Evaporation

Evaporation is the removal of solvent as vapor from a solution,

slurry or suspension of solid in a liquid.

•To concentrate a non-volatile solute, such as organic compounds,

inorganic salts, acids or bases from a solvent

•Common solutes are caustic soda, caustic potash, sodium sulfate,

sodium chloride, phosphoric acid and urea

•The most common solvent in most of the evaporation systems is

water

•The equipment used to remove solvent from the solution/slurry is

called Evaporator
How evaporation differs from distillation and
drying?
In distillation, the components of a solution are separated based on
their relative volatilities.

Removal of moisture from a substance in presence of a hot gas

stream to carry away the moisture leaving a solid residue as the
product is generally called drying.

Evaporation is normally stopped before the solute starts to

precipitate.

Aims:
Reduce transportation cost
Storage cost
Pre-stage of crystallization and drying
Improve microbiological stability
Reduce deteriorative chemical reaction
Recovery of solvent
 Basic parts of an evaporator
1.Heat exchanger
2.Vacuum
3.Vapour separator
4.Condenser

Short-tube vertical evaporator or

Calandria type evaporator
 Properties of evaporating liquids that influence
the process of evaporation
1. Concentration: As the concentration increases, the viscosity and density
increases thereby the boiling point of solution increases.

2. Foaming: Solutions like organic compounds tend to foam during vaporization.

The foam is carried away along with vapor–heavy entrainment.

3. Scale: Solutions deposit scales on the heating surface. U drastically decreases

and leads to shut down of the evaporators.

4. Temperature sensitivity: Pharmaceuticals products, fine chemicals and foods

are damaged when heated to moderate temperatures for relatively short times. So
special techniques are employed to reduce temperature of the liquid and time of
heating.

5. Material of construction: Evaporators are made of steel. However, many

solutions attack ferrous metals and are contaminated by them.
Copper, nickel, stainless steels can also be used.
Single effect evaporation:
 When a single evaporator is used, the vapor from the boiling
liquid is condensed and discarded. This is called single effect
evaporation.
 It is simple but utilizes steam ineffectively.
 To evaporate 1 kg of water from the solution we require 1-1.3
kg of steam.

Multiple effect evaporation:

 Increasing the evaporation per kg of steam by using a series of
evaporators between the steam supply and condenser is called
multiple effect evaporation.
Once through and circulation evaporators:
 In once through operation, the feed liquor passes through the
tubes only once, releases the vapor and leaves the unit as thick
liquor.

 Evaporation is done in a single pass.

 These evaporators are well adapted to multiple effect operation.

 Agitated, falling film evaporators are operated once through.

 These are useful for heat sensitive materials

 In circulation evaporators a pool of liquid is held with
in the equipment. Incoming feed mixes with the liquid
in the pool, and the mixture passes through the tubes.
Unevaporated liquid discharged from the tubes returns
to the pool, so that only part of evaporation occurs in
one pass.

 All forced circulation evaporators, rising film

evaporators are operated in this manner.

 These are not suited for heat sensitive materials.

 Classification of Evaporators
(1) Short-tube vertical evaporators

(2) Natural circulation evaporators

(a) Long tube vertical falling film evaporator
(b) Long tube vertical climbing up evaporator

(3) Forced circulation evaporators

(a) Forced circulation evaporator with horizontal heating element
(b) Forced circulation evaporator with vertical heating element

(4) Agitated film evaporator

Short-Tube Vertical Evaporators (STV)
 Oldest but still widely used in sugar industry

 Also known as calandria or Robert

evaporators

STV evaporators consist of a short tube
bundle (about 4 to 10 ft in length) enclosed
in a cylindrical shell, known s calandria

Downcomer area is taken as 40 to 70% of
the total cross sectional area of tubes

 Circulation rate through the downcomer is

many times the feed rate flow area of the

Downtake is normally approximately equal
to the total tubular flow area
Short-tube vertical evaporator or
Calandria type evaporator
Long tube vertical (LTV) climbing up evaporator
 Another most widely employed natural
circulation evaporator
 It has 3 parts:
• Tubular heat exchanger
• Separator/Vapor space to remove entrained
liquid from vapor
• Return leg to operate it as circulation unit
 LTV evaporator consists of one pass shell and
tube heat exchanger.
 Liquid flows as a thin film on the walls of long
 Diameter of tubes: 25 to 50 mm and Length = 3
to 10 m
 Advantage: higher heat transfer rate
 Used for concentrating the liquids that tend to
foam.
Falling film evaporators
Feed is fed at the top of the tubes in a vertical tube bundle

