Steam and Cooling Water Saving In Sugar Factory by the use of Phase

Change Materials

A)Introduction: In a sugar factory the efficiency of the condenser impacts

both the process and the steam economy of the plant and hence also the
maximum extent that power can be exported to the grid. It will be shown
that by using the validated concept of thermal storage by utilization of
Phase Change Material, the condenser efficiency is optimised,steam
consumption is significantly reduced and the cooling water requirement
and power consumption of the pumps for coolant circulation are reduced
by extensively.

B)What is Phase Change material based Thermal storage: Put simply, and in
the specific context of thermal storage, Phase Change materials are
substances having a high heat of fusion which on melting and solidifying at
specific temperatures are capable of storing and releasing large amounts of
energy. So when they absorb heat they change from solid to liquid state
and on rejecting heat the reconvert to solid state. This characteristic
enables the quick evacuation and dissimilation of heat from mediums with
large thermal content like steam which need to be cooled quickly for reuse
in process.

C)Choice of phase change materials

There are several factors that need to be considered when selecting a

phase change material.  An ideal PCM will have high heat of fusion,
high thermal conductivity, high specific heat and density, long term
reliability during repeated cycling, and dependable freezing behavior

Some of the key properties of a phase change material to be used to

enhance condenser performance in a sugar factory are these:

1. The material must be non corrosive.

2. Inexpensive and easy to procure in large quantities and easy to store.
3. The bulk modulus and density must be such that they do not create
complications for the conveying and storing systems.
4. Flammability and toxicity are prime considerations
5. stability over many cycles of use for long periods.
 6. Unaffected by climatic and ambient conditions to the extent that
their properties are affected
7. Non explosive.

these are few of the prime considerations and a wide range of Phase
Change Materials exist which satisfy these criteria. Phase Change Materials
(PCM) are broadly divided into organic and non organic categories.

Some widely used and established phase change materials:

Paraffin waxes are the most common PCM because they have a high
heat of fusion per unit weight, have a large melting point selection,
provide dependable cycling, are non-corrosive and are chemically
inert.  When designing with paraffin PCM, void management is
important due to the volume change from solid to liquid.  Paraffin
PCM’s also have a low thermal conductivity, so designing sufficient
conduction paths is another key design consideration.

Hydrated salts are another category.  These PCM’s have a high heat of
fusion per unit weight and volume, have a relatively high thermal
conductivity for non-metals, and show small volume changes between
solid and liquid phases.  They are corrosive and long term reliability
(thousands of cycles) is uncertain. The most common application is for
very large thermal storage applications (e.g., solar heating), where
much lower cost is very attractive.

Other PCM materials such as non-paraffin organics, and liquid-to-gas

phase change materials are available.  Metallic PCMs are generally
used at high temperatures, where no suitable paraffin wax is available.

D)Validation of use of PCM in condenser performance enhancement:

Advanced Cooling Technologies Inc. (ACT) of Lancaster, Pa.,demonstrated
improvement of the efficiency of ACCs (Air cooled condensers) with phase-change
materials. They showed in a recent DOE study that encapsulated PCMs can
effectively store solar thermal energy at high temperatures.

These and similar demonstrations in power plant condensers have shown

that PCM based thermal storage can favorably impact the condenser
efficiencies by quick evacuation of heat to achieve the best cooling
temperature possible in the shortest time thereby maintaining vacuum
efficiency at desired value/s in a stable manner over time.

E)Specific Application to Sugar Factory :

Approach of implementation:

a) Selection of the material: tentatively it is proposed, to go for an organic

PCM of the Paraffin wax type. The factors affecting this choice were:
F) Mode of implementation: The hot fluid stream to the condenser (steam
would be passed after initial cooling as per conventional method of using
cooling water from cooling towers/spray ponds to a plate type heat
exchanger of fluid to solid type, several design variants of which are there
in industrial use.

The choice of plate type heat exchanger is because they provide a larger
surface are for heat transfer compared to conventional shell and tube heat
exchangers which greatly increase the speed of temperature change.

The steam temperature approach which has now reduced to near pinch
point as desirable then in the heat exchanger gets lowered to best
achievable minimum,quickly,by transferring its heat to the PCM (Paraffin
wax).

Thus the rate of cooling of the vapor stream will be quicker and this will
lead to a better vacuum in pan and evaporators resulting in lowering boiling
point of juice and hence steam saving. Also cooling water quantity will be
saved.

The PCM (parrafin wax as selected) goes from liquid to solid sate very
quickly in a regenerative system similiar as that in rotary air preheaters
where the plate typeheat exchanger rotates between hot and cool streams
and thus achieves the heat exchange.In this case the cool stream is the
ambient air which immidieately on contact with the molten paraffin wax
causes it to solidfy thereby completing the phase change cycle.

