HeatIntegrationofEvaporators Module:06 Lecture42
Module06:Integrationandplacementofequipment
Lecture42:HEATINTEGRATIONOFEVAPORATORS
Keywords:Evaporators,MEE,
1. Introduction
Evaporationprocessesusuallyseparateasinglecomponent(typicallywater)fromanonvolatilematerial.
These systems are widely used in chemical industries such as Pulp and Paper, Chloralkali, Sugar,
Pharmaceuticals,Desalination,DairyandFoodprocessing,[Link]
only when the capacity needed is small. For larger capacity it is more usual to employ multiple effect
evaporator(MEE)[Link]
process of the industry. Thus, heat integration of evaporator with the background process may lead to
reductionofenergyrequirementoftheindustry.
2. Heatintegrationcharacteristic
Typically, the heat required for evaporation is provided by condensing steam or hot vapours in a heat
[Link],thedominantheatingandcoolingdutiesassociated
[Link]
withtheevaporatorforheatingorcoolingoffeed,[Link]
duties will usually be small in comparison with the latent heat changes. The heat integration of
evaporatorsrequiresrepresentationofevaporatorsinatemperatureenthalpydiagram.
2.3 TheTemperatureEnthalpy(TE)Diagram
TE diagram is drawn to represent the intricacies of multiple effect evaporator (MEE) system which is
describedhereunder.
2.3.1TheTEdiagramforsingleeffectevaporator
The single effect evaporator is shown in Fig.40.1(a) on actual temperature where evaporation and
[Link],forprocessintegrationallhotandcold
streams are shifted by T
min
/2 and +T
min
/2, respectively, where T
min
is the minimum temperature
difference [Townsend and Linnhoff, 1983]. Fig. 40.1(b) shows a graphical representation of a single
effectevaporatorinashiftedtemperature(T*)andenthalpydiagramwhereaneffectisrepresentedby
arectangle.
Enthalpyflow
T
Enthalpyflow
T
*
Fig.40.1TheTEdiagramforsingleeffectevaporator
a
b
HeatIntegrationofEvaporators Module:06 Lecture42
In Fig. 40.1(b), the upper line of the rectangle represents the heat duty received by the effect for
evaporationasitiscoldstreamwhich isshifted by +T
min
/2. Thelowerlineoftherectangleshowsthe
heat available for evaporation if the vaporized water in the effect is used as a heating medium in the
subsequent effect and condensed, which is termed as cascade representation of heat. For Fig. 40.1 it
was assumed that vapor leaving an effect was at the same temperature of liquid boiling inside that
[Link],forTEdiagram,theshiftedtemperaturescaleisused,hence,thedifferencebetweenthetwo
linesisexactlytheT
min
(Kemp,1986).
Further, Westphalen and Wolf Maciel (2000) presented a modified cascade representation for single
[Link],wherefeedtemperatureislowerthanthe
boilingpointoftheliquidinsidetheeffect,theTEdiagramforasingleeffectevaporatorisshowninFig.
2a. The effect is shown as a trapezoid. The upper and lower lines of trapezoid represent the heat
received by the effect and heat available from the vaporized water, respectively. The difference
betweentwolinesisequaltoT
min
.Theupperlineislongerthanthelowerlineinenthalpyaxisandthis
difference in length shows the sensible heating required to raise feed temperature up to effects
[Link],thisamountofheatcannotbecascadedtonexteffect.
If liquid exhibits boiling point rise (BPR), then vapor leaves the effect as superheated vapor. However,
when this vapor is used as a heating medium for another equipment, it condenses at pure water
[Link],thedistancebetweenupperandlowerlinesinshiftedtemperature
axisisgreaterthanT
min
.Theutilitylines,steamandcoldwater,[Link].
40.2(a) steam only provides latent heat and so it is represented by a horizontal line whereas, the cold
watertemperatureincreasesduetosensibleheatingandhenceitisshownbyaninclinedline.
Fig.40.2(b)[Link],the
feed provides sensible heat which is corresponding to the temperature difference between feed
[Link],theamountof
availableheat,representedbylowerlineofFig.40.2(b),isgreaterthantheheatconsumed.
Foracasewhenfeedtemperatureisequaltotemperatureofeffectupperandlowerlinesoftrapezoid
areofsamelengthduetothefactthatonlylatentheatistransferred.
Enthalpyflow
T
*
Fig.40.2ThemodifiedTEdiagramforsingleeffectevaporator
Steam
Coldwater
Enthalpyflow
T
*
Steam
Coldwater
(a)Feedtemperatureislowerthan
boilingpointofliquid
(b)Feedtemperatureisgreaterthan
boilingpointofliquid
HeatIntegrationofEvaporators Module:06 Lecture42
2.3.2TheTEdiagramforaMEEsystem
TE diagram of triple effect evaporator (TEE) system is shown in Fig. 40.3. This is for the case when all
thethreeeffectsareoperatedwiththesametemperaturedifferenceandtheshiftedtemperatureofthe
vapor from first effect coincided with shifted temperature of boiling liquid in second effect. The TE
diagram,showninFig.40.3,pointsouthowheatiscascadedthroughdifferenteffects.
