What are the applications of NB series thin film evaporators in the pharmaceutical industry
The NB series thin film evaporator is an efficient evaporation device, whose core principle is to form a uniform thin film of material on the heating tube wall through a rotating scraper or stirring device, so as to quickly transfer heat and evaporate. It is particularly suitable for the treatment of heat sensitive, high viscosity, easily crystallized or scaling materials. In the pharmaceutical in
The NB series thin film evaporator is an efficient evaporation device, whose core principle is to form a uniform thin film of material on the heating tube wall through a rotating scraper or stirring device, so as to quickly transfer heat and evaporate. It is particularly suitable for the treatment of heat sensitive, high viscosity, easily crystallized or scaling materials. In the pharmaceutical industry, this type of equipment is widely used in the following scenarios due to its unique advantages:
1. Concentration and purification of thermosensitive drugs
Many active ingredients in the pharmaceutical industry, such as antibiotics, vitamins, biologics, and enzyme drugs, are temperature sensitive, and prolonged high temperatures can lead to ingredient decomposition, denaturation, or reduced efficacy.
The NB series thin film evaporator adopts short-range evaporation (the material stays in the heating zone for a short time, usually only a few seconds to tens of seconds) and low-temperature evaporation (can be operated under vacuum conditions to reduce the boiling point of the material), which can efficiently remove solvents (such as ethanol, water, acetone, etc.) while avoiding the destruction of active ingredients, and achieve the concentration or purification of the drug solution.
Example: Concentration of antibiotic fermentation broth, low-temperature concentration of traditional Chinese medicine extract (retaining active ingredients such as volatile oils).
2. Concentration and dissolution of traditional Chinese medicine extract
During the extraction process of traditional Chinese medicine, it is often necessary to concentrate the water and alcohol extracts (such as concentrating low concentration extracts into a paste like form), or remove the extraction solvent (such as ethanol recovery).
Traditional evaporators (such as glass lined evaporators) may experience scaling and reduced heat transfer efficiency due to high material viscosity (such as traditional Chinese medicine extracts), or due to high temperatures leading to the decomposition of active ingredients in traditional Chinese medicine (such as flavonoids and saponins).
The NB series thin film evaporator uses a scraper to force film formation, solving the heat transfer problem of high viscosity materials. Low temperature evaporation under vacuum conditions can reduce the heat loss of traditional Chinese medicine components and facilitate the recovery of organic solvents such as ethanol (reducing costs and pollution).
3. Evaporation of Crystallization Mother Liquor and Solvent Recovery
In the drug crystallization process, the mother liquor after crystallization usually contains uncrystallized solutes and solvents, which need to be recovered by evaporation (such as methanol, ethyl acetate) and the solute yield needs to be increased.
If the mother liquor has high viscosity or contains a small amount of crystals, traditional evaporators are prone to clogging. However, the scraper of NB series equipment can effectively scrape off crystals or viscous substances on the pipe wall, avoid clogging, ensure continuous and stable operation, and efficiently recover solvents (in line with the environmental protection and cost control requirements of the pharmaceutical industry).
4. Handling of high viscosity materials (such as ointments, paste matrices)
The viscosity of ointment matrices (such as Vaseline and lanolin derivatives), pastes, and other materials in the pharmaceutical industry is relatively high (possibly thousands to tens of thousands of centipedes), making it difficult for ordinary evaporators to achieve uniform heat transfer and flow.
The rotating scraper of the NB series thin film evaporator can forcibly coat high viscosity materials into thin films, increase the heat transfer area, and avoid local overheating, ensuring uniform heating of the materials. It is suitable for concentration, degassing, or composition adjustment of such substrates.