Received: 22 October 2016 | Revised: 19 July 2017 | Accepted: 3 August 2017

DOI: 10.1111/jfpe.12616

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Determination of optimum vapor bleeding arrangements for

sugar juice evaporation process

S. Chantasiriwan

Faculty of Engineering, Thammasat

University, Pathum Thani 12121, Mail,
Thailand
Correspondence
S. Chantasiriwan, Faculty of Engineering,
Thammasat University, Pathum Thani
12121, Mail, Thailand.
Email: somchart@engr.tu.ac.th
Abstract
The sugar juice evaporation process consists of juice heater, evaporator, and crystallizer. The juice
heater increases the temperature of diluted sugar juice from the ambient temperature to the boiling
point. The evaporator removes most water content of diluted sugar juice. The crystallizer removes
the remaining water content, yielding raw sugar as the final product. Since both the juice heater and
the crystallizer require vapor bled from the evaporator, there are interactions between the three com-
ponents. A model of interactions between the three components of the sugar juice evaporation
process is presented in this paper. The model yields a system of nonlinear equations that, under some
specified assumptions and conditions, consists of only two free parameters. This implies that there is
a unique distribution of a given total juice heater surface when vapor is bled from the first two effects
of the evaporator. In contrast, if vapor is bled from the first three or four effects, there are many pos-
sible surface distributions. It is shown that there is an optimum surface distribution when vapor is
bled from either the first three or four effects of the evaporator that minimizes the steam economy.
The optimum four-effect vapor bleeding arrangement results in the largest steam economy. How-
ever, the two-effect vapor bleeding arrangement produces a larger mass flow rate of processed sugar
juice than either three-effect vapor bleeding arrangement or four-effect vapor bleeding arrangement.

Practical applications
This paper presents a mathematical model of a sugar juice evaporation process. Although one specific
process design is under consideration, the model can easily be adjusted for a different process design.
This model will be useful for analysis and optimization of the process. One optimization problem men-
tioned in the paper is the optimum allocation of a fixed total surface among the four heat exchangers
of the juice heater, which is used to increase juice temperature to the boiling point before entering
the quintuple-effect evaporator. It is found that there are two different optimum surface allocations
corresponding to the maximum rate of processed juice and the minimum amount of steam required
by the process. Results of this paper should provide a guideline to a process designer in selecting the
juice heater that will both satisfy the required heating duty and yield the optimum performance.

1 | INTRODUCTION Jafarian, Asgari, & Kouhikamali, 2014). An important characteristic of

Evaporation is an important unit operation in many industrial processes.
These processes make use of multiple-effect evaporators to remove
water from diluted solutions such as black liquor (Jyoti & Khanam,
2014; Khanam & Mohanty, 2010), milk (Galvan-Angeles, Diaz-Ovalle,
Gonzales-Alatorre, Castrejon-Gonzales, & Vazques-Roman, 2015;
Ribeiro & Andrade, 2003), tomato juice (Simpson, Almonacid, Lopez, &
Abakarov, 2008; Sogut, Ilten, & Oktay, 2010), orange juice (Balkan,
Colak, & Hepbasli, 2005), sugar juice (Bapat, Majali, & Ravindranath,
2013), and sea water (Piacentino & Cardona, 2010; Sagharichiha,
multiple-effect evaporator is the monotonic reduction of vapor pressure
from the first effect to the last effect. A supply of low-pressure steam is
required for the first effect. Vapor produced by an effect is used for
evaporation in succeeding effect except the last effect.
Multiple-effect evaporator is one of the three components of the
juice evaporation process in raw sugar manufacturing. The other two
components are juice heater and crystallizer. The juice heater is used to
raise the temperature of incoming juice to the boiling point before the
juice is sent to the evaporator. The crystallizer is used to evaporate the
remaining water content of concentrated juice leaving the evaporator.

