Simulation of heat integrated multiple effect evaporator system

Ghoshna Jyoti
a
, Shabina Khanam
b,
*
a
Dept. of Chemical Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Rourkela 769008, Orissa, India
b
Dept. of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee 247667, Uttarakhand, India
a r t i c l e i n f o
Article history:
Received 9 September 2012
Received in revised form
19 June 2013
Accepted 27 August 2013
Available online 5 October 2013
Keywords:
Multiple effect evaporators
Condensate ashing
Vapor bleeding
Pinch analysis
Optimization
a b s t r a c t
In the present work a number of congurations and difculties of MEE system such as condensate
ashing, vapor bleeding, steam splitting, preheating of liquor using condensate, variable physical
properties and boiling point rise are taken into consideration to analyze the evaporation system. For this
purpose seven effect evaporator system of a typical Indian pulp and paper industry is considered. The
model developed is a set of nonlinear algebraic equations that include total and solute mass balances,
energy balances, heat transfer rate equations, and the composition and temperature dependence of
thermodynamic properties such as vapor pressures and enthalpies. The model is solved using nonlinear
equation solver.
Economic evaluation to optimize the number of ash tanks is carried out for seven effect evaporator
system. The two different types of congurations of vapor bleeding are considered and compared.
Considering optimum number of ash tanks and best conguration of vapor bleeding, a system is
designed. Further, a modied system is found considering optimum number of ash tanks and pre-
heating of liquor using condensate. This modied design enhances the steam economy by 23.77% and
reduces the steam consumption by 36.76% in comparison to base case and thus, it is selected as optimum
design. Finally, Pinch analysis of the MEE network has also been carried out and it is found that predicted
results are compared well with base case.
2013 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
The pulp and paper industry, which is the main focus of the
present investigation, predominantly uses the Kraft Process to
convert wood chips into pulp. The Kraft process consists of multiple
effect evaporators (MEE) system as one of the major section. The
evaporator house of a Pulp and Paper industry consumes about 24e
30% of its total energy and makes it as an energy intensive section.
The energy recovery studies in different industrial systems such
as cement industry, pulp mill and potato crisp frying process are
carried out by many investigators [1e3]. The energy efciency of
MEE system can be enhanced by inducting condensate ashing,
steamsplitting and vapor bleeding. In the present work seven effect
evaporator system of typical Indian pulp and paper industry is
considered for analysis based on above congurations.
The mathematical models of MEE systems [4e14] have been
used to analyze these complex systems since last many decades. A
few recent enhancements in the area are: Kumar et al. [15]
developed an unsteady-state model for the MEE system based on
dynamic behavior of the systemof a paper industry. The behavior is
observed by disturbing the feed ow rate, feed concentration, live
steam temperature and feed temperature. Heluane et al. [16] pro-
posed mixed integer nonlinear programming model based on a
discrete time representation and applied to a typical evaporation
system in the sugar industry with several multiple effect parallel
lines and time decaying performance.
These models are based on set of linear and non-linear equa-
tions. Amongst these models Bhargava et al. [14] proposed a model
using generalized cascade algorithm in which model of an evapo-
rator body is solved repeatedly to address the different operating
congurations of a MEE system. However, other investigators
proposed models where the whole set of governing equations of
the model needs to be changed to address the new operating
conguration.
These models also use complex transport phenomena based
mathematical models or empirical models for the prediction of
overall heat transfer coefcients (U) of evaporators as a function of
liquor ow rate, liquor concentration, physico-thermal properties
of liquor and type of evaporator employed. In contract to these,
Khanam and Mohanty [17] proposed linear model based on
* Corresponding author. Tel.: 91 1332 285157; fax: 91 1332 276535.
E-mail addresses: shabinahai@gmail.com, shabina@iitr.ernet.in (S. Khanam).
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
International Journal of Thermal Sciences
j ournal homepage: www. el sevi er. com/ l ocat e/ i j t s
1290-0729/$ e see front matter 2013 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijthermalsci.2013.08.016
International Journal of Thermal Sciences 76 (2014) 110e117
principles of process integration. This model worked on the
assumption of equal DT in each effect and thus, eliminated the
requirement of U in the model.
Though all these models account complexities of real MEE sys-
tem such as variation in physical properties, ashing, splitting and
bleeding these do not propose methodology to optimize the per-
formance of the system considering different congurations of
ashing as well as vapor bleeding. In other words, these models
were developed with condensate ashing in which positions of
ash tanks were xed. These did not account the optimum number
of ash tanks, its position in the MEE system, performance of each
ash tank, etc. These also did not consider different congurations
for vapor bleeding to optimize the economy of the system. Based on
the above discussions the present work emphasizes on developing
model for seven effect evaporator systemwith variation in physical
properties of liquor, condensate and vapor, boiling point rise (BPR)
and for different operating conguration such as steam splitting,
condensate ashing, vapor bleeding, etc. Further, the contribution
of different ash tanks towards total evaporation is computed and
thus the optimization of number of ash tanks in the system is
done based on economic analysis.
2. Problem statement
The MEE system that has been considered in the present work
is seven effect falling lm evaporator operating in pulp and paper
mill [14]. It is used in an Indian paper mill for concentrating non-
wood (straw) black liquor, which has steam economy of 4.99.
Schematically the system is shown in Fig. 1 where seven ash
tanks, PF1, PF2, PF3, SF1, SF2, SF3 and SF4, are employed. Amongst
these PF1 to PF3 are primary condensate ash tanks whereas SF1
to SF4 are secondary condensate ash tanks. In the present work,
condensate of live steam is denoted as primary condensate
whereas, condensates of other vapor streams that exit from vapor
chests of effects 2 to 6, is referred as secondary condensates. These
ash tanks are used to generate auxiliary vapor through ashing
which is then used to enhance overall steam economy of the seven
effect evaporator. The operating parameters of the system are
presented in Table 1 which shows that steam temperature
entering into 2nd effect is 7

