Evaporation is the process of concentrating the solution (solvent recovery for some applications) under the condition of inputting a certain amount of heat into the system. In the food and beverage industry, it is an indispensable process for the production of many products.

     In the juice concentration industry, plate evaporators have been widely used.The advantages are as follows:  

     1. Good accessibility: The plate heat exchanger consists of a set of heat exchange plate fixed on the frame. The plates are separated by sealing gaskets, or two plates are brazed to form a box-like component with a steam channel in the middle. The heat exchanger plate is easy to remove, and the entire heat exchange surface can be easily visually inspected. If problems such as clogging or scaling of the flow channel occur, the plates can be removed and the heat exchange surface can be manually cleaned. Individual plates are damaged and can be replaced. The number of plates can be easily increased or decreased.

    2.When the product changes or the process is adjusted, if necessary, the processing capacity of the equipment can be adjusted by increasing or decreasing the number of plates, so as to obtain a more ideal processing effect. It can be reduced to 40% of the original production capacity.
    3.Under the same heat exchange area, the height of the plate heat exchanger is much smaller than that of the tube heat exchanger. Plate heat exchangers have very low requirements for the height of the room, even for large evaporators, the overall height of the equipment can be made below 5 meters. This means that the structure of the plant is simpler and the cost is lower. Due to the reduction in size, the installation of the entire set of equipment is easier, without the need for heavy machines or other special equipment, and the equipment installation costs are reduced accordingly.

    4.The product stays in the evaporator for a short time. Many products to be evaporated are heat-sensitive, and staying at a higher temperature for a period of time will destroy some of the ingredients, reduce the flavor of the product, and darken the color. The heat transfer coefficient of the plate heat exchanger is 2-4 times that of the tube heat exchanger. At the same time, due to the small space and volume, a larger heat exchange area can be designed. In this way, the residence time of the liquid to be evaporated in the heat exchanger can be shortened to 1/3~1/4, which greatly improves the product quality.

    5.Due to the high heat transfer coefficient, the liquid can pass through the heat exchanger faster, and the volume of the retained liquid in the heat exchanger is also reduced to 1/2~1/4. In this way, the entire evaporator can reach equilibrium in a shorter time.

    6.For high-viscosity liquids, plate heat exchangers are more suitable. Because of the high heat transfer coefficient, the liquid can pass through the plate heat exchanger at a very fast speed. Under the effect of the pattern on the surface of the plate, strong turbulence is formed, which makes it difficult to adhere to the heat exchange surface. On the other hand, even for high-viscosity liquids, a high heat transfer coefficient can still be achieved. The plate heat exchanger type evaporator has certain advantages in handling higher viscosity liquids.
    7.The high turbulence caused by the pattern of the plate not only facilitates heat exchange, but also makes cleaning faster and more effective. Once serious scaling that cannot be cleaned occurs, the plates can be replaced.
    8.The temperature difference between the effects is smaller than that of the shell-and-tube type. When making a multi-effect evaporator, the temperature of the first effect can be lower, and the number of effects can be increased or the product can be treated more gently.