Common Applications of Wiped Film Stills: Waxes

This week, we have covered a fair number of well-known applications of wiped film stills.  Today’s application is perhaps not as well-known but has been in use for a long time.

The topic for today is the use of wiped film stills in wax purification.

Wiped film stills are used in the production of both natural and industrial waxes.  The stills are chosen because the short residence time prevents burning  or degrading of sensitive waxes.

There are several different processes that the stills are used for. 

The first is often deodorizing. 

Odor causing compounds are typically very small, low boiling materials.  They can be removed from the rest of the wax very easily by running the molten wax through the still at mild conditions.

Another use is to separate the wax by size and melting point. 

A crude wax can consist of a mixture of various size compounds. 

The longer the carbon chain, the higher the melting point and boiling point.  The still can be used to separate the smaller waxes from the larger waxes and therefore provide different products for different applications.

Finally, distillation can be used to remove color from a wax.  When a wax is distilled, the color is likely to stay with the residue, and the distillate wax product will be as colorless as possible.