C hotter than that of rst effect. The
plausible explanation is unequal distribution of steam from header
to these effects leading to two different pressures in steam side of
these effects. It is the actual scenario in the industry and thus, has
been considered as it is.
3. Model development
A model for seven effect evaporator system, used for concen-
trating black liquor solution is developed. For the present investi-
gation a number of correlations for the prediction of physico-
thermal properties of black liquor and condensate are developed
as shown below:
s 200:1 x
2
(1)
l 0:003T
2
2:062T 2493 (2)
C
P
4:1871 0:54 x (3)
Mathematical model for computation of U of different effects as
shown in Eq. (4) is used in the present work [14]. The computed
values of U from pulp and paper plant data, for all the seven ef-
fects, are used to estimate the value of unknown coefcients, a, b, c
and d, of Eq. (4) using constrained minimization technique of
Sigma Plot. The estimated values of coefcients are given in
Table 2. Details of the correlations can be found in the work of
Bhargava et al. [14].
PF1 PF3: Primary condensate flash tanks
SF1 SF4: Secondary condensate flash tanks
Steam,V
0
Feed
E
f
f
e
c
t

N
o
1
2 3
4
5
6
E
f
f
e
c
t

N
o

7

PF1 PF2
PF3
SF4 SF3 SF2
SF1
Condensate
Vapor
from
Last
effect
Steam Vap o ns
V1
V2
V3
V4
V5 V6 V7
Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of the seven effect evaporator system.
Table 1
Operating parameters for the seven effect evaporator system.
S. NO Parameter Values S. No Parameter Values
1 Total number
of effects
7 4 Liquor inlet
temperature
64.7

C
2 Live steam
temperature
Effect 1 140

C 5 Black liquor
feed ow rate
56200 kg/h
Effect 2 147

C
3 Black liquor
inlet
concentration
0.118 6 Last effect
temperature
52

C
G. Jyoti, S. Khanam / International Journal of Thermal Sciences 76 (2014) 110e117 111
U
2000
a

