Falling Film Evaporators

A falling film evaporator is a industrial device to concentrate solutions, especially with heat sensitive components.

In falling film evaporators the liquid product usually enters the evaporator at the head of the evaporator. The product is evenly distributed into the heating tubes. A thin film enters the heating tube and it flows downwards at boiling temperature and is partially evaporated. In most cases steam is used for heating the evaporator. The product and the vapor both flow downwards in a parallel flow. This gravity-induced downward movement is increasingly augmented by the co-current vapor flow. The separation of the concentrated product from its vapor is undergoing in the lower part of the heat exchanger and the separator.

Falling film evaporators can be operated with very low temperature differences between the heating media and the boiling liquid, and they also have very short product contact times, typically just a few seconds per pass. These characteristics make the falling film evaporator particularly suitable for heat-sensitive products, and it is today the most frequently used type of evaporator.