VTA

VTA VerfahrensTechnische Anlagen GmbH & Co. KG, based in Niederwinkling, is a wholly owned subsidiary of MAX STREICHER GmbH & Co. KG and specialized in the industry of thermal process engineering.

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The main focus of production is wiped film and short path distillation plants at laboratory, pilot and industrial scale as well as the manufacturing of the related components. Plants and equipment for wiped film and short path distillation are used for purification, concentration, recovery and color improvement of thermally sensitive and high boiling products.

VTA wiped-film and short-path distillation plants feature:

• High turbulence in a wiped film for high mass and heat transfer
• Short residence time for low thermal stress of the products
• Evaporation in one pass, no circulation
• Small film thickness; no hydrostatic height
• No product fouling on the heated evaporator wall due to high turbulence of wiped film
• High turndown ratio, high flexibility for variation in requirements
• Distillation of high viscosity products by special designed wiper systems
• Low operating pressure down to 10-3 mbar to decrease boiling temperature

Thin film distillation is a process of thermal separation, at low pressure, at low temperature and at low residence time of products that otherwise would suffer degradation when exposed to high temperatures and for extended residence times.
In a thin-film evaporator the product to be treated is heated on the inner surface of a tube with a suitable rotor with scraping elements located inside; through the inner surface of the tube the necessary heat is transmitted to the process. The heat can be supplied by diathermic oil, saturated water vapor or hot water. The vapors of the low boiling components that develop are condensed on the cold tubes of a condenser. In the thin-film evaporator this condenser is placed outside the evaporator but as close as possible to it. In the short path evaporator, the condenser is placed inside the same evaporator and the rotor.
The different location of the condenser allows to reach, in the short path evaporator, absolute pressures of 0.001 mbar while in the evaporators with external condenser the minimum achievable pressure is 1 mbar.
In thin film evaporators the residence time is a few seconds.
The low residence time and the low evaporation temperature reduce the thermal stress and the degradation of the treated product.

For complex mixtures of materials theoretical calculations alone are not sufficient to design and warrant the necessary process and product parameters for a production plant. That is why processes and systems are developed and designed with the aid of laboratory and pilot plants working with real product.

Goals of the lab and pilot trials include:

• demonstrate the thermal separation successfully
• carry out the first steps for process development and optimization of a process
• produce sample amounts up to 10 kg
• gain design parameters for the production system
• optimize the evaporator performance

VTA can supply its customers not only with its own production equipment but also and preferably complete turnkey systems, by which VTA guarantees the achievement of the operating conditions, production capacities, yields and quality features agreed upon during the offer step.

Typical Plant Configurations:

• Single stage Wiped Film Distillation Plant;
• Single stage Wiped Film Distillation Plants with Distillation Column;
• Single Stage Short Path Distillation Plant;
• Double Stage Wiped Film and Short Path Evaporator Plant.

VTA offers plants for:

• laboratory scale (from 0.01 m2 evaporator surface area)
• pilot scale experiments (from 0.06 m2 evaporator surface area)
• production scale (up through 80 m2 evaporator surface area).

VTA Wiped film and short path distillation units are often supplied with a programmable logic control (PLC) and connected to a distributed control system (DCS). Important process parameters are illustrated on a screen and can be modified locally. The values shows are stored and can be represented graphically for a user-selected duration. Interlocks and control parameters are stored on the hard disk and can be modified and optimized by authorized staff.