Wiped-Film Molecular Stills & Evaporators Overview

Superior Distillation Process for Heat-Sensitive Liquid Separation and Purification

Since 1976, Pope Scientific has been at the forefront of distillation technology, specializing in the processing of materials that are challenging to separate due to their heat sensitivity and high boiling points, melting points, molecular weights, or viscosities. Our Wiped-Film equipment serves a wide range of industries, including pharmaceuticals, edible and essential oils, foods, flavors, polymers, lubricants, waxes, and specialty chemicals.

Today, the relevance and importance of our technology continue to grow as new products are discovered, developed, and brought to market. Many of these are large and delicate molecules that require the gentlest distillation available to maintain integrity and functionality.

Heat-sensitive materials are particularly vulnerable to degradation, which can be exacerbated by high temperatures and prolonged heat exposure. Wiped film stills address these challenges by drastically reducing the exposure time to mere seconds, rather than the hours or longer required in traditional batch distillation setups. This significant reduction in exposure time helps prevent degradation reactions such as molecule cracking, polymerization, or isomerization, thereby enhancing product purity and overall value.

Keys to the Superiority of the Wiped Film Distillation Process:

• Short Residence Time: The feed liquid spends only a brief period in contact with heat, minimizing thermal stress.
• Lowered Temperature Distillation: Enabled by very high vacuum capabilities that significantly reduce boiling temperatures.
• Advanced Design: Achieved via high mass and heat transfer enabled by perfected equipment geometries, essential for maintaining the quality and integrity of the final product.
• Optimal Efficiency: Our slotted wiper system ensures precise control of the residence time, film thickness, and flow characteristics, ensuring efficient distillation, even with challenging applications.

Wiped-Film Stills & Wiped-Film Evaporators

Pope Scientific’s Wiped-Film Molecular Stills (WFMS) and Wiped-Film Evaporators (WFE) excel at separating volatile from less volatile components in a variety of materials, including extracts, fats, biobased chemicals, plastics, nutraceuticals, and fragrances. This gentle process utilizes the thin-film wiping action of feed liquid through a heated cylindrical vacuum chamber, optimizing vacuum distillation and evaporation. Our wiped-film stills are known by several other names, such as molecular stills, short path stills, short path evaporators, and thin-film evaporators, varying by geography, industry sector, and application. Pope’s stills are categorized into three main types:

• Wiped-Film Molecular Stills for high boiling materials requiring highest vacuum.
• Wiped-Film Evaporators for high volatiles content in feed and for product concentration.
• Wiped-Film Hybrid Stills for heat-sensitive materials requiring highest purity and yield

The high-quality components and materials incorporated, state-of-the-art equipment and process design, and total quality control throughout all phases of engineering, fabrication, and testing ensure that our equipment delivers the highest performance possible.

Beyond equipment provision, Pope Scientific is equipped with extensive hands-on experience in toll distillation, process development, and testing services. Trust us to partner with your team from concept to commercialization, ensuring that your distillation needs are met with the highest standards of excellence.

Download Pope Scientific Wiped-Film Stills PDF for an introduction to the molecular background, a brief operating description, and an overview of molecular distillation and evaporation applications.