Chemical Plants

Evaporation
Flavio Manenti, CMIC Dept. ‘Giulio Natta’
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Definition and peculiarities
• Evaporation is the concentration of a solution of a non-volatile solute
and a volatile solvent (thermal separation)
 It is conducted by evaporating a portion of the solvent to produce a
concentrated solution of thick liquor
 The solvent is (very often) water
 Vaporization  the target is solvent recovery
 Evaporation  the target is solid separation or mixture concentration
• Differences from:
 Drying: the residue is liquid rather than solid
 Distillation: vapor is usually single component and, even with mixtures,
no attempt is made in evaporation to separate vapor in fractions
 Crystallization: the emphasis is placed on concentrating a solution rather
than forming/growing crystals
• Sometimes, the difference is small (slurry of crystals in the saturated mother
liquor)
 Technical slang – example:
• Mineral-bearing water process is called the water distillation, but technically it
is evaporation
Flavio Manenti – Dipartimento CMIC “Giulio Natta”
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Single-effect evaporators

Flavio Manenti – Dipartimento CMIC “Giulio Natta”

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Unit operation
• Evaporator:
 Cylindrical vertical vessel
 A liquid solution is fed
 It has to be concentrated
• By heat-transfer with saturated
(or slightly super-heated) steam
stream
 Vapors exit from the top and are
condensed
 Concentrated liquid solution is
collected at the bottom
• The heat-transfer is due to latent
heat
 The difference between the steam
temperature and the temperature
of the solution to be concentrated
is assumed constant
TV 0  TL '  Tscambio
Flavio Manenti – Dipartimento CMIC “Giulio Natta”
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Operations
• Most evaporators are heated by steam condensing on metal tubes
• Often, the steam is at low pressure
 Below 3 bara
• Often, the boiling liquid is under moderate vacuum
 Down to 0.05 bara
  Decreasing the boiling temperature of the liquid, we increase the
temperature difference steam/boiling liquid
• Thus, the heat-transfer rate of the evaporator is increased

• In the single-effect evaporator, the vapor from the boiling liquid is

condensed and discharged
 Although simple, it utilizes steam inefficiently
 To evaporate 1 kg of water from a solution calls 1 to 1.3 kg of steam
 If the outlet vapor is used in a series of effects…
•  Multi-effect evaporators

Flavio Manenti – Dipartimento CMIC “Giulio Natta”

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Evaporator equipment
• Chief types of steam-heated tubular evaporators:
 Long-tube vertical evaporators
• Upward flow (climbing film)
• Downward flow (falling film)
• Forced circulation
 Agitated-film evaporators
 They can be once-through or circulation evaporators

• Evaporators may be operated in once-through or circulation

 The feed liquor passes one or more times through the tubes and before
leaving the unit as thick liquor
 Once-through is useful for
• Heat-sensitive materials
• Multiple-effect processes
• Agitated-film evaporators are usually operated in once-through
• Climbing/falling film can also be operated in this way

Flavio Manenti – Dipartimento CMIC “Giulio Natta”

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Circulation evaporators
• Forced-circulation unit with
separate two-pass horizontal
heating element
 A pool of liquid is held within the
equipment
 Incoming liquid mixes with the pool
 The mixture passes through the
tubes
 Unevaporated liquid returns to the
pool
 Only a part of evaporation occurs
in one pass
• No good for heat-sensitive liquids
• Good for single-effect operations

Flavio Manenti – Dipartimento CMIC “Giulio Natta”

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Long-tube evaporators with
upward flow
• Vertical climbing-film, long-tube unit
 Tubular exchanger with steam in the shell
 Liquid to be concentrated in the tubes
 Separator or vapor space for removing
entrained liquid from vapor
 Only if operated as circular unit:
• Return leg for the liquid from separator to
the bottom
 The tubular heater operates as natural-
circulation calandria
• Tubes are larger than the calandria ones
• 25-50 mm diameter; 3-10 m length
 Concentrated liquor is withdrawn from the
bottom of the heater, the rest rises tubes
 Baffles in the separator acts as demister
• Effective in concentrating liquids that
tend to foam (high velocities and baffles)

Flavio Manenti – Dipartimento CMIC “Giulio Natta”

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Agitated-film evaporators
• Falling-film evaporator with a single
jacketed section
 Mechanical agitation of liquid film favors the
heat-transfer
 Feed enters the top of the jacketed section
• Vertical blades are making it thin and highly
turbulent
 Vapor rises into an unjacketed separator
where the entrained liquid impacts some
stationary vertical plates
• Liquid-free vapor escapes through outlets at
the top of the unit
 Pro: is its ability to give high rates of heat-
transfer with viscous liquids
• Products may have up to 1000 P at the
evaporation temperature
 Cons: high costs, moving parts
(maintenance), small capacity

