Department of Chemical Engineering

& Energy Sustainability

Faculty of Engineering

KNC 3221 Chemical Engineering Laboratory IV

Semester 2 – Session 2018/2019

Experiment 5: Evaporator

Name Matric No.

1 Nur Syahmina binti Ibrahim 57361
2 Nurizzati Hazwani binti Mohamad Nor 59051
Group 9
3 Jacyntha Sunny binti John 56180
4 Alvin ak Ahjun 55421
5 Then Mun Yip 58512
Group 2
6 Muhammad Afiq bin Salahuddin 58786
Lecturer’s Name
Mohd Farid Atan Submission Date: 10/3/19

Bachelor of Engineering with Honours

(Chemical Engineering)

2018
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Abstract 1
1 Introduction
1.1 Aim 1
1.2 Objectives 1
1.3 Problem statement 2
2 Literature Review 2
3 Experimental Procedures
3.1 Safety Precautions 3
3.2 Experimental Procedures 3
4 Result and Discussion

4.1 Results Data 6

4.2 Calculations 6
4.3 Discussion 6
5 Conclusion 10
6 Bibliography 10
 Abstract
An investigation was carried out in order to fully understand the operation and the effect of feed
flow rate to the evaporation rate in the evaporator. This study was carried out by using SOLTEQ
Double Effect Evaporator (Model: BP 213) to run the experiment. For this experiment, the
equipment was setup by the following procedure to study the Single Effect Evaporator. Other than
that, the equipment generally consists of two evaporators, a feed tank, two vapor liquid separators,
a condenser and vessels for distillate and concentrate. The evaporation rate in the evaporator was
determined for different pump stroke which manipulate the feed flow rate into the evaporator by
measuring the volume in the distillate tank. Plots of volume of liquid, capacity and economy
against pump stroke graph were presented in the report. Distillate volume is affected by changes
of feed flow rate, as the distillate volume is decreasing when the feed flow rate is increased and
vice versa.
Keywords: Evaporator; feed flow rate; capacity; economy; pump stroke; single effect evaporator.

1.0 Introduction

1.1 Aim
To investigate the relationship between the feed flow rate into the evaporator and the
evaporation rate of the solution.

1.2 Objective

The objectives of this experiment are:

1. To study the effect of pump stroke on the feed flow rate into the evaporator.
2. To study the effect of pump stroke on the solution temperature in the evaporator.
3. To observe the effect of pump stroke on the solution in the evaporator.
4. To calculate the value of capacity and economy by using equation.

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 1.3 Problem Statement
The expected study of this experiment is different pump stroke configuration are
affecting the evaporation rate of the solution, volume of the feed vessel, volume of the
condensate vessel and volume of the steam vessel. Does the pump stroke affect the volume
of the solution in the evaporator? Does the volume of the feed vessel, condensate vessel
and steam vessel are also affected by the different configuration of the pump stroke? Does
the pump stroke affect the evaporation rate in the evaporator?

2.0 Literature Review

Evaporation is the process where by an element or compound change the state of itself
from liquid to gas due to an increase of temperature that is lower than the temperature of the
boiling point of the substance. For instance, water boils at 100 °C but it actually started to
evaporate at 32 °C at an extremely slow rate. There are four main factors that can affect
evaporation which are the area of exposed water surface, the temperature of the water, the
movement of air above the water surface and the relative humidity (Magin, 1960).
An evaporator is build up of condenser, pumps, controls and heat exchangers where the
function are to boil up the solution and separate the vapour from the boiling solution.
Evaporators are categorized according to their length and the positioning of evaporator tubes
either horizontally or vertically which can be located at the main vessel. Besides that,
evaporator can also be operated more than one. According to Husain & Patil (2016), a single
evaporator that is used for concentration of a solution is called as single evaporator system
where as more than one is known as multiple effect evaporator system.
The selection of suitable evaporator can be affected by numbers of factor such as feed,
solution viscosity, fouling and foaming characteristics. Table 2.1 show the summary of
evaporators for a certain condition.

