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Coursework/CHEGlab/DBLEftevap
Fenton/Coughlin/Zhu, Fall ‘06

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING LABORATORY

CHEG 237W

Operation of a Double-Effect Evaporator

Objective: The objective of this lab is to give students an opportunity to operate

large-scale equipment and to develop skills in evaluating process
operation via a simple process model.

The goal is to obtain heat transfer coefficients, steam efficiencies, and

capacities for both effects, and study the effect of different operating
conditions, including but not limited to, flow rates, forward vs. backward
feed, natural vs. forced convection, and vacuum level in the second effect.

Theory: See Perry (1997), Bennett and Myers (1982), McCabe et al. (2001), or
Geankoplis (1993) for a discussion of evaporation.

Equipment: The Swenson double-effect evaporator is in the bay area in the laboratory.
A blueprint of the evaporator is provided on the laboratory wall directly
across from the evaporator.

SAFETY PRECAUTIONS:
• There are several process and steam valves that discharge directly into
the room. Do not touch a valve until you know what you are doing!
The tagged valves are particularly dangerous. Steam burns can be
very serious.
• If you overfeed the evaporator above the top view port, turn off the
main steam immediately. There is a header valve on the steam next to
the east wall (near the laboratory door).
• When opening valves on the second floor, be careful that liquid is not
discharged onto persons below. Always wear hard hats when working
in the bay area.
• Be sure that the condenser coolant is turned on before the steam and
that coolant is not turned off until after boiling has stopped.
• The pump seals are supposed to drip slowly. This lubricates the
packing.

Preliminary Preparations:
Examine the evaporator and determine the functions of all transfer lines.
Prepare a written start-up procedure and have it reviewed by an assistant
or faculty before beginning the experiment.

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Procedure: Turn on the cooling water. Fill the first effect to the center of the middle
observation port and begin heating this effect. As the water approaches
170o F in the first effect, start introducing feed water to this effect and the
overflow hot water into the second effect. Turn on the steam jet to
produce a vacuum in the second effect.

The feed steam pressure will be fixed for this experiment and can be read
on the gauge after the reducing regulator. You are to observe the effect of
varying operating conditions on heat transfer and evaporator performance
(capacity, steam economy). The following is a list of possible operating
conditions that you might choose to investigate:

• Feed rate
• Vacuum level
• Backward/forward feed
• Natural/forced convection on first effect

Determine the precision of your measurements and the reproducibility of

your runs by making repeat measurements and performing repeat runs.

Analysis: Estimate experimental error in individual measurements, propagation of

error in calculations involving measured values, and (if possible) the error
between repeat runs. For all runs check the mass and energy balances and
calculate the overall heat-transfer coefficient for each effect. Compare
these with available theory and correlations. Develop an empirical
process model for this evaporator (see attachment).

Report: Describe the design of your experiment, the precautions you took to gather
valid data, your results (including balances, heat transfer coefficients and
error analysis), and your process model. Provide thoughtful and
quantitative discussion of results, explain trends using physical principles
and relate your results to theory or published values. Express any
discrepancies between observed and predicted results in terms of
quantified experimental uncertainties or model limitations.

References:

Bennett, C. O. and Myers, J. E., Momentum, Heat, and Mass Transfer, 3rd Ed,
McGrawHill, New York, NY (1982), Chapters 4 and 6.
Geankoplis, C.J., Transport Processes and Unit Operations, 3rd Ed., Prentice Hall, Inc.,
New Jersey, (1993).
McCabe, W. L., Smith, J. C. and Harriott, P., Unit Operations of Chemical Engineering,
McGraw-Hill, New York, NY, (2001).
Perry, J. H., Chemical Engineer’s Handbook, 7th Ed., McGraw-Hill, New York, NY
(1997).

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TIPS FOR PLANNING AND ANALYZING DATA FROM EVAPORATOR

EXPERIMENTS

STEADY STATE
Analyzing your data is easiest using steady state mass and energy balances. Thus you
must do your utmost to insure your experimental data are measured under steady state
conditions. To determine where you are operating with respect to steady state, take
measurements often and record them as a function of time. Study the trend of the data by
plotting the values and performing regression analysis with respect to time. Interpret your
data to decide whether you are approaching steady state, departing from a steady state, or
at a steady state. You can enter data into a spreadsheet or polymath; do it while you are in
the lab and conducting the experiments, in order to learn how long you have to wait until
steady state is reached. Do not wait until later. You could find you never reached steady
state and thus have no data that can be analyzed by simple mass and energy balances.

ANALYSIS OF DATA
You should compute heat transfer coefficients, thermal capacities and economies for
different flows and flow configurations. Do this for the individual evaporator effects, and
for the effects operating in combination.