Flavio Manenti – Dipartimento CMIC “Giulio Natta”

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Design and performance of

tubular evaporators

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Evaporator capacity
• Principal measures for performance of steam-heated tubular
evaporators are the capacity and the econom y

• Capacity : kg/h of water vaporized per h

• Econom y : kg vaporized per kg of steam provided
 In the single-effect evaporators the economy is close to 1, but it is
considerably greater for multiple-effect evaporators

• Steam consum ption is also relevant and in kg/h is:

capacity/ econom y

• Heat-transfer q through the heat surface: q = U*A*deltaT

 A is the heat-transfer surface
 U is the overall heat-transfer coefficient
 deltaT is the overall temperature drop

Flavio Manenti – Dipartimento CMIC “Giulio Natta”

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Dűhring’s rule
• Vapor pressure of aqueous solutions is
less than water at the same temperature
Example: NaOH in water
 For a given pressure, the boiling point of
the solution is higher than that of pure
water
 Such an increase is called the Boiling-
P oint Elevation (BPE)
• It is small for dilute solutions or solutions
of organic colloids
• It may be as large as 80°C for
concentrated solutions of inorganic salts
• BPE is obtained from tables of from
empirical Duhring’s rule
 “The boiling point of a given solution
is a linear function of the boiling
LAB
point of pure water at the same
temperature”
• The rule is no longer valid for a wide
range of pressures
Flavio Manenti – Dipartimento CMIC “Giulio Natta”
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U in evaporators
• Typical overall coefficients
• Dispense Biardi, CUSL, 1999

Flavio Manenti – Dipartimento CMIC “Giulio Natta”

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Evaporator economy
• Economy is influenced by
 The number of effects
 The temperature of the feed
• Under/over the boiling point
• Economy is entirely matter of
enthalpy balances
 Balance for the steam
 Balance for vapor/liquid side
• T_s: condensing
temperature of the steam
• T: boiling temperature of the
liquid in the evaporator
• T_f: temperature of the feed
 Assumptions
• No leakage/entrainment
• Negligible non-condensables
• Negligible heat losses

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Evaporator economy
 Also negligible:
• Possible superheating of steam
• Possible subcooling of condensate
• Enthalpy balance for the steam side q=
s m s ( H s − H c =
) m s λs
 q_s = rate of heat-transfer through heating surface from steam
 H_s = specific enthalpy of steam
 H_c = specific enthalpy of condensate
 lambda_s = latent heat of condensation of steam
 m._s = rate of flow of steam
• Enthalpy balance for the vapor/liquid side q =( m f − m ) H v − m f H f + mH

 q = rate of heat-transfer from heating surface to liquid
 H_v = specific enthalpy of vapor
 H_f = specific enthalpy of thin liquor
 H = specific enthalpy of thick liquor
• Since q_s = q:
q=m s λs =( m f − m ) H v − m f H f + mH


Flavio Manenti – Dipartimento CMIC “Giulio Natta”

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Evaporator economy
• Energy balance with negligible heat of dilution
 Heat-transfer rate q on the liquor side includes q_f (heat transferred to
the thin liquor to change its temperature from T_f to T) and q_v (heat to
accomplish the evaporation):
• q = q_f + q_v
• If the specific heat of the thin liquor is assumed constant over the
temperature range T_f to T:
=q f m f c p , f (T − T f ) =
qv ( m f − m ) λv
 Where
• C_p,f = specific heat of thin liquor
• lambda_v = latent heat of vaporization from thick liquor
• Then, the final equation is:
LAB = q m f c p , f (T − T f ) + ( m f − m ) λ

 The use of lambda is a good assumption when the boiling point elevation
is small

Flavio Manenti – Dipartimento CMIC “Giulio Natta”

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Units

Flavio Manenti – Dipartimento CMIC “Giulio Natta”

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Units
MIXING EFFECTS
 Liquid turbulence
 Uniform distribution of the
liquid over the surface
 Blades eliminate any
stirrer
channeling
 Shearing effect decreases the
apparent viscosity improving
FT TT internal heat and mass
FT TT transfer
EVAPORATE

