CH2-A: Single Effect Evaporation

Eng. Ismail Salim

Renewable Energy Engineering Department
Middle East University
Course: 0905527 - Water Desalination by Solar Energy
1
 Objectives
 Development of mathematical model for the single effect
evaporation process.

 Discussing and analyzing the performance of single effect

evaporation process.

2
 Single Effect Evaporation
 The single-effect evaporation desalination system has very
limited industrial applications.

 However, understanding of this process is essential since it

constitutes many of the elements forming the multiple
effect evaporation processes.

 The main components of the unit are:

 The evaporator.

 The condenser (the feed preheater).

3
Heat Exchanger Principle

4
 Single Effect Evaporation
 The feed preheater (condenser) has a shell and tube
configuration where the latent heat of condensed vapor is
transferred to the intake seawater, which includes the

feed (Mf) and

the cooling

seawater (Mcw)

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 Single Effect Evaporation
 The intake seawater (Mcw+Mf) at a temperature (Tcw) and a
salt concentration (Xf) is introduced into the tube side of
the preheater where its temperature increases to (Tf).

 The cooling water (Mcw) is dumped back to the sea.

 The heat needed to warm the seawater inside the

condenser tubes is supplied by condensing the vapor
formed by boiling in the evaporator (Md).

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 Single Effect Evaporation
 The vapor condensation temperature for both the
evaporator and the condenser is controlled by:
 The cooling water flow rate, Mcw

 The feed water temperature, Tcw

 The available heat transfer area in the condenser, Ac.

 The overall heat transfer coefficient between the

condensing vapor and the circulating seawater, Uc.

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 Single Effect Evaporation
 The feed seawater (Mf) is chemically treated and
deaerated before being pumped to the evaporator.
 The chemical treatment is needed to:
 Prevent the foaming in the evaporator.

 Prevent the tendency for scale formation in the evaporator.

 Both factors may seriously impair unit operation.

 Foaming: formation of bubbles in the evaporator

continuously, this is caused by the presence of oil in the
feedwater.
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 Evaporator Function
 Within the evaporator, the feed water is sprayed at the top
where it falls down the tubes arranged horizontally.
 Condensation of the saturated heating steam and release
of its latent heat provides the required sensible and latent
for water evaporation from the feed seawater.
 As a result, the feed water temperature (Tf) is raised to the
boiling temperature (Tb).
 The vapor formed by boiling with a rate of (Md) is free of
salts.
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 Demister Function
 The generated vapor flows through a separator known as
the demister to remove the brine droplets.
 The vapor should be completely freed from brine droplets
to prevent the contamination of the product water.
 This also prevents exposure of the condenser tubes to the
brine, which can result in:
 Scaling,

 Surface corrosion,

 Reduction of the heat transfer rates.

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Single Effect Evaporation Process

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 Material Balances
 The overall mass and salt balances assume that the
distillate water is salt free. The two balance equations are
given by:
𝑀𝑓 = 𝑀𝑑 + 𝑀𝑏 (𝐸𝑞. 1)
𝑀𝑓 𝑋𝑓 = 𝑀𝑏 𝑋𝑏 (𝐸𝑞. 2)
 Where (M) is the mass flow rate, (X) is the salinity,

 The subscripts b, d, and f denotes the rejected brine, distillate,

and feed seawater, respectively.
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 Material Balances
 Equation 1 can be used to eliminate Mf from Eq. 2 and generate
a relation between Mb and Md. This result is given by:
𝑴𝒅 + 𝑴𝒃 𝑋𝑓 = 𝑀𝑏 𝑋𝑏 

𝑋𝑓
𝑀𝑏 = 𝑀𝑑 (𝐸𝑞. 3)
𝑋𝑏 − 𝑋𝑓

 Similarly, Mb can be eliminated from Eq. 2 to generate a relation

between Mf and Md. This result is given by:

