Separators with Tangential Vapour Inlet

As the vapours generated from the evaporation are used as heating media in the "next" calandria, any product must be separated, since it would otherwise contaminate the condensate and further represent a loss.

The majority of the concentrate is discharged from the bottom of the calandria below the tube bundle. Due to the high vapour velocity some of the concentrate will be carried along with the vapour as small droplets. The separation is done in a separator with tangential vapour inlet, see Fig. 17a, connected to the calandria below the tube.

Fig. 17a Separator with tangential inlet

Special care is taken to design the separator to avoid product carry-over at lowest possible pressure drop, as a drop in the pressure is equal to drop in heating enthalpy in the following calandria with an all-over drop in the efficiency as a result.

Wrap-Around Separator

To reduce space requirements a new development has taken place with the design of the Wrap-Around Separator, see Fig. 17b. It is integrated into the base of the calandria. It has the same high efficiency as the classical separator with a low pressure drop. It is typically used on big calandrias with MVR compressors connected to the wrap-around separator with a very short vapour duct minimizing the pressure drop.

Fig. 17b Wrap-around separator

The saving in space requirements is typically around 30%.