J Food Process Eng. 2017;e12616. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/jfpe V

C 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. | 1 of 8
https://doi.org/10.1111/jfpe.12616
2 of 8 | CHANTASIRIWAN
The output of the crystallizer is raw sugar. The evaporation process
requires a supply of low-pressure steam that is either exhausted from a
back-pressure steam turbine or extracted from an extraction-condensing
steam turbine (Chantasiriwan, 2016). The low-pressure steam is used as
the heating medium for the evaporator. The heating medium for both
the juice heater and the crystallizer is vapor bled from the evaporator.
The juice evaporation process is a major thermal energy consumer
in raw sugar manufacturing process. Previous suggestions to improve
the process performance have mostly focused on the multiple-effect
evaporator. They include adding more effects or more heating surface
areas (Urbaniec, Zalewski, & Zhu, 2000) and selecting the optimum dis-
tribution of evaporator surface (Chantasiriwan, 2015). In addition, the
process performance can be enhanced by optimal operation scheduling
of the evaporator (Heluane, Colombo, Hernandez, Graells, & Puigjaner,
2007) and using the optimum tube dimensions for the evaporator
(Thaval, Broadfoot, Kent, & Rackemann, 2016).
For many sugar factories, the modification of multiple-effect evapo-
rator to optimize the juice evaporation process is not a viable option
because of the required investment may be unaffordable. Modification of
juice heater, which is another component of the juice evaporation pro-
cess, is an alternative method to improve the process performance. Juice
heater consists of heat exchangers, in which sugar juice temperature is
raised from a low temperature to the boiling point before it is fed to the
first effect of the evaporator. The heating medium for juice heater is vapor
bled from the evaporator. A typical sugar factory uses quintuple-effect
evaporator, and bled vapor is available from the first four effects, which
can be used for the four heat exchangers of the juice heater. Obviously,
the distribution of heat transfer area among the heat exchangers affects
the process performance. Previously, Ensinas, Nebra, Lozano, and Serra
(2007) considered a method of determining the optimum juice heater and
evaporator surface distributions that minimize the total cost of a sugar
plant. This method is suitable for the design of a new sugar plant. For an
existing plant, however, the surface distribution of the evaporator is
known, and the optimum vapor bleeding arrangement surface distribution
is to be determined. In this article, an investigation is made into how a
FIGURE 1 Schematic representation of the system
given total juice heater surface can be distributed among the heat
exchangers so that the process performance is optimized. The following
sections present the detailed description of the evaporation process, the
mathematical model of the process, the method used to optimize the pro-
cess performance, simulation results, discussion, and conclusions.
2 | EVAPORATION PROCESS
The schematic of a sugar juice evaporation process that uses
quintuple-effect evaporator is shown in Figure 1. The juice heater con-
sists of five tubular heat exchangers (HC, H1, H2, H3, and H4). It
receives diluted juice at the flow rate of mf,in from the juice extraction
process. After passing successively through H4, H3, H2, and H1, the
juice temperature increases from Th,4 to Th,0. The juice pressure at the
exit of the juice heater is slightly above the atmospheric pressure. After
passing through FC, dissolved gases in the juice are removed, and its
pressure is equal to the atmospheric pressure. Before entering the first
effect of the evaporator, the juice pressure is raised to the pressure in
the first effect (p1), and its temperature is raised to the boiling point in
HC using low-pressure steam as the heating medium.
Low-pressure steam from steam turbine at p0 is used as the driving
steam for the quintuple-effect evaporator. The thermal energy released
by the condensation of the driving steam results in the evaporation of
water in sugar juice at a lower pressure (p1) in the first effect (E1). The
vapor leaving all effects except the last one (E5) is used to evaporate
water in sugar juice in the succeeding effect. The arrangement in Figure 1
makes use of full condensate flash recovery in order to improve the effi-
ciency of the evaporator. A flash tank is placed after each effect except
the last one. F1 receives condensate from the first effect at pressure p0
to produce vapor and condensate at pressure p1. Condensate at p1 is also
produced in E1 and H1. F2 uses all condensate to produce vapor and
condensate at pressure p2. Similarly, F3 and F4 receive condensate from
three sources. The condensate leaving F4 is collected in a storage tank.
Vapor is bled from all effects of the evaporator except the last
one. Vapor bled from the first, second, third, and fourth effects are
CHANTASIRIWAN | 3 of 8

