Handbook of evaporation technology

This book results from an evaporation technology course I have taught for some time. Evaporation is one of the oldest unit operations; it is also an area in which much has changed in the last quarter century. This book is my attempt to pre-sent evaporation technology as it is generally practiced today. Although there are other methods of separation which can be considered, evaporation will re-main the best separation process for many applications. However, all factors must be properly evaluated in order to select the best evaporator type.

Evaporation technology has often been proprietary to a few companies who de-sign evaporation systems. This situation has benefits, but it also has drawbacks to users of evaporation equipment. Evaporation does not need to be considered an art; good engineering can result in efficient evaporation systems which oper-ate reliably and easily. However, some experience in evaporator design is cer-tainly an advantage in understanding the many problems that can and do occur in evaporation processes.

Much of what is said in this book has been said before. There have, however, been few attempts to combine all this information into one location. I am in-debted to the many people who have pioneered evaporation processes and have shared their experiences