Modular Purification System Skid Mounted With Scalable Wiped Film Distillation

This highly flexible, modular Purification System is designed as a multi-purpose platform for contract manufacturing organizations (CMOs) and R&D pilot plants requiring a single asset to process diverse chemical and botanical streams. At its heart is a scalable Wiped Film Distillation unit, integrated with a comprehensive set of quick-connect utilities, vacuum pumps, and a user-friendly PLC that can store unlimited product recipes. The system’s defining feature is its rapid reconfigurability, transitioning from a deodorization setup for a cosmetic ester to a fractional cannabinoid purification unit in a single shift. With a caster-mounted or portable skid design and an incredibly low internal hold-up, it empowers toll processors to maximize asset utilization, serve multiple clients with zero cross-contamination concerns, and quickly bridge the critical gap between bench-scale discovery and multi-ton commercial validation.

Toll processors and pilot plant managers face a persistent equipment-utilization crisis. Traditional purification stills are fixed-purpose, inflexible assets—a column designed for a specific solvent ratio cannot efficiently run a high-viscosity polymer. This forces smaller organizations to invest in multiple single-purpose machines that sit idle between campaigns. Cleaning a conventional packed column between products is a time-intensive nightmare, often requiring days of boiling solvent and manual crate disassembly. This creates a scheduling bottleneck where the purification step becomes a slow, expensive barrier to batch release. The cost-per-kilogram skyrockets, and the inability to offer rapid turnaround kills contract manufacturing deals against more flexible competitors.

Our modular Purification System breaks this trade-off. The wiping mechanism does not rely on gravity or intimate packing contact, meaning the same machine can run a water-thin solvent in the morning and a molasses-thick polymer in the afternoon. Its continuous thin-film action cleans itself during runout; a follow-up 30-minute solvent flush and hot Nitrogen dry cycle returns it to a validated clean state. The PLC’s recipe manager lets an operator recall a client’s perfect parameters (feed rate, temperature, vacuum setpoints) with a single tap, guaranteeing run-to-run reproducibility independent of operator skill. This makes it the ultimate revenue-generating tool for CMOs who must seamlessly switch between purifying terpenes, concentrating Omega-3s, or stripping plasticizers, transforming the purification department from a bottleneck into a core strategic advantage.

• Toll Processing: Running 10+ different customer products per month with certified cleaning.

• R&D Scale-Up: Transitioning a new chemical entity from a 1g flask to continuous kg-level production.

• University Core Facilities: Serving multiple academic research groups with widely divergent projects.

• Startup Pilot Runs: CBD or material-science startups validating market before commissioning a dedicated line.

Product is drawn from any mobile feed tank, metered into the top of the wiped film unit. The modular rotor, fitted with the customer’s selected wiper material, spreads it into a film on the heated jacket. The light fraction vaporizes, hits the internal condenser, and flows to a collection carboy, while the heavy fraction drains to a waste receptacle. The modular design means the vacuum group and chiller are separate but interlocked via a common control bus. After a run, an operator activates the “CIP Cycle" recipe, which pumps cleaning solvent through the small-volume circuit and purges with N2, leaving the system dry and ready for the next, completely different, compound.

Begin by analyzing the most common distillation splits across your client base. A 0.5m² surface area is perfect for feasibility batches of 1-10 kg, whereas a 5.0 m² unit can produce 100-500 kg of commercial samples per day. The critical selection is the vacuum depth: for high-boiling esters and polymers, a deep vacuum package (0.001 mbar) is non-negotiable; for application flexibility, always over-specify your vacuum. Equally vital is the control software purchase; insist on a fieldbus network that integrates your existing LIMS or batch reporting system. A pre-installed kit of rotors with varying wiper blade materials (PTFE for general, Carbon for abrasive, PEEK for high-temp) will ensure you never turn down a contract due to chemical incompatibility.

1. Q: How do we prove to our pharmaceutical client that there is zero cross-contamination?
   A: Our cleaning validation protocol uses a defined worst-case marker compound. We provide rinse sample HPLC analysis and surface swab TOC data from critical low-points after every cleaning cycle. Cleaning logs are time-stamped in the PLC for a complete audit trail.

2. Q: What if a new product damages the wipers?
   A: The wipers are designed as a sacrificial, low-cost wear part. A set can be replaced by an in-house technician in under 15 minutes via a bolt-on inspection port. We recommend keeping a spare kit on your shelf as a standard supply item.

3. Q: We have limited in-house engineering staff. How complex is the setup?
   A: The PS-Modular is delivered as a ready-to-run asset. It requires only a single-point connection to your facility utility headers. We complete site acceptance testing within three days and provide training to make your shift operators fully autonomous within that period.

4. Q: Can this system truly achieve single-pass purity on multiple different materials?
   A: Yes. The mechanical thin-film mechanism ensures consistent heat transfer independent of feed physical properties. If the pilot test shows a successful split, the modular unit will exactly replicate it. The physics of the film do not change.

5. Q: Is it possible to trial our product on this exact modular system before committing?
   A: This is the recommended path. We offer leasing-to-own programs on the pilot-scale unit. You can install it in your facility, run client samples for six months, generate revenue from it, and then upgrade to a full production model with full trade-in credit.