THE PERFORMANCE OF TUBULAR AND DIRECT

CONTACT JUICE HEATERS

P. G. Wright
Sugar Research Institute, Mackay, Queensland, Australia

ABSTRACT
As a result of the considerations of the fundamental correlations for
heat transfer and pressure drop as applied to the operation of juice heating
in raw sugar mills, <<new>>
expressions are presented for the tubular juice
heaters typically used. The performance of direct vapour contact juice
heaters is also discussed.
INTRODUCTION
The process of juice heating, usually carried out in two stages denoted primary'
and secondary heating, can be operated in a variety of ways, and use a range of
steam or vapour sources. T h e Australian raw sugar industry has for various
reasons standardised on the use of the horizontal cylindrical multipass tubular
type, using vapour direct from the exhaust main, or from the first or second
evaporator stages. In other countries, the use of vertical cylindrical multipass
types with longer tubes is common. More recently, the present author has advocated the use of direct contact methods of juice heating (Wright '; Wright and
Hutchinson lo) and has reported on the performance of such devices. However,
the traditional multitubular heaters will remain for a long time, and design information on these is still desirable.
TUBULAR JUICE HEATER PERFORMANCE
It must be concluded from a review of the present literature that the many
equations given for prediction of heat transfer coefficient (HTC) give a wide
scatter of predictions for typical heater arrangements, and are generally too simplistic to be accurate. However, since in the Australian cane sugar industry the
design of juice heaters is very standardised, and the operating conditions do not
vary widely, it is possible to formulate design expressions for heat transfer and
pressure drop which are quite accurate. As the complexity of an expression is
now not a great barrier to its use, it seems opportune to review the expressions
available, and to look more *closely at the fundamental chemical engineering
approach to the formulation of heat transfer and pressure drop equations to see if
more accurate expressions can be derived. This has been done recently by the
present author (Wright 14), and this paper summarises and extends the results.

Review of Design HTC Estimates

A short summary of the range of heat transfer expressions for the cane juice
If these are restricted to practical
heating application has been given by Hugot.
operating heaters with a 72 to 144 h cleaning cycle, the expressions which could be
used are as follows:

1. The Hugot Formula

U = 0,00554TS V ( V

+ 0,04)

where the symbols and units are given in the symbol table.
2.

The Australian Formula (Anon

l)

U = 1,028 fl
with the same nomenclature as above. This equation was formulated from data
collected for the QSSCT group during the 1933 season.
3.

The Crawford and Shann Formula (Crawford and Shann

3,

which Hugot recognised as having a more correct form that the preceeding
expressions, but which gives values for ((clean tubes), only.
4.

The Modified Hugot Expression (Hugot 4,

which retains a steam temperature variation factor and a modified velocity term.
When the formulae above are evaluated and compared for typical practical
Australian heater conditions they give very wide differences. Of those given, the
((Australian formula. (Item above) is considered by the author to give a reasonable basis for sizing juice heater installations which use a 72 h cleaning cycle. However, the equation does not predict changes of HTC with time ((on line>>due to
scaling influences, and is greatly oversimplified.

'

~undahentalHTC Considerations
The fundamental expressions relating to heat transfer in tubular heat exchangers are available in many standard texts on heat transfer and chemical engineering unit operations. In view of the similarity of heater design and of material
properties in the Australian sugar industry, it is possible to narrow the examination to that for standard designs of heaters, with horizontal or vertical layout, with
brass or stainless steel tubes, ant to consider the juice as equivalent in viscosity
and thermal properties to a 20 brix sucrose solution. This simplifies the task very
significantly.

The Overall Heat Transfer Coefficient of the Heater

The overall heat transfer coefficient U ( ~ W / ~ ~ . " C
of ) the
, heater determines
the heat flux generated in the heater for a given temperature force, and is thus the
most important performance factor for the unit. The overall coefficient is related
1030

