Pilot Vertical Climbing-Film Tubular Evaporator
Stainless steel calandria tube (ID 25.4 mm, length 2.0 m, area 0.160 m^2) with external steam jacket.
Chemical & Process Engineering / Tubular Evaporator Steam Economy
FREE TO EXPLORELABORATORY 16 · CHEMICAL & PROCESS ENGINEERING
Single-Effect Vertical Tube Evaporator Steam Economy & Concentration Kinetics
Operate a pilot-scale single-effect vertical climbing/falling-film evaporator concentrating aqueous sucrose solution, evaluate water evaporation rate and steam economy as a function of heating steam pressure, and determine overall heat transfer coefficient U_evap. Explore interactive transport phenomena, unit operations simulation, and chemical engineering telemetry.
TRANSPORT PHENOMENA · UNIT OPERATIONS · PROCESS CONTROL · REACTION ENGINEERING
Your virtual chemical and process engineering laboratory.
VAPOR EVAPORATION RATE M_DOT_V—
PROCESS & PILOT PLANT TELEMETRY
Ready to sample with Steam Press P_s = 1.5 bar.
Adjust Steam Press P_s, then execute chemical process trial.
Chemical and process engineering telemetry is evaluated rigorously using 64-bit IEEE 754 precision. Residuals reflect ordinary least-squares regression across successive observations. Continuous data structures support high-fidelity transport phenomena and unit operations modeling.
Process engineering assumptions and boundary condition limits
The transport and thermodynamic models apply within the specified calibrated operating window (0.5 to 3.0 bar). Evaluated using a single-tube vertical climbing-film evaporator (tube ID 25.4 mm, length 2.0 m, area A = 0.160 m^2) operating at atmospheric boiling pressure (T_boil = 100.5 °C). Linear regression models evaporation rate m_dot_v versus steam gauge pressure P_s.
Process apparatus & industrial sensors.
Centrifugal Vapor-Liquid Cyclone Separator
Separates concentrated liquid liquor from evaporated steam vapor with zero liquid droplet entrainment.
Shell-and-Tube Overhead Vapor Condenser
Condenses evaporated water vapor into a graduated distillate condensate catch vessel.
Steam Condensate Trap & Gravimetric Catch Pot
Captures condensed heating steam to measure steam consumption rate m_dot_s.
Automatic Steam Pressure Reducing & Control Station
Maintains saturated steam supply pressure stable from 0.5 to 3.0 bar gauge.
Digital Abbe Optical Refractometer
Measures Brix sucrose concentration of feed and concentrated bottom liquor with 0.1% accuracy.
FOLLOW THE METHOD
A reason behind every step.
Operate a pilot-scale single-effect vertical climbing/falling-film evaporator concentrating aqueous sucrose solution, evaluate water evaporation rate and steam economy as a function of heating steam pressure, and determine overall heat transfer coefficient U_evap. Standardized parameter settings: 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5, 3.0 bar.
01
Steam Jacket Warm-Up & Condensate Bleed
Crack open the steam supply valve to purge non-condensable air and warm the calandria; verify steam trap discharges condensate freely.
02
Feed Introduction & Circulation
Pump 10.0 wt% sucrose feed solution into the bottom calandria tube at 20.0 L/h; adjust liquid level to one-third tube height.
03
Steam Pressure Setpoint Establishment
Set steam jacket pressure regulator to P_s = 0.5 bar gauge (T_s = 111.4 °C); observe development of two-phase climbing film.
04
Distillate & Steam Condensate Timing
Allow 15 minutes of steady evaporation; collect overhead distillate condensate m_dot_v and heating steam condensate m_dot_s over a 10-minute interval.
05
Pressure Progression Protocol
Increment steam gauge pressure through 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5, and 3.0 bar, recording distillate production, steam consumption, and liquor Brix at each plateau.
06
Steam Economy & Rate Regression
Plot water evaporation rate m_dot_v versus steam pressure P_s, fit a linear regression through the origin, and calculate steam economy SE.
YOUR NOTEBOOK · 0 OBSERVATIONS
Turn measurements into chemical process engineering insight.
Points are your recorded observations. The solid regression line validates Tubular Evaporator Steam Economy mathematical scaling.
LINEAR REGRESSION FIT · y = mx + b
m_dot_v = S · P_s = 4.8000 · P_s
| # | Steam Jacket Gauge Pressure P_s (bar) | Vapor Evaporation Rate m_dot_v (kg/h) | Heating steam gauge pressure P_s (bar) | Water evaporation rate m_dot_v (kg/h) | Remove |
|---|
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CHECK YOUR UNDERSTANDING
Explain what the process engineering metrics mean.
The Steam Economy of an industrial evaporator is defined as:
In a single-effect evaporator without vapor recompression, the steam economy is typically:
Dissolving non-volatile sucrose solute into water causes the solution boiling point to:
A triple-effect evaporator operating under steady state has a theoretical steam economy of approximately:
THEORY AND UNIT OPERATIONS CONTEXT
Process engineering background & physical principles.
Evaporation is a major thermal separation unit operation in chemical processing, pulp and paper, desalination, and sugar manufacturing, responsible for concentrating dilute aqueous solutions by boiling off volatile water solvent. A single-effect tubular evaporator comprises a vertical shell-and-tube calandria where condensing utility steam outside the tubes transfers latent heat across the metal wall into the process liquid boiling inside the tubes. As vapor is generated, rising vapor bubbles expand rapidly, accelerating the liquid upward in climbing-film annular flow or descending as a thin turbulent falling film. Key performance metrics include the water evaporation mass rate m_dot_v, the overall heat transfer coefficient U_evap, and the dimensionless steam economy SE, defined as kilograms of water evaporated per kilogram of heating steam consumed: SE = m_dot_v / m_dot_s. For a single-effect unit without vapor recompression, steam economy is fundamentally limited to less than 1.0 (typically 0.80 to 0.95) due to radiation losses, feed preheating, and boiling point elevation (BPE) caused by non-volatile solutes. Increasing steam jacket pressure P_s elevates steam saturation temperature T_s, widening the thermal driving force (T_s - T_boil) and proportionally accelerating the evaporation rate: m_dot_v = S · P_s. In this experiment, a pilot climbing-film evaporator concentrating a 10 wt% sucrose feed is operated across steam pressures from 0.5 to 3.0 bar to evaluate evaporation rate sensitivity S and measure steam economy.
m_dot_v = S · P_s = 4.8000 · P_s
Evaluated using a single-tube vertical climbing-film evaporator (tube ID 25.4 mm, length 2.0 m, area A = 0.160 m^2) operating at atmospheric boiling pressure (T_boil = 100.5 °C). Linear regression models evaporation rate m_dot_v versus steam gauge pressure P_s.