used to increase juice temperature in H1, H2, H3, and H4, respectively. mf;i xi 5mf;in xin (10)
Additional vapor is bled from the first effect, and used in the crystallizer
It should be noted that boiling temperature rise due to hydrostatic
(C) to evaporate the water content in the concentrated juice leaving
pressure head is not taken into account in this model because the
the evaporator. The output of the crystallizer is raw sugar.
evaporator is assumed to be of a design in which the effect of hydro-
static pressure head on boiling temperature is negligible.
3 | COMPONENT MODELS Additional equations are obtained from the requirement that the
rate of heat transfer across evaporator surface (Ai) in effect i is equal to
The mathematical model of the evaporation process consists of sub- the rate of thermal energy released by condensing steam in that effect.
models of evaporator, juice heater, and crystallizer. The energy balance  
1  ðinÞ ðoutÞ 

equation for each effect i (i 5 1–5) of the multiple-effect evaporator is Ui Ai Ti21 2 Tf;i 1Tf;i 5ð12EÞ mv;i21 1mc;i21 hvl;i21 (11)
2
" #

 Xi21

ð12EÞ mv;i21 1mc;i21 hvl;i21 1 mf;0 2ð12di1 Þma 2 mv;j 1mb;j The evaporator is assumed to be of the falling-film type, for which
j51 (1) the correlation of heat transfer coefficient is provided by Pacheco and
 
 
ðinÞ ðoutÞ ðoutÞ Frioni (2004).
hf;i 2hf;i 5 ma di1 1mv;i 1mb;i hv;i 2hf;i


where hvl,i is the latent heat of evaporation at saturation temperature Ui 56:9796exp 20:038164xi;ave (12)

Ti, hv,i is the saturated steam enthalpy at Ti, hf,i is the sugar juice where xi.ave 5 0.5(xi–1 1 xi).
enthalpy in effect i, and di1 is the Kronecker delta function (di1 5 1 if For the juice heater, the requirement that the latent heat of con-
i 5 1, and di1 5 0 if i 6¼ 1). It is assumed that a fraction E of heat is lost densation of the bled vapor equals the juice enthalpy increase in H1,
in each effect. Rein (2007) suggests that E 5 0.015. Mass balance and H2, H3, and H4 yields
energy balances of the flash tanks yield the following expression for

mb;i hvl;i 5mf;in cp;i Th;i21 2Th;i (13)
vapor mass flow rate from each flash tank (i 5 1–4):
" # where mf,in is the mass flow rate of juice into the juice heater, and cp,i
Xi21

mc;i 5 mv;0 ð12di0 Þ1 mv;j 1mb;j f ðTi21 ; Ti Þ (2) is the average heat capacity of the juice.
j51
1


cp;i 5 cpf Th;i ; xin 1cpf Th;i21 ; xin (14)
where 2
hv ðTi21 Þ2hv ðTi Þ2hvl ðTi21 Þ1hvl ðTi Þ
f ðTi21 ; Ti Þ5 (3) In addition, the requirement that the heat transfer across the
hvl ðTi Þ
surfaces of H1, H2, H3, and H4 equals the increase in enthalpy of the
Required equations for latent heat of evaporation of water and juice yields:
enthalpy of saturated steam are obtained from Rein (2007):


 2Uh;i Ah;i
Th;i21 5Ti 2 Ti 2Th;i exp (15)
hvl ðT Þ52492:922:0523T23:075231023 T 2 (4) mf;in cp;i

hv ðT Þ52502:0411:8125T12:58531024 T 2 29:831026 T 3 (5) The following equation is proposed by Hugot (1986) for the overall
heat transfer coefficient of the juice heater:
The saturated steam temperature (T) is related to the saturated
 u 0:8
pressure p by Uh;i 50:007Ti (16)
1:8
3; 816:44
T52227:031 (6) The juice velocity (u) is assumed to be 2.5 m/s, and the above
18:30362ln ð7:5pÞ
equation becomes
Specific enthalpy of juice at inlet and exit of the ith effect is the
product of specific heat capacity of sugar juice and juice temperature Uh;i 50:0091Ti (17)