'

to the various individual transfer coefficients encountered in the process by the

expression:

which gives the reciprocal of U as an overall <<resistance,)which is the sum of the

individual ccresistances~due to the steam condensation outside the tubes, the juice
film inside the tubes, the tube material, and the scale layer respectively. The
overall expression above results from the integration of the heat transfer expression for a small element of the heater tube, the heat transfer process of which is
illustrated in Fig. 1.
The evaluation of the four terms in the overall heat transfer expression has
been given in detail by Wright. l 4
For the juice film resistance the expression of Sieder and Tate is used with
the juice properties taken as for a 20 Bx sucrose solution, and the solution
viscosity, correlated with film temperature. The condensate film resistance for
horizontal or vertical layout is taken from McAdams expressions in Kern, and
the metal tube resistances for tubes of 1,62 mm for brass and 1,2 mm for stainless
steel, which are typical thickness for the application. A special correlation for the
This
scale film resistance is obtained from the data of Crawford and Shann.
includes a fouling multiplier factor and is quite sensitive to the average juice
velocity (V, mls) in the tubes.

Overall Heat Transfer Expression

The consideration of the different terms comprising the overall expression for
the heat transfer performance of tubular juice heaters, as carried out above, can
be brought together to arrive at overall heat transfer expressions as follows:

where the values of X1 to X5 are given for the different applications as follows:
Application

X Values

x,

x3

x4

x5

Primary, horizontal, brass

Primary, horizontal, s. steel
Secondary, horizontal, brass
Secondary, horizontal, s , steel
Primary, vertical, brass
Primary, vertical, s. steel
Secondary, vertical, brass
Secondary, vertical, s. steel
---

The value of the scaling multiplier factor X4 has been found to be around
0,0035 in several cases, but can vary from 0,002 in low fouling primary heating
applications in some factory areas to 0,005 in some secondary heating applications. This has to be ccmatchedn to the typical factory heater performance pattern
for greater accuracy.

3
0'

a,

?=

.'

b =
.2 r m

- I-

g6

0 .. 5

L m 3
m - -

. 2 m
Em,',

zcn2

$
a,

m
V)
c

a,

c
0
0

Metal
wall

Distance

Figure 1. Temperature gradients for heat transfer in juice heating.

Figure 2 shows HTC's plotted against operational time from the expression (d),
for secondary heating with horizontal 0,044 m diameter stainless steel tubes and a
scaling multiplier (X4)value of 0,0035. The values predicted by the <<Australian
formula>>agree with the 72 h operation values for the middle juice velocities in the
equation to juice velocity is more than that of
range. The sensitivity of the <<new>>
the <<Asustralianformula>>,and this agrees with the contention of Crawford and
Shann that juice velocity is important both from the juice film coefficient and
from the rate of scaling aspect. The <<new>>
predictions for clean tubes correspond
quite closely to the <<clean>>
data of Crawford and Shann.

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

110

T~rneof operation (h)

Figure 2. Heat transfer coefficient prediction for secondary juice heaters.

Also shown in Fig. 2 is a plot of the HTC of a large secondary juice heater
determined at Plane Creek factory for one week in November, 1980. The agreement to the 1,5 mls velocity prediction curve is excellent after the first period of
reduced juice flow on start up has passed. (The necessary data was logged using
a logic controlled data logging system based on Intel SBC 80120-4 microcomputer
boards.)

~ ~ ~ l i c a t i oofn HTC
s
Expressions
Single Heater Expressions
Where a single heater, or group of heaters used together, is operated, the HTC
can be calculated by the equations above as a function of time. An estimate of
the HTC actually required to carry out the heating duty can then be made using
the equation:
Ureq

=A LMTD

Where U,,, is the HTC required for the duty, and LMTD is the <<logmean
temperature difference>>driving force for heat transfer across the heater, and A is
the heater total area. The heat load, Q, can be calculated from the juice flow
rate (JF) and the temperature rise in the juice (Tout - Tin) by the formula
The "log mean temperature difference" can be calculated from the saturated
steam temperature (T,) and the juice inlet and outlet temperatures by the formula:
LMTD =

-'"

Tout - Tin
2,303 lg

lin

Ts - Tout
Obviously, the single or grouped heater can only be run until its HTC drops to
the level of the H Y C required for the job, after which it must be supplemented by
another heater, or relieved of the duty while cleaning is scheduled.

Multiple Heater Systems

Where a number of heaters are operated, with some available for mid-week
cleaning, the prediction equations should be useful in evaluating possible schedules for operation. It is not necessarily best to have all available heaters <<online>>
early in the week, as it is seen that higher juice velocity tends to reduce the rate of
scaling to assist the situation at the end of the operating period.

