Cold traps are often used in vacuum applications that contain a range of vapors. Cold traps are used to condense the vapors into a solid or liquid state. The cold trap stops contamination in the vacuum pump, decreasing maintenance requirements and extending the vacuum pump life.

How Does a Cold Trap Work?

Cold traps work by condensing gases onto an adequately cold surface. The vacuum pump removes gas from a chamber and it moves from the chamber and into the cold trap where the gases are condensed or sublimated, preventing these gases from reaching areas of the system that could lead to malfunction.

Sometimes cold traps use temperature monitoring equipment to purposefully condense materials with temperature monitoring equipment. Cold traps maintain their temperatures by an active material such as dry ice or liquid nitrogen.

Cold traps are usually made up of two parts and look like a U-shaped test tube. The bottom of the cold trap is much larger than the top part, with a thick round tube that is safeguarded by surrounding ground-glass joints with a leak-proof cap on top.

Why Use a Cold Trap?

Cold traps come in a range of specifications, and the specifications are dependent on the chemical composition of the process. Some processes involve gasses traveling in a vapor form that can be trapped easily and cooled quickly. This causes the vapor to condense and the condensation collects inside the trap.

Cold traps are also used for experiments that use extremely low temperatures for distillation and condensation. Cold traps in these instances contain a blend of acetone and coolant and work as the condenser.

The Downsides of Cold Traps

Cold traps are often used with rotovaps to capture vapors that move through the condenser. Traditional versions were highly inefficient, using lots of energy to protect the vacuum pump. Cold traps need to be extremely cold meaning they use lots of materials such as liquid nitrogen, tape water, or anti-freeze to safeguard the temperature.

Using these costly materials can be a challenge for companies, increasing overheads and overall carbon footprint.

Rather than using traditional cold traps to stop the gases from getting into vacuum pumps, Ecodyst uses a technology that does not require costly and time-consuming processes. The condenser cooling system developed by Ecodyst provides continuous cooling, fast condensation, and decreased evaporation time.

Should You Choose a Cold Trap for Your Application?

Cold traps are beneficial for many applications, minimizing downtime and maintenance needed for vacuum pumps. However, the inefficiency of traditional cold traps can negate this cost-saving benefit.

To find out more about how Ecodyst’s innovative take on the cold trap can benefit your application, contact us today.

Solvent recovery is a critical element of any lab used for cannabis extraction. For both winterization and extracting with a liquid solvent requires a bulk solvent recovery technique. This article will explore some of the pitfalls of traditional methods of solvent recovery and how the speed of solvent recovery with Ecodyst can be beneficial to your application.

What is Solvent Recovery?

Solvent recovery is often confused with solvent recycling, however they are vastly different processes. Solvent recovery is a process in which most of the solvent in crude cannabis extract is removed. Solvent recovery can be a lengthy process, causing a huge bottleneck in lab operations if not managed efficiently.

This bottleneck is caused by vast quantities of solvent, for example in the winterization process unrefined oil is dissolved in ethanol at a rate of 10:1. If the lab needs to extract 10 liters of distillate in a day then they must remove over 100 liters of ethanol, meaning this can be a time consuming process.

Traditional Solvent Recovery

Falling Film Evaporators

Falling films are a widely used evaporation techniques that typically use condensing steam as a heating medium. Falling film evaporators are fairly inefficient, taking a significant amount of time to meet heating requirements. They are also extremely expensive as they have very particular design and manufacturing requirements.

Rotary Evaporators

Rotary evaporators are the most widely used tool for solvent recovery across many industries. They use a rotating flask to efficiently evaporate the solvent under a vacuum. Rotary evaporators are inexpensive, however most rotary evaporators are made of glass which means they are more prone to breakages and are thermally inefficient.

Rotary evaporators from Ecodyst are more quick and efficient than the standard, traditional rotovaps. Their metal condensing coils significantly reduce the amount of energy an application requires whilst also decreasing the overall space.

Despite their benefits, rotary evaporators are inefficient for large scale solvent recovery as they take a significant amount of time to successfully evaporate the solvent.

