Tubular evaporation and concentration equipment

Working Principle 

Tubular evaporation and concentration equipment primarily achieves solution evaporation and concentration through heat exchange between tube bundles and a refrigerant. Depending on the specific design, tubular evaporators can be classified into various types, such as single-effect evaporators, multi-effect evaporators, and forced circulation evaporators. Taking a forced circulation evaporator as an example, its working principle is as follows: The material exchanges heat with the steam outside the tubes of the evaporator, causing its temperature to rise.

The solution, after its temperature rises, separates into two phases: steam and solution. The steam rises to the separator, is separated by a demister, and then sent to the compressor.

The compressor compresses the steam and sends it to the shell side of the evaporator as heating steam, achieving the recycling of secondary steam for continuous evaporation.

The secondary steam generated during evaporation overflows from the material, which is then concentrated into a supersaturated material, crystallizing. The crystal slurry is output from the circulation pipeline by a discharge pump; the mother liquor enters the forced circulation pump, and under the action of the circulation pump, it enters the evaporator for further evaporation. This cycle of evaporation, concentration, and crystallization continues.

Advantages 

Compact Structure: Tubular evaporators typically have a compact structure, occupying a small area and facilitating installation and maintenance.

High heat exchange efficiency: Heat exchange between the tube bundle and the refrigerant enables rapid evaporation. Some advanced tubular evaporators also employ enhanced heat transfer technology, further improving heat exchange efficiency.

Wide range of applications: Suitable for various evaporation needs, such as food concentration, pharmaceutical extraction, and chemical processing.

Suitable for high-viscosity materials: Tubular evaporators, such as forced circulation evaporators, can handle high-viscosity materials containing particles.

Disadvantages:

High water quality requirements: The refrigerant in tubular evaporators is usually water or brine, requiring strict water quality control to avoid scale buildup and corrosion affecting evaporator performance.

High maintenance costs: Long-term use may lead to performance degradation due to scale buildup and corrosion, requiring regular cleaning and maintenance, increasing maintenance costs and time.

Larger refrigerant charge: Compared to some other types of evaporators, tubular evaporators typically require a larger refrigerant charge, increasing the risk of refrigerant leakage and potentially causing environmental pollution.

Application Scenarios

Tube-type evaporation and concentration equipment is widely used in various industries, including but not limited to the following:

Food Industry: Used for fruit juice concentration, milk concentration, syrup concentration, etc.

Pharmaceutical Industry: Used for the concentration of drug extracts, traditional Chinese medicine extracts, etc.

Chemical Industry: Used for the evaporation and concentration of various chemical solutions, such as the evaporation and concentration of magnesium sulfate wastewater.

Tube-type evaporation and concentration equipment is widely used in industrial production due to its speed and wide applicability, especially suitable for applications with high requirements for evaporation efficiency and product quality.