Juice Heater Pressure Drop Expressions

Design expressions for the pressure drop across tubular juice heaters are useful
for an estimation of juice pump duty, and for the estimation of the maximum juice
velocity which can be tolerated by a juice pump installation. The one most
commonly used has been given by Hugos, and this relates the pressure head
across a heater to the velocity of juice in the tubes, and the number and length of
the juice passes through the heater as follows:

where Pt is the pressure head loss in metres of juice.

The Hugot equation involves some simplifications and assumptions, and it was
considered worthwhile to look again at the fundamental dimensionless correlations
for pressure drop in juice heaters, to see is improvements can be made.

Tube Pressure Loss

Using basic correlations for the pressure drop through tubes by Sieder and
Tate given by Perry and making some simplifying assumptions for wall viscosity
effects and fanning friction factor, Wright l4 has obtained a new expression for the
pressure loss in the tubes. Adding this t o the flow reversal loss at the end of each
pass as estimated by Crane and Perry, the total pressure loss in metres head of
juice is given by

'

'

Pt = O , O O ~ ~ ~ ( D V T ) - ~ ~ ~ 0,1018
V ~ ~ n v 2 (m head juice)

This can be considered a "new" pressure drop expression, which is more exact
than that of Hugot quoted above.
A comparison of the predictions for pressure head loss by the Hugot expression
and the "new" expression abbve is given in Table I for a typical secondary juice
heater with a range of velocity values. It is seen that the "new" expression giver
slightly higher results in this case. The differences between the "new" expression
and the Hugot expression are greater with long tube heaters, the Hugot values
being too high.
Table 1. Comparison of Predicted Pressure Head Losses Throug a Juice Heater
Velocity of
Juice in Tube
(m/s)

Prediction
Hugot (1972b)
(m)

Prediction
this Work
(m)

1,o
1,s
2,o
2,s
3 ,o
3,s
4,o

2,9
6,6
11,8
18,4
26,5
36,O
47,O

3,4
7,4
12,9
19,8
28,l
37,9
49,l

' Tube diameter 0,051 m; passes

20; length 3,O m; average juice temperature 85C.

DIRECT VAPOUR CONTACT HEATER PERFORMANCE

General
A paper by Valdes 'l to the ISSCT conference in Brazil drew attention to the
direct contact methods of juice heating using vapours from the evaporator set. The
advantages and disadvantages of this method have subsequently been explored by
the present author (Wright, Wright and Hutchinson lo), and the performance of
a full factory application described by Young and Westmoreland. l2 Guidelines
for the sizing of contactors have recently been presented by Wright. l 3 A number
of Australian factories have installed such devices for primary juice heating since
1980.

Contactor Performance
Contactor performance can be considered from two angles (a) the general
equipment sizing to achieve a satisfactory "approach temperature" (here defined
as the difference between the saturated vapour temperature of the steam source
and that of the juice leaving the contactor), and (b) the process steam economies
and evaporator loadings generated by the contact heating application.
The equipment sizing can be made to follow the general design expressions for
a rain tray condenser as given by Wright, l3 with the modification that the water
flow W is replaced by the anticipated juice flow to be treated. The vapour flow
can then be estimated for the anticipated juice temperature rise and flow as for a
normal heater. An "approach temperature" performance of less than 3C should
be possible if these guidelines are followed. In pilot plant trials described by
Wright and Hutchinson
both conventional and modified "doughnut-disc" rain

