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That orange juice that you had this morning sure tasted good didn't it? Did you ever
wonder how they get it concentrated into that little can? Chances are the manufacturers
used a falling film evaporator. Falling film evaporators are especially popular in the food
industry where many substances are heat sensitive. A thin film of the product to be
concentrated trickles down inside of heat exchanging tubes. Steam condenses on the
outside of the tubes supplying the required energy to the inside of the tubes.
Typical Setup
All physical properties should be evaluated at the film temperature, Tf = (Tsat - Twall)/2
except for the latent heat which is evaluated at the saturation temperature. The resistance
due to scale formation cannot be predicted and will probably have to be estimated or
compensated for by added a fouling coefficient or by added 5-10% to the calculated heat
transfer area (or you could determine it experimentally although it's probably not a good
use of your time!)
For the process fluid, the heat transfer coefficient can be calculated with the following
expression:
Calculating pressure drops in falling film evaporators has been investigated since the
late 1940's. A universal equation is really not agreed upon. Typically, a constant
dependent on the percentage of vapor exiting the evaporator is used in a pressure drop
relationship. If your process fluid shares physical properties close to water, you may be
able to accurately predict the pressure drop by using graphs and relations found in Perry's
Chemical Engineers' Handbook.
For more information about falling film evaporators and other evaporators, contact
Swenson Equipment.
References:
Geankoplis, Christie J., Transport Processes and Unit Operations, 3rd Ed., Prentice Hall,
1993, ISBN 0139304398, pages 263-267
Perry, Robert H., et al, Perry's Chemical Engineers' Handbook, 6th Ed., McGraw-Hill,
1984, ISBN 0070494797, pages 10-34 through 10-38