Thin-film separation protects high-value, heat-sensitive specialty chemicals

Finding an efficient way to isolate commercial products using thermal separation can be extremely challenging when working with high value chemicals.

Artisan’s thin/wiped film technology is ideally suited for heat-sensitive and viscous materials or products that foul, foam, or contain solids. The equipment can process materials with viscosities up to 1 million centipoise. The short residence time minimizes degradation and discoloration.

Artisan has worked with most of the Fortune 500 chemical companies and many smaller and mid-size manufacturers. We have solved difficult separation problems using a wide range of process technologies including thin film evaporation, distillation, stripping and drying. Our engineers can help you improve an existing process or design a process for a new product.

Our extensive experience includes the following chemical processing applications:

Purifying pesticides and herbicides

Desolventizing photo resist and photographic chemicals

Evaporating and drying heat sensitive or viscous specialty and fine chemicals

Concentrating high value liquids or slurries

Problem

Producing concentrates with little or no moisture from liquid or slurry feeds.

Solution

The Artisan Rototherm^®, a mechanically agitated thin film processor, concentrates heat sensitive, solids containing materials from very high moisture content in a single step, eliminating the need for costly, high maintenance filters, centrifuges, or spray type dryers.

Example

Concentrating an artificial sweetener containing water, alcohol, sugar, salt, and suspended solids, producing a concentrate with little or no moisture.

Stripping heat sensitive products to low ppm levels of volatiles

Problem

Stripping heat sensitive, viscous, or solids containing products, such as vitamins, fatty acids, plasticizers, phenolic resins, and pesticides.

Solution

Artisan proprietary falling film Evaporator/Strippers™ are widely used to strip solvents from heat sensitive and solids- containing high value products. Short residence time, high surface to volume ratio and extremely low pressure drop make it the most economical alternative to vertical wiped film evaporators (WFE). In most cases, one Artisan stripper can replace two or more WFEs.

Examples

• VOC’s from latex emulsions to PPM level.
• Monomer from copolymer.
• Solvent from heat sensitive, unstable dye dispersions.

Drying high value liquid products

Problem

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

Solution

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.

Example

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.

©2012 Artisan Industries Inc. Waltham MA, U.S.A. • phone 781.893.6800 • fax 781.647.0143