Forced circulation evaporators:

In natural circulation evaporators the liquid enters with velocity 0.3 to 1 m/s and generally the heat transfer coefficients are very low and particularly with viscous liquids. So, whenever we are dealing with concentration of highly viscous and scale forming solutions there is no alternative but to use forced circulation evaporators. By increasing the velocity of the liquid flow (generally 2 to 6 m/s) through the tubes heat transfer coefficients increases enormously and high liquid velocity which is resulting from the pumps prevents the scale formation on heating surfaces.

These are two types. They are,

(i) Forced circulation evaporator with horizontal heating element

(ii) Forced circulation evaporator with vertical heating element 

Construction:

They consist of a centrifugal pump, a 1-2 shell & tube heat exchanger on the case of horizontal heating element and 1-1 shell & tube heat exchanger in the case of vertical heating element, an evaporator body with vapor outlet at the top, deflector plate, and outlet for product discharge at the bottom.

Working:

Centrifugal pump forces the liquid through the tubes at high velocity and gets heated by condensing steam on shell side. Solution becomes superheated and flashes into mixture of vapor and liquid in the evaporator body. Deflector plate separates the vapor and liquid in the vapor space, and vapors are removed at the top, concentrated liquid comes put at the bottom.

Advantages:

1. High transfer coefficients obtained even with viscous solutions.

2. Whenever we are dealing with concentration of highly viscous and scale forming solutions forced circulation evaporators prevents the scale formation on heating surfaces

3. Residence times are low so that heat sensitive viscous materials also can be used.

Disadvantage:

The main disadvantage of forced circulation evaporators is high pumping cost.

Applications:

These types of evaporators are widely used in industries for salting, viscous and scale forming solutions. And used in crystallizing operations in which it is necessary for the solids to be in suspension.