(hf 5 cpfTf). Equation for specific heat capacity is computed from (Bub- After leaving H1, the juice pressure (pin) is a little above the atmos-
nik, Kadlec, Urban, & Bruhns, 1995): pheric pressure (pout). The juice is allowed to flash in FC, resulting in a
reduced mass flow rate (mf,0) that is determined from
cpf ðTf ; xÞ54:186820:0297x17:531025 xTf (7)
mf;0 5mf;in ½12f ðTin ; Tout Þ (18)
Juice temperature (Tf) is assumed to be the saturation temperature. It
is larger than the boiling point of saturated liquid water at the same pres- where Tin and Tout are, respectively, saturated steam temperature cor-
sure due to the concentration of dissolved solids in juice (Honig, 1963): responding to pin and pout. Before entering the first effect, the juice
pressure is increased to p1. Furthermore, its temperature is raised to
ðinÞ 2xi21
Tf;i 5Ti 1 (8) the boiling point in HC. Low-pressure steam is used as the heating
1002xi21
medium. The model of HC is represented by the following equations.
ðoutÞ 2xi
Tf;i 5Ti 1 (9)
1002xi mv;c hvl;c 5mf;0 cp;c ðT1 2Tout Þ (19)

Juice concentrations are determined from mass balances of dis- 1

cp;c 5 ½cpf ðTout ; x0 Þ1cpf ðT1 ; x0 Þ (20)
solved solids: 2
4 of 8 | CHANTASIRIWAN
2Uh;c Ah;c
T1 5Tc 2ðTc 2Tout Þexp (21)
mf;0 cp;c
2
Uh,c is approximately 1.0 kW/m K (Peacock & Love, 2003). The
steam pressure in HC (pc) is assumed to be controlled in such a way
that the juice temperature is exactly T1 at the exit of HC. The surface
2
area of HC (Ah,c) is 900 m , which is large enough that pc does not
exceed p0.
The crystallizer may be modeled as a single-effect evaporator. It
uses the vapor bled from the first effect to evaporate the remaining
water content in the syrup leaving the evaporator. Ideally, the amount
of water to be evaporated is the water content of the syrup. In prac-
tice, however, crystallization is usually carried out in three stages. In
each stage, water may be added, and heat loss occurs. The ratio
between the two quantities is in the range of 2.0–2.2 (Reid & Rein,
1983; Rein, 2007). In this article, the ratio of 2.0 is assumed, yielding
the relation
2mf;5 ð12x5 =100Þhvl;5
ma 5 (22)
hvl;1
4 | VAPOR BLEEDING ARRANGEMENTS
Because the juice temperature at the exit of HC is assumed to be T1,
HC is uncoupled from the rest of the system as far as the solution to
the system is concerned. Inspection of the above mathematical model
reveals that there are 44 variables (mf,in, mf,0–mf,5, ma, mv,0–mv,5, mb,1–
mb,4, xin, x0–x5, p0–p5, Th,0–Th,4, A1–A5, and Ah,1–Ah,4) and 30 equations
(Equations 1, 2, 10, 11, 13, 15, 18, and 22). Therefore, the number of
free parameters is 14. Their values must be specified in order for the
solution of the system of nonlinear equations to be found. Six of these
parameters are design variables, consisting of the juice concentration
at the inlet of the process (xin), the juice concentration at the outlet of
the process (x5), the juice temperature at the inlet of the juice heater
(Th,4), the juice temperature at the outlet of the juice heater (Th,0), the
steam pressure at the inlet of the evaporator (p0), and the vapor pres-
sure at the outlet of the evaporator (p5),
Sugar juice that enters the evaporation process comes from a juice
extraction process using sugar milling machinery. The juice extraction
process requires water addition, which results in low concentration of
outgoing juice. Chantasiriwan (2016) showed that there is the optimum
amount of water addition under certain conditions. It is assumed that
this optimum amount of water addition results in the juice concentra-
tion at the outlet of the juice extraction process equal to 15%. The
juice leaving the extraction process goes directly to the juice heater
without water addition, Therefore, xin 5 15%. The second design vari-
able is the juice concentration at the outlet of the evaporator (x5),
which is controlled to be at a high value to improve energy efficiency
of the system. However, x5 should not be too high because it will cause
difficulty in the crystallization process. It is assumed in this study that
x5 5 70%.
