How to deal with the problem of inorganic salts clogging the condenser during vacuum concentration? I earnestly ask for advice from everyone

Thread Content

Our company is currently working on a project, and we’ve encountered a problem during the final concentration stage of the product, which is quite troublesome. Could everyone please help find a good solution? The details are as follows: we produce an inorganic chemical product, which has a quite high boiling point. The product remains stable at temperatures below 70 degrees, with only slight decomposition occurring; however, it starts to decompose at 85 degrees, and the decomposition rate is relatively fast. There were no problems during the first half of the process of concentrating water under reduced pressure, but during the second half of this concentration process (with the temperature maintained at around 65 degrees), a white smoke appeared. This smoke would gradually clog the condenser upon coming into contact with it; usually, the condenser would become completely blocked after about 10 hours (in the case of a tubular condenser), although the degree of clogging was actually quite mild. The substance that clogs the condenser has very poor water solubility; it seems to be something that forms as a result of degradation during the concentration process. We installed a water washing unit between the condenser and the distillation vessel (allowing the steam coming out of the concentration vessel to pass through water), which does help to some extent. A large