tray internals were used, and volumetric capacity loadings of 100 t/h juice per
1,O m3 of contactor body volume were handled with an ccapproach temperature,,
less than 1C. Measured factqry scale results have not so far been quite as
good. No problems with juice frothing or blockage on the tray have been encountered so far, this being assisted by efficient prescreening of the juice stream. It is, of course, important that the air entering with the juice flow be
minimised by proper level control on the juice inlet tank.
Direct vapour contact results in the condensation of the heating vapour flow
(VF) direct into the juice, and, as this must ultimately be removed in the evaporator station, the total evaporation requirements of the station increase. As discussed by Wright, this re uires an overall increase in multiple evaporator area of
approximately 33 V F m9 for a typical quintuple set, or of 27 V F m2 for a typical
quadruple set where the units of V F are tonne per hour.
Direct contacting also means that, if vapour be taken from the same source
stage of the evaporators as for conventional heating, the overall process steam
economy decreases by VF/N where N is the number of evaporator stages. However, because of the low "aproach temperature" performance possible whith a
direct contactor, it is feasible to take vapour from a source significantly further
down the set. As given by Wright, for every stage further down the set that the
vapour for direct contacting vapour flow V F is selected, an approximately steam
saving of VF/N is achieved. Thus, in typical Australian practice, for primary juice heating shown in Fig. 3, direct contact vapour bleed from No. 4 stage
of a q u i n t u p l e s e t w o u l d give a n o v e r a l l p r o c e s s s t e a m saving of
1
3
2
- ?VF + ,VF =
VF over the conventional use of No. 1 vapour with tubu-

'

,
J

lar juice heaters for primary heating. The flow of final stage vapour to the
evaporator condenser is reduced by a similar amount.
The shifting of heater bleed further down the multiple effect set does cause a
change in the evaporative loading of the individual evaporator stages. As discussed by Wright the evaporative loadings of each evaporator stage "bypassed" by
the change in heating source increase, and that of the remaining stages before and
after the "bypassed" stages are reduced. It can be shown that if M is the number
of stages "bypassed" in a multiple set, the reduction in evaporative loading for
' each remaining stage is given by VF(M-1)/N while the increase in the evaporative
loading of the "bypassed" stages is given by VF(N+l-M)/N. The sum of the
increases and decreases through the set gives an overall evaporation increase of
V F for the entire set as mentioned before. In the example before of vapour bleed
shift from the No. 1 to No. 4 stage of quintuple set, N = 5 and M = 3 so that
the overall evaporation rates relative to the original case - 2VFl5, 3VFl5, 3VF/5,
3VFl5 and - VFl5 respectively for stages 1 to 5. This results in the percentage
changes shown in Fig. 3.

'

Contartor Control
Several methods of oulet juice temperature control have benn used with direct
contact juice heaters. The pilot experiments of Wright and Hutchinson lo used a
temperature sensor in the outlet leg to position butterfly valve in the va our inlet
line. The factory installation described by Young and Westmoreland l4 controls
temperature by throttling the gassing line leading to the vacuum pump. This
gives a slower, but yet satisfactory, control with a relatively small control valve.
Other factory installations use a controlled bypass of unheated juice from the inlet
line direct to the outlet leg, with the temperature sensing of the juice after mixing

ii:.L
I

is allowed to take place. As long as the source vapour is of good sufficiently

steady pressure, then outlet temperature control has been found to be very easy to
achieve.
DISCUSSION
The expressions presented above for tubular juice heater coefficients and pressure drops should be preferable to the simple expressions currently being used, as
they take into account more of the variables associated with the operation, and
follow the accepted chemical engineering approach more closely. Their higher
complexity is not a problem, as the expressions can be readily solved with modern
calculators and computing aids.
The performance of direct vapour contact juice heaters in related to their
"approach temperature" and is dictated by the design of the contactor. This
should follow similar guidelines to those arrived ar for water condenser design.
The implications of direct vapour contact heating with respect to process steam
economy and multiple effect evaporator capacity can be followed by use of the
simple expressions given here. More exact calculations can be made using sophisticated computer simulations of multiple evaporator sets, but the approximations
given should be satisfactory for most purposes.
SUMMARY OF TERMS
Symbol

