Evaporating and Drying Equipment

Major evaporator designs include forced-circulation, long-tube vertical (both rising and falling film), and calandria-type evaporators. The economics of a particular process will dictate the evaporator style and model best suited to a particular application. Forced-circulation and calandria evaporators are required for processes where crystals are formed. These evaporators are designed to keep crystals suspended in solution to prevent scaling of the equipment. Long-tube vertical evaporators are used to concentrate a liquid that does not have solids present. 

Evaporators require a source of heat to operate. This heat may be supplied from a boiler, gas turbine, vapor compressor, other evaporator, or a combination of sources. Multiple effect evaporators are very popular when cheap, high pressure steam is available to heat the system. A Mechanical Vapor Recompression evaporator would use electricity or a gas turbine to drive a compressor that recycles the heat in the evaporator. 

Evaporators have performed successfully in a number of industrial applications. Typical materials that are processed in evaporators include Caustic Soda, Caustic Potash, Sodium Carbonate, Sodium Dichromate, Sodium Nitrate, Ammonium Nitrate, Phosphoric Acid Superacid, Potash, Urea, Glue, Glycerine, 

Tankwater, Bright dip acid (phosphoric), Cyanide rinse bath, Pickle Liquor, Sodium Aluminate Liquor, N.S.S.C. Liquor, Kraft Liquor, Soda Liquor, Sulfite Liquor, Stillage, Corn Syrup, Gelatin, Salt, Soybean Oil, Steepwater, Sugar, Whey, Mercerizing Caustic, Nylon Salt, Rayon Spin Bath, and Sodium Sulfate. 

A low-pressure-drop liquid cyclone is sometimes used to clarify liquor discharged from the evaporator. The driving force is the pressure drop across the circulating pump. Thickened slurry is returned through a wide-open cyclone underflow connection to the circulating piping before the pump suction. 

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