Further, three different feed flow sequences: forward, back ward and mixed are considered with the
followingassumptions:
1) Feedtemperatureislowerthanthecorrespondingeffecttemperature
2) TemperaturedifferencesbetweenalleffectsaresameandequaltoT
min
.
For forward sequence, TE diagram is shown in Fig. 40.4(a). The liquid enters in first effect and moves
forward to a lower pressure effect in other words to a lower temperature effect. Liquid provides its
sensible heat to next two effects and so assists in the evaporation. For this case, the amount of
evaporatedwaterincreasesthroughsecondandthirdeffects.
For back ward sequence, liquid moves from last effect to higher pressure effects one by one and
consequently, to a higher temperature effects. For this condition, sensible heat is provided to liquid to
increase its temperature up to effects temperature. Therefore, the amount of water evaporated is
[Link].40.4(b).
Enthalpyflow
T
*
Fig.40.3TheTEdiagramforaTEEsystem
HeatIntegrationofEvaporators Module:06 Lecture42
At mixed sequence, the liquid flow is not fixed and thus TE diagram depends on the selection of flow
[Link],wherefeedisenteredtosecondeffectandthenmoveforwardtothirdandthen
tofirsteffect,theTEdiagramisshowninFig.40.4(c).
2.3.3TheTEdiagramofaMEEsystemforcondensateflashing
Usingtheconceptofcondensateflashingitisobservedthatwhencondensatefromaneffectisflashed
andmixedwiththeheatingmediumofthenexteffect,atypicalsavingofabout5%couldbeobtainedin
steamconsumption(Westphalen,1999).
[Link]
evident from Fig. 40.5(a) that if condensate flashing is not accounted then all the available heat from
oneeffectisnotcascadedtonexteffectwhereascascadingofallheatfromoneeffecttonexteffectis
onlypossiblebyaccountingcondensateflashing.
Enthalpyflow
T
*
Steam
Coldwater
Effect 1
Effect 2
Effect 3
(a)Forwardfeedflowsequence
Enthalpyflow
T
*
Steam
Coldwater
Effect 1
Effect 2
Effect 3
(b)Backwardfeedflowsequence
Enthalpyflow
T
*
Steam
Coldwater
Effect 1
Effect 2
Effect 3
(c)Mixedfeedflowsequence
Fig.40.4ThemodifiedTEdiagramforTEEsystem
HeatIntegrationofEvaporators Module:06 Lecture42
2.3.4 TheTEdiagramofMEEsystemforvaporbleeding
[Link]
whereas, the other part is used to heat up a process stream external to the effect. The TE diagram of
MEE system with vapor bleeding is shown in Fig. 40.6, which implies that all available heat is not
cascadedthroughtheeffects.
2.3.5 Vaporrecompression
Vaporleavingthelasteffectenterstocondenseranditcannotbeusedasheatsourcebecauseofitslow
[Link],[Link]
mechanical compressors or thermocompressors. In both ways, the amount of energy provided by
recompression to the first effect is greater than the amount of heat that is not sent to condenser, as
[Link](compressor).
Enthalpyflow
T
*
Steam
Coldwater
Effect 1
Effect 2
Effect 3
Fig.40.6TheTEdiagramforMEEsystemwithvaporbleeding
Vapor
bleeding
Enthalpyflow
T
*
Steam
Coldwater
Effect 1
Effect 2
Effect 3
Enthalpyflow
T
*
Steam
Coldwater
Effect 1
Effect 2
Effect 3
(a)Condensateflashingisnotused (b)Condensateflashingisused
Fig.40.5TheTEdiagramfortheinductionofcondensateflashingtoMEEsystem
HeatIntegrationofEvaporators Module:06 Lecture42
3.0 IntegrationofMEESystemwithBackGroundProcess
The integration of an evaporator with a background process can be obtained when the "boxes"
representing evaporator effects, either rectangle or trapezoidal, are accommodated in the GCC of the
backgroundprocess.
While integrating MEE system with the background process following assumptions are considered: (i)
boiling and condensing loads for each effect are equal and (ii) T
min
of the background process and
[Link],aneffectisrepresentedthrougharectangle.
The integration of a TEE system with background process is shown in Fig. 40.8a. It shows that at the
given temperature the TEE system is not fit against the GCC. One possibility is to an increase in
temperature to allow appropriate placement above the pinch, which is shown in Fig. 40.8b. However,
such increase in temperature may cause unacceptably high levels of decomposition and fouling in the
[Link],effects
can be added or removed and their working temperatures can be changed without significantly
affecting the rest of the system. Considering this fact five effects are integrated with GCC as shown in
Fig. 40.9a but there still might be a problem of product degradation because of high temperatures.
Instead of integrating all effects to above the pinch Fig. 40.9b shows a five effects system with three
[Link]
effects are not linked thermally. Third design option is shown in Fig. 40.9c in which the heat flow is
changed between effects. Fig. 40.9c shows an arrangement in which part of the vapor from the first
effect is bled for process heating rather than evaporation in the third effect. This means that more
evaporationistakingplaceinthefirsteffectsthanthesecondandsubsequenteffects.