LIQUID FEED
heated jacket

TT

PT

FT

CONCENTRATE
Flavio Manenti – Dipartimento CMIC “Giulio Natta”
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Units
• Agitated thin-film evaporator
Mass, energy and momentum balances
d ωiL,n ρ mix
L L L
AnLV  LV 
, n −1 An −1vn −1
( ωi ,n −1 − ωi ,n ) + L
NC
L L
J − ωi ,n ∑ J iLV
L  i ,n
L
,n 
dt ρ mix ,nVn
L L
ρ mix ,nVn  i =1 

VnL d ρ mix ,n ρ mix ,n −1 L L

L L
dVnL AnLV NC

dt
=
− L
ρ mix ,n dt
+ L A v −A v + L
L L

ρ mix ,n n −1 n −1 n n ρ mix
∑J
i =1
LV
i ,n
,n

ρ mix ,n f nLW ALW ( vnL ) − ρ mix ( vnV + vnL )

1 L 2 1 V 2
ρ mix
0= L
, nVn g −
L LV LV
,n f n A
2 2 Heating
medium
Heat and mass transfer closure equations
1 1 Di D  D
= + ln  e  + i
U i hi 2λwall  Di  he De Di
0.48
hi Di 0.87  Di 
=
Nu = 0.018 Re0.46 Re0.6
N Pr   N b0.24
D
λ f
 L
hiATFE K cATFE
=β = De
hiFFE K cFFE
δwall
F. Rossi, M. Corbetta, D. Geraci, C. Pirola, and F. Manenti. First-principles non-equilibrium s
dynamic modelling of agitated thin-film evaporators. Chemical Engineering Transactions, 43:1429-1434, 2015.
Flavio Manenti – Dipartimento CMIC “Giulio Natta”
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Units
• Agitated thin-film evaporator
 Numerical structure
 BzzMath® solvers

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Units
• Agitated thin-film evaporator 0 Mass flowrates [kg/h]
0
Liquid mass fractions

 Data fitting 10 10

20 20
EVAPORATE
30 30

Height [cm]

Height [cm]
LIQUID FEED wL_PG
40 40 wL_EG
wL_GLYC
50 50 wL_SORB

60 60
L [kg/h]
70 70
V [kg/h]
80 80
0 10 20 30 0 0.2 0.4 0.6

Temperatures [°C] Vapor mass fractions

0 0
wV_PG
10 10 wV_EG
wV_GLYC
20 20 wV_SORB
30 30
Height [cm]

Height [cm]
40 40

50 50
CONCENTRATE
60 TL 60
TV 70
70
Tb
80 80
0 50 100 150 200 0 0.25 0.5 0.75

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Multiple-effect evaporators

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3-effects evaporator
• 3 long-tube natural circulation evaporators
 The vapor of an effect serves as the heating medium for the next
 Condenser and air ejector establish a vacuum in third effect and withdraw
the incondensables
 Interconnecting piping, but not changes to the single-effect unit
 Numbering: direction of decreasing pressure

Flavio Manenti – Dipartimento CMIC “Giulio Natta”

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Operations
• In steady-state operations, flow/evaporation rates are such that
 Neither solvent nor solute accumulates or depletes in any effect
• Temperature, concentration and flow rate of the feed are fixed
• Pressure in steam inlet and condenser established
• Liquor levels are maintained in all the effects
• Then
 All the internal concentrations, flow rates, pressures and temperatures
• are constant
• The concentration of the thick liquor can be changed by feed flow
rate only
• Supposing negligible the sensible heat for the feed, the heat
transferred in the first effect is:
= 1 1∆T1
q1 AU

• Then: =
q2 A2U 2 ∆T2 =
q3 A3U 3 ∆T3

Flavio Manenti – Dipartimento CMIC “Giulio Natta”

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Operations
• Since we can say that q_1 = q_2 = q_3
 Apart from relatively small quantities

1 1∆T=
AU 1 A2U 2 ∆T2= A3U 3 ∆T3
• Since the heating areas of all the effects are usually the same:

q qi
= = U1∆T1 = U 2 ∆T2 = U 3 ∆T3
A A
• Thus,
 the temperature drops in a multiple-effect evaporator are
approximately inversely proportional to the heat-transfer
coefficients

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Practice
• Example
 A triple-effect evaporator is concentrating a liquid that has no appreciable
boiling point elevation (BPE).
 The temperature of the raw steam is 108 °C
 The boiling point of the last effect is 52 °C
 The overall heat-transfer coefficients in W/m^2/K are 2500, 2000, 1500
respectively for the three effects
• The solution is more concentrated and the viscosity increases
  at what temperature will the liquid boil in the first and second effects?
• Solution
 The total temperature drop is: 108 – 52 = 56°C
 The temperature drops in the effects are approximately inversely
proportional to the coefficients:
Boiling Points
1
∆T2 = 17.9° C BP1 =108 − 14.3 =93.7° C
∆T1= 2500 56= 14.3° C
1 1 1
+ + ∆T3= 23.8° C =
BP2 75.8° C
2500 2000 1500