𝑋𝑏
𝑀𝑓 = 𝑀𝑑 (𝐸𝑞. 4)
𝑋𝑏 − 𝑋𝑓
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 Evaporator Energy Balances
 The energy balance of the evaporator conserves the
energies of the heating steam, vapors formed, feed
seawater, and rejected brine.
𝑄𝑒 = 𝑀𝑓 𝐶𝑃 𝑇𝑏 − 𝑇𝑓 + 𝑀𝑑 𝜆𝑣 = 𝑀𝑠 𝜆𝑠 𝐸𝑞. 5

 Where Qe is the thermal load of the evaporator,

 T is the temperature,
 Cp is the specific heat at constant pressure,
 𝜆 is the latent heat of evaporation.

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Latent Heat of Water Evaporation
 The correlation for latent heat of water evaporation is
given by:
𝜆 = 2501.897149 − 2.407064037 × 𝑇 + 1.192217 × 10−3 × 𝑇 2
− 1.5863 × 10−5 × 𝑇 3 (𝐸𝑞. 𝐴. 7)
Where:
 T is the saturation temperature in °C
 𝜆 is the latent heat in kJ/kg.

 Figure A.7 show variations in the calculated and the steam

table values for the latent heat of water as a function of
temperature.

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Latent Heat of Water Figure A.7

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 Condenser Energy Balances
 The condenser operates on the vapor formed in the
evaporator, (Md).

 The latent heat of condensation is transferred to feed

seawater with a mass flow rate of (Mf + Mcw).

 The heat (thermal) load of the condenser is given by:

𝑄𝑐 = 𝑀𝑓 + 𝑀𝑐𝑤 𝐶𝑃 𝑇𝑓 − 𝑇𝑐𝑤 = 𝑀𝑑 𝜆𝑣 𝐸𝑞. 6

The vapor is assumed saturated at a temperature equal to

(TV).
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 System Energy Balances
 The feed seawater (Mf) is introduced into the evaporator; while
the remaining part (Mcw) which is known as the cooling water,
is rejected.

 The overall energy balance for the system is given by:

𝑀𝑠 𝜆𝑠 = 𝑀𝑏 𝐶𝑃 𝑇𝑏 − 𝑇𝑓 + 𝑀𝑑 𝐶𝑃 𝑇𝑉 − 𝑇𝑓 + 𝑀𝑑 𝜆𝑣 𝐸𝑞. 8
 The vapor temperature (TV) is then defined in terms of the
boiling temperature (Tb) and the boiling point elevation
(BPE):
𝑇𝑏 = 𝑇𝑉 + 𝐵𝑃𝐸 𝐸𝑞. 9
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 Boiling Point Elevation
 Variation in boiling point elevation (BPE) of seawater as a
function of temperature (oC) and salinity (weight
percentage, 𝑤𝑡%) are given in the following Table and
Figure.

𝑋
𝑤𝑡% = × 100%
1,000,000

 Where X in ppm

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BPE Figure B.1

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BPE Table B.1

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 BPE Equation B.1
 The calculation of the boiling point elevation (BPE) using
the correlation given in appendix B.
𝑩𝑷𝑬 = 𝐴 × 𝑋 + 𝐵 × 𝑋 2 + 𝐶 × 𝑋 3
𝐴 = 8.325 × 10−2 + 1.883 × 10−4 × 𝑇 + 4.02 × 10−6 × 𝑇 2
𝐵 = −7.625 × 10−4 + 9.02 × 10−5 × 𝑇 − 5.2 × 10−7 × 𝑇 2
𝐶 = 1.522 × 10−4 − 3 × 10−6 × 𝑇 − 3 × 10−8 × 𝑇 2

 Where:

 T is the temperature in oC

 X is the salt weight percentage.

