THE SIMULATION OF A MULTISTAGE BRINE CONCENTRATION PROCESS WITH VERTICAL FALLING FILM EVAPORATION

Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD) is a real process complex in terms of its design and operational control. The brine concentrating system can be considered as the most important component of ZLD processes. In the present study, mass and energy equations are written for a multistage brine concentrator unit with Feed Forward Multiple Effect Evaporation. Modeling of this process has been done, in which variable parameters are the number of stages, initial feed temperature, and the feed steam pressure. Parameters like the temperature of each stage, Gained Output Ratio (GOR), the required heat transfer area, the heat transfer coefficient, and other operational parameters are also calculated by the simulation code. The aim of this study is the investigation of the effect of key parameters on the performance of brine concentration process and on the process conceptual design.