What are the application areas of multi-effect evaporators

Multi-effect evaporators are widely used in food, pharmaceutical, environmental protection, chemical, and seawater desalination industries. They are energy-efficient and suitable for treating high-salt wastewater and heat-sensitive materials, making them a preferred technology for large-scale production.

I. Food Industry (Most Mature Application)

Dairy Processing

Applications: Milk, condensed milk, milk powder, whey powder, lactose concentration

Features: Uses a triple-effect falling film evaporator, operating temperature 75-40°C, preventing protein denaturation and preserving nutrients.

Historical Applications: Since the late 1990s, triple-effect falling film evaporators have become the mainstream configuration for milk powder production.

Sugar Industry

Applications: Sugar juice concentration (increasing dry matter content from 15% to over 68%), syrup evaporation

Case Study: A company reduced steam consumption by 12% using a multi-effect plate evaporator.

Fruit Juice Beverages

Applications: High-viscosity fruit juice and jam concentration

Advantages: Low-temperature vacuum evaporation preserves flavor and nutrients.

Other Applications: Glutamic acid concentration, glucose evaporation and crystallization, starch concentration, brewing industry evaporation and concentration.

II. Pharmaceutical Industry (High Cleanliness Requirements)

Core Applications

Drug Concentration: Low-temperature concentration (≤55℃) of traditional Chinese medicine extracts and antibiotic fermentation broth, retaining 98% of active ingredients.

Solvent Recovery: Recycling and reusing organic solvents such as ethanol and methanol to reduce production costs.

Wastewater Treatment:Treatment of high-concentration organic wastewater and saline wastewater, achieving "zero discharge."

Aseptic Production:Fully enclosed design meets GMP standards, preventing external contamination.

Technical Configuration: Utilizes a low-temperature vacuum evaporator (≤55℃) to meet the production needs of heat-sensitive drugs.

III. Environmental Protection and Wastewater Treatment (Fastest Growing Area)

High-Salinity Wastewater Treatment

Application Scenarios: Reverse osmosis concentrate, circulating cooling water discharge, ion exchange regeneration wastewater.

Typical Case: Wuhan Tianyuan Yuheng Project processes 2880 tons of concentrated brine per day, achieving a 99% resource recycling rate and reducing operating costs by 40%.

Technology Combination: Multi-effect evaporation and membrane concentration, salt separation and crystallization process. Combined Use

Heavy Metal Recovery

Applications: Electroplating wastewater, lithium battery wastewater, mineral smelting wastewater

Data: A triple-effect evaporator in an electroplating industrial park processes 500 tons of wastewater daily, achieving zero heavy metal discharge and saving over 5 million yuan annually.

Recovery Rate: Nickel and cobalt recovery rates exceed 95%.

Coal Chemical Wastewater

Scale: Annual treatment of 500,000 tons of wastewater; by-product industrial salt revenue covers equipment costs.

Innovative Process: Nanofiltration salt separation + MVR crystallization; sodium chloride and sodium sulfate separation purity both >99%.

IV. Chemical and Petrochemical Industries

Salt Chemicals

Salt Production Industry: Brine concentration and purification using a five-effect evaporation process, achieving a salt purity of over 98%.

Soda Ash, Caustic Soda: Evaporation concentration and crystallization.

Fine Chemicals

Dyeing and Printing Wastewater, Pesticide Wastewater, Petrochemical Wastewater Treatment

Solvent Recovery and Chemical Product Concentration

Chemical Fiber Industry

Spinning process wastewater treatment; multi-effect evaporation for energy saving. High cost-effectiveness and widespread application

V. Seawater Desalination

Technology Type: Multi-Effect Distillation (MED) is one of the earliest seawater desalination methods. Water Production Ratio: Horizontal tube low-temperature multi-effect distillation with a jet heat pump can produce 6 kg of distilled water from 1 kg of steam.

Application Scale: Mechanical pump-type double-effect stills with a daily freshwater production capacity of 35-150 m³ are widely used in ships and offshore drilling platforms.

VI. Paper and Pulp Industry

Alkali Recovery: Black liquor evaporation and concentration uses multi-effect plate evaporator groups, with a thermal efficiency 15-30% higher than tubular evaporators. This reduces production costs and enables chemical recycling.

VII. Energy and Power Industry

Desulfurization Wastewater Treatment

Application: Zero discharge of limestone-gypsum desulfurization wastewater from thermal power plants. Technology: Multi-effect evaporation + mechanical vapor recompression (MVR) coupled process, reducing energy consumption by 50-70%. Water Quality Characteristics: Treats high salinity (TDS) water. 5-10%), high suspended solids, highly corrosive wastewater

VIII. Metallurgy and New Energy Industries

Hydrometallurgy

Concentrated brine treatment in the mineral smelting industry

Salt-containing aqueous solutions from steel plant ash and waste incineration fly ash washing

New Energy

Lithium battery wastewater: 300 tons per day, nickel recovery rate 98%

Electroplating industry: Achieve zero heavy metal emissions, annual savings of over 5 million yuan in hazardous waste treatment costs

IX. Other Special Applications

Seawater salt production: Extracting salt from seawater using multi-effect evaporation technology

Radioactive wastewater: Concentrated wastewater from the nuclear industry Concentration Treatment

Bioengineering: Fermentation Broth Concentration and Product Extraction

Application Area Selection Recommendations:

Priority Use: Food, pharmaceutical, and other heat-sensitive materials; environmentally friendly high-salt wastewater

Economic Considerations: Large-scale continuous production (>5t/h) offers greater cost advantages

Technological Trends: Coupling with MVR is becoming mainstream, reducing overall energy consumption by more than 50%

Multi-effect evaporators, with their significant energy-saving advantages (five-effect evaporation consumes only 0.3 tons of steam to evaporate 1 ton of water) and wide adaptability, have become standard equipment in chemical, food, and environmental protection fields.