The Benefits of Short-Path Distillation

 

Distillation has been used for centuries to separate the components of liquid solutions through highly-selective heating and cooling. Multiple instruments are used to manipulate the differing thermodynamic properties of the fluidic compartments within a solution, encouraging mixtures to separate through boiling, evaporation, and condensation. This methodology has a broad range of applications but is conventionally associated with increasing the alcohol content of fermented beverages and purifying water sources for safe human consumption.

Short-path distillation is a compact purification method that is ideal for laboratory applications where minimal instrumentation footprint is essential. This low-pressure technique uses multiple flasks and comparatively short extraction feeds to separate condensate media across paths of just a few centimeters. Conventional distillation methods often require much larger apparatus to achieve the requisite purity levels for application specific requirements. Short-path distillation meanwhile can achieve distillate purity levels of up to 99% using multiple components in a smaller working space.

 

 

This blog post will explore the working principles and benefits of short-path distillation in further detail:

How Does Short-Path Distillation Work?

In a short-path distillation setup, a liquid solution or emulsion is suspended in an evaporating flask that is connected via a short feed to a condenser or chilling unit. The evaporating flask is placed in a heating mantle which gradually increases the temperature of the solution to pre-determined boiling points, encouraging distinct compartments of the solution to evaporate.

Vacuum conditions are used to draw vapors through the feed into the condensing unit, where the separated gas phase compartments of the liquid solution are cooled and converted back into liquids. This distillate material is separated into distinct flasks based on their weight, enabling chemists to easily consolidate multiple desirable elements from a single sample.

In the case of cannabis oil distillation, short-path distillation represents a cost-effective solution for separating cannabinoids, terpenoids and flavoring chemicals, and both organic and inorganic contaminants. This method does not require additional solvents to catalyze the distillation process and can provide high evaporation rates for increased levels of distillate consolidation with good degrees of automation.

Short-Path Distillation with Jinpan

At Jinpan, we provide a broad range of laboratory instrumentation for numerous application requirements. Our aluminum-housed EMS StirMantle is engineered for contact heating of glassware through variable heating of aqueous solutions via electromagnetic or motor-driven methods. This component can withstand internal operating temperatures of up to 400°C (752°F) and is suitable for short-path distillation of cannabidiol (CBD) and tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).

 

 

短程蒸馏的好处

 

几个世纪以来，蒸馏一直用于通过高度选择性的加热和冷却来分离液体溶液的成分。多种仪器用于控制溶液中流体隔室的不同热力学特性，促进混合物通过沸腾、蒸发和冷凝分离。该方法具有广泛的应用范围，但通常与增加发酵饮料的酒精含量和净化水源以供人类安全食用有关。

短程蒸馏是一种紧凑的纯化方法，非常适合需要最小化仪器占用空间的实验室应用。这种低压技术使用多个烧瓶和相对较短的萃取进料来分离仅几厘米的路径上的冷凝介质。传统的蒸馏方法通常需要更大的设备来达到应用特定要求所需的纯度水平。同时，短程蒸馏可以在更小的工作空间内使用多种组分实现高达 99% 的馏出物纯度。

 

 

这篇博文将更详细地探讨短路径蒸馏的工作原理和好处：

短程蒸馏如何工作？

在短程蒸馏装置中，液体溶液或乳液悬浮在蒸发烧瓶中，该烧瓶通过短进料连接到冷凝器或冷却装置。将蒸发瓶放置在加热套中，该加热套逐渐将溶液的温度升高到预定的沸点，从而促进溶液的不同隔室蒸发。

真空条件用于将蒸汽通过进料吸入冷凝单元，在冷凝单元中，液体溶液的分离的气相隔室被冷却并转化回液体。这种馏出物材料根据其重量被分成不同的烧瓶，使化学家能够轻松地从单个样品中整合多种所需元素。

在大麻油蒸馏的情况下，短程蒸馏代表了一种用于分离大麻素、萜类化合物和调味化学品以及有机和无机污染物的经济高效的解决方案。该方法不需要额外的溶剂来​​催化蒸馏过程，并且可以提供高蒸发速率以提高馏出物的固结水平，并具有良好的自动化程度。

用 Jinpan 进行短程蒸馏

在 Jinpan，我们为众多应用需求提供范围广泛的实验室仪器。我们的铝制 EMS StirMantle 设计用于通过电磁或电机驱动方法对水溶液进行可变加热，从而对玻璃器皿进行接触加热。该组件可承受高达 400°C (752°F) 的内部工作温度，适用于大麻二酚 (CBD) 和四氢大麻酚 (THC) 的短程蒸馏。