Control of Heat Exchangers and Evaporators – Variables and Degrees of freedom –

Liquid to Liquid Heat Exchangers – Steam Heaters – Condenser – Reboiler and

Vaporizers –
Cascade Control – Feed forward Control.
Evaporators: Types of Evaporators.

Heat Exchangers :
● Heat exchangers transfer thermal energy between fluids or between a fluid and a
solid surface.
● They operate at different temperatures and without external heat or work
interactions.
● Common applications include heating or cooling fluids, evaporation,
condensation, and process control.
● Heat transfer can occur through direct contact or through a separating wall.
● Two main types are direct transfer (recuperators) and indirect transfer
(regenerators).
● Direct transfer types ideally prevent fluid mixing, while indirect types may have
leakage due to pressure differences.

Control of Heat Exchangers

To monitor the performance of a heat exchanger, the product stream is important.
Usually, the product stream must be within some temperature range before it continues
to downstream process units. The outlet temperature of this stream can be used to
calculate the heat transfer. The steam is controlled in order to obtain the desired product
stream temperature. One way to influence the product temperature is by controlling the
flow of the heated steam. This flow-based control may take some time to implement and
therefore cause fluctuations in the process. Depending on the process, these
fluctuations may or may not be acceptable. Instead of monitoring the flow-rate, the
steam pressure may be monitored, achieving tighter control of temperature. A change in
pressure is much easier to monitor and correlates directly with a change in temperature
of the steam. This offers an effective way to control process temperatures. Pressure
control also enables the physical condition of the piping to be monitored, since pressure
changes occur as fouling progresses. The pressure, combined with the flow-rate and
temperature of the heated steam, can be used to calculate this fouling occurring inside
a piece of equipment. It is important to remember that the steam should always be
controlled on the inlet side of the heat exchanger for better pressure control and safety
reasons, as shown in figure 1 below.
Figure 1. Heat Exchanger with pressure control on steam inlet and temperature control
on the product stream.

Degrees of Freedom Analysis

A degrees of freedom analysis can help place sensors and actuators in appropriate
places, while not including too many sensors and actuators, in order to obtain an
efficient control system.

A simple degree of freedom analysis can make design of a control scheme easier as
well as improve the control scheme overall. A process control approach to degrees of
freedom, adapted from ECOSSE Module 3.1, requires tabulation of streams and extra
phases.

DOF = Streams − ExtraPhases + 1

A typical distillation column contains the following streams; feed (1), bottoms (2),
distillate (3), reflux (4), product (5), vapor-liquid mix (6), cooling water (7), and steam
(8). There are also three locations where there are two phases, vapor and liquid,
present in equilibrium. These are denoted as one "extra phase", since temperature and
pressure are not independent in a two-phase system.

DOF = 8 − 3 + 1 = 6
In typical practice, the condenser and reboiler pressure are specified as atmospheric
pressure. Once the pressure is specified in the condenser and reboiler (both two-phase
systems), the temperature is specified and therefore the degrees of freedom are
reduced by two. The total degrees of freedom, in practice, is six.

DOF = 8 − 5 + 1 = 4

Sensor and Actuator Options

● Flow sensor/transmitters should be installed on product streams, reboiler steam,

reflux stream, and feed stream to adjust flows and meet control objectives.
● Each flow sensor should be connected to a flow valve to control the
corresponding stream.
● Differential pressure level sensor/transmitters are necessary for the accumulator
and bottom of the column to maintain essential levels for reliable operation.
● Pressure differential across the column can indicate flooding, requiring
monitoring for early detection.
● A pressure indicator should be installed at the top of the accumulator to monitor
column pressure.
● Temperature control in the distillation column is achieved by manipulating steam
flow to the reboiler.
Control Schemes

● Common control schemes for distillation columns include dual composition

control and single composition control.
● Dual composition control optimally controls the temperature of both chemicals in
a binary distillation but is more complex to set up and requires difficult
measurements.
● Many distillation columns use single composition control instead due to its
simplicity.
● Control configurations for distillation columns include reflux-boilup and
distillate-boilup.
● In the reflux-boilup configuration, distillate and bottoms compositions are
controlled variables, with reflux flow and heat input (vapor boilup) as manipulated
variables.
● This configuration allows quick response to changes in feed composition.
● In the distillate-boilup control configuration, distillate flow and vapor boilup are
used to control composition, making it a better choice for columns with high reflux
ratios.