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 Table 2.1 Summary of evaporation for certain condition (Lenntech, 2019)
Evaporator Feed Condition Suitable
Type for Heat
Viscocity, cP Foaming Scaling Crystal Solids in Sensitive
Production Suspension
High Medium Low
>1000 100-1000 <100
Calandria
(short tube X
vertical)
Forced
√
Circulation
Falling
X
Film
Natural
X
Circulation
Agitated
Film
√
(single
pass)
Long tube
falling
film √
Long tube
raising √
film

3.0 Equipmental Procedures

3.1 Safety Precautions
1. The unit must be operated under the supervision of trained personnel.
2. Do not touch the hot components or surface of the units.
3. All the operating instructions supplied with the unit must be carefully read and
understood before attempting to operate the unit.

3.2 Experimental Procedures

General start up procedure:

1. The condensate vessel, evaporator columns, feed vessel and concentrate vessel were
drained by opening these valves:

HV01, HV03, HV27, HV37, HV40, and HV42

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 Note: This step was carried out to ensure that the actual readings can be taken correctly
without being affected by the leftover liquids.

2. The feed vessel was filled with 30L of distilled water. This is due to its maximum
possible volume that could be stored through the charge port.
3. Valve HV14 were opened and cooling water was allowed to flow in to the cooler. The
flow rate of cooling water is required about 20LPM.
Note: The function of cooling water is to ensure that the temperature of the condenser
is at room temperature.
4. If the unit was operated at atmospheric pressure, skip to step 6.
5. HV47 was opened for vacuum operation and vacuum pump was turned on.
6. The equipment is ready for experiment.

Operating procedure:
1. The general start-up procedures were performed.
2. The pump stroke rate was adjusted to 20% (minimum observed pump stroke).
Note: Pump stroke rate was started with minimum value because it is the efficient way
to observe the trend of the data collected after each set of experiment.
3. Pump P1 was switched on to allow the solution from the feed tank to enter the boiler
(W2).
Note: This step is started when the steam had flowed into the coils as its function is to
heat up the feed water and remove gas from water.
4. The steam from boiler is allowed to enter the pump continuously by adjusting the PRV
01 to manipulate the pressure inlet.
Note: The steam entering the pump was ensured not to be overflowed. PRV 01 was
adjusted in order to ensure the steam pressure does not exceed 2.0bar. Besides, valve
HV17 must be opened as it allowed the steam to heat up the feed water in the boiler.
5. The maximum cooling pressure for the condenser was ensured not to exceed 2 bar (g)
in order to prevent the explosion to occur in the double effect evaporator equipment.
6. The volume contents of feed vessel, concentrated vessel, condensate vessel and steam
vessel were recorded after 30 minutes.

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 Note: The system was allowed to stabilise before the stop watch was started. Readings
were taken after 30 minutes to let the system have adequate interaction before draining
off the liquid residue.
7. The experiment was repeated from step 2 to step 7 at different pump stroke rate of 50,
100%.
Note: The behaviour of single-effect setting for evaporator could be analysed by
alternating the pump stroke rate.
8. The general shut-down procedure was performed after experiment is done as attached
on the equipment.

Shut down Procedure

1. The cooling water was kept running through the cooler.
2. The metering pump P1 and P2 was switched off.
3. The vacuum pump was stopped. HV04, HV25, HV35, HV38 and HV43 were opened
to return the vacuum system to atmospheric pressure.
4. V01, V11, V12, V12, V15 and V16 were opened to drain liquid residue.
5. The remaining liquid is drained off from distillation vessel B6 and B7 by opening
valve V20 and V21.
6. The cooling water was turned off once no more boiling is observed in evaporator tube.
7. The main power for control panel was switched off.

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4.0 Results and Discussions
4.1 Results Data
Table 4.1 shows the data obtained from the evaporation process at 25%, 50% and 100%
stroke.

Table 4.1 Data for evaporation process

Pump Stroke rate (%) 25 50 100

Initial Feed Volume
(L) 30 30 30
Final Feed Volume
(L) 17 10 0
Feed Volume (L) 13 20 30
Liquid Volume (L) 10.2 17.82 27.75
Distillate Volume (L) 0.88 0.5 0
Steam Volume (L) 5.73 5.68 6.24
Capacity (kg/hour) 1.76 1 0
Economy 0.1536 0.0880 0

4.2 Calculations
These are the formulas used in the experiment to identify for the capacity and economy.
From Equation 4.1, capacity is the ratio of mass of distillate volume with time in hour.
Meanwhile, Equation 4.2 shows the ratio of distillate volume and steam volume which
represents the economy.

