Degassing Deep Dive, Part 6

Degassing Deep Dive: Post 6

The real-world solution to the degassing problem.

This series has focused on degassing. We have discussed why it is critical and explained how to do a separate degassing pass.

However, in actual production scale operation, no one has time for extra passes.

For this reason, true production scale units come with a degassing stage. The reason for this is degassing is critical to consistent operation and while there are occasional feeds that are sufficiently degassed, or the products are super-volatiles, a true production ready setup demands a degassing stage.

Pictured below is a Pope 20" wiped film still with a degassing stage. The degassing stage consists of a complete setup to remove super-volatile material before the feed reaches the still. It has its own feed pump and outlet pump, vacuum pump, heating systems, condenser and cold trap. All the operator has to do is select the parameters and pump the feed material through the vacuum chamber.

The degassing chamber will clear the volatiles from the feed and none of the problems associated with super-volatiles will occur in the wiped film still. Pope's degassing stage is one of the most effective in the industry at producing volatile free feed. It is a good solution if volatiles are causing havoc in your distillation.

This is the final post in the degassing deep dive series. Drop a comment to let me know what you want to hear about next.

Picture courtesy of Pope Scientific, Inc.