DT
40

b
x
avg
0:6

F
avg
25

d
(4)
The model for the system shown in Fig. 1 is derived using mass
and energy balance around each effect as well as ash tanks as
given below:
In fact for each effect two equations are derived one is for
evaporator side and another is for steam chest side. First to third
effects are operating similarly and thus, governing equations of
these effects should also be similar as shown below:
For ith effect
L
i1
C
pi1
T
i1
s
i1
V
i1
l
i1
L
i
C
pi
T
i
s
i

V
i
l
i
4:2T
i
0
(5)
U
i
A
i
T
i1
T
i
s
i
V
i1
l
i1
0 (6)
where, i 1,2,3
In Eq. (5) the term4.2T
i
represents the enthalpy of solvent which
is C
p
T. As in evaporation solvent is water where C
p
should be 4.2 kJ/
kg

C. Therefore, the term C
p
T is directly considered as 4.2T
i
.
Further, Fig. 1 shows that in effects 4 to 7 ashed vapor are also
used for evaporation along with vapor emerging from previous
effect. Thus, the governing equations for these effects should be
different than that for 1st to 3rd effect i.e. Eqs. (5) and (6). For 4th
effect along with V
3
, vapor generated from ashing in ash tanks,
PF1 to SF1, i.e. V
ov
and V
1v
are available for evaporation as shown in
Fig. 2.
Thus, equation for 4th effect is derived using energy balance as:
Sensible heat of liquor L
5
Latent heat of vapor V
3

Latent heat of vapor streams from PF1 and SF1 V

0v
V
1v

Sensible heat of liquor L

4

Heat of vapor stream V

4

If total amount of vapor generated through ashing and

entering to an effect is referred as V
f
then for 4th effect
V
f
V
0v
V
1v
(7)
Thus, generalized equation for jth effect can be written as:
L
j1
C
pj1

T
j1
s
j1

L
j
C
pj

T
j
s
j

V
j1
V
fj

l
j1
V
j

l
j
4:2T
j

0
(8)
U
j
A
j

T
j1
T
j
s
j

V
j1
V
f j

l
j1
0 (9)
where, j 4 to 7
For 7th effect
L
j1
F
C
pj1
C
pF
and T
j1
T
F
The termV
fj
used for ashed vapor entering into jth effect can be
elaborated as shown in Eq. (7) for 4th effect.
Further, the amount of vapor generated through ashing can be
computed based on material and energy balance around ash tank,
PF1, shown in Fig. 3. Here V
0
is amount of condensate of steam
entering the ash tank PF1 at T
0
which is ashed at T
3
. In fact,
condensate and vapor streams associated with a ash tank are
assumed to be at saturated condition. So, entering and exiting state
of a stream is represented with temperature instead of pressure.
The temperature T
3
is selected as vapor generated in PF1 is used in
steam chest of 4th effect which is being operated at T
3
. V
0v
is the
amount of vapor leaving the ash tank at temperature T
3
and V
0L
is
the remaining condensate exiting PF1 that is led to ash tank, PF2.
The expression of V
0v
is derived as:
Material balance around PF1 : V
0
V
0v
V
0L
Energy balance around PF1 : V
0
h
0
V
0v
H
0v
V
0L
h
0L
Solving above equations,
V
0v
V
0

h
0
h
0L

H
0v
h
0L

(10)
The value of h
0
is computed at temperature T
0
whereas, h
0L
and
H
0v
are predicted at T
3.
Similarly, expression of V
1V
, generated in SF1, is derived and
shown in Eq. (11). Here condensate of streams, V
1
and V
2
, are
entering SF1 at average temperature of T
1
and T
2
and ashed at T
3
.
Therefore, h
1
is computed at average temperature (T
1
T
2
/2)
whereas, h
1L
and H
1v
are found at T
3.
V
1V
V
1