𝑁𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑘𝑖𝑙𝑜𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑚𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑙𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑤𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑟

𝐶𝑎𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑦 = Equation 4.1
𝑇𝑖𝑚𝑒 (ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑟)

𝑁𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑘𝑖𝑙𝑜𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑚𝑠 𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑙𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑤𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑟

𝐸𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑜𝑚𝑦 = 𝑁𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑘𝑖𝑙𝑜𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑚𝑠 𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑎𝑚 𝑢𝑠𝑒𝑑 Equation 4.2

4.3 Discussions
From Table 4.1, there are three tabulated graphs that can be obtained as shown in
Figure 4.1, Figure 4.2 and Figure 4.3. The graph from Figure 4.1 illustrated a graph of
volume of feed, distillate, steam and liquid at three different pump strokes of 25%, 50%
and 100% respectively.

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 Volume vs Pump Stroke
40
y = 0.2229x + 8
30 R² = 0.9922 y = 0.2289x + 5.235

Volume (L)
20 y = 0.0074x + 5.45 R² = 0.987
10 R² = 0.838
y = -0.0115x + 1.13
0
R² = 0.9876
-10 0 20 40 60 80 100 120
Pump Stroke (%)

Liquid Volume Distillate Volume

Steam Volume Feed Volume
Linear (Liquid Volume) Linear (Distillate Volume)
Linear (Steam Volume) Linear (Feed Volume)

Figure 4.1 Graph of volume of feed, distillate, steam and liquid at three different pump strokes of 25%,
50% and 100%

Based on Figure 4.1, as the applied pump stroke is increased, the feed volume from
the feed vessel increased too. As shown in the figure above, it can be observed that when
the applied pump stroke is increased from 25% to 50% and lastly to 100%, the linear line
(which is indicated by the yellow line) shows a positive gradient of graph which is 0.2229.
This proves that the feed volume is directly proportional to the applied pump strokes on the
evaporator. Theoretically, the increase in the volume is because of the pump stroke
configuration. The pump stroke represents the control of the volume flow rate of the
system. Therefore, the increase in volume flow rate of the stroke pump results in the
increase amount of water used in the feed vessel.
Apart from that, the grey line as shown in Figure 4.1 above depicts a constant
trend line of steam volume from 25% to 50% and lastly to 100%. Although there is a
slight increase of 9.859% from 50% pump stroke to 100% stroke, this increase can be
assumed negligible since the percent difference is just below ±that 10% Theoretically,
the steam volume should be in a constant volume since the steam flow is kept constant
throughout the evaporator system. For the pump stroke of 25% - 50%, the steam
volumes are nearly constant which is at 5.73L and 5.68L respectively.
From Figure 4.1, correlation coefficient of r is determined for each of the
straight -line using Excel Function. This correlation coefficient is a numerical
measure that measures the strength and direction of the linear relationship between

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volume of liquid, distillate, steam and feed volume against pump stroke variables. It
can be observed that, the r values for feed, liquid and distillate volume against pump
stroke, are almost equal to one which are 0.9922, 0.987 and 0.9876 respectively.
Theoretically, a value greater than zero indicates a positive association which means that
as the value of pump stroke rate variables increase, so does the value of the other variable
which is the volume of the feed, liquid and distillate obtained. This clearly proves that the
obtained data for the volumes against the applied pump strokes provides a strong linear
relationship.

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1.8
1.6
1.4
1.2
Capacity

1
0.8
0.6
y = -0.023x + 2.26
0.4 R² = 0.9876
0.2
0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
-0.2
Pump Stroke (%)

Figure 4.2 Graph of capacity against pump stroke

From Figure 4.2, the capacity decreases linearly with pump stroke. However, the
magnitude and extent of decrease is different for both 25% to 50% and 50% to 100%. Let
us indicate that line 25% to 50% as line AB and line 50% to 100% as line BC. The slope
of the line AB is steeper compared to line BC. It is found that slope of line AB is 3.04 kg/hr
while slope of line BC is 2 kg/hr.

