Jordan University of Science & technology JUST

Chemical Eng. Dept.

Summer 2023
o The single-effect evaporation desalination system has very limited
industrial applications.
o The system is used in marine vessels. This is because the system
has a thermal performance ratio less than one, i.e.; the amount of
water produced is less than the amount of heating steam used to
operate the system

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Figure 1 shows a schematic diagram for the single effect evaporation
system.
The main
components of
the unit are the
evaporator and
the feed
preheater or the
condenser.

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o The evaporator consists of :
1. Evaporator/condenser heat exchange tubes
2. Vapor space
3. Un-evaporated water pool
4. Line for removal of non-condensable gases
5. Water distribution system,
6. Mist eliminator

o The condenser has a shell and tube configuration and operates in a

countercurrent mode, where the latent heat of condensed vapor is
transferred to the intake seawater, which includes the feed (Mf) and
the cooling seawater (Mcw).
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o The intake seawater (Mcw+Mf) @ T=Tcw and salt conc. Xf Introduced
into the tube side of the preheater where its Temperature increases
to (Tf).
o The cooling water (Mcw)is dumped back to the sea. Its function is to
remove of the excess heat added to the system in the evaporator by
the heating steam. the evaporator does not consume all
the supplied heat, instead, it degrades its quality.
o The heating of the feed seawater (Mf) in the condenser tubes from
(Tcw) to (Tf) is essential to increase the thermal performance of the
process
o The heat needed to warm the seawater inside the condenser tubes is
supplied by condensing the vapor formed by boiling in the
evaporator (Md).
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o The vapor condensation temperature and consequently the pressure
in the vapor space for both the evaporator and the condenser is
controlled by:

1. The cooling water flow rate, Mcw

2. The feed water temperature, Tf
3. The available heat transfer area in the condenser, Ac
4. The overall heat transfer coefficient between the condensing vapor
and the circulating seawater, Uc.

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o Accordingly, the condenser has three functions:

1. Removes the excess heat from the system.

2. Improves the process performance ratio.
3. Adjusts the boiling temperature inside the evaporator.

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 The feed seawater (Mf) is chemically treated and deaerated before
being pumped to the evaporator.

 Condensation of the saturated heating steam and release of its latent

heat provides the required sensible and latent for water evaporation
from the feed seawater.

 As a result, the feed water temperature (Tf) is raised to the boiling

temperature (Tb).

 The vapor formed by boiling with a rate of (Md) is free of salts.

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 Figure 2 shows that the temperature of the generated vapor (Tv) is less than the
boiling temperature by the boiling point elevation (BPE).
 Similarly, the temperature of the condensed vapor (Td) is lower than the
temperature of the generated vapor by losses caused by the demister, the
transmission lines, and condensation.

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o The non-condensable gases in the vapor space of the condenser
must be vented continuously to avoid downgrading of the heat
transfer capacity of the condenser, such that the blanket of
noncondensibles masks some of the heat transfer area from the
condensing vapor.

o The non-condensable gases reduce the partial pressure of the

condensing vapors. condensation takes place at a lower
temperature and this reduces the process efficiency because of the
decrease in the net driving force for heat transfer and consequently
reduces the feed seawater temperature (Tf)

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The model for the single-effect evaporation system is divided into six
parts:
1. Material balances.
2. Evaporator and condenser energy balances.
3. Boiling point elevation and thermodynamic losses.
4. Evaporator and condenser heat transfer area.
5. Summary of performance parameters.

