Producing free flowing powders with little or no moisture from liquid or slurry feed products.

Artisan’s Rototherm^® P, a mechanically agitated thin-film processor, is widely used to produce free flowing powders from a variety of heat sensitive products. Rapid heat transfer, plug flow, and extremely short residence time make it the most versatile “single step” processor in the industry.

Drying a heat sensitive “photographic dye” by evaporating the solvent from a 2% solution at reduced pressure. Pre-concentration in a rising film evaporator optimizes the size of the Rototherm. A rectifying column, using the Artisan proprietary Dualflo^® distillation trays, controls solids entrainment.

Carry out an equilibrium reaction while simultaneously concentrating the reaction product and discharging a solid or a slurry all in a single step.

Equilibrium reactions, such as saponification and esterification are typically carried out in batch reactors, taking 24 to 30 hours to reach the desired conversion. furthermore, it has been demonstrated that rapid removal of reaction by-products, such as water in esterification reactions, significantly reduces reaction time. However, both heat and mass transfer rates are limited in batch reactors. Consequently, as the reaction proceeds toward completion, the water removal rate drops dramatically, inhibiting the reaction rate and wasting valuable reactor time.

Use an Artisan two-zone Rototherm^® to carry out continuous equilibrium reactions. A co-current design, along with a two-zone process section, permits reaction, concentration, and a heavy slurry or solid discharge in a single step.

This mechanically-agitated thin-film processor provides a unique combination of efficient heat and mass transfer capability, short residence time, and mechanical integrity to perform continuous reactions of highly viscous, foaming, fouling and solids-containing products. The rapid evaporation of reaction by-product(s) enables near complete conversion of most saponification and esterification reactions in minutes, yielding superior products, while minimizing energy consumption.

Concentrating carbohydrates and other similar heat-sensitve products can not be accomplished by conventional evaporation technologies. The extreme sensitivity of these materials to time and temperature exposure, further compounded by foaming and fouling tendencies, make them particularly challenging to process without product degradation and fouling of the heat transfer surfaces.

Use the Artisan Rototherm^® is uniquely qualified for this type of application. Our mechanically-agitated evaporator provides extremely short residence time (measured in seconds), narrow residence time distribution, rapid surface renewal, and high heat transfer rates. Rototherm is able to evaporate in a single pass, up to 99% of a feed solution, while achieving turn down ratios of 10 and higher, without product burn-on.

Continuous vacuum evaporation and concentration of an artificial sweetner (sucralose) from16% solids to 73% solids by evaporating 93% of the solvent (consisting of dimethyl formamide, acetic acid, and cyclohexane) produces a highly concentrated carbohydrate product.

Recovering glycerin and other heat sensitive, solids-containing valuable food additives can not be accomplished effectively using conventional evaporation techniques.

Use an Artisan Rototherm^® mechanically-agitated thin film processor, to continuously evaporate and distill heat sensitive solids-containing products, without color formation, and achieve greater than 96% yield. Minimized product degradation and maximized purity and yield are due to the Rototherm's extremely short residence time (measured in seconds), its rapid surface renewal, its narrow residence time distribution, and its high heat transfer rates.

Material: Vegetable oil containing 20% glycerin and 2% sodium salts.
Through continuous vacuum evaporation/distillation, highly purified glycerin is recovered overhead while a concentrated oil/salt residue is discharged as waste.

Producing free flowing powders with little or no moisture from liquid or slurry food products in a single pass.

The Artisan Rototherm^®P, a mechanically agitated thin-film processor, is widely used to produce free flowing powders from a variety of food ingredients. Rapid heat transfer, plug flow, and extremely short residence time permit concentration and drying of the most heat sensitive, foaming/fouling products from very dilute concentrations all the way to powder in one single positive pass through the Rototherm. In most applications, this eliminates one operating step; either a pre-concentration, or a drying step. In addition, significant capital and energy savings (factor of 2-3) are realized when Rototherm replaces a spray dryer. However, if the final moisture specification requires spray drying, a significant amount of energy is saved by feeding a more concentrated solution to the dryer, with the added benefit of preserving more of the valuable volatile flavor compounds.

• Drying a heat sensitive protein containing fiber and starch by evaporating water from a 2% aqueous solution to a free flowing powder with a moisture content of less than 5%. This application eliminated freeze drying.
• Concentrating and drying an aqueous soy isoflavones stream from 2% solids to a free flowing powder containing less than 1% moisture.
• Concentrating and drying aqueous niacinamide from 50% moisture to a dry, free-flowing powder with no product degradation.

With conventional technologies it is extremely difficult to dry shear sensitive and viscous food additive products, such as lecithin. These highly viscous materials produce extremely low inside film coefficients in the laminar region, necessitating a mechanically agitated thin-film surface to create turbulence; and rapid surface renewal to obtain higher inside film coefficient. Additionally, temperature sensitivity limits the driving force (the temperature difference between the heating medium and the process) resulting in larger surfaces and longer residence times, both of which increase the risk of product degradation.

Use the Artisan Rototherm^® thin-film evaporator for your most challenging drying applications. Rototherm offers superior heat transfer, negligible pressure drop, and is able to process foaming, fouling, and solids containing materials with ease. Unlike vertical wiped or thin-film evaporators that generally need an internal, or in some cases and external entrainment separator device, Rototherm, owing to its higher diameter to length ratios, and lower vapor velocities, does not require an entrainment separator in most applications.

Continuously drying lecithin from a 50% solution to less than 1% moisture without product degradation. The water is condensed and reused in the plant. Dry lecithin is pumped and immediately cooled to prevent degradation.