ChElec 501

Sugar Engineering 2
06 Evaporation in Refineries
July 26, 2017

1
Evaporation in Sugar Refineries
1.Multiple-effect evaporation
Dark sweetwaters, wash waters, and other thin materials
of having too low sugar content to be used for melting
affinated sugar are evaporated in a multiple-effect system
similar to that in the raw house.
The common practice presently employed (usually in
refineries with no raw house) the last body (or bodies) of
the multiple effect evaporators to concentrated the first-
grade white liquor to 70 brix or higher, thus economizing
the steam usage in the vacuum pans.
1.Vapor compression
High fuel cost are forcing the refineries to conserve
energies thru all available means, so that vapor
compression systems are being chosen by refiners more
frequently now when adding new or replacing old
evaporators.
There are 2 types of vapor compression system- the
thermal and the mechanical.
Thermal compression
The thermal compressor uses steam at a higher
pressure to compress vapor to some intermediate
usable pressure.
The decision to use a thermal compressor is usually
made when sufficient steam at high pressure is
available or if high pressure steam is being reduced
thur throttling valves
 The thermal compressor has the advantage of having
few (if any) and is very reliable.

Mechanical compression
Can be driven by steam turbine or electric motor. The
choice of steam or electric drive is influenced by over-
all steam and electricity balance.
Mechanical compressors are much larger than
thermal compressors, and would require a great deal
of maintenance. In addition, its initial cost is much
greater than thermal compression.
1.Energy conservation
The typical efforts at energy savings are usually aimed at
efficient lighting and motors, increased heat insulations,
steam trap and steam line leak repairs.
According to Chou, the major gains in energy savings will
come on the application of the 2nd law of
thermodynamics i.e. by improvements and/or redesign of
the process.
Energy savings can be made by the full use of potential
energy, by maintaining available energy, and by making
available energy out of the degraded energy.
Using an existing evaporator as example, a
comparison of the calculated heat transfer coefficient
(U) and the expected value can show the effect of tube
fouling, resulting in the increased energy consumption.
Clean surface: 1/Uc = 1/hc +1/hv + Lm/km +1/h1
Scaled surface: 1/Us = 1/hc +1/hv + Ls/ks+Lm/km +1/h1

Difference : 1/Us/ - 1/Uc = Ls/ks

The single most important factor that will reduce the overall
heat transfer coefficient is the fouling of the evaporator heat
transfer surface
It does not take much deposit to greatly reduce the U.
Quite common is fouling of the steam-side of the 1st effect
body by oil from the exhaust steam.
A difference of 8-10oF in the threshold temperature of
mineral oil in clean and foul tube is not uncommon.
To compensate for this loss of DT, an increase of 4 psi
pressure is required.
The use of an oil separator/and or removal by organic solvent
or other cleaning agents when neede are essential for efficient
operation.
Formation of scale deposits of CaCO3 and siliceous matter on
heating surfaces of evaporators in sugar refineries can be
minimized by proper operation of both carbonatation and
pressure filtration stations.
Modifications to the existing evaporators by adding
liquid pre-heaters, by altering the liquor flow pattern
while adding additional liquor heater, and by operating
the 4th body of the quadruple-effect evaporator as an
independent evaporator with a a surface condenser to
recover the vapor are some of the ways to save energy
based on the 2nd law.
Recovery of sensible heat from excess contaminating
condensate evaporator to an existing evaporator is
another way of reusing available energy