𝐶𝑎𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑦 = 𝛼 𝑥 𝑃𝑢𝑚𝑝 𝑆𝑡𝑟𝑜𝑘𝑒 Equation 4.3

Where 𝛼 is the slope of the graph.

𝛼 is the slope of the graph as well as a constant that correlates pump stroke to capacity. As
observed from the graph and from the calculation of the 𝛼, the pump stroke has a larger

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influence on the capacity on the range of 25% to 50% as compared to 50% to 100%. In
other words, the capacity is highly dependent on pump stroke for the range of 25% to 50%.
Thus, the higher the pump stroke, the lesser the mass of distillate water produced and this
effect is especially apparent when the pump stroke is in the range of 25% to 50%.

0.1800
0.1600
0.1400
0.1200
0.1000
Economy

0.0800
0.0600
y = -0.002x + 0.1976
0.0400 R² = 0.9888
0.0200
0.0000
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
-0.0200
Pump Stroke (%)

Figure 4.3 Graph of economy against pump stroke

Let us indicate that line 25% to 50% as line XY and line 50% to 100% as line YZ.
It can be observed from Figure XX that economy follows the as Figure X, that is, the
economy decreases linearly with pump stroke. Just like capacity, the slope of the line XY
is steeper compared to line YZ for economy. The slope is determined to be 0.2732 and
0.1760 for line XY and line YZ respectively.
𝐸𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑜𝑚𝑦 = 𝛽 𝑥 𝑃𝑢𝑚𝑝 𝑆𝑡𝑟𝑜𝑘𝑒 Equation 4.4
Where 𝛽 is the slope of the graph
Although both line XY and line YZ decrease linearly, but the economy is highly
correlated with pump stroke for line XY while the correlation between economy and pump
stroke for line YZ is relative or normal. Thus, the pump stroke gives higher impact to
economy in the range of 25% to 50% as compared to range of 50% to 100% and the higher
the pump stroke, the smaller the ratio of mass of distillate water over mass of steam.
Both graphs in Figure 4.2 and Figure 4.3 have the correlation coefficient or R-
squared value of 0.9876 and 0.9888. This high R-squared value indicates that the sets of

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 data taken have high goodness of fit, validating the effect of pump stroke on capacity and
economy. Pump stroke is proven to be viable parameter to both capacity and economy.
Therefore, pump stroke is highly correlated to both capacity and economy as generally, 0.7
for R-squared is considered a strong effect size.
Next, the theoretical range for economy for an evaporator is 0.75-0.95 kg water/kg
steam (Hackett, 2018). However, in this experiment, this range of economy is not achieved
as the economy calculated for the evaporator at 25% pump stroke is 0.1536 kg water/kg
steam. This is possibly due to several factors, such as human error and fault in equipment.
For instance, the pipes are not fully enclosed as steam and inked water are observed to leak
out of the pipes, this in turns causes the steam volume and distillate volume collected to be
less than actual amount, leading to the deviation of results from theoretical value. Other
than that, the pump used in the laboratory might have lower-than-normal efficiency, due to
wear and tear. Also, the feed tank is placed high up in the laboratory, making it hard to
accurately read the volume. All of these factors have contributed to the inaccuracy or
deviation of the economy of the evaporator.

5.0 Conclusion

In conclusion, the application of using a single effect evaporator have been achieved. The
percentage of the operating pump strokes with constant time of 30 minutes were manipulated
to present the study. The study shows that the percentage of the pump stroke have a significant
effect as it cause a different volume of content which is interrelated with economy and
capacity of the evaporator itself.

6.0 Bibliography

Hackett, B.W. (2018). The essentials of continuous evaporation. Retrieved on 10 March 2019
from https://www.aiche.org/resources/publications/cep/2018/may/essentials-
continuous-evaporation

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Husain A., Patil K., and Thakur S. A. (2016). Performance of Evaporators and
Various Parameters: A Review. Pratibha: International Journal of Science,
Spirituality, Business and Technology (IJSSBT), Vol. 5, No. 1. ISSN 2277-7261.

Lenntech. (2019). Evaporation (ZLD). Retrieved on 10 March 2019 from

https://www.lenntech.com/processes/Brine-Treatment/evaporation.htm

Magin, G.B. & Randall, L.E. (1960). Review of literature on evaporation suppression.
Washington, US : United States Government Printing Office

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