If water added to the milling unit is at ambient temperature, the
temperature of juice leaving the milling unit may be assumed to be
equal to the ambient temperature. If no heat loss occurs between the
outlet of the juice extraction process and the inlet of the juice heater,
Th,4 5 30 8C. The temperature of sugar juice leaving the juice heater
(Th,0) is assumed to be 103 8C (Rein, 2007). The sugar juice is also
assumed to be saturated, which means that the juice pressure is above
the atmospheric pressure. The juice is allowed to flash in FC in order to
get rid of dissolved gases, and its temperature is raised to T1 in HC
before entering the first effect of the evaporator.
Saturated steam at a specified pressure p0 must be available as an
input to the multiple-effect evaporator. Superheated steam is either
exhausted from a back-pressure turbine or extracted from a
condensing-extraction turbine. It is then mixed with water in a desu-
perheater to produce the saturated steam required for the evaporation
process. Vapor pressure at the exit of the fifth effect (p5) is also
assumed to be fixed because the temperature of sugar juice in the fifth
effect is controlled at a low value to minimize color formation and
sucrose degradation losses. In this study, the values of p0 and p5 are,
respectively, 200 and 16 kPa.
With xin, x5, Th,0, Th,4, p0, and p5 specified, there are eight remaining
free parameters. It is additionally assumed that the surface areas of the
multiple-effect evaporator (A1–A5) are specified parameters. It is assumed
that the evaporator surface areas are 5,600 m2 for the first effect,
4,000 m2 for the second effect, and 1,900 m2 for the third, fourth, and
fifth effects. If the total juice heating surface area (Ah,tot 5 Ah,1 1 Ah,2 1
Ah,3 1 Ah,4) is also specified, the number of free parameters is reduced to
two. This means that the system of equations can be solved provided that
two of the juice heater surface areas are given.
Three vapor bleeding arrangements are considered. In two-effect
vapor bleeding arrangement, vapor is bled from the first and second
effects, which means that Ah,3 5 Ah,4 5 0. There is a unique dis-
tribution of a given total surface between H1 and H2 in this arrange-
ment. Three-effect vapor bleeding arrangement requires vapor
bleeding from the first, second, and third effects, which means that
Ah,4 5 0. Because there is one free parameter in this arrangement,
there are several distributions of total surface among H1, H2, and H3
that satisfy a specified juice heating requirement. Four-effect vapor
bleeding arrangement requires vapor bleeding from the first, second,
third, and fourth effects. Because there are two free parameters in this
arrangement, there are several distributions of total surface among H1,
H2, H3, and H4 that satisfy a specified juice heating requirement. Since
there are many surface distributions in the three-effect and four-effect
vapor bleeding arrangements, it is likely that there is an optimum juice
heater surface area distribution that maximizes steam economy, which
is defined as
ð120:01xin Þmf;in
SE5 (23)
mv;0 1mv;c
In addition to SE, another important performance parameter is the
mass flow rate of processes sugar juice (mf,in). The former is related to
cost of manufacturing raw sugar. The latter is related to the revenue
earned by the sugar factory. It is, therefore, desirable for the sugar fac-
tory to maximize both parameters.
CHANTASIRIWAN
5 | RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
If vapor is bled from the first and second effects, there is a unique dis-
tribution of the total surface between H1 and H2. It can be seen from
Figure 2a that Ah,tot must be at least 1,160 m2. At this value, vapor is
bled from only the first effect because Ah,2 5 0 and Ah,1 5 Ah,tot.
Increasing Ah,tot results in decreasing Ah,1 and increasing Ah,2. The maxi-
mum value of Ah,tot for two-effect vapor bleeding arrangement is
2
2,005 m . At this value, vapor is bled from only the second effect
because Ah,1 5 0, and Ah,2 5 Ah,tot. Figure 2b shows that steam econ-
omy (SE) increases monotonically with Ah,tot. A plot of mf,in in Figure 2b
