Wiped Film Evaporator

When traditional evaporators process products with high boiling points, high viscosity, heat sensitivity, or a tendency to scale, they often require a continuous increase in energy consumption to achieve evaporation in a "more powerful" manner. However, the benefits gained are often minimal compared to the costs incurred. In contrast, wiped film evaporator can effectively address this issue.

The wiped film evaporator is extensively utilized in the pharmaceutical, food, petrochemical, environmental protection, and other industries. Utilizing specialized mechanical scraping and vacuum evaporation technology, it efficiently separates high-viscosity, heat-sensitive, or scaling-prone liquids for treatment.

Compared to traditional evaporators, the residence time of the liquid being treated is shorter, allowing for a greater variety of liquids to be processed. This results in higher efficiency and lower energy consumption, making it suitable for regions where energy prices have increased for various reasons.

The whole equipment includes evaporation cylinder, rotor and scraper system, vacuum system, condenser and feed/discharge system.

The liquid to be treated enters the evaporation cylinder from the top of the evaporator through the feed pump and the separator. The rotor drives the scraper to turn the liquid into a thin film in the heating cylinder, so that the heat can be transferred to the liquid more evenly and quickly. At the same time, due to the use of the vacuum system, the boiling point of the liquid is also increased by reducing the pressure, so that it can evaporate at a low temperature, reducing the energy consumption of the heating cylinder and the cooling system, and maximizing the working efficiency. Finally, the steam will be recovered in the condenser, and the concentrated liquid will be discharged from the bottom.

Excellent heat transfer efficiency and high evaporation and rate:

• Advantages: The wiped film evaporator is equipped with a high-speed rotating scraper (rotor) to force the material into a uniform, extremely thin liquid film (usually between 0.1-1mm) and make it flow turbulently along the heated wall.
• Enhancement of ENCO: ENCO optimizes the scraper structure (such as scraper form, angle, gap) and rotor system in design to ensure the formation of a stable, uniform and highly turbulent thin liquid film. This greatly increases the effective contact area between the material and the heated wall and significantly reduces the thermal resistance.
• Results: Compared with traditional evaporators (such as falling film and rising film), ENCO's wiped film evaporators have extremely high heat transfer coefficients, can achieve extremely fast evaporation rates, and greatly shorten the residence time of materials at high temperatures, which is particularly suitable for heat-sensitive substances.

Excellent handling capabilities for high-viscosity, easy-to-scale and high-boiling-point materials:

• Advantages: The mechanical force of the rotating scraper is the key. It can continuously "scrape" the heated wall surface to prevent material accumulation, coking or scaling.
• ENCO's Enhancement: ENCO's scraper system is designed to be sturdy and durable, and can provide sufficient shear force to handle extremely high viscosity materials (such as polymers, resins, tars, concentrates, etc.). At the same time, the continuous scraping action effectively prevents the material from staying and depositing on the hot wall, solving the blockage and efficiency reduction problems of traditional evaporators when handling materials that are prone to scaling and coking.
• Results: ENCO's WFE is particularly suitable for handling viscous, easy to scale, easy to aggregate or containing solid particles that conventional evaporators are difficult to handle. It can also effectively handle the separation of high boiling point difference systems, maintaining long-term stable operating efficiency and product quality.

Extremely short material residence time and excellent thermal sensitivity protection:

• Advantages: The thin liquid film and scraper push the material to flow downward quickly, making the material stay in the evaporator heating area for a very short time (usually only a few seconds to tens of seconds).
• ENCO Enhancement: ENCO optimizes the flow path and time control of the material in the hot zone by precisely designing the evaporator barrel length, diameter, scraper speed and feed rate, minimizing the heat exposure time.
• Result: This is one of the most prominent advantages of ENCO WFE. The extremely short residence time minimizes the risk of thermal decomposition, polymerization, oxidation or discoloration of heat-sensitive materials (such as vitamins, natural extracts, spices, certain pharmaceuticals, fine chemicals, polymer monomers, etc.), and can effectively retain active ingredients, color and flavor to obtain high-quality concentrates or distillates.

Q1：What size is a wiped film evaporator?

A:There is no fixed size for WFE, ranging from 0.1 square meters to 50 square meters. ENCO's design team will design the appropriate size equipment according to your needs.

Q2：What is the difference between a falling film evaportor vs wiped film evaporator?

A：Falling film evaporator relies on gravity to form film naturally, and is only suitable for low viscosity and clean fluids.
The WFE uses a rotating scraper to force scraping to form an extremely thin turbulent film. It can handle high viscosity and easy to scale materials, and has a shorter residence time and better protection for heat-sensitive materials. The applicable scenarios are therefore significantly different.

Q3：What is the energy consumption of a wiped film evaporator?

A：ENCO's WFE will be customized according to your requirements, and will use methods such as improving the internal structure to improve heat transfer efficiency and using high-efficiency scrapers to reduce the energy consumption of your equipment.

Q4：What can a Wiped film evaporator do?

A：ENCO's WFE can be used in the pharmaceutical, chemical, food, environmental protection and other industries. Processes such as concentration and purification can be achieved through the WFE. According to your industry requirements, national policies and natural environment, we will provide you with customized equipment design solutions.