1. Material Balances (assume that the distillate water is salt free)

M = the mass flow rate
X = the salinity
b = rejected brine
d = distillate
f = feed seawater
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Material Balances (assume that the distillate water is salt free)
M = the mass flow rate
X = the salinity
b = rejected brine
d = distillate
f = feed seawater

Similarly

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o The energy balance of the conserves the energies of the heating
steam, vapors formed, feed seawater, and rejected brine.

o In the evaporator, saturated steam flowing from the steam boiler at a rate
equal to Ms is used in to raise the temperature of the feed seawater Mf from
the inlet temperature Tf to the boiling temperature Tb. In addition, it supplies
the latent heat required to evaporate the specified mass of vapor, Md,

Eq (1)

Qe : The thermal load of the evaporator. 𝜆 : The latent heat of

Cp : The specific heat at constant pressure of the evaporation
brine, calculated at (Tf +Tb)/2 and salinity of Xf of
the feed seawater The reference temperature
in the Eq. above is Tb
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o The operates on the vapor formed in the evaporator, (Md).
o The latent heat of condensation is transferred to feed seawater with a mass
flow rate of (Mf+Mcw).
o The feed seawater (Mf) is introduced into the evaporator; while the remaining
part (Mcw), which is known as the cooling water, is rejected.
o The vapor is assumed saturated at a temperature equal to (Tv).
The heat load of the condenser is given by
Eq (2)

Qc : The thermal load of the condenser. T: The temperature

Cp : The specific heat at constant pressure of the 𝜆 : The latent heat of
brine, calculated at (Tf +Tcw)/2 and salinity of Xf of evaporation
the feed seawater
M: The mass flowrate The reference temperature
in the Eq. above is Tb
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The overall energy balance for the system is given by:

Eq (3)

The reference temperature in Eq. 3 is Tcw

𝑇𝑏 +𝑇𝑐𝑤 𝑇𝑣 +𝑇𝑐𝑤 𝑇𝑓 +𝑇𝑐𝑤
Cp(1) @ and @xb Cp(2) @ and @xd=0 Cp(3) @ and @xf
2 2 2

Qc : The thermal load of the condenser. T: The temperature

Cp : The specific heat at constant pressure of the 𝜆 : The latent heat of
brine, calculated at (Tf +Tcw)/2 and salinity of Xf of evaporation
the feed seawater
M: The mass flowrate The reference temperature
in the Eq. above is Tb
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Substitute Eq 2 In 3 gives:

Eq (4)

The vapor temperature Tv is then defined in terms of the boiling temperature (Tb)
and the boiling point elevation (BPE)

Eq (5)

The correlation for the boiling point elevation of seawater is

BPE = AX + BX2 + CX3 A = (8.325x10-2 + 1.883x10-4 T + 4.02x10-6 T2)

B = (- 7.625x10-4 + 9.02x10-5 T - 5.2x10-7 T2)
C = (1.522x10-4 - 3x10-6 T - 3x10-8 T2)

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Where:
T : The temperature in oC X : The salt weight percentage.

The BPE equation is valid over the following ranges:

1 < X < 16% 10 < T <180°C.
Variations in the boiling point elevation as a function of the seawatere
temperature and salinity are given in

Figure beside shows the

variation in boiling point
elevation of seawater as a
function of temperature and
salinity.

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Table below shows the variation in seawater boiling point elevation (oC) as a
function of temperature (oC) and salinity (wt%)

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Substitute Eq 5 Into 4 gives: Eq (6)

Rearrange Eq 6 gives: Eq (7)

Recall: substitute in Eq 7 gives:

Eq (8)

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Equation 8 is then simplified to:

Eq (9)

Equation 9 is then written in terms of the flow rates ratio of the distillate and the
heating steam, or the performance ratio, PR. This gives

Eq (10)

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Equation 10 is used to determine:
The system performance ratio as a function of the temperatures of the feed and
condensed vapor, the salinity of feed and rejected brine, the boiling point
elevation, the latent heats of heating steam and condensing vapor, and the heat
capacity of water.
An approximate form of the performance ratio, Eq. 10, is obtained by neglecting the
sensible heat effects, the second and the third terms in the dominator.
The result of this analysis, show that the performance ratio for a single effect
configuration can be approximated by

This equation is useful in checking the model results.

