CHEMCAD Validates Biofuel Evaporator Unit Expansion to Increase Production

System

Biorefining leader, ICM Inc, challenged their Process Engineering Department (PED) to evaluate the quantity of evaporators needed to increase the production rate of a biofuel facility.

Simulation

PED engineers gathered initial field processing data such as existing flow rates, temperature, pressure, composition of the hot and cold fluids, and equipment surface area as input for the initial CHEMCAD simulation. The goal of the simulation was to calculate overall heat transfer coefficients (U values) of the evaporators under current operations. The calculated U values can be used to evaluate the effect of higher flow rates of fluids.

Solution

Once the second simulation was created for increased flow rates, the calculated U values from the previous simulation became the input of this second simulation. Inside the evaporator unit operation, engineers included specifications to condense all of the vapors (hot fluid). With these conditions, it was possible to calculate the required future surface area to determine how many more evaporators were required to meet the facility’s increased demand.