An Evaluation and Redesign of a Thermal Compression Evaporator

Evaporators separate liquids from solutions. For maximum efficiency, designers reduce the temperature difference between the heating and heated media using multiple-stage evaporators. This efficiency requires increased size and bulk. A vendor claimed its thermal compression evaporator achieved high efficiency with only two stages. It did not function as claimed. This project investigated the evaporator's design to identify its problems and propose an alternative design with a minimized footprint. The analysis showed theoretical flaws and design weaknesses in the evaporator, including violation of the first law of thermodynamics. An alternative thermal compressor design was created through computational fluid dynamics using spreadsheet methods developed in house, aided by the software product FLUENT. Detailed component sizing was done using the software product HYSYS. The proposed redesign achieved four to one efficiency with two stage thermal compression, using one half of the space of a traditional system of similar performance.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.S.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Mechanical Engineering

Year

2009

Author dc:creator

• Day, Benjamin Marc

Contributors dc:contributor

• Wang, Ting
• Guillot, Martin
• Hall III, Carsie A.

• Thermal Compression Evaporation
• Evaporator
• Thermal Compressor

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/926

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarworks.uno.edu:td-1907