Product Introduction

　　 Plate evaporator It is a highly efficient evaporation device featuring a modular plate heat-exchange structure. At its core, it employs “thin-film heat transfer between plates” technology. By means of flow channels formed by corrugated plates, the feed liquid and the heating medium flow in opposite directions on either side of the plates, enabling rapid heat exchange and evaporation. The device’s key advantages—high heat-transfer efficiency, compact structure, convenient disassembly and maintenance, and flexible adaptability—make it widely applicable to small- and medium-scale solution concentration, solvent recovery, and low-temperature evaporation processes in industries such as chemical engineering, food processing, pharmaceuticals, and environmental protection. It is particularly well-suited for scenarios with space constraints, diverse material types, and frequent cleaning requirements. The plate material and flow-channel design can be customized according to the user’s production capacity and material characteristics (such as viscosity and corrosivity).

Product Category

　　Based on the plate structure, flow channel configuration, and application scenarios, plate evaporators are primarily categorized as follows:

　　1. Classified by plate type

　　 ▪ Corrugated plate evaporator: The plate surfaces feature herringbone, inclined corrugations, or honeycomb-shaped corrugations, which enhance turbulence in the fluid and result in a high heat transfer coefficient—making this the mainstream type used in industrial applications.

　　 ▪ Plate-type evaporator: The plate surface is smooth and the structure is simple, making it suitable for materials that are prone to scaling and contain small amounts of suspended solids; it’s also easy to clean.

　 　▪ Spiral plate evaporator: The plates are rolled into a spiral flow channel that is long and free of dead zones, making it suitable for high-viscosity fluids (<300 mPa·s) and ensuring uniform heat transfer.

　　2. Classified by evaporation process

　 　▪ Rising-film plate evaporator: The feed liquid is heated and vaporized within the plate channel, and the resulting steam carries the feed liquid upward, forming a rising film. The residence time is short (several seconds), making it suitable for heat-sensitive materials.

　　▪ Falling-film plate evaporator: The feed liquid is evenly distributed across the top of the plate via a liquid distributor, and then undergoes gravity-driven film evaporation along the plate surface, ensuring gentler heating and making it suitable for highly heat-sensitive materials.

　 　▪ All-liquid plate evaporator: The feed liquid completely fills the plate channels, making it suitable for low-viscosity materials that are not prone to fouling. It features a simple structure and stable operation.

　　3. Classified by combination form

　 　▪ Single-effect plate evaporator: Compact structure and low investment cost; evaporation capacity ranges from 0.2 t/h to 20 t/h, making it suitable for small-scale batch production.

　　 ▪ Multi-effect plate evaporator (2-3 effects): By utilizing steam in a cascaded manner, energy consumption is reduced by 30% to 50% compared to single-effect equipment, making it suitable for medium-scale continuous production.

　 　▪ Vacuum plate evaporator: Combined with a vacuum system, it enables low-temperature evaporation (40–70℃) and is specially designed for heat-sensitive materials such as enzyme preparations and biological extracts.

Performance Features

　 　1. Extremely high heat transfer efficiency: The turbulent flow channels formed by corrugated plate sheets significantly thin the boundary layer, resulting in a heat transfer coefficient as high as 3,000–8,000 W/(m²·℃)—2 to 4 times that of conventional shell-and-tube evaporators—and an evaporation intensity reaching 50–150 kg/(m²·h).

　 　2. Ultra-compact structure: The plate-and-frame modular stacking design reduces the footprint to only 1/3 to 1/5 of that of conventional shell-and-tube evaporators. With the same heat transfer area, the equipment volume is reduced by more than 60%, making it ideal for applications with space constraints.

　 　3. Easy to disassemble, assemble, and maintain: Adopting a bolt-fastening structure, the plates can be quickly disassembled without the need for large lifting equipment, making cleaning and replacement convenient (the time required to disassemble a single set of plates is less than 2 hours), thereby significantly reducing downtime and maintenance costs.

　　4. Gently handle the materials: The feed liquid stays in the flow channel for a short period (3–15 seconds) and is heated uniformly, with no local overheating. This effectively protects heat-sensitive materials (such as food additives and pharmaceutical intermediates) from decomposition and degradation.

　 　5. Flexible compatibility: It can handle solutions with viscosities below 500 mPa·s and concentrations ranging from 5% to 35%. The plate material options include 304 stainless steel, 316L stainless steel, titanium, Hastelloy, and others, making it suitable for both corrosive (acidic and alkaline solutions) and neutral media. By adjusting the number of plates, the system can be flexibly scaled up or down—simply adding or removing 5 to 10 plates will allow you to adjust the production capacity.

　　6. Energy conservation and consumption reduction: The counterflow channel design boosts thermal efficiency to over 85%, and the multi-effect combination further reduces energy consumption. Operating under vacuum conditions can lower the evaporation temperature and decrease the consumption of heating media.

Application scenarios

　　Thanks to their core advantages of high efficiency, compactness, and flexibility and convenience, plate evaporators are widely used in the following industries:

　　 1. Food industry: Fruit juice concentrates (strawberry juice, mango juice), dairy product concentrates (yogurt, whey protein), food additive production (citric acid, xylitol concentrate), and honey purification and concentration;

　 　2. Pharmaceutical Industry: Concentration of Chinese medicinal extracts (small-molecule extracts), concentration of antibiotic solutions (erythromycin, penicillin), low-temperature evaporation of biological preparations (enzyme preparations, vaccine intermediates), and solvent recovery (ethanol, acetone);

　 　3. Chemical Industry: Concentration of fine chemical intermediates, recovery of organic solvents (methanol, ethyl acetate), concentration and reuse of electroplating solutions, and concentration of low-temperature reaction liquids.

　　 4. Environmental Protection Industry: Treatment of high-salinity wastewater from small and medium-sized enterprises (wastewater from the electronics industry, laboratory wastewater); concentration and volume reduction of organic waste liquids (printing wastewater, coating wastewater); low-temperature evaporation for solvent recovery.

　 　5. Other areas: Concentrated cosmetic ingredients (hyaluronic acid, collagen), battery material production (electrolyte concentration), small-scale evaporation experiments in laboratories, and batch production equipment for small beverage and pharmaceutical plants.