat transfer coefficients
The heat transfer coefficient of condensing steam in shell side is normally very high compared to
the liquid side. Therefore, tube side (liquid side) heat transfer coefficient practically controls the
rate of heat transfer. The overall heat transfer coefficient should be either known/ calculated from
the performance data of an operating evaporator of the same type and processing the same solution.
6. Boiling point elevation (BPE)
Most evaporators produce concentrated liquor having a boiling point considerably higher than that
of pure solvent (or water). This phenomenon is called boiling point elevation (BPE). BPE occurs
as the vapor pressure of a solution (usually aqueous solution) is less than that of pure solvent at
the same temperature. Boiling point of a solution is a colligative property. It depends on the
concentration of solute in the solution for a pair of solute and solvent. BPE of the concentrated
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liquor reduces the effective temperature driving force compared to the boiling of pure solvent.
Equilibrium vapor generated from a solution exhibiting boiling point elevation is superheated with
respect to vapor generated during boiling of pure solvent. The vapor is generated at the solution
boiling point, which is higher than the pure component boiling point. The vapor, however, is solute
free, so it won’t condense until the extra heat corresponding to the elevation is removed, thus it is
superheated. Therefore, the BPE of the concentrated solution must
be known for evaporator design.
Determination of BPE: For strong solutions, the BPE data is estimated from an empirical rule
known as Dühring rule. This states that the boiling point of a given solution is a linear function of
the boiling point of pure water at the same pressure. Thus, if the boiling point of the solution is
plotted against the corresponding boiling point of pure water at the same pressure, a straight line
is generated. Different lines are obtained if such plots made for solution of different concentrations.
The main advantage is that a Dühring line can be drawn if boiling points of a solution and water
(read from steam table) at two different pressures are known. This line can be
used to predict boiling point of a solution at any pressure.
7. Selection of suitable evaporator
The selection of the most suitable evaporator type depends on a number of factors.
Mainly these are:
 throughput,
 viscosity of the solution (and its increase during evaporation),
 nature of the product and solvent (such as heat sensitivity and corrosiveness),
 fouling characteristics and,
 foaming characteristics.
#1. Design of Evaporator
A triple-effect forward feed evaporator of the long-tube vertical type is to be used to concentrate
4,000 kg/h of a 9.5% solution of caustic soda available at 40°C to 50% solution. Saturated steam
at 3.5 kg.cm-2 is available. A vacuum of 700 mm Hg is maintained in the last effect. The overall
heat transfer coefficients are 5800, 3300 and 2400 Wm-2 °C-1, corrected for BPEs may be used
for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd effects respectively. Calculate the heat transfer area required (assume equal
areas in all three effects), steam economy and rate of steam consumption. Make a preliminary
mechanical design for the vessel.