#1
Steam
CW
Vapor
recompression
Enthalpy flow
T
*
#2
#3
Fig. 40.7 Heat profile of evaporation systems with vapor recompression
HeatIntegrationofEvaporators Module:06 Lecture42
3.1 ExampleofheatintegrationofMEEsystem
Fig.40.10showstheGCCofatypicalprocesswhereafoureffectevaporatorsystem,whichhas15MW
of total evaporation load, is placed. Steam is supplied at 190C (a shifted temperature of 180C), the
T
min
for each effect is 20C and the final vapour has a condensing temperature of 110C (shifted
temperature100C).Thelatentheatloadsofeacheffectplotashorizontallines,[Link]
heatingrequirementoftheprocessaswellasevaporatorsystemis10.75MW.
This system cannot be integrated in the present temperature levels and evaporation loads. For the
[Link]
evaporation load the load of fourth effect is redistributed to the other effects. Thus, three effect
systems with 5MW load on each effect instead of 3.75MW is integrated above the pinch as shown in
Increase
temperature
T*
T*
Enthalpy flow Enthalpy flow
(a) ATEEsystemisnotfitwithGCC (b) PlacementofTEEsystematincreasedtemperature
Fig.40.8IntegrationofaTEEsystem
T*
T*
T*
Enthalpy flow Enthalpy flow Enthalpy flow
(a) Afiveeffectevaporatorsystem
integratedabovethepinch
(b) Twoparallelsystem
integratedindependently
(c) Afoureffectevaporatorsystem
withchangeinheatload
Fig.40.9IntegrationofevaporatorsystemwithGCC
HeatIntegrationofEvaporators Module:06 Lecture42
[Link]
and is caused by the condensing vapour from effect 3. The present integration option reduces the
heatingrequirementoftheprocessaswellasevaporatorsystemto9MWandthus,reducestheheating
requirementby16.3%.
Following the same principle effect no. 3 can also be eliminated but at those temperatures the
backgroundGCCwouldbeunabletoabsorbtheadditionalheatwhichwouldbeaddedtoeffects1and2
[Link],[Link]
be done by transferring the load to the other effects and taking some of the vapour from effect 2 and
200
180
160
140
120
100
80
60
40
024 6 810 12
Background
process GCC
Pinch
Hot utility 9 MW
Cold utility 6 MW
Evaporator effects
1
2
3
Shifted
Temperature
(C)
Net heat load (MW)
Fig. 40.11 GCC for process with three effect evaporator system
Heat
saved
1.75MW
16.3%
200
180
160
140
120
100
80
60
40
024 6 810 12
Background
process GCC
Pinch
Hot utility 10.75 MW
Cold utility 7.75 MW
Evaporator effects
1
2
4
3
Shifted
Temperature
(C)
Net heat load (MW)
Fig. 40.10 GCC for process with four-effect evaporator
HeatIntegrationofEvaporators Module:06 Lecture42
use it not to heat effect no. 3 but to heat the process directly. The result is shown in Fig. 40.13. The
effectshavenowbeengivenunequalevaporationduties.
[Link]:
1.Thereisa25.6%energysaving.
[Link].
3.Thereisnoneedforacondenseraspreviouslyusedoneffect4.
Thus, pinch technology has given both capital and energy savings compared with conventional design.
Moreover, the importance of process integration can be seen as it gives an overview of the whole
processandshowshowonepartaffectsanother.
200
180
160
140
120
100
80
60
40
02 4 6 810 12
Background
process GCC
Pinch
Hot utility 8 MW
Cold utility 5 MW
Evaporator effects
1
2
3
Shifted
Temperature
(C)
Net heat load (MW)
Fig. 40.13 Integration of three effect evaporator system with GCC
Heat
saved
2.75MW
25.6%
Pinch
200
180
160
140
120
100
80
60
40
02 4 6 810 12
Background
process GCC
Pinch
Hot utility 9 MW
Cold utility 6 MW
Evaporator effects
1
2
Shifted
Temperature
(C)
Net heat load (MW)
Fig. 40.12 False integration of two effect evaporator system with GCC
Heat
saved
1.75MW
16.3%
HeatIntegrationofEvaporators Module:06 Lecture42
References
1. Townsend, D. W. and Linnhoff, B., Heat and power networks in process design: I. Criteria for
placement of heat engines and heat pumps in process networks, AlChE J., 29, No. 5, pp.742748
(1983)
2. Kemp,I.C.,Analysisofseparationsystemsbyprocessintegration,[Link].,7,No.9
(1986)
3. Westphalen, [Link], M. R.,Pinchanalysisofevaporationsystems,[Link].
Eng.,17,No.47,pp:525537(2000)
4. Westphalen, D. L., Modelagem, Simulao e Otimizao de Sistemas de Evaporao, [Link]. Thesis,
CampinasStateUniversity(1999)