Design, Modelling and Simulation of Multiple Effect Evaporators

Evaporation is the removal of solvent as vapor from a solution. It is the operation which is used for concentration of solution. There could be single effect evaporator or multiple effect evaporators. With addition of each effect steam economy of the system also increases. Evaporators are integral part of a number of a process industries like Pulp and Paper, Sugar, Caustic Soda, Pharmaceuticals, Desalination, Dairy and Food Processing etc. Caustic Soda Industry is of present interest. The system consists of quadruple effect having falling film evaporator as each effect. There is forward feed flow. Designing of this system has been done. This paper describes a steady state model of multiple effect evaporators for simulation purpose. The model includes overall as well as component mass balance equations, energy balance equations and heat transfer rate equations for area calculation for all the effects. Each effect in the process is represented by a number of variables which are related by the energy and material balance equations for the feed, product and vapor flow for forward feed. The code has been developed using SCILAB. Results of the present approach are validated with industrial data.