Project Synopsis
Provide independent engineering design review of falling film evaporators within a new commercial scale ethanol production process.Project Summary
ETHANOL PRODUCTION FACILITY HEAT EXCHANGER DESIGN EVALUATION
The client is a designer, owner, and operator of multiple large scale corn ethanol production facilities. Process Engineering Associates, LLC (PROCESS) was contracted to review the proposed design of several very large falling film evaporators for recovering heat and drying the mineral syrup as part of a new plant design. PROCESS utilized its licensed computer process simulation software’s (CHEMCAD’s) heat exchanger design/rating program (CCTHERM) to rate the designs of the client’s exchangers.
The client’s proposed exchangers were too small based on the simulations and PROCESS‘ knowledge of similar operating units. PROCESS was able to help the client design exchangers better suited for the needs of a multi-effect evaporation design where pressure drop is a significant design constraint. Based on this initial work, the client further retained PROCESS to design the vapor liquid separators and the associated piping as part of this project.
Industry Type
- Ethanol Production
Utilized Skills
- Heat transfer design and troubleshooting