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Project Report
Project Report
……………………………..
Adarsh Raj
CERTIFICATE
This is to certify that the thesis entitled “Design a Multiple Effect Evaporator for
manufacture of 1 TPD table salt from seawater.” has been carried out by Adarsh
Raj in the partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of the Bachelor of
Chemical Engineering from Jadavpur University, Kolkata is recorded as bona fide
work that has been conducted under the supervision of Prof. P.K. Banerjee
respectively.
....……………………………. ....…………………………….
Prof. P.K. Banerjee Dr. Kajari Kargupta
Project Guide Head of Department
Chemical Engineering Department Chemical Engineering Department
Jadavpur University Jadavpur University
Kolkata-700032 Kolkata-700032
Chapter 1
Introduction
INTRODUCTION
Evaporators are kind of heat transfer equipment where the transfer mechanism is
controlled by natural convection or forced convection. A solution containing a
desired product is fed into the evaporator and it is heated by a heat source like
steam. Because of the applied heat, the water in the solution is converted into
vapour and is condensed while the concentrated solution is either removed or fed
into a second evaporator for further concentration. If a single evaporator is used
for the concentration of any solution, it is called a single effect evaporator system
and if more than one evaporator is used for the concentration of any solution, it is
called a multiple effect evaporator system. In a multiple effect evaporator the
vapour from one evaporator is fed into the steam chest of the other evaporator. In
such a system, the heat from the original steam fed into the system is reused in the
successive effects.
Evaporators are integral part of a number of process industries namely Pulp and
Paper, chlor-alkali, Sugar, pharmaceuticals, Desalination, Dairy and Food
processing, etc (Bhargava et al., 2010). Evaporators find one of their most
important applications in the food and drink industry. In these industries,
evaporators are used to convert food like coffee to a certain consistency in order
to make them last for considerable period of time. Evaporation is also used in
laboratories as a drying process where preservation of long time activity is
required. It is also used for the recovery of expensive solvents and prevents their
wastage like hexane. Another important application of evaporation is cutting down
the waste handling cost. If most of the wastes can be vaporized, the industry can
greatly reduce the money spent on waste handling (Bhargava et al., 2010). The
multiple effect evaporator system considered in the present work is used for the
concentration of sea water to further produce salt. It consists of six effects. The
feed flow sequence considered is forward.
Although, the first salt concentration plants were of the evaporation type whose
use was not expanded to full industrial scale because of limited design and
operating experience. Such systems were plagued with excessive fouling, scaling,
and corrosion. However, accumulated experiences during the 2nd half of the past
century in thermal desalination processes, headed by MSF process, have resulted I
rapid progress and development of efficient and inexpensive chemical treatment
for reuction and prevention of fouling, scaling, and corrosion.As a result, recent
research , development, pilot plant operation, and field results show superior
perfoemance and many attractive features of the multiple effect evaporation in
comparison with predominant MSF(multi-stage flash distillation) process.
In the backward feed, the seawater is introduced into the last effect, which has
the lowest temperature and pressure within the system. The brine flows
through successive effects towards the first effect. The increase in the pressure
and temperature across the effects dictate the use of brine pumping units
between the effects.
Fig. 3. shows a schematic diagram for the forward-feed multiple effect evaporation
(MEE-FF) sea water desalination process. The system includes the evaporators,
equal to n, a series of feed water preheaters, equal to n-2, a train of flashing boxes,
equal to n-1, a down condenser, and a venting system. The direction of heat flow
as wells as the flow direction of the brine and vapor is from left to right, i.e., from
effect 1 to n. The pressure in the effects decreases in the flow direction.
Fig. 3. Schematic of MEE-FF desalination process
The intake seawater flows into the condenser of the last effect at a flow rate of
Mcf+Mf. This steam absorbs the latent heat of vapors formed in the last effect and
flashing box. Seawater stream heated from the intake temperature, Tcw, to a higher
temperature, Tf. The function of the cooling seawater, Mcw, is to remove the excess
heat added to the system in the first effect by motive steam. In the last effect, this
heat is equivalent to the latent heat of the boiled off vapors. On the other hand,
the feed seawater, Mf, is heated by the flashed off vapors formed in the last effect
and the associated water flash box.
The brine spray forms a thin film around the succeeding rows of horizontal tubes.
The brine temperature rises to the boiling temperature, T1, which corresponds to
the pressure of the vapor space. The saturation temperature of the formed vapor,
Tv1, is less than the brine boiling temperature by the boiling point elevation, (BPE)1.
A small portion of vapor, D1, is formed by the boiling in the first effect. The
remaining brine, Mf - D1, flows into the second effect, which operates at a lower
temperature and pressure. Vapor is formed in effects 2 to n by two different
mechanisms, boiling and flashing.
