Heat transfer and heat transfer fouling in phosphoric acid evaporators.

The primary problem in concentrating phosphoric acid is due to fouling on the tube-side of the heat exchangers of the evaporators. Scaling on the heat transfer surfaces occurs because of high supersaturation of phosphoric acid liquor with respect to calcium sulfate. A review of the existing literature reveals that no information is available on heat transfer and on crystallisation fouling of phosphoric acid solutions. Solubility of calcium sulfate is very important with regards to the scaling problems in phosphoric acid concentration plants. Hence, the solubility of different calcium sulfate types in phosphoric acid solution was studied and their dependency on acid concentration and temperature were investigated. A large number of measurements of heat transfer coefficient for water and phosphoric acid solutions under forced convective, subcooled flow boiling and pool boiling conditions at different temperatures, flow velocities, heat fluxes and concentrations were performed. The results show that the modified Gnielinski and Petukhov and Popov con-elations fit the experimental results for forced convective heat transfer to phosphoric acid solutions better than the other correlations. The Chen model and associated correlations were found suitable for the prediction of subcooled flow boiling heat transfer coefficients for phosphoric acid solutions. Applying the actual temperature driving force (Tw-Ti) instead of (Tw-Tb), a theoretical model was proposed, which permits the prediction of pool boiling heat transfer coefficients of phosphoric acid solutions with good accuracy. A large number of fouling experiments were carried out at different flow velocities, surface temperatures and concentrations to determine the mechanisms, which control deposition process. After clarification of the effect of operational parameters on the deposition process, a mathematical model was developed for prediction of fouling resistance. The activation energy evaluated for the surface reaction of the deposit formation was found to be 56,829 J/mol. The predicted fouling resistances were compared with the experimental data. Quantitative and qualitative agreement for measured and predicted fouling rates, is good. Also, a kinetic model for crystallization fouling was developed, using the field data. The predictions of the suggested model are in good agreement with the plant operating data. Finally, a numerical model was developed for computer simulation of shell and tube heat exchangers. The agreement between the field data and the prediction of the model was very satisfactory