Vacuum Distillation Column Design Scale Up

EPIC designed and fabricated a vacuum distillation system for a liquid flavors company in the food and beverage industry. The client needed to scale up production of an existing batch distillation process of a proprietary liquid flavor that had seen a spike in popularity. Process engineers at EPIC worked closely with the customer – who could not provide an original P&ID – to design a larger, improved version of the original vacuum distillation system.

EPIC’s SOLUTION:

The client provided strict purity and recovery specifications for the vacuum distillation system, but provided little information about the design of the smaller existing system. Through detailed conversations with the client, EPIC’s process engineers and designers were able to reverse-engineer a system that would produce the same quality of product at higher efficiency and production output.

Space constraints at the flavor manufacturing facility meant system design had to accommodate a challenging installation for a 22-foot distillation tower.  EPIC’s modular designers solved this issue by designing a split-level vacuum distillation system that could be easily disassembled at EPIC into two major sections and quickly re-assembled and installed onsite.  Interactive 3D CAD models of the split-level vacuum distillation design allowed the client to approve the plan before the skid was built. This gave EPIC’s in-house skilled craftsmen a detailed model to follow during fabrication.

AN EPIC IMPACT:

The final vacuum distillation system featured:

• Increased liquid flavor purity and recovery of product
• A larger and more efficient distillation column with:
  • Greater throughput
  • And faster production of the liquid flavor product

Contact EPIC to speak with an engineer about your vacuum distillation project or call 314-714-1580.