Maximize Throughput and Steam

Economy of Multiple Effect Evaporators

Through Upgradation

by
Amol S. Hukkerikar and Datta Kuvalekar
Technology Centre,
Forbes Marshall, Pune
India

A Presentation to the
International Conference on Advances in Energy Research
Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai
12th – 14th Dec 2007

Technology Centre, Forbes Marshall, Pune, India 1

 Introduction
™ Evaporation is the key operation in process industries for
concentrating dilute solutions.

™ Is an energy-intensive process.

™ Multiple Effect Evaporator (MEE) is a frequently used

energy conservation technique.

™ Often, these MEE systems fail to provide designed capacity

and product concentration.

™ Inadequate heat transfer area affects evaporation capacity.

™ Upgradation helps in diagnosing such MEE systems.

™ Steeply rising fuel costs necessitates upgradation of existing

MEE to improve steam economy.

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Schematic of Multiple Effect Evaporator

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 About Upgradation
™ Is the systematic procedure for maximizing both steam
economy and capacity.

™ Additional effects are equipped with existing ones to make

best use of vapor heat.

™ Different possible configurations are studied and a cost

effective evaporation system is selected.

™ It reduces operating cost (steam and cooling water cost) at the

expense of capital cost (evaporator area cost).

™ The calculation of additional evaporator area requirement can

be done by,
1. Kern method 2. Bonilla method
3. Holland method 4. Hillenbrand and Westerberg method

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 Holland’s Method
™ Energy balance equation

Li −1 ((h(τ i −1, X i −1 ) − h(τ i , X i )) + Vi −1 ( H (τ i −1 ) − h(Ti , X i )) = ( Li −1 − Li )(H (τ i ) − h(τ i , X i ))

™ Capacity equation

U i Ai (Ti −1 − τ i ) = Vi −1 ( H (τ i −1 ) − h(Ti −1 ))

™ Phase equilibrium relationship

τ i = BPRi + Ti

™ Material balance equation

Li −1 X i −1 = Li X i

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 Performance Evaluation to Locate Bottleneck
™ Input specifications for simulation
Feed rate kg/hr 8640
Feed concentration % 10.00
Feed temperature o C 80.00
Steam temperature o C 151.86
Area of each effect m2 29.60
Last effect temperature o C 60.00

™ Simulation results
Simulation variables Simulation results
Steam consumption (Vo) kg/h 3242.55
Boiling point of solution in first effect (τ1) °C 116.53
Saturation temperature in first effect (T1) °C 111.65
Solute concentration at first effect outlet (X1) % 14.14
Liquid flow rate at first effect outlet (L1) kg/h 6108.49
Boiling point of solution in second effect (τ2) °C 71.73
Final product concentration (X2) % 26.04
Liquid product rate at second effect outlet (L2) kg/h 3318.03

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 Case Study Revisited

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Design Parameters for Upgraded Triple Effect
System
Design variables Design results
Steam consumption (Vo) kg/h 2523.02
Boiling point of solution in first effect (τ1) °C 125.85
Saturation temperature in first effect (T1) °C 121.65
Solute concentration at first effect outlet (X1) % 12.55
Liquid flow rate at first effect outlet (L1) kg/h 6885.03
Boiling point of solution in second effect (τ2) °C 99.37
Saturation temperature in second effect (T2) °C 92.90
Solute concentration at second effect outlet (X2) % 17.54
Liquid flow rate at second effect outlet (L2) kg/h 4926.52
Area of third effect (A3) m2 54.61
Boiling point of solution in third effect (τ3) °C 75.30
Liquid product rate at third effect outlet (L3) kg/h 2880.00

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 Utility and Area Requirement for Upgraded
Systems

Steam consumption Cooling water Area required per

kg/hr m3/hr effect m2
Triple effect 2523.02 115.28 54.61
Quadruple effect 2057.48 89.53 51.49
Penta effect 1777.63 74.24 55.42
Sextuple effect 1587.39 64.09 62.31
Seven effect 1454.92 56.89 72.31

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 Selection of Cost Effective System

Steam cost CW cost Capital cost TAC

Rupees/year Rupees/year Rupees Rupees/year
Triple effect 1,21,10,496 9,22,268 35,96,266 1,37,52,018
Quadruple effect 98,59,968 7,16,447 69,67,632 1,19,69,941
Penta effect 85,13,232 5,93,820 1,08,74,918 1,12,82,035
Sextuple effect 76,19,520 5,12,702 1,54,47,066 1,12,21,635
Seven effect 69,83,616 4,55,141 2,09,24,830 1,16,23,723

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 Summary & Conclusions
™ Up gradation helps process industry in minimizing utility
consumption and improves overall plant efficiency.

™ The undersized MEE systems can be diagnosed through

upgradation to achieve desired concentration and throughput.

™ A novel methodology for upgrading existing multiple effect

evaporation system is proposed.

™ The proposed methodology provides flexibility in choosing

evaporator configuration based on capital and operating cost.

™ The methodology is also useful for capacity increase plan.

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 Thank You

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