Concentration of cane-sugar syrup in a pilot scale climbing film evaporator

A climbing film evaporator is similar to a vertical tube heat exchanger, where a hot fluid, such as steam is introduced in shell side and a cold fluid such as sugar syrup is fed in tube side. In this work, variation of the overall heat transfer coefficient due to changes in process variables was investigated experimentally for concentration of cane-sugar syrup in a pilot scale climbing film evaporator. A full two-level factorial experiment was performed and significant factors were determined using Analysis of Variance. The factors investigated in this work were feed flow rate, re-circulation ratio, steam pressure, and feed temperature. The selected process response was the overall heat transfer coefficient for the climbing film evaporator. Feed flow rate and steam pressure were found to have a significant influence on the overall heat transfer coefficient.