h
1
h
1L

H
1v
h
1L

(11)
The present model consists of fourteen equations (two equa-
tions for each effect) with variables V
0
, L
1
to L
7
and T
1
eT
6
. Thus,
Table 2
Value of coefcients.
Effect no. a b c d
1 and 2 0.0604 0.3717 1.2273 0.0748
3e7 0.1396 0.7949 0.0 0.1673
4
PF1
SF1
Vapor stream V
3
inlet from effect 3
Liquor inlet L
5
from effect 5
Liquor outlet
L
4
from effect 4
Vapor stream V
4
outlet from effect
4
V
0v
V
1v
Fig. 2. Material and energy balance around 4th effect with ashing.
PF1 V
0
at T
0
V
0V
at T
3
V
0L
at T
3
Fig. 3. Schematic diagram PF1.
G. Jyoti, S. Khanam / International Journal of Thermal Sciences 76 (2014) 110e117 112
unique solution exists for the model. The solution of these models
requires an iterative approach as number of parameters such as
variable physical properties, s, U, etc., are involved in the model
which depend on unknown intermediate temperatures. A detailed
algorithmfor solution of developed models is discussed in the work
of Gautami and Khanam [18].
4. Results and discussion
For seven effect evaporator system, shown in Fig. 1, model is
developed considering steam splitting and condensate ashing. As
a base case simple seven effect evaporator system with backward
feed sequence is considered which accounts variations in l, C
p
, s
and steam splitting, however, it does not consider ashing. The
results of base case model, which is obtained in 9 iterations, show
that steam consumption and economy are found as 2.296 kg/s and
4.334, respectively. Further, the base case is analyzed considering
different heat recovery options as discussed in subsequent
paragraphs.
4.1. Seven effect evaporator system with condensate ashing
Condensate leaving from an effect is ashed to lower tempera-
ture to obtain vapor that can be used as heating medium is the
subsequent effects along with the vapor exiting for previous effect.
In the seven effect evaporator system there are 7 condensate ash
tanks, as shown in Fig. 1 and nal results of the model are shown in
the Table 3. The trends of U and L are increasing from 1st to 7th
effect which is obvious for backward sequence. However, as liquor
ow, L, decreases from7th to 1st effect more vapor is generated due
to evaporation which causes value of concentration, x, increases
from 7th to 1st effect. The similar trend is observed for BPR, s.
However, amount of vapor produced fromashing vary from effect
to effect, which depends on amount of condensate as well as
temperature difference available for ashing. Further, it is seen
from Table 3 that total evaporation for this system is 9.79 kg/s,
which is summation of all vapor streams shown in Table 3. How-
ever, evaporation is 9.95 kg/s for base case. Though total evapora-
tion is decreased with condensate ashing, it is obtained only by
consuming 1.845 kg/s of steam, which is 21.78% less in comparison
to base case. This is due to availability of 0.5923 kg/s of additional
vapor, generated through condensate ashing as shown in Table 3.
Thus, for present system steam economy is found as 5.3, which is
22.4% more than that for base case. In fact, for the similar system
Bhargava et al. [14] proposed a complex model which gives steam
economy as 5.00. It shows that though present model is simplied
it gives comparable results with rigorous model proposed by
Bhargava et al. [14].
Further, it can be observed from Table 3 that consuming equal
amount of steam in rst two effects amount of vapor generated in
1st effect is signicantly higher than that is produced in 2nd effect.
This can be explained as: feed to 2nd effect is coming from 3rd
effect which is at lower temperature than 2nd effect. Therefore,
steam of amount 0.9225 kg/s is rst used to heat-up the feed from
89.5

C to 126.8

C and then evaporation takes place, which causes
lesser vapor to be generated in 2nd effect. However, in 1st effect
feed enters at 126.8