shows that it also increases monotonically with Ah,tot.
If vapor is bled from the first, second, and third effects, there are
many possible distributions of the total juice heater surface among H1,
F I G U R E 2 (a) Distribution of the total juice heater surface
between H1 and H2 and (b) variations of the steam economy (SE)
and the mass flow rate of processed sugar juice (mf,in) with the
total juice heater surface in the two-effect vapor bleeding
arrangement
| 5 of 8
H2, and H3 because there is a free parameter, which is the surface area of
H3 (Ah,3). Figure 3a shows how the distribution of the total juice heater
surface of 1,500 m2 among H1, H2, and H3 varies with Ah,3. It can be seen
that the maximum value of Ah,3 is 807 m2. At this value, vapor is bled from
the first and third effects because Ah,2 5 0, and Ah,1 1 Ah,3 5 Ah,tot. Figure
3b shows that, with a fixed value of Ah,tot, there is the optimum value of
Ah,3 that maximizes SE. However, mf,in is a monotonically decreasing func-
tion of Ah,3. Therefore, mf,in of the three-effect vapor bleeding arrange-
ment is less than that of the two-effect vapor bleeding arrangement.
Similar results are obtained when Ah,tot is different from 1,500 m2.
For a given value of Ah,tot, the optimum value Ah,3 can be found
and the result is the optimum three-effect vapor bleeding arrangement.
The total juice heater surface distribution among H1, H2, and H3 in
the optimum three-effect vapor bleeding arrangement as a function of
FIGURE 3 (a) Distribution of the total juice heater surface of
1,500 m2 among H1, H2, and H3 as a function of Ah,3 and (b)
corresponding variations of the steam economy (SE) and the mass
flow rate of processed sugar juice (mf,in) in three-effect vapor
bleeding arrangement
6 of 8 | CHANTASIRIWAN
Ah,tot is shown in Figure 4a. The total juice heater surface can be opti-
mally distributed among H1, H2, and H3 when Ah,tot is at least
1,181 m2. As Ah,tot increases, Ah,1 decreases, whereas Ah,2 and Ah,3
increase. Increasing Ah,tot results in a monotonic increase in SE, as
shown in Figure 4b.
In the four-effect vapor bleeding arrangement, there are many
possible distributions of the total juice heater surface among H1, H2,
H3, and H4 because there are two free parameters, which are the sur-
face area of H3 and H4 (Ah,3 and Ah,4). Surface plots of variations of SE
F I G U R E 4 (a) Distribution of the total juice heater surface among
H1, H2, and H3 and (b) variation of the steam economy (SE) with
the total juice heater surface in the optimum three-effect vapor
bleeding arrangement
and mf,in with Ah,3 and Ah,4 are shown in Figure 5. It can be seen from
Figure 5a that SE is convex function of Ah,3 and Ah,4. Therefore, the
optimum surface distribution that maximizes SE can be found. By con-
trast, Figure 5b shows that The maximum value of mf,in occurs when
Ah,3 5 Ah,4 5 0. This means that mf,in of the four-effect vapor bleeding
arrangement is always less than that of the two-effect vapor bleeding
arrangement.
Figure 6a shows the distribution of Ah,tot among H1, H2, H3, and
H4 in the optimum four-effect vapor bleeding arrangement. It can be
seen that the total juice heater surface can be optimally distributed
among H1, H2, H3, and H4 when Ah,tot is at least 1,250 m2. As Ah,tot
increases, Ah,1 decreases, whereas Ah,2, Ah,3, and Ah,4 increase. Figure
6b shows that SE increases monotonically with Ah,tot.
Simulation results corresponding to three different vapor bleeding
arrangements are compared in Table 1. The total juice heater surface
for all arrangements is 1,500 m2. It can be seen that the optimum
three-effect vapor bleeding arrangement increases SE by 3.16% com-
pared with the two-effect vapor bleeding arrangement, and the opti-
mum four-effect vapor bleeding arrangement increases SE by 0.80%
compared with the optimum three-effect vapor bleeding arrangement.
FIGURE 5 Variations of (a) the steam economy (SE) and (b) the
mass flow rate of processed sugar juice (mf,in) with Ah,3 and Ah,4 in
four-effect vapor bleeding arrangement that has the total juice
heater surface of 1,500 m2
CHANTASIRIWAN | 7 of 8

