DESIGN FEATURES FOR DIRECT CONTACTERS AND CONDENSERS

MANY direct vapour contact juice heaters are now in use around the world, particularly in new factories. As well as for the primary and secondary stages of cane juice heating, versions have been developed for heating diffuser recirculation streams, and ‘melting’ sugar magmas and syrups in refineries. This paper outlines some designs in contacters developed over the last decade for a range of direct vapour contact applications, where the juices may contain bagasse, bagacillo and other solid particles. The majority of these designs have been implemented in overseas factories. The paper also deals with some aspects of the design of conventional water-vapour contact condensers. Both are presented in the hope that they may assist technologists with the achievement of a closer approach temperature performance and better turn-down characteristics in these units.