GIVE COMPLETE INFORMATION

Label your diagrams, graphs and tables carefully and include full details that another
person would need to understand your diagrams, graphs and tables, and to repeat your
experiments. The details should be included as part of the figure caption when it is not
logical or convenient to put them on the graph or table.

STATISTICAL ANALYSIS
Repeat experiments several times. Are the results reproducible? For an experiment done
several times under identical conditions, how closely do values of slope and intercept
agree when you plot data as a straight line? Analyze the reproducibility of the
experiments by testing the values of slopes and intercept statistically. Use other suitable
and appropriate analysis and plotting of your data if you cannot find straight-line
behavior. Be sure to take sufficient steady state data to permit statistical analysis of
confidence limits and reproducibility. Raw data and computed results should be analyzed
statistically.

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A Simple Process Model for the Evaporator

The objective of a model is to correlate and predict the performance of a system over a
limited range of process variables. Ideally an operator can control these variables.

To develop the model, one first names all the controllable independent variables for
which information is available. For example,

• X1 = vacuum level in mm Hg
• X2 = feed rate in gpm
• X3 = 1 if forward feed, 0 if backward

The simplest model for this example would then be

Y = a 0 + a1 X 1 + a 2 X 2 + a3 X 3 (1)

where Y could be the observed capacity of the evaporator, steam economy, etc. and ai are
constants to be found by using the data, i.e., Y vs. Xi. Other algebraic forms may be
preferred, especially if suggested by theory or dimensional analysis. Note that the values
of all Xi must be recorded for each run, even if these are nominally held "constant." Also
only one set (i.e., one value of Y and one value each of X1, X2 and X3) can be used from
each independent run. If the run is a difficult one to control, take multiple sets of
readings during the run, and average these; then use only the average in the model. Do
not discard a set simply because an independent variable is not quite at the planned value;
this set can be used. Sets that should be discarded include those resulting from grossly
transient operation, or ones that feature seriously misread values of any variable.

To solve for the constants ai use any equation solver (e.g., Polymath) that can handle
over-determined problems (called "regression," "fitting," etc.). Over-determined means
that you have more data than constants, if this is not the case, then more data are needed.
Most packages will also give you a measure of the significance of the constants. If the
significance of a constant is low, then the corresponding term should be removed from
the model and the problem solved again. Better yet, one should get more data that has
lower error! As a measure of how well your experiment is going, it is very appropriate to
keep fitting the model as the data come in.

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Notes on Operation of the Evaporator

The double effect evaporator is used to remove water from a feed stream, and derives its
efficiency by using the heat content of the steam from the first effect to heat water in the
second effect. Note several pumps shown in the wall diagram are no longer attached to
the system. Also note there are three feed flowmeters; use the one on the right. Drain
incoming water downstairs on startup to eliminate rust, etc. Set the feed between 0.5 and
1.0 GPM.

Available are stopwatches, thermometers, helmets, and a light for looking into the ports
of the apparatus. Use walkie-talkies for communication, as the area can get noisy.

On startup, purge air from the system through the vents to prevent problems with
blockage of the condensate. Note that we do not use automatic steam traps on the
system; the steam is controlled manually using a condensate trap with a sight glass.

For heating the evaporator, 60-psi steam is reduced to around 8 psi. Always feed to the
left (west) effect, labeled Effect #1. Blow down the steam before opening the valve to
the evaporator in order to remove water, rust, etc. from the line. There is also a small line
with a valve to drain condensate from the steam feed section. Condensate flow is
controlled manually by valves such that the liquid levels in the sight glasses are constant.

Maintain the liquid level in both effects at the center of the lower sight glass of each.
This gives better heat transfer and more rapid evaporation than with higher water levels.
The operation is a continuous-feed-in, product-out system. Do not try optimizing one
effect and later adding the other. The first day is spent learning the system and trying to
achieve a forward-feed steady-state operation. The second day this run should be
reproduced and sufficient data obtained to demonstrate mass and heat balances for each
part and for the total system before you leave lab. Of course your notebooks will have a
complete diagram of the system for all cases. Subsequent days are used to study
variables.

All flow meters need calibration. Important: do not open any valves that will cause a
violent rush of fluid to pin the meters.

High-pressure steam at 125 psi is used to create a vacuum in the venturi near the
condenser. Open the valve slowly. Do not run at maximum obtainable vacuum, as it
cannot be easily maintained with time. Keep the barrel downstairs filled to the center
overflow tube.

Remember that steam, water and air are shared with other experiments. Strange drops in
flow can occur when valves are turned on or off at different experiments.

Drain the system when you are finished, unless you plan to use it on the next lab period.
Let the cooling water run for 30 min after the evaporator is turned off.

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