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 Performance Ratio (PR)
 The thermal performance ratio (PR) is given by:

𝑀𝑑 𝜆𝑠
𝑃𝑅 = =
𝑀𝑆 𝑋𝑏 𝑋𝑓
𝜆𝑉 + 𝐶𝑃 𝑇𝑉 − 𝑇𝑓 𝑋 − 𝑋 + 𝑋 − 𝑋 𝐶𝑃 𝐵𝑃𝐸
𝑏 𝑓 𝑏 𝑓

(𝐸𝑞. 27)

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 System Specifications
 The following set of specifications is used in solution of the
system model:

1. The distillate flow rate, Md, is always kept constant at 1 kg/s.

2. The seawater salinity range is , Xf, 32,000 to 42,000 ppm.

3. The salinity of the rejected brine, Xb, is 70000 ppm.

4. The heat capacity of seawater, distillate, and reject brine are

assumed constant and equal to 4.2 kJ/kg°C.

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 Example-1
 A single-effect evaporator generates a distillate product at
a flow rate of 1 kg/s. The system operating temperatures
are as follows:
 The boiling temperature, Tb, is 75 °C.
 The intake seawater temperature, Tcw is 25 °C.
 The feed temperature, Tf, is 70 °C.
 The steam temperature, TS, is 82 °C.
 Determine:
a) The thermal performance ratio,
b) The flow rates of feed seawater and reject brine,
c) The flow rate of cooling seawater.
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 Example-1…Solution
 This requires calculation of the boiling point elevation
(BPE) using table B.1 with Tb = 75 oC and X=70,000 ppm.
 BPE = 0.903 oC

 The resulting temperature of the vapor formed in the

evaporator (TV) is calculated from Eq. 9:
𝑇𝑉 = 𝑇𝑏 − 𝐵𝑃𝐸 = 75 − 0.903 = 74.097 𝑜𝐶

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 Example-1…Solution
 The temperatures of the heating steam and vapor are used
to calculate the latent heat for the steam and distillate
vapor, 𝜆𝑆 and 𝜆𝑉 , are calculated from the correlations
given (Equ. A.7) or Figure A.7.

 The resulting values are:

𝜆𝑠 = 2303.788 𝑘𝐽/𝑘𝑔
𝜆𝑉 = 2323.6 𝑘𝐽/𝑘𝑔
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 Example-1…Solution
a) The thermal performance ratio is given by (Eq. 27):

𝑀𝑑 𝜆𝑠
𝑃𝑅 = =
𝑀𝑆 𝑋𝑏 𝑋𝑓
𝜆𝑉 + 𝐶𝑃 𝑇𝑉 − 𝑇𝑓 𝑋 − 𝑋 + 𝑋 − 𝑋 𝐶𝑃 𝐵𝑃𝐸
𝑏 𝑓 𝑏 𝑓

2303.788
𝑃𝑅 =
70,000 42,000
2323.6 + 4.2 74.097 − 70 + (4.2)(0.903)
70,000 − 42,000 70,000 − 42,000

𝑷𝑹 = 𝟎. 𝟗𝟕

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 Example-1…Solution
b) The flow rates of feed seawater and rejected brine area
calculated from Eqs. 3 and 4.

𝑋𝑓 42,000 𝒌𝒈
𝑀𝑏 = 𝑀𝑑 = 1 = 𝟏. 𝟓
𝑋𝑏 − 𝑋𝑓 70,000 − 42,000 𝒔

𝑋𝑏 70,000 𝒌𝒈
𝑀𝑓 = 𝑀𝑑 = 1 = 𝟐. 𝟓
𝑋𝑏 − 𝑋𝑓 70,000 − 42,000 𝒔

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 Example-1…Solution
c) The condenser load, Eq. 6, is used to obtain the cooling
seawater flow rate, Mcw:

𝑀𝑓 + 𝑀𝑐𝑤 𝐶𝑃 𝑇𝑓 − 𝑇𝑐𝑤 = 𝑀𝑑 𝜆𝑣

2.5 + 𝑴𝒄𝒘 4.2 70 − 25 = (1)(2326.34)

𝒌𝒈
𝑴𝒄𝒘 = 𝟗. 𝟖
𝒔

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