C and ashes to acquire the temperature of
effect i.e. 106.3

C. Further, in this effect steamof amount 0.9225 kg/

s is used only for evaporation. Therefore, amount of vapor gener-
ated in 1st effect is due to ashing as well as evaporation which is
signicantly higher in comparison to 2nd effect.
4.1.1. Optimization of number of ash tanks
To optimize number of ash tanks, the model developed in this
network is solved with condensate ashing using different number
of ash tanks. Maximum possible number of ash tanks that can be
used in the system, shown in Fig. 1, is eight. Considering eight ash
tanks the model is solved, which consumes 1.8387 kg/s of steam.
Consequently, steam economy increases 5.3198 which is 0.25%
more in comparison to the system shown in Fig. 1.
For optimizing number of ash tanks it is necessary to compute
the contribution of each ash tank towards total evaporation which
is presented in Fig. 4. It shows that % contribution of PF3 is mini-
mum amongst three primary ash tanks. However, PF3 cannot be
eliminated as no ash tank is available ahead to PF3 to share its
load. Hence, ash tank, PF2, is eliminated and its load is shifted to
PF3. Now the seven effect evaporator system consists of six ash
tanks instead of seven. The solution of model of this system shows
that steam consumption and steam economy are 1.8485 kg/s and
5.278, respectively. Steam economy is reduced by 0.55% than that
for the systemwith seven ash tanks. This is due to less amount of
additional vapor is generated using six ash tanks in comparison to
seven tanks. Further, load of SF2 is shifted to SF3 as it is contributing
least amongst all four secondary ash tanks as indicated in Fig. 4.
Table 3
Results of seven effect evaporator system with condensate ashing.
Effect 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
U, kW/m
2
C 0.296 0.4303 0.2584 0.6955 0.839 0.9698 1.224
V, kg/s 1.186 0.534 1.524 1.586 1.534 1.508 1.919
L, kg/s 5.82 7.006 7.54 9.064 10.65 12.184 13.692
x 0.3165 0.2629 0.2442 0.2032 0.1729 0.1512 0.1345
s,

C 3.4697 2.6344 2.37 1.839 1.4899 1.2619 1.1002
Vapor from cond. ashing, kg/s e e e 0.2585 0.1135 0.1199 0.1004
Total vapor consumed, kg/s 0.9225 0.9225 1.72 1.7825 1.6995 1.6539 1.6084
Steam consumption, kg/s 0.9225 0.9225 e e e e e
T,