Evaporators for Large Scale Solvent Recovery

The Ecodyst team identified a need in the market to combine the energy efficiency and reduced footprint of their revolutionary rotovaps with a capacity for solvent recovery on a larger scale.

Ecodyst have pioneers their super-large, industrial-sized 200 liter EcoChyll X9, allowing large scale solvent recovery without high energy consumption and operating costs. Solvent recovery traditionally requires a multitude of experienced operators and many hours can now be achieved in a much smaller time scales.

Ecodyst evaporators use a self-cooling technology, offering a novel solution for solvent recovery challenges. These benefits could revolutionize your operations, increasing efficiency and saving money. To find out more, get in touch with the team at Ecodyst today.

Rotary evaporators (or rotovaps) are a staple of numerous laboratories around the world and have been for many years. However, in this time there have been very few major changes with regards to how rotary evaporators operate.

Ecodyst has pioneered a new gold standard for rotary evaporators, modernizing them, making them more accessible, and work better for those that use them.

What Makes the New Rotary Evaporators So Different?

One key difference between traditional rotary evaporators and Ecodyst’s models is the efficacy of the performance. These new rotary evaporators minimize material waste, costs, and the use of excessive water or dry ice. Because rotary evaporators from Ecodyst use constant self-cooling technology on-demand their superior performance does not lead to higher operational costs.

A Rotary Evaporator that Doesn’t Cost the Earth

The chemical-resistant metal condenser technology that Ecodyst uses replaces the standard glass condenser. Because metal is stronger more conductive than glass, devices can utilize a refrigeration line that has a direct connection to condenser coils.

This means that the new rotary evaporators do not use high levels of energy cooling antifreeze or running vast amounts of tap water, nor do they waste dry.

The Benefits of Metal Condensers As Opposed to Glass

Metal is extremely good at conducting heat, which means it is suitable to be used with condensers. Metal is also durable with a broad surface area, meaning it is fully customizable.

Traditionally, glass has always been used as a condenser for rotary evaporators as it is resistant to most chemicals that are used in chemical laboratories. However, glass is not a good conductor of heat, meaning rotary evaporators require additional solutions to overcome the poor heat exchange.

Metal condensers can be coated in polymers that are untouchable by even the most corrosive chemicals, allowing for high-performance, modern rotary evaporators to be developed.

Simplicity is Key

Not only are traditional rotary evaporators inefficient, but they are also challenging and time-consuming to use, significantly slowing down productivity. The inefficiency slows down the overall speed of research and sees scientists spending significant amounts of time on practical issues such as sourcing antifreeze.

The new rotary evaporators from Ecodyst have combined the cooling system with the condensing equipment, eliminating the need for a recirculating chiller as it is all integrated into one simple system. This allows the rotary evaporators to take up far less space in laboratories.

The new rotary evaporators have minimal operating costs, only using a small amount of electricity and its simplicity means it requires less manpower.

Applications that Benefit

Industries that perform chemistry such as environmental, life sciences, cannabis, and chemical industries would greatly benefit from the new rotary evaporators.  They will eventually become the new standard for rotary evaporators across the world, particularly in those areas in which it is difficult to access large amounts of water or dry ice.

If you would like to find out more about how your rotary evaporator could be updated and made more efficient, get in touch with the team at Ecodyst today.

Continuous cooling is a key benefit of the Ecodyst rotary evaporator range. Rotary evaporators work to gently and efficiently remove solvents from a range of samples. Samples are heated and their boiling points are minimized concurrently using a vacuum that is induced by the rotary evaporator. The boiling point decreases as the pressure reduces and this means that the solvent can be vaporized at a far lower temperature than the standard boiling point.

The Importance of Continuous Cooling in Rotary Evaporation

One of the major downsides of traditional rotovaps is that they produce a high level of material waste and costs, due to the use of water or dry ice. Ecodyst’s rotary evaporators offer a continuous cooling technology that does not require the use of dry ice or water.

