The molecular distillation process makes it possible to distill very high boiling molecules. Typically, at Tournaire, the applications consist in bleaching essential oils, or extract essential oils from tree resins, for example.

The basic principle of molecular distillation is to work a vacuum which is extremely high, we will work a vacuum up to 10-­³ mb so 1 million times below atmospheric pressure, for that we will put in place a specific design the base is a wiped film evaporator to limit the residence time because we heat very hard, up to 300°, an internal condenser to avoid pressure drops and be able to maintain the vacuum level and possibly liquid nitrogen traps and specifics screw pump.

One of the benefits of doing a test on the WiNatLab platform of Tournaire Equipment is to prepare your future industrial installation to maximize its performance and use. A test within the platform will allow you to calculate yields, feasibility and to best size your equipment in order to access the market more quickly.

This type of trial is aimed at both established companies and new entrants, so to all the people who wish to optimize an already existing process or innovate, develop a new process whether in the fields of pharmacy/health, cosmetics, aromas, perfumery and so on…

For example, one of the tips of Tournaire is to use a degasser upstream of the molecular distillation process which will reduce the process time and also reduce the number of manipulations to be performed on the device.