An analytic model of direct-contact heat transfer in spray-column evaporators

The heat transfer to, and the resultant evaporation of, drops of a volatile liquid sprayed upward in an immiscible liquid flowing down in a vertical column are analyzed to enable calculation of the volumetric heat transfer coefficient in the column. In this paper, a model is contrived that assumes no nucleation delay in initially monodispersed drops and a heat transfer to each of the drops, with simultaneous evaporation, that can be approximated by an empirical correlation for heat transfer to an isolated drop evaporating in a quiescent, sufficiently extended medium. The expression obtained for the volumetric heat transfer coefficient is used to predict its values under some particular column operating conditions, which are then compared with relevant experimental data found in the literature