Alaqua products

Alaqua’s multi-purpose compact evaporators have numerous advantages that make them excellent choices for dairy, beverage, specialty food, and industrial fluid applications.

In falling film evaporators the liquid product usually enters the evaporator at the top. In the top head the product is evenly distributed into the heating tubes. A thin film enters the heating tube and flows downwards at boiling temperature and is partially evaporated. In most cases steam is used for heating the evaporator. The product and the vapors inside the heating tubes 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 takes place in the vapor separator.

These operate on a “thermo-siphon” principle. Feed product enters the bottom of the heating tubes and as it heats, steam begins to form. The ascending force of this steam produced during the boiling causes liquid and vapors to flow upwards in parallel flow. At the same time the production of vapor increases and the product is pressed as a thin film on the walls of the tubes, and the liquid rises upwards. This upward movement against gravity has the beneficial effect of creating a high degree of turbulence in the liquid. This is advantageous during evaporation of viscous products and products that have a tendency to foul the heating surfaces.

In evaporators with MVR, the heating medium in the first effect is vapor developed in the same effect, compressed to a higher temperature by means of a fan or blower (MVR).

Alaqua, Inc.’s evaporators, crystallizers, distillation systems have proven themselves time after time in application after application. We supply equipment worldwide, to meet your processing requirements. Alaqua will supply equipment for installation by customer, skid mounted, or as turnkey projects. The economics of your particular process and location will dictate the evaporator type and model best suited for your needs. Alaqua offers complete project management capability for process installation. Single source responsibility stakes care of total project activity from initial consultation and design, through engineering and installation to final start-up and commissioning.

Crystallizers are used to concentrate feed into solid crystals and clean water. Crystallization is a solid-liquid separation technique in which solid crystals are formed from a liquid solution. Crystallizers can eliminate liquid wastes to create zero liquid discharge (ZLD). Crystallization is divided into two stages: primary nucleation and secondary nucleation. Primary nucleation involves the growth of new crystals. Secondary nucleation grows crystals and is the main stage that causes the mass production of crystals. There are evaporative crystallization processes, and cooling crystallization processes.

Distillation is a method of separating chemical substances based on differences in their volatilities in a boiling liquid mixture. Distillation usually forms part of a larger chemical process, and is thus referred to as a unit operation.

A spray dryer, as the name implies, is a device for drying, utilizing a spray. A spray dryer mixes a heated gas with an atomized (sprayed) liquid stream within a vessel (drying chamber) to accomplish evaporation and produce a free flowing dry powder with a controlled average particle size.