Learning Centre

Choosing Equipment Falling Film vs Wiped Film Evaporators for Solvent Recovery

October 22, 2026 6 min read

If you recover ethanol or other solvents from large volumes of flavour and botanical extracts, a rotary evaporator eventually becomes the bottleneck. The next step up is a thin film evaporator. The two designs you will hear about most are the falling film evaporator and the wiped film evaporator. Both spread liquid into a thin layer on a heated surface so solvent evaporates quickly. They do it in different ways, though, and that difference decides what each one is good at.This guide explains how each works, [...] Read the guide › Choosing Equipment Choosing a Rotary Evaporator Size: 2L, 5L, 10L, 20L or 50L?

October 22, 2026 7 min read

Rotary evaporator size is one of the first decisions on any quote, and one of the easiest to get wrong. Buy too small and the unit becomes a bottleneck. Buy too large and you pay for bench space, power and glassware you never fill. This guide explains how a rotovap actually removes solvent, why the number on the flask is not your working volume, and how to match a 2L, 5L, 10L, 20L or 50L system to your batches for solvent recovery, essential oil concentration and flavour work.How a Rotary Evaporator WorksA [...] Read the guide › Choosing Equipment Dry Scroll vs Rotary Vane vs Diaphragm Vacuum Pumps for the Lab

October 22, 2026 7 min read

Most lab vacuum questions come down to three pump types: diaphragm, dry scroll and oil-sealed rotary vane. All three will pull a vacuum on a rotary evaporator, a distillation setup or a vacuum oven. They do it in very different ways, and that changes how deep they go, how they cope with solvent vapour and what you spend your time maintaining. This guide explains how each one works, then matches them to common jobs, with real catalogue examples so you can compare data sheets side by side.How Each Pump Create [...] Read the guide › Choosing Equipment Short Path vs Wiped Film Distillation: Which Suits Your Process?

October 22, 2026 6 min read

If you purify essential oils, flavour extracts or other natural products, you will eventually ask whether to start with a glass short path kit or invest in a wiped film system. Both are vacuum distillation tools that separate compounds by volatility. They differ in how long your material sits on a hot surface and how much of it you can process in a shift. Here is how each one works, where each makes sense and what you need around them.The Principle Both Share: Vacuum Lowers Boiling PointsA liquid boils when [...] Read the guide › Choosing Equipment Single vs Dual Jacketed Glass Reactors and How to Match a Chiller

October 22, 2026 7 min read

A jacketed glass reactor controls temperature through its jacket and the circulator feeding it. For crystallization, controlled cooling and low-temperature synthesis, the two main choices are whether the vessel has one jacket or two, and which recirculating chiller will drive it. Get both right and you hold setpoint, see your batch and protect the glass. Get them wrong and you have a fogged vessel, a chiller that never reaches temperature, or a cracked jacket. Here is how the parts work and how to match the [...] Read the guide › Maintenance & Troubleshooting Vacuum Oven Won't Hold Vacuum? Door Gaskets, Valves and Leak Checks

October 22, 2026 8 min read

A vacuum oven that will not hold vacuum, or takes far longer than it used to, is one of the most common service calls we get. The good news is that the cause is almost always simple: a tired door gasket, a valve left cracked open, a loose hose barb, or a pump that has lost performance. This guide walks through a logical order for vacuum oven troubleshooting so you find the real problem instead of replacing parts at random.How a vacuum oven holds vacuumA vacuum oven is a sealed, heated chamber. The pump remo [...] Read the guide › Processes & Techniques Induction Melting for Gold and Silver: Crucibles, Tongs and Set-Up

October 22, 2026 7 min read

An induction melting furnace gives jewellers and refiners a clean, controllable way to melt gold and silver without an open flame. The furnace itself is only part of the system. The crucible, the tools, the electrical supply, the cooling water and the room around it all decide whether your first melt goes smoothly. This guide explains how induction heating works, why graphite crucibles are the usual choice, and how to plan an induction furnace setup that is safe from day one.How Induction Heating WorksAn in [...] Read the guide › Filter Media & Purification Bleaching Clay, Activated Carbon or Magnesium Silicate for Oils?

October 22, 2026 7 min read

Dark colour, haze and off-odours are some of the most common complaints we hear about food oils, essential oils and flavour extracts. The usual fix is an adsorbent: a fine, porous solid that you mix into the oil (or pack into a column), let it grab the unwanted compounds, then filter it back out. The choice is not one-size-fits-all. Bleaching clay, activated carbon, magnesium silicate and alumina each attract different kinds of molecules. Picking the wrong one can leave the colour behind or strip out the ar [...] Read the guide › Choosing Equipment Choosing a Heat Transfer Fluid for Your Chiller or Heated Circulator

October 22, 2026 7 min read

The fluid in your chiller or heated circulator does the real work. It carries heat out of a reactor jacket, condenser or cold trap, or carries heat into it, and then returns to be cooled or reheated. The wrong heat transfer fluid for a chiller or circulator can freeze, turn too thick to pump, boil, smoke or degrade. The right one is easy to forget about. This guide covers how to match a fluid to your temperatures and equipment, and how to fill and change it safely.How a Heat Transfer Fluid Works in the Loop [...] Read the guide › Processes & Techniques From Crude Extract to Clear Distillate: How Botanical Oils Are Purified

October 22, 2026 5 min read

A crude plant extract is a mixture: the oils and aromatic compounds you want, plus waxes, fats, pigments, leftover solvent, water and plant sugars that you don't. Turning that crude extract into a clear, consistent, refined oil is a sequence of separation steps, each one removing a different kind of impurity. Skip a step, or do them in the wrong order, and the next step struggles. This guide follows that sequence from start to finish, as it is used for essential oils, flavour extracts and other botanical co [...] Read the guide › Processes & Techniques Removing Chlorophyll and Colour from Botanical Extracts

October 22, 2026 6 min read

Anyone who has made a plant extract knows the problem: the finished oil comes out dark green or brown, tastes grassy and bitter, and looks nothing like the clear, golden product the customer expects. Most of that colour and harsh taste comes from one family of molecules: chlorophyll. The good news is that chlorophyll is one of the easier impurities to deal with, once you understand what it is and where it gets into your process. This guide explains what chlorophyll is, why it ends up in extracts of herbs, s [...] Read the guide › Filter Media & Purification Choosing Adsorbent Filter Media: Carbon, Clays, Silica, Alumina and DE Compared

October 22, 2026 5 min read

Passing an extract through a bed of adsorbent media is one of the simplest ways to improve its colour, clarity, smell and stability. The edible oil industry has done it for decades: almost every bottle of vegetable oil on a grocery shelf has been "bleached" through an activated clay. The same tools work for essential oils, flavour extracts and other botanical oils. The hard part is choosing the media. Each type removes different things, flows differently, and has its own handling needs. This guide compares [...] Read the guide ›