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Methods of feeding (design)
• Forward feed
 Simplest pattern of liquid
 One pump for feeding dilute solution
• First effect, atmospheric pressure
 One pump to remove the thick liquor
• Last effect

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Methods of feeding (design)
• Backward feed
 Additional pumps between each adjacent effect to move the liquor
 It offers higher capacity when the thick liquor is viscous
 It may give less economy than the forward feed system when the feed
liquor is cold

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Methods of feeding (design)
• Mixed feed
 Eliminates some pumps of the backward feed system
 Permits the final evaporation to be done at the highest temperature
• Parallel feed
 No transfer of liquid between effects
 Typical of evaporator-crystallizer units

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Capacity
• Assuming that heating load and heat of dilution are negligible
 The capacity of an evaporator is directly proportional to the rate of heat-
transfer:

=
q1 U1 A1∆T1 =
q2 U 2 A2 ∆T2 =
q3 U 3 A3 ∆T3
• The total capacity is proportional to the total rate of heat-transfer q_T

qT = q1 + q2 + q3 = U1 A1∆T1 + U 2 A2 ∆T2 + U 3 A3 ∆T3

• If we assume that surface area A and overall coefficient U are the

same for each effect
• and the boiling point elevation is negligible as well
qT= UA ( ∆T1 + ∆T2 + ∆T3=
) UA∆T
 Where deltaT is total temperature drop
• It is exactly the same for a single-effect evaporator having the same
A of each of the three effects
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Optimum number of effects
• Cost of each effect per m^2 of surface is function of its total area
 and decreases with the area approaching an asymptote for large units
• The CAPEX required for a N-effect evaporator is
 about N times that for single-effect evaporator of the same capacity
• The optimum number N* is a compromise between
 The saving in steam
 And the added investment

N* N
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Calculations
• The result usually required is
 The amount of steam consumed
 The are of the heating surface
 The temperature in the effects
 The amount of vapor leaving the last effect
• Triple-effect requires 7 equations
 Enthalpy balance (3)
 Capacity equation (3)
 Total evaporation (1) or difference between thin/thick flow rates (1)
• The unknowns are
 Rate of steam to the first effect (1)
 Rate of flow from each effect (3)
 Boiling temperature at the first effect (1)
 Boiling temperature at the second effect (1)
 Heating surface per effect (1)

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Example
• A triple-effect forced-circulation evaporator is to be fed with 60’000
lb/h of 10% caustic soda solution at a temperature 180F.
• The concentrated liquor is to be 50% NaOH; saturated steam at 50
lb_f/in^2 (3.43 atma) is to be used and condensing temperature of
vapor from the third effect is to be 100F.
• The order of feed is II, III, I. Neglect radiation and undercooling.
• Corrected overall coefficients are
• Calculate:
 Heating surface per effect
 Steam consumption
 Steam economy

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Vapor recompression

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Mechanical recompression
• The vapor is not condensed
• It is compressed to higher pressures
 By positive-displacement or
centrifugal compressor
• and becomes the “steam” fed to the
heater
• Saturation temperature of
compressed vapor is higher than
boiling point of the feed
 More vapor is generated
• Optimum deltaT = 5°C
• Very good economy
• Applications
 In seawater desalination
 Black liquor treatment (pulp mills)
• Thermal recompression as well
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Plants

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Industrial applications
• Pantelleria’s seawater desalination plant

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Unit operation control

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Thanks for the kind attention

Flavio Manenti

Professor of Chemical Plants and Operations

President-elect of the Computer Aided Process Engineering (CAPE) – EFCE’s Working Party
UEFA-licensed and Federal Soccer Coach (Nazionale Italiana U13; Virtus Bergamo U13)

POLITECNICO DI MILANO
Dipartimento di Chimica, Materiali e Ingegneria Chimica "G. Natta"
Sustainable Process Engineering Research (SuPER) Centre
Piazza Leonardo da Vinci, 32, 20133 Milano, ITALY

(Mobile) +39.338.5665817
(Phone) +39.02.2399.3273
(Email) flavio.manenti@polimi.it
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Flavio Manenti – Dipartimento CMIC “Giulio Natta”