Dynamic response of multi-effect evaporators

The scope of this paper is to develop a dynamic model for the MEE process to study the transient behavior of the system. This model allowed the study of system start-up, shutdown, load changes and troubleshooting in which the plant performance changed significantly. Each effect in the process is represented by a number of variables which are related by the energy and material balance equations for the feed, product and brine flow. These equations were solved simultaneously to predict the system time-dependent parameters under various transients. The effect of feed flow, feed temperature and live steam flow changes on plant performance such as temperature, brine salinity, product flow rate, and brine level was investigated to test the validity of the model.