Wiped Film Distillation Operation - Post 1

Wiped Film Distillation Start Up Procedure

Post 1

This week, I'm going to walk through the process of starting up, dialing in, maintaining, and shutting down your distillation. Running a wiped film still is a pretty simple process, but it can be a little overwhelming to the new user. This is mostly because it is a continuous process, and getting going seems challenging.

Today, we will start with getting the system ready to start. I will be mentioning the names of the various systems - if a review of these would be helpful, please look back to my posts on the components of a wiped film distillation system.

Step 1 - Turn on your cold trap. This will be either a chiller, cold finger or a dry ice/solvent.

Step 2 - Go get a coffee. Chillers and immersion chillers take about 30 minutes to get to temperature. This is a good time to get coffee.

Step 3 - Turn on the other systems. Start warming your jacket/bands, pull the system under vacuum, turns the wipers on really slow, fill your feed vessel, or put the dip tube in your drum of feed. Turn on your condensers and get them adjusting to your desired temperature. Setup your collections systems. For systems with pumps, setup the distillate and residue to collect in a single container. Once equilibrated, this container can be returned to the feed side and processed.

For the vacuum - set it to your desired level for this pass. For the heat, warm it up to prepare the system and minimize the material you use to dial in the distillation. Generally, it is best to not go past 150°C without material running through it.

Step 4 - Once all systems have reached the setpoints, start introducing feed into the still.

Tomorrow I will discuss dialing in the distillation, including parameter selection. Let me know if there are any questions about system startup.

Picture courtesy of Pope Scientific, Inc.