Separation of close boiling products at short residence times and high vacuum
Heat sensitive products with closer boiling components are difficult to be separated in single stage systems.
Combining packed fractional distillation columns with thin film or wiped film evaporators as reboilers improves the separation of such products. The larger number of theoretical stages in the fractional distillation column allows good product yields and purities. The low residence time in the reboiler, as well as the low operating pressures, prevents thermal degradation of valuable products. Example applications are the purification of flavor and fragrances, special nutritional products, Omega-3-fatty acids, heat instable fine chemicals or pharmaceuticals. Next to typical rectifying processes the packed columns can also be used for stripping processes (e.g. steam stripping).
Performance Features
- Operating pressure: down to 0.5 mbara
- Operating temperatures: up to 350 °C
- Number of theoretical separation tray: up to more than 20
Typical Applications
Multi-stage distillation of higher molecular weight products such as
- EPA and DHA
- Flavors and essential oils
- Acrylic acid, acrylates
- Hop oil
- Squalane
Design Features
- Fractional column arrangement: rectifying, stripping or combined
