Key Features and Processing Capabilities
- Thin film created by the feed material maximizes heat and mass transfer
- Short residence time minimizes fouling, degradation and discoloration of heat-sensitive products
- Multiple stages strip volatiles to low parts per million (ppm) or parts per billion (ppb) levels in one pass
- High turn-down of up to 10:1
- No moving parts to maintain
Capabilities
- Continuously strip volatiles to as low as ppb levels in a single pass
- Process highly heat sensitive materials, dilute slurries, emulsions, foaming materials, and viscosities up 8,000 cP
- Designed for easy cleaning – no crevices, self-draining design
- Welded construction – no mechanical fasteners
- Up to 5% volatiles in feedstock
Advantages over other technology
The Evaporator/Stripper’s thin-film, disc-and-tube design offers unique advantages over conventional stripping technologies or vertical falling-film evaporators:
- Redistribution of the falling-film at each disc creates new surface for intimate liquid/vapor contact resulting in superior mass transfer
- Constantly maintains film on the trays and tubes with repeated liquid redistribution, overcoming a major shortcoming of conventional falling-film evaporators
- Able to operate at very low pressure (< 1 mmHg absolute)
- Self-draining, unobstructed disc-and-tube design handles viscous, solids-containing, and foaming materials
- Individually jacketed or unjacketed trays, designed for steam or liquid heating media, permit simultaneous evaporation and stripping
- Low product hold-up and self-draining design allow for easy clean in place (CIP) and multi-product use
Applications
- Solvent removal from polymers, surfactants, industrial coatings, fats, waxes, vegetable oils
- Dehydration of organic peroxides or other highly flammable organics
- Purifying aromatics, tocopherols, alkyl phenols, esters, oleochemicals
- Recycling solvents, alcohols, ketones
- Deodorization of polymers, additives, agrichemicals, fish oils, vegetable oils
Application | Artisan Commercial Success |
Aroma Recovery | Coffee and tea |
Deodorization | Additives, agrichemicals, vegetable oils, fish oil, cocoa butter, polymers |
Desolventizing | Polymers, surfactants, industrial coatings, fats, waxes, oils |
Rectifying column | Removing monomer from dimer and trimer fatty acids |
Purification | Aromatics, tocopherols, alkyl phenols, esters, oleochemicals |
Recycling | Solvents, alcohols, ketones |
Dehydration | Organic peroxides, silicones |
Technology in Action
- Material fed to the top, cascades down over disc & tube trays, renewing the thin film as it flows
- Vapor flows up through the falling liquid, facilitating volatile removal
- Trays can be heated or sparge gas introduced to aid in stripping
If you require a full solution to complement Artisan’s Evaporator/Stripper™, our engineers will engineer a complete system. We will specify heat exchangers, pumps, instruments, controls, etc. and then assemble the system based on your plant specifications. The finished system can be delivered to your plant, on modular self-contained skids, to be integrated into your process.
Technical Specifications
Artisan recommends our Evaporator/Stripper™ to strip volatiles from products that foam and have moderate to low viscosity down to low ppm or ppb levels. This technology can operate at pressures below 1.0 mmHg absolute, to perform heat and mass transfer simultaneously, and has multiple stages of stripping all which enhance its stripping performance. The unit offers a low holdup volume and a short residence time allowing it to process heat sensitive materials. Additionally, a sparge gas such as steam or nitrogen can be added to the Artisan Evaporator/Stripper ™ to further increase its stripping efficiency. The equipment also has the advantage of operating continuously 24/7 operations year after year with little to no maintenance due to no-moving parts.
Configurations
Heated jacketed tube sections- To utilize the Evaporator/Stripper for evaporation of a significant fraction of the feed material, the tube sections can be jacketed for additional heat input within the column due to evaporative cooling.
Unjacketed- In some cases the Evaporator/Stripper can be used to remove volatiles without the need for additional heating. In this case, typically sparge gas is used to facilitate removal of the volatile components.
Commercial Examples
Steam strip hexane from vegetable oil containing Lecithin from 80% to 2 PPM
- Using Artisan’s unique falling film disc and tube Evaporator/Stripper™ System, we are able to strip solvents from heat sensitive and solids containing products to very low (50 PPM or less) residual levels. The bulk of hexane can be removed from vegetable oil containing Lecithin from 80% to 2 PPM without product degradation. In most cases, one Artisan stripper can replace two or more wiped film evaporator (WFE).
Dry Explosive or Highly Flammable Organics
- Artisan’s patented falling film disc and tube Evaporator/Strippers™ are utilized to dry organic peroxides used as curing agents in polyester and vinyl chloride polymerization. Low holdup volume and “no crevice” design make it the safest method for continuous drying of these highly explosive or flammable organics.
Deodorize cocoa butter and other edible oils and oleochemicals by steam stripping the free fatty acids to non-detectable levels.
- Use Artisan’s unique falling film disc and tube Evaporator/Stripper™ is able to desolventize and strip organic solvents from concentrated oils to low PPM residual level (50 PPM or less). The Evaporator/Stripper offers many advantages over conventional wiped film evaporators (WFE’s) and packed columns, allowing for processing of viscous and mass transfer limited feed streams.
Aroma Recovery
- The Artisan Evaporator/Stripper® is the only multi-staged non-mechanical thin-film processor capable of recovering valuable flavors and aromas directly from a slurry. The Evaporator/Stripper not only costs considerably less than the competing technologies to install and operate, it offers additional features and benefits such as low maintenance costs, low heat history, no loss of product, and high operational efficiency.
Remove hexane from Marigold oleoresin from 10% to 25 PPM
Strip cholesterol to less than 100 PPM from butter fat and lard.