Distillation column with reflux-boilup control scheme

Liquid-Liquid Extractors

● In liquid-liquid extractors, controlled variables are interface level and pressure,

crucial for complete separation of heavy and light components.
● Valve controls should be placed on both exit streams to manage disturbances in
entering stream flow rate.
● The control scheme depends on process operation. When heavy phase is
continuous:
○ Interface level changes are controlled by adjusting flow rate of light
product.
○ Pressure is controlled by adjusting flow rate of heavy product out of the
column.
● Single stage extractors are common in chemical labs, while multistage extractors
are used in industry.
● Multistage extractors use immiscible liquid stream from previous stage as feed in
following stage.
● Figure A illustrates single stage extractor operation, while Figure 6 depicts
described control scheme.

● In liquid-liquid extractors with continuous light phase, the control system is set up
differently.
● Figure C illustrates operations in a single stage extractor under this condition.
● Figure D represents a control scheme opposite to that in Figure 6, suitable for
this scenario.
● These are only two basic control scheme possibilities; various controllers and
process aspects may need monitoring or control adjustments.
Rebioler and Vapourizers

● Reboilers and vaporizers are essential components in distillation processes.

● Reboilers vaporize a fraction of the bottom product in distillation columns, while
vaporizers essentially vaporize all the feed.
● Three principal types of reboilers:
1. Forced circulation: Fluid is pumped through the exchanger, suitable for
viscous and fouling fluids.
2. Thermosiphon (natural circulation): Vertical or horizontal exchangers
maintain liquid circulation through density differences, economical for most
applications.
3. Kettle type: Boiling occurs on tubes immersed in a pool of liquid, suitable
for vaporization, with lower heat transfer coefficients.
● Choice of reboiler or vaporizer type depends on:
1. Nature of process fluid, particularly viscosity and fouling propensity.
2. Operating pressure, whether vacuum or pressure.
3. Equipment layout, especially available headroom.
● Forced-circulation reboilers are suitable for handling viscous and heavily fouling
fluids, but require pumps and have high pumping costs.
● Thermosiphon reboilers are economical for most applications but not suitable for
high viscosity fluids or high vacuum operation.
● Horizontal reboilers require less headroom but have more complex pipework
compared to vertical ones.
● Kettle reboilers have lower heat transfer coefficients and are not suitable for
fouling materials, but are often used as vaporizers for high rates of vaporization
and vacuum operation.
Feedback control:
 ● Feedback control is a system where control action depends on process output.
● It measures process variables at the output.
● It reacts to measurable changes in process output caused by disturbances to
provide corrective action and eliminate errors.
● Feedback control systems react after perceiving the effects of disturbances in the
process output.
● Example application includes furnaces in industrial processes.

Feedforward control
 ● Feedforward control acts before disturbances affect the system, anticipating their
effects.
● It adjusts controller settings based on changes in the feed inlet, regulating fuel oil
to maintain proportional feed flow and energy balances.
● The effect of feed changes is not immediately felt at the process output (output
temperature).
● Weaknesses of feedforward control include its inability to sense disturbances on
fuel oil, leading to errors in the process output.

Cascade Control
● Closed-loop feedback control regulates feed outlet temperature in a furnace.
● Load-on loop represents changes in feed flow at the inlet.
● When feed flow increases suddenly, insufficient heat energy from fuel oil in the
furnace causes a drop in feed outlet temperature.
● The new controller detects the error and adjusts by increasing fuel oil flow.
● However, this system doesn't account for disturbances such as a decrease in fuel
oil pressure.
● To address this, a pressure controller is added between the temperature
controller and control valve.
● The manipulated variable (MV) of the temperature controller becomes the set
point for the pressure controller.
● Cascade control can cause oscillations if the primary loop is faster than the
secondary loop.
● Cascade control is suitable for processes with a primary element much slower
than its secondary element.
 Evaporators

● Evaporation removes solvent by vaporization from non-volatile solids.

● It produces concentrated liquid, often before crystallization, but can also yield a
dry solid product with specialized design.
● Various evaporator designs exist for specific industry applications.
● Basic types of evaporators include:
○ Direct-heated evaporators:
■ Include solar pans and submerged combustion units.
■ Submerged combustion evaporators can tolerate contamination by
combustion products.
○ Long-tube evaporators:
■ Liquid flows as a thin film on walls of long, vertical, heated tubes.
■ Falling film and rising film types are used.
■ High-capacity units suitable for low-viscosity solutions.
○ Forced-circulation evaporators:
■ Liquid is pumped through tubes.
■ Suitable for materials that foul heat transfer surfaces and where
crystallization can occur.
Short-Tube Evaporators
Short-tube evaporators, also called callandria evaporators, are used in the sugar
industry.
Evaporator Selection
The selection of the most suitable evaporator type for a particular application will
depend on the following factors:
1. The throughput required;
2. The viscosity of the feed and the increase in viscosity during evaporation;
3. The nature of the product required: solid, slurry, or concentrated solution;
4. The heat sensitivity of the product;
5. Whether the materials are fouling or nonfouling;
6. Whether the solution is likely to foam;
7. Whether direct heating can be used.