Motive steam, Ms, extracted from an external boiler drives vapor formation in the
first effect. The vapor formed by boiling in the first effect, D1, is used to drive the
second effect, which operates at a lower saturation temperature, T2. Reduction n
vapor temperature is caused by boiling point elevation, non-equilibrium allowance,
and losses caused by depression the vapor saturation pressure by frictional losses
in the demister, transmission lines, and during condensation. These losses can be
represented as an extra resistance to flow of heat between condensing vapor and
boiling brine. Therefore, it is necessary to increase the heat transfer area to account
for these losses. The amount of vapor formed in the effect j is less than the amount
formed in previous effect. This is because of the increase in latent heat of
vaporization with decrease in the evaporation temperature.
The condenser and the brine heaters are sometimes provided with good vents, first
for purging during start-up and then for removing non-condensable gases, which
may have been introduced with the feed or drawn in through leaks to the system.
The presence of non-condensable gases not only impedes the heat transfer process
but also reduces the temperature at which steam condenses at the given pressure.
This occurs partially because of the reduced partial pressure in a film of poorly
conducting gas at the interface.
As a summary, in any effect, the brine leaving the effect decreases by the amount
of vapor formed by boiling, Dj, and by flashing, dj. Although here flash boxes are not
taken into account for the design.
PROCESS MODELLING
2.1 Analysis of Multiple effect evaporator system
With the increasing trend in the cost of coal, fuel oil it becomes to use the vapors
of previous effect in the steam chest of following effect. This requires the multiple
effect evaporator system .As the number of effect increases the steam economy
increases on the other side capital cost will be more.
There is economic balance between the fixed cost and the operating cost so that
one can select the optimum number of effects.
Fixed Cost:
According to Coston and Lindey,the annual fixed cost of a multiple effect
evaporator is approximately proportional to the 0.75 power of the number of
effects.
V1 = C1/A* N0.75
The estimated cost of a single effect (C1) can be obtained from a number of sources
once the heat transfer surfaces requirements are known.
Operating cost :
Operating costs can be divided in to steam cost and all operating costs (labour,
cooling water,power and maintenance) such that
V1 = h*W*C2/S + V0
H = operating time (hr/yr)
W = evaporation rate (Kg/hr)
C2 = cost of steam (Rs/Kg)
S = steam economy
V0 = all operating cost other than the cost of steam (Rs/Yr)
Steam economy can be expressed as: S = S1+S 1S2+S 1S22+…………..+S 1S2N-1
S = S1 (1-S2N )/ (1-S2)
Thus V2 becomes V2 = (1-S2)h*W*C2/S1 (1-S2N ) + V0
Total cost VT = V1 + V2
VT = C1/A* N0.75 + (1-S2)h*W*C2/S1(1-S2N) + V0
For minimum cost ∆VT/∆N = 0
0 = C1/N{(N+1)0.75 –(N0.75)} + (1-S2)h*W*C2/S1{[1/(1-S2 N+1)]-[1/(1-S2 N )]}
AhwC2/C1 = {[(N+1)0.75–(N0.75)] * S1(1-S2 N )(1-S2 N+1)}/(1-S2) 2 *S2 N
This cost effective approach to find out the number of effects required in the
multiple effect evaporation system can be very useful when we know, or, are
provided with above given data values along with heat transfer area (A).
Multiple effect evaporators involve a large number of state and design – variables.
A change in any variable can upset the operation of the evaporator. To achieve the
goal of energy conservation in multiple effect evaporators, it is necessary to know
how does steam economy alter with changes in operating variables for a given end
product concentration . To quantise the changes in steam economy , a functional
relationship correlating it with variables should be developed. For this, it is
necessary to identify all the variables which affect the steam economy of a multiple
effect evaporator.
2.3 Variables of a multiple effect evaporator :
The previous mentioned mathematical model was used to design our multiple
effect evaporator system.
Our concentrated sea water having conc. of 80,000 ppm at the exit will then be
full evaporated to get the required amount of table salt (1 tpd) from the industry.
Our design was based on the pre-specified number of effects i.e., 6. To optimize
the the number of effects we are to do the calculation regarding the cost required
and then optimize from that.
REFERENCES
1. http://nptel.ac.in/courses/103103027/13
2. http://ethesis.nitrkl.ac.in/1911/1/10600012.pdf
3. http://nptel.ac.in/courses/103107096/module4/lecture2/lecture2.pdf
4. El-Dessouky, H.T., Alatiqi, I., Bingulac, S., and Ettouney, H.M., Steady-state
analysis of the multiple effect evaporation desalination process, Chem. Eng.
Tech., 21(1998)437-451
5. https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_38RxsnElO1WGE3Tm9yOUh6SWc
(simplified MEE design)
6. https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_38RxsnElO1SS1HMzRFMXU3R3M
(steady-state design of MEE)