C 106.3 126.8 89.5 77.2 67.2 58.7 52
Fig. 4. Contribution of each ash tank in seven effect evaporator system.
G. Jyoti, S. Khanam / International Journal of Thermal Sciences 76 (2014) 110e117 113
Thus, system is incorporating only ve tanks. The steam con-
sumption and economy for this system are 1.8755 kg/s and 5.1917,
respectively.
Further, to choose the best system economic analysis of four
congurations, which are seven effect evaporator system with
eight, seven, six and ve ash tanks, is carried out. The total annual
cost (TAC), net prot and payback period of four congurations are
compared in Table 4. The TAC is dened as:
TAC Annual operating cost Annualized capital cost
(12)
For conguration with eight tanks annual operating cost is
computed based on annual steam consumption of the congura-
tion and per unit cost of steam. Whereas annualized capital cost is
found considering cost of eight ash tanks, life of each ash tanks as
10 years and straight line depreciation. Table 4 shows that TAC is
maximum for system with ve ash tanks, however, it is only 1.9%
more in comparison to the system with eight ash tanks which is
not signicant. In the similar lines net prot and payback period are
also not vary appreciably for four congurations. Therefore, system
with ve ash tanks can be selected as optimum as it gives less
complex network in comparison to other congurations without
compromising the prot signicantly.
4.2. Seven effect evaporator system with vapor bleeding
Vapor bleeding is done to preheat the liquor near to tempera-
ture of effect before it is entering into the effect so that liquor can
quickly attain the boiling temperature inside the effect. In the
present work two congurations of preheating are proposed. In
both congurations four pre-heaters are placed between effects 3
and 7. For conguration-1 the vapor required for pre heaters placed
between 2nd and 3rd, 3rd and 4th, 4th and 5th, 5th and 6th effects
are bled fromV
2
, V
3
, V
4
,and V
5
, respectively. For conguration-2 the
vapor required for pre heaters placed between 3rd and 4th, 4th and
5th, 5th and 6th and 6th and 7th effects are bled fromV
3
, V
4
, V
5
and
V
6
, respectively. Fig. 5 compares these two congurations, which
shows that conguration-2 is better than the rst one as it gives
1.21% more steameconomy. Enhancement in steameconomy is due
to proper utilization of driving force available with low vapor
pressure (with high latent heat) streams.
4.3. Seven effect evaporator system with vapor bleeding and
condensate ashing
In the present section seven effect system is considered which
includes steam splitting, variation in physical properties, conden-
sate ashing along with vapor bleeding as shown in Fig. 6. For this
case it is found that steam consumption reduces to 1.8542 kg/s and
steam economy enhances to 5.549.
Further, steam economy as well as steam consumption of the
present system is compared with that of system, shown in Fig. 1,
and base case. It is found that the steamconsumption of the present
system is 21.29% and 1.15% lesser in comparison to base case and
system shown in Fig. 1, respectively.
4.4. Seven effect evaporator system with preheating of liquor using
sensible heat of condensate
In this section the liquor is preheated near to the temperature
of effect before it is entering into the effect. Under Section 4.2
preheating of liquor is carried out through bled vapor, however,
in this case condensate of steam/vapor is used to preheat the
liquor, which is entering into that effect using a counter current
heat exchanger. Condensates exiting 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th
effects are utilized in the process to preheat the liquor coming
from the 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th effect. For this modication total
evaporation and steam consumption are found as 9.22 kg/s and
1.676 kg/s, respectively, and hence the steam economy is pre-
dicted as 5.503. Further, steam economy as well as steam con-
sumption for base case and vapor bleeding system, discussed in
Section 4.2, are compared with that of present model. It is
observed that with the addition of preheating of liquor using
condensate steam consumption reduces by 31.22% and steam
economy enhances upto 23.77% compared to base case. Con-
sumption of steam in the present system is 18.3% less and steam
economy is 11.5% more in comparison to system with vapor
bleeding. The reason of reduction in steam consumption is that
after preheating liquor is entering the effect at temperature of
effect and thus steam/vapor is used only for evaporation instead
of sensible heating.
4.5. Seven effect evaporator system with preheating of liquor using
sensible heat of condensate and condensate ashing
The seven effects system is considered with preheating of li-
quor through condensate and ashing. It is carried out as the
condensate leaving the exchanger after preheating is at signi-
cantly higher temperature and its heat can further be utilized
through ashing in the effects, which are being operated at low
temperature. For this purpose seven effect system with preheating
of liquor through condensate is modied to incorporate ve ash
tanks, PF1 to PF3, SF1 and SF2, as shown in Fig. 7. In these tanks
condensates of live steam, C
01
, C
02
, and condensate from vapor
chest of third effect, C
1
, are being ashed. Hence, ve ash tanks
system with preheating of liquor through condensate is
Table 4
Economic analysis of four congurations.
Parameter 8 Flash
tanks
7 Flash
tanks
6 Flash
tanks
5 Flash
tanks
TAC (million $/year) 2.326 2.333 2.338 2.371
Net prot (million $/year) 0.578 0.569 0.565 0.531
Payback (days) 20 18 17 15
Fig. 5. Comparison between conguration-1 and -2 of system with vapor bleeding.
G. Jyoti, S. Khanam / International Journal of Thermal Sciences 76 (2014) 110e117 114
considered in the present section. It is observed that the modied
seven effect evaporator system consumes 1.583 kg/s of steam and
steam economy enhances to 5.807.
Further, steam economy, steam consumption and product con-
centration of present system are compared with that of base case
and model with vapor bleeding and ashing. The results of com-
parison are shown in Fig. 8. From this gure it is concluded that
with the induction of preheating of liquor using condensate and
ashing in the system, steam consumption reduces and steam
economy enhances. For this case total evaporation rate is found as
9.193 kg/s. Though evaporation rate is 8% less than that is for base
case, it is achieved using 36.76% less steam. Consequently, steam
economy of the system is increased upto 23.77% as compared to
base case. Further, it is observed that consumption of steam in the
present system is also 15.78% less in comparison to system with
ashing and bleeding.
Fig. 6. Schematic diagram of seven effect system with vapor bleeding and condensate ashing.
C
01 C
02
C
1
Steam, V0
Feed
T1
T2 T3 T4 T5
T6
T7
Vapor
from
Last
effect
Black Liquor
Product
L1, T1
V1
V2 V3
V4 V5
V6
V7
PF1
PF2
PF3
SF2 SF1
C
3
Fig. 7. Schematic diagram of seven effect system preheating of liquor using condensate and with ashing.
Fig. 8. Comparison of base case, system with vapor bleeding and ashing and system
with preheating of liquor using condensate and ashing.
G. Jyoti, S. Khanam / International Journal of Thermal Sciences 76 (2014) 110e117 115
4.6. Pinch analysis of seven effect evaporator system
The heat integration options discussed under Section 4.2e4.5
are considered for enhancing steam economy of MEE system.
Another heat integration technology is pinch analysis [19,20],
which may be applied to MEE system. The heat integration studies
on sugar and desalination plants are carried out by a few in-
vestigators [21,22].
For applying pinch analysis in MEE the base case system is
considered. Based on equal driving force as well as equal vapor-
ization in each effect, temperatures and concentration of each ef-
fect is predicted. Using these parameters physical properties and
BPR are computed. Further, to apply pinch analysis it is assumed
that total sensible heat required in the system is provided outside
the effect and thus, liquor is entering the effect at boiling temper-
ature. Consequently, only evaporation is taking place inside the
effect. To consider this fact the equations of system are modied as
liquor entering and exiting the effect at same temperature i.e. effect
temperature plus BPR. The modied equations are solved to get
new values of temperatures, concentration as well as steam
consumption.
To consider the heat associated with sensible heating the stream
data of evaporator systemare extracted and reported inTable 5. The
pinch analysis is applied to the stream data considering DT
min
as
10