A
C
D
Hc
Hf
.HR
JF
Kt
Ksc

LMTD
L

N
n

M
Pt

Description and Unit

Total heat transfer area of the heater.
Specific heat of the juice, kJ/(kg."C)
Internal diameter of the heater tubes, m
Heat transfer coefficient through the condensate film, kW/(m2, "C)
Heat transfer coefficient of the juice film, kW/(m2."C)
Time of operation since cleaning, h
Juice flow rate to the heater, kglh
Thermal conductivity of the tube metal, kW/(m."C)
Thermal conductivity of the scale layer, kW/(m."C)
Logarithmic mean temperatpure difference for the heater, " C
Length of heater tubes, m
Number of effetc stages
Number of passes through the heater
Stage from which direct contact vapour bleed is taken
Pressure head loss throught the tubes of the heater, m juice
Heat flux for the heater, kW
Steam side temperature, "C
Temperature of the juice, "C
Juice temperature leaving the heater, "C
Juice temperature entering the heater, "C
Thickness of tube wall, m
Thickness of the scale layer o n the tube, m
Overall heat transfer coefficient (HTC) for the heater, kW/(m2."C)
The overall heat transfer coefficient required for a heater duty, kW/(m2."C)
Juice velocity in the tubes, m/s
Vapour from rate to bleed heaters, t/h
Values in the overall heat transfer expression

1038

REFERENCES
1. Anon (1936): International Sugar Journal, p. 438.
2. Anon (1969): Crane Valve Co. Technical Paper No. 410.A, p. 27.
3. Crawford, W. R . and Shann, D . S. (1956): Heat Transfer in Juice Heaters. Proc. Int. Soc., Sugar
Cane Technol. 9th Congress, India, p. 103.
4. Hugot, E . (1972): Handbook of Cane Sugar Engineering, Elsevier, 2nd edition, pp. 450-451.
5. Hugot, E. (1972b): Handbook of Cane Sugar Engineering, Elsevier, 2nd edition, p. 445, equation 31.17.
6 . Kern, D . Q. (1950): Process Heat Transfer. McGraw Hill. New York. 1st edition, p. 266,
equation 12.44a.
7. Perry, J . H.(1963): Chemical Engineering Handbood. McGraw Hill. New York. 5.33. Table 5.19.
8. Sieder and Tate, in Perry, J . H . (1974): Chemical Engineering Handbook.McGraw Hill. New
York, 5th edition, 10.14, equation 10.50.
9. Wright,P. G . (1979): Juice Heating by Direct Vapour Contact. Proc. Aust. Soc. Sugar Cane
Technol., 53rd Conference, p. 161.
10. Wrigth, P. G . and Hutchinson, R . T . (1980): A Plant Trial of a Direct Vapour Contact Juice
Heater. Proc. Aust. Soc. Sugar Cane Technol., 54th Conference, p. 17.
11. ValdCs, D . A . (1977): Heater Designs for the Cane Sugar Industry. Proc. Int. Soc. Sugar Cane
Technol., 16th Congress, Brazil, pp. 2401-2403.
12. Young, R . C. and Westmoreland, A . . (1981): Primary Juice Heating by Direct Vapour Contact.
Proc. Aust. Soc. Sugar Cane Technol., 55th Conference, p. 17.
13. Wright, P. G. (1982): Rain Tray Condenser Desisgn Notes. Proc. Aust. Soc. Sugar Cane Technol., 56th Conference, p . 273.
14. Wrigth, P. G. (1981): Performance Equations for Horizontal Tubular Juice Heaters. Proc. Aust.
Soc. Sugar Cane Technol., 55th Conference, p.135.

FONCTIONNEMENT DES RECHAUFFEURS DE JUS

TUBULAIRES ET PAT CONTACT DIRECT
P. G. Wright
Institut de recherches sucrikres, Mackay, Queensland, Australie

RESUME
Se basant sur les correlations fondamentales de transmission de'chaleur
et de chute de vapeur appliquees B l'opera'tion de rechauffage du jus en
sucrerie, l'auteur presente des expressions "nouvelles" pour les rechauffeurs de jus tubulaires utilisks normalement. I1 se penche aussi sur la
question du fonctionnement des rechauffeurs de jus par contact direct avec
la vapeur.

RENDIMIENTO DE LOS CALENTADORES DE JUG0

TUBULARES Y POR CONTACT0 DIRECT0
P. G. Wright

Instituto de Investigaciones Azucareras, Mackay, Queensland, Australia

RESUMEN
Como resultado de la consideraci6n de las correlaciones fundamentales
sobre termotransferencia y caida de presi6n aplicadas a la operaci6n de
calentamiento del jugo en las fibricas productoras de azucar crudo se
exponen "nuevas" expresiones para 10s calentadores de jugo tubulares
tipicamente utilizados. Se discute, ademis, la operaci6n de 10s calentadores
de jugo por contact0 direct0 del vapor.