Failing film evaporators in cane sugar mills

The technology of the failing film evaporator, tube or plate type, is now recognised as the best in the beet sugar industry. After many attempts, it still has not really succeeded in establishing itself in the cane sugar industry. We therefore sought to analyse the causes of the difficulties of introducing it to the cane industry and to try to solve them. After three years of experiments in cane sugar mills in Brazil, we carried out measurements of performance which give an excellent performance of heat exchange when the evaporator was clean. These measurements show also a linear degradation of these performances with time. Today, after many improvements, the falling film evaporator may, under certain conditions, be considered as an excellent solution in cane sugar mills.