At the moment we are using 20L Across rotary evaporators for solvent recovery and as you guys probably know they are not very time efficient. We have a Chem tech kd10 that we use for our distillation process and was wondering if anyone has ever used that for solvent recovery. In Theory it makes sense that it could work but was hoping someone here would have some advice before I tried it out on my own.
Never tried it…
don’t recall where exactly the conversation went. It should absolutely work, it just may not be faster.
Glass sucks for heat transfer…
Adding a preheater and a stainless condenser to your Rotovap is just a couple of tube and shells away.
Maybe read the whole thread.
Because: Optimizing your RotoVap
3 Likes
This is a falling film evaporator without the wiper.
absolutely you could, at the end of the day a wiped film is just an evaporator, it doesnt care what your distilling and feeding it.
run your jacket somewhere between 80-100c run your internal condenser as cold as you can. You only need a light vacuum, depending on your heater, you might even be able to run without vacuum entirely, but id still run a light depth.
id swap the rotary vane pump (or manifold in) a chemical rated diaphragm pump specifically for your solvent recovery, even with a good cold cold trap, you run the risk of solvent ingress into your pump array.
if your system has a turbo or diffusion pump, BYPASS THEM COMPLETELY, dont use them for concentration, a deep vaccum isnt as important here and you dont want to destroy your gear.
but yeah forsure itll work, is it practical? not really, but depends on your situation, a falling film or membrane is what you really need, but to patch a production hole untill you can acquire the proper gear, itll do fine.
best of luck
6 Likes
Just realize the limitation of the size of the internal condenser in a wiped film. The evaporating surface area is very much larger than the condensing area.
I just don’t think you’ll get the throughput you are hoping for trying to recover ethanol through a normal sized wiper.
I;ve done this but I think it’s unlikely it will be any faster than your roto.
2 Likes
if you do go about this, id be especially mindful of your hopper temps, and the vapors it produces. if i remember correctly on a kd-10 the hopper is like 6 inchs away from the motor, forget about preheating imo.
Its not really practical. also If this is your primary distillation system, i wouldn’t even attempt, because its a critical piece of gear for your business that your just putting more wear and tear on for little throughput gained.
for the price of a gear pump rebuild or two or a new rotary vane pump you could be well on your way building a simple SS still that has similar throughput. Not worth the hastle.
2 Likes
This will likely work, but it won’t be faster than a rotovap. Not worth it IMO!
1 Like