G) Comments:

 Various permutations and combinations of the condensation heat

duty to be approportioned between the condensor and the PCM
based plate type heat exchanger can be worked out.In extreme case
it is possible to configure a system whereby the entire condensation
duty heat load is acheived by the PCM and no cooling water or
separate conventional condensor is required.The PCM based heat
exchanger itself acts as the condensor.This is a highly desirable
scenario given the savings in cost of cooling tower/spray
ponds,pumping of water and of course water itself that will be
achieved.The detailed engineering of such a system will require
considerable development work,but is definitely achievable given the
quick product development cycles now made possible by Computer
Simulation Methods.
 The more the condensor pressure is lowered the more work can be
done at the turbine.However the limits of lowering condensor
 pressure must also take into account leakage due to incraesed
vacuum of air and non condensable gasses and the defined design
limits of to the extent to which vacuum and hence boileing point can
be reduced in the evaporators and pans without affecting process
and also without having to rengineer and redesign entire systems
alreday existing.
 However, there are the following limitations in the reduction of
condenser pressure:

1). The turbine outlet loss increases by reduction of the

condenser pressure. In fact reduction of condenser pressure
decreases the steam quality or increases the water droplets at
the turbine exhaust. These droplets will create a drag force
which tends to reduce the turbine output power.
2)The droplets will be also responsible for erosion of the
turbine last stage blades.
Therefore based on the above limitations the condenser
 optimal pressure range is selected from 6.9 kPa to 13.8 kPa
 Other PCMs other than paraffin wax may be considered for use
depending on the availability and suitability per selection criteria.
 Unlike spray ponds and cooling towers the ambient conditions like
relative humidity and ambient temperature will not as much affect
the cooling efficiacy of the PCM based heta exchanger.
 The PCM based heat exchanger can operate continously using the
same type of operational system as rotary regenerative
airpreheaters.
 At night time their efficiacy is even more improved due to lower
ambient temperatures.

H) Sample calculation for a possible case of implementation:

2500 TCD sugar factory

working 24 x200

juice flow 150 m3/hr

Boiler efficiency 72 %

Let vapour from the evaporator and vacuum pan enter the condensor at
about 60 to 65 celcius.Typically this in the conventional condensor will be
condensed to 45 to 50 celcius by the incoming cooling water which is at
about 35 to 40 celcius.Now the condensor pressure is entirely a function of
condnesing temperature.which because of the cooling water temperature.

This difference in the temperature from the optimum condensing

temperature results in vacuum values at evaporator and pans which cause
the boiling point of juice to become higher,affect juice quality,and the
steam consumption more and hence bagasse consumption more also.

If the cooling water inlet temperature were 30 celcius,then the

corresponding temperature would be at 45 celcius and the corresponding
condensing pressure would be 0.1 bar.

Now condensor efficiency = (temp of hot water coming out of condensor

-temp of cooling water into the condensor)/(sat temp of steam - temp of
cooling water into the condensor)

Substituting the values for cooling water at 35 celcius we get condensor

effciiency at = 62 % aproximately

Now substituting for cooling water at 30 celcius we get condensor

efficiency at =68 % aproximately

the difference of aproximately 6 % in condnesor efficiency results in the

falling savings

Staem saving aproximately 4100 tons /year

Baggase saving aproximately 1800 tons/year

Justification calculation:

now the differenec in heat duty between the condensor operating with
cooling water inlet at 35 celcius and 30 celcius is =enthalpy differenec
between water at 35 and 30 x mass of cooling water.

Under normal conditions the cooling water ratio to vapor condensed in

around 50 to 60 for barometric condensers, 60 to 70 for Multi jet
condensers and 40 to 50 for single entry type condensers.

So assuming cooling water ratio of 50

for 70 tph vapour we get 350 tph cooling water

which impies an enthalpy differenec of 1,750 x 1000 Kcal/hr for the two
different temperatures of cooling water to inlet of condnesor.
Now to absorb this enthalpy differenec we can based on the latent heat
value for paraffin was as the PCM we get 47 x mass of wax reuired =1,750 x
1000

mass of PCM required = 1750,000/47=3,723 kgs

say 4 tonnes aproximately

Now this PCM taking up the enthalpy differenec of cooling water

temperature differenec for 35 clcius and 30 clcius will give the following
benefits:

Justification calculation:

By maintaining the condensation temepearture at 45 celcius and the

corresponding condensing pressure at 0.1 bar we get juice boileing
temperature reduced by aproximately 5 celcius

By heat balance we get bagasse saving taking baggase claorifc value at 2240
Kcal/kg as aproximately 200 kgs/hour

and steam saving at 400 kgs/hour

The corresponding load on cooling tower/spray pond is reduced so cooling

water requirement and hence pump power consumption is also reduced.

Added revenue from steam converted to power due to steam saving would
be of the order of conseervatively 125 Kwh which would generate
additional revenue of 22000 INR /day = around 40 lacs in season of 200
days.