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Equation (2) is rearranged to obtain the specific cooling water flow rate. The
derivation of this relation proceeds as follows:

Recall
Eq (11)
Equation 11 becomes: Eq (12)

Define specific flow rate of water cooling: Eq (13)

Divide Equation 12 by and Cp(Tf-Tcw) and Md

Eq (14)

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The dimensions of the required heat transfer surface area in the evaporator Ae are
obtained from:
 The amount of the heat to be transferred Qe.
 The overall heat transfer coefficient Ue.
 The difference between the condensation temperature of the steam, Ts
 The boiling temperature of the seawater, Tb.

This relation is given by

Eq (15) Recall Eq(1)

Eq (16)
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Recall

Eq (17)
Equation (16) becomes:

Define the specific heat transfer area for the evaporator, which is defined as the ratio
of the heat transfer area to the distillate product flow rate.

Re arrange Eq (17) gives

Eq (18)

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 Equation (18) can also be written in terms of the boiling point elevation (BPE),
where

Eq (19)

From Equation (18), we can observe the following:

The increase in the (BPE) would reduce the temperature driving force and hence
increases the specific heat transfer area.
In other words, the (BPE) represents an extra resistance to heat transfer.

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The heat transfer between the condensing vapor and the feed water in the
condenser can be written in terms of:
• The condenser load, Qc
• The overall heat transfer coefficient, Uc.
• The condenser heat transfer area, Ac.
• The logarithmic mean temperature difference, (LMTD)c, thus:

The specific heat transfer

Eq (20)
area in the condenser is
then given by
(LMTD)c is
defined as

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The correlation for latent heat of water evaporation is given by

𝝀= 2501.897149 - 2.407064037 T + 1.192217x10-3 T2 - 1.5863x10-5 T3

Ue = 1.9695+1.2057xl0-2Tb-8.5989xl0-5(Tb)2+2.5651xl0-7(Tb)3

Uc = 1.7194+3.2063xl0-3Tv+1.5971xl0-5(Tv)2-1.9918xl0-7(Tv)3

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A single-effect evaporator generates a distillate product at a flow rate of 1
kg/s. The system operating temperatures are as follows:
- The boiling temperature, Tb=75 °C.
- The intake seawater temperature, Tcw = 25 °C.
- The feed temperature, Tf = i 70 °C .
- The steam temperature, Ts, is 82 °C.
Determine:
1. The heat transfer areas in the evaporator and the condenser. Ae and Ae
2. The thermal performance ratio. PR
3. The flow rates of feed seawater and reject brine Mf and Mb
4. The flow rate of cooling seawater. Mcw

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Solution: The solution proceeds with evaluation of the vapor temperature. This
requires calculation of the boiling point elevation (BPE) using the correlation given
in appendix B.

Tv = Tb - BPE = 75 - 0.903 = 74.097 oC

The temperatures of the heating steam and vapor are used to calculate the latent
heat for the steam and distillate vapor, 𝝀𝒔 and 𝝀𝒗 are calculated from the
correlations given in. The resulting values are

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The overall heat transfer coefficients in the evaporator and condenser are
calculated using the correlations

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The system performance parameters are calculated from Eqs. 10. The thermal
performance ratio is given by

The specific heat transfer area is given by

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The specific cooling water flow rate is given by

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To complete the analysis, other system variables are calculated below.

Substituting for Xf = 42000 ppm, Xb = 70000 ppm, and Md = 1 kg/s

The steam flow rate is obtained from the performance ratio result, where:
Ms = Md / PR = 1/0.97 = 1.03 kg/s

The evaporator and condenser loads are obtained from Eqs. 1 and 2,
respectively. The resulting values are:
Qe = Ms 𝝀 s = (1.03)(2303.788) = 2372.9 kJ/s

Qc = Md 𝝀 v = (1)(2323.6) = 2323.6 kJ/s

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From Eq (2), we can obtain the cooling seawater flow rate, Mcw

= (1) (2326.34)/(4.2(70-25)) - 2.5 = 9.8 kg/s

As for the actual heat transfer areas in the evaporator and the condenser, their
values are identical to the specific value, because Md is equal to 1.

**See Examples 2 and 3 in the TEXT BOOK

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35

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