TA BL E 1 Comparison of simulation results of sugar juice evapora-

tion processes having two-effect, optimum three-effect, and opti-
mum four-effect vapor bleeding arrangements

Vapor bleeding arrangement

Parameter 2-Effect Optimum 3-effect Optimum 4-effect
2
Ah,1 (m ) 323.1 464.6 533.5
2
Ah,2 (m ) 1176.9 425.8 346.7
2
Ah,3 (m ) 0 609.6 344.2
2
Ah,4 (m ) 0 0 285.6

SE 2.312 2.385 2.404

mf,in (kg/s) 154.4 150.2 149.1

FIGURE 7 Comparison of the steam economy (SE) of sugar juice

evaporation processes that use the 2-effect, optimum 3-effect, and
optimum 4-effect vapor bleeding arrangements

F I G U R E 6 (a) Distribution of the total juice heater surface among 6 | CONCLUSIONS

H1, H2, H3, and H4 and (b) variation of the steam economy (SE)
with the total juice heater surface in the optimum four-effect vapor
bleeding arrangement
It is interesting to note that mf,in decreases by 2.72 and 3.43% as the
two-effect vapor bleeding arrangement is changed, respectively, to the
optimum three-effect vapor bleeding arrangement and the optimum
four-effect vapor bleeding arrangement.
Figure 7 shows further comparison of SE in the two-effect, opti-
mum three-effect, and optimum four-effect vapor bleeding arrange-
ments. It can be seen that the optimum four-effect vapor bleeding
arrangement gives the best performance in maximizing SE. It is also
interesting to note that all curves exhibit the trend of diminishing
returns. This means that, although SE can be increased by installing
more juice heater surface, the return for the cost of installing additional
surface decreases monotonically as the total surface increases.
Three components of the sugar juice evaporation process are multiple-
effect evaporator, juice heater, and crystallizer. The model presented in
this paper takes into account interactions between the three compo-
nents through mass and energy balances. The system of nonlinear equa-
tions in this model has 44 variables and 30 equations. By specifying the
total juice heater surface area and imposing certain assumptions and
conditions, the number of free parameters decreases from 14 to 2,
which are the surface areas of two exchangers of the juice heater. In the
two-effect vapor bleeding arrangement, there is a unique solution to the
system of the equations. Simulation results show that both the steam
economy and the rate of processed sugar juice increase with the total
juice heater surface. In either three-effect or four-effect vapor bleeding
arrangement, there is the optimum surface distribution that maximizes
the steam economy. Simulation results for a hypothetical process with
8 of 8 | CHANTASIRIWAN

the total juice heater surface area of 1,500 m2 indicate that the steam Chantasiriwan, S. (2016). Optimum imbibition for cogeneration in sugar
economy increases by 3.16 and 3.98% as the two-effect vapor bleeding factories. Applied Thermal Engineering, 103, 1031–1038.

arrangement is changed, respectively, to the optimum three-effect vapor
bleeding arrangement and the optimum four-effect vapor bleeding
arrangement. However, the two-effect vapor bleeding arrangement
yields a larger value of the rate of processed sugar juice than either a
three-effect vapor bleeding arrangement or a four-effect vapor bleeding
arrangement. Therefore, the two-effect vapor bleeding arrangement is
the more suitable arrangement if maximizing the rate of processed sugar
juice has the priority over maximizing the steam economy.
NOMENCLATURE
Ensinas, A. V., Nebra, S. A., Lozano, M. A., & Serra, L. (2007). Design of
evaporation systems and heaters networks in sugar cane factories
using a thermoeconomic optimization procedure. International Journal
of Thermophysics, 10, 97–105.
Galvan-Angeles, E., Diaz-Ovalle, C. O., Gonzales-Alatorre, G., Castrejon-
Gonzales, E. O., & Vazques-Roman, R. (2015). Effect of thermo-
compression on the design and performance of falling-film multi-
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