An efficient, continuous cooling system is required to mitigate the problems that commonly occur with traditional cooling condensers. A high-efficiency, a continuous cooling system is extremely advantageous to decrease overall size, complexity, weight and improve cooling temperature and function of the condenser cooling system.

Continuous Cooling with the Ecodyst 100L EcoChyll X7 Hi-Speed Evaporator

This large-scale rotary evaporator blends high loading capacities with extremely fast, continuous cooling for quick and efficient solvent recovery. Continuous cooling with this model is made possible using direct, self-cooling condensers which have a high cooling capacity. Their large surface area condensers can reliably condense high volumes of solvents.

This industrial-scale, continuous cooling rotary evaporator is a staple in research and commercial laboratories, highly recommended by chemists and botanical extraction processors. Our smart, self-cooling system is energy efficient and eco-friendly. Our continuous cooling system guarantees a productivity enhancement for high throughput solvent recovery as well as decarboxylation applications.

Our rotary evaporators are not only designed to function well, but they also prioritize user safety and ease of use, meaning that they do not require specialists for use.

Using Ecodyst Hydrogen for Continuous Cooling

Ecodyst’s Hydrogen model is an innovative means of continuous cooling which has a small footprint and is eco-friendly. This product sets a new benchmark for rotovaps which do not need to use glycol, water, or dry ice and instead implement Ecodyst’s continuous cooling technology. The built-in condenser leads to faster rates of evaporation which in turn enhances productivity.

This innovative, continuous cooling technology has been a game-changer in the rotovap industry, leading to minimal downtime.

If you would like to find out more about how our rotary evaporators make use of continuous cooling systems, get in touch with us today.

Distillation is a technique for the separation of mixtures based on differences in the conditions necessary to alter the phase of components in the mixture. This is a widely used technique in which mixtures of liquids are heated to mean components which have different boiling points into the gas phase. This gas is then condensed and cooled.

Rotary evaporators provide a means of reduced pressure distillation, where the residue is retained rather than the distillate.

Applications of Distillation

Distillation is used for a number of applications such as distilled water, kerosene, gasoline, and many other liquids. Gases may also be liquified and separated, such as nitrogen, oxygen and argon which are distilled from air.

Water from natural sources contains a broad range of minerals and other impurities, many of which are removed via distillation. Distilled water is often used when the presence of minerals could impact the effectiveness of equipment, including in steam irons.

Distillation is a part of the production process of a range of alcoholic beverages such as brandy, whiskey and rum. When plant and fruit materials ferment, ethyl alcohol in a dilute form is produced, distillation is used to purify and concentrate the ethanol.

Distillation of crude oil can produce a range of products, as each of these products has a unique boiling point. A process known as fractional distillation is used to refine oil into a range of materials.

However, distillation alone cannot remove all unwanted lipids such as fats and waxes from oil extracts. This has an impact on the quality of the end-product, leading to a reduction in potency and clarity. Rotary evaporators can be employed to winterize oils and enhance their overall quality.

Using Rotary Evaporators in Distillation Applications

Rotary evaporators are becoming more widely used for distillation applications. Distillation via rotary evaporator is faster than traditional methods as solutions are distilled under reduced pressure at a lower temperature, speeding up the process because of the larger surface area.

Using a rotary evaporator for distillation also saves space in the lab as one piece of equipment can be used for multiple applications.

Rotary evaporators also save energy over traditional distillation methods, as they do not need to heat the mixture to such high temperatures. This also reduces the degradation of temperature-sensitive components which could adversely impact the reaction.

Rotary Evaporators from Ecodyst

Ecodyst’s rotary evaporators are cutting edge solvent separation devices and range in scale from large-scale 200l rotovaps, to benchtop models. These rotovaps are more environmentally friendly as they consume less energy by by-passing cooling systems.  They are also easy to use, with no large evaporation vessels which require removal. These systems were developed to increase the efficiency of users’ experiences.

To find out more about how rotary evaporators from Ecodyst can help with the distillation applications, contact us today for more information.