| abstract |
A system for the vacuum distillation of contaminated solvents incorporates a tank for holding a liquid contaminated solvent, a heating chamber surrounding the tank for heating the liquid contaminated solvent into an evaporated solvent, a drift elimination and fractionation device for separating contaminants out of the evaporated solvent, a heat exchanger circuit for cooling the evaporated solvent from the drift elimination and fractionation device, a pump circuit connected to receive the evaporated solvent from the drift elimination and fractionation device and to circulate the evaporated solvent through the heat exchanger circuit, and a control circuit connected to at least the heating element and the pump so as to control operation their based on parameters of a solvent selected to be processed. The control circuit includes a plurality of sensors for monitoring operating conditions of at least the tank, the heating chamber and the heat exchanger circuit. The heating chamber is filled with a first heat transfer fluid and has a heating element for generating heat to be transferred to the tank. The heat exchanger circuit has a second heat transfer fluid circulating through it. In operation, the contaminated liquid solvent is evaporated, contaminants from the evaporated solvent are removed, the evaporated solvent is condensed into a clean liquid solvent, and at least the steps of evaporating the contaminated liquid solvent and of circulating the evaporated solvent through a first heat exchanger are controlled by monitoring operating conditions during those steps and conducting the steps based on the monitored operating conditions. |