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

Used for concentrating highly heat-sensitive materials such as orange

juice, food materials etc. which require short residence times

Suitable for scaleforming solutions as boiling occur on the surface of the

film

Operated once through

Tubes are of large Diameter = 50 to 250 mm and

Length = 3 to 10 m
 Long vertical tube evaporator
Rising film Falling film

D: 25 to 50 mm
L: 3 to 10 m

D: 50 to 250 mm
L: 3 to 10 m

Applications: Applications:
Used for handling of foaming, Used for concentrating highly heat-
frothy liquors sensitive materials which require short
residence time
 Forced circulation evaporators
 In natural circulation evaporators, the liquid enters with velocity 0.3 to 1 m/s
and generally the heat transfer coefficients are very low, particularly with
viscous liquids.

 By increasing the velocity of the liquid flow (generally 2 to 6 m/s) through

the tubes heat transfer coefficients increases enormously and it also prevents the
scale formation on heating surfaces.

These are two types.

(i) Forced circulation evaporator with horizontal heating element
(ii) Forced circulation evaporator with vertical heating element
 With horizontal heating element

With vertical heating element

• 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.

• The pump pumps feed and liquor from the flash chamber and
forces it through the heat exchanger tubes back to the flash
chamber.
Advantages:
High heat transfer coefficients obtained even with viscous solutions
Whenever we are dealing with concentration of highly viscous and
scale forming solutions, forced circulation evaporators prevents the
scale formation on heating surfaces
Residence times are low so that heat sensitive materials can be used.

Disadvantage:
The main disadvantage of forced circulation evaporators is high
pumping cost

Applications:
These types of evaporators are widely used in industries for salting,
viscous and scale forming solutions
Agitated-film evaporator

Resistance to heat transfer lies on the

liquid side

By mechanical agitation of liquid we

can reduce the resistance

It is a modified falling film evaporator

with a single jacketed tube containing
an internal agitator
Advantages:

It gives high heat transfer coefficients even with very high viscous
and heat sensitive liquids such as gelatin, rubber latex, antibiotics
and fruit juices.

Disadvantages:

These are very costly and will be having smaller capacities

Maintenance is difficult because of many moving parts.
 Other application include

Starch Industry Beer and Beverages

Dairy Industry Edible Oil Industry
Food Industry Specialty Chemical
Pulp and Paper Dyes and Pigments
Textile Industry Soap and Biofuels

Alcohol Industry
Pharmaceutical Industry
Natural Products
Chlor-Alkali
Petrochemical and Polymer Industry
 Energy balances for Single-effect Evaporator
wV, iv , λV
Vapor

Overall material balance

wf, if, CPf, Tf
Feed wf = wP + wv
P, T
Solute balance
Saturated wS, is, TS,
Steam λS wf xf = wP xP

W s , il Energy balance
Condensate wS λS = wf CPf (T – Tf) + wV λV

wP, iP
Thick
product
Performance of Evaporator

Kg of vapor evaporated
Capacity = = WV
Time

Kg of vapor evaporated from all the effects WV

Economy = =
Kg of steam used WS
Methods of improving evaporator economy
1. The vapor, which contain latent heat, are generally
discarded in an evaporator, thereby wasting energy.
2. But thermal energy in the vapor evolved from a boiling
solution can be utilized to vaporize more water.

The following techniques are used to utilize the thermal

energy that is available in the vapors coming out from the
evaporator.

1. Multiple effect evaporation

2. Vapor recompression
Multiple-effect evaporation
Salient features
 The vapors, which contain latent heat, are generally discarded in an
evaporator,
thereby wasting energy.

 But it can be used as steam supply to another unit operating under lower
pressure and temperature.

 The vapor from the second unit can be further used as a steam supply to a
third
unit operating at a still lower pressure and temperature.

 Each unit in such a series is called an effect and the method of re-using the
latent heat is called multiple-effect evaporation.

 In the case of multiple effect evaporators the economy increases at the cost of
capacity.

 Operating cost is same, but the capital cost, repair and maintenance cost
Methods of feeding

Forward feed
Backward feed
Mixed feed
Parallel feed
 Forward feed Backward feed

This method requires a pump between

This arrangement is simplest and each pair of effects since the flow is
no need of any pump to transfer from lower pressure to the higher
liquid from effect to effect as the pressure.
liquid flows in the direction of If the liquid is very viscous then we have
decreasing pressure to adopt this arrangement for better
capacity.
 Mixed feed Parallel feed

This arrangement is The fresh feed is fed to each effect

combination of forward and simultaneously and the thick liquor is taken
backward feed adopted for out from the same effect separately
best overall performance
In this arrangement there is no transfer of
liquid from one effect to another effect