C using ASPEN PINCH and composite curve is shown in Fig. 9.
The minimum hot and cold utility of the system is 351.69 kW and
21775.18 kW, respectively. The hot composite curve shows total
heat available with different vapor streams. Similarly, cold com-
posite curve represents the total heat required by all liquor streams
which need to be preheated.
In Fig. 9 the shaded area shows that the amount of heat asso-
ciated with vapor streams which is provided to liquor streams
under the curve. The part of cold composite curve above the shaded
area is the heat provided through hot utility. Thus, if the heat
available in shaded area as well as hot utility is fullled from
outside then no sensible heating is required inside the effect.
Consequently, liquor streams enter and exit the effect at boiling
temperature and inside the effect only evaporation takes place.
Considering this fact the steam consumption is computed as
Table 5
Stream data of seven effect evaporator system.
Stream
no.
Stream
name
T
s
(

C) T
t
(

C) C
p
(kJ/kg

C) m (kg/s) CP (kW/

C)
1 Cold 53.088 61.745 3.886 13.818 53.691
2 Cold 61.745 71.551 3.849 12.312 47.38
3 Cold 71.551 82.063 3.8013 10.799 41.05
4 Cold 82.063 93.639 3.738 9.286 34.71
5 Cold 93.64 130.18 3.653 7.796 28.47
6 Hot 84.84 83.84 2652.099 0.935 2479.71
7 Hot 127.72 126.72 2717.025 0.449 1219.94
8 Hot 91.38 90.38 2662.662 1.49 3967.367
9 Hot 80.28 79.28 2644.593 1.513 4001.269
10 Hot 70.08 69.08 2627.38 1.513 3975.225
11 Hot 60.5 59.5 2610.662 1.506 3931.65
12 Hot 52 51 2595.412 1.793 4653.86
TEMPERATURE COMPOSITES (Real T, No Utils)
Case: 1
HOT COLD
ENTHALPY MMBTU/hr
T
E
M
P
E
R
A
T
U
R
E

F

0.0 20.0 40.0 60.0 80.0 100.0
120.0
140.0
160.0
180.0
200.0
220.0
240.0
260.0
280.0
DTMIN =10.00 Heat Imbalance
Hot composite curve
Cold
composite
curve
Fig. 9. Composite curve for seven effect evaporator system.
Table 6
Comparison of results of all models for seven effect evaporator system.
S. No. System Section Steam economy
1 Base case 4 4.334
2 System with
condensate ashing
4.1 5.306
3 System with
vapor bleeding
4.2 4.85
4 System with
vapor bleeding
and condensate ashing
4.3 5.549
5 System with
preheating of liquor
using condensate
4.4 5.503
6 System with
preheating of liquor using
condensate and ashing
4.5 5.807
7 System with
pinch analysis
4.6 5.246
G. Jyoti, S. Khanam / International Journal of Thermal Sciences 76 (2014) 110e117 116
0.416 kg/s. Fig. 9 shows that total amount of heat required for
sensible heating of liquor is 2402.6 kW. Assuming this heat is
provided by steam, the amount of steam required is 1.337 kg/s.
Thus, total steam consumption in the system is found as 1.753 kg/s,
which gives steam economy as 5.246. It is 21.04% more in com-
parison to base case.
Comparison of all systems, proposed in the present work, is
shown in Table 6 to visualize how individual conguration is
affecting the steam economy of the seven effect evaporator system.
It shows that maximum steam economy is observed for system
with preheating of liquor using sensible heat of condensate and
condensate ashing (S.No. 6 of Table 6). The reason of such high
steameconomy is better recovery of heat available with condensate
through sensible heating as well as ashing. Thus, the present
system improves steam economy by 16.4% in comparison to that of
real plant.
5. Conclusions
The salient conclusions are as follow:
The model based on set of nonlinear equations, directs almost all
difculties of real MEE system such as variable physical prop-
erties, BPR, steam splitting, condensate ashing and vapor
bleeding.
Based on economic analysis as well as steam economy it is
concluded that the seven effect evaporator system can run
effectively with ve ash tanks instead of seven. Thus, this
approach gives simplied network for evaporator system.
The two different types of congurations of vapor bleeding are
considered and compared. It is observed that steameconomy for
conguration-2 is more than that for conguration-1. Consid-
ering the optimum number of ash tanks and conguration-2, a
system is designed which enhances the steam economy by
24.6% and reduces the steam consumption by 21.3% in com-
parison to base case.
Liquor heating using sensible heat of condensate contributes
considerably towards steam consumption. Moreover, it pro-
duces less complex MEE network in comparison to other sys-
tem. Considering ashing and preheating of liquor with
condensate the steam economy is increased by 23.77% as
compared to simple system.
Pinch analysis of the MEE network has also been carried out and
it is found that predicted results are compared well with base
case.
Nomenclature
F feed ow rate (kg/s)
V
0
steam ow rate (kg/s)
L ow rate of liquor stream (kg/s)
V ow rate of vapor stream (kg/s)
C condensate ow rate of steam/vapor (kg/s)
l heat of vaporization/latent heat (kJ/kg)
A heat transfer area of an effect (m
2
)
U overall heat transfer coefcient (kW/m
2
K)
T temperature (

C)
DT temperature drop (

C)
x mass fraction of solute
s boiling point rise (

C)
C
p
specic heat (kJ/kg

C)
V
0
bled vapor ow rate (kg/s)
Subscripts
1e7 effect number
F feed
0 live steam
L liquor
V vapor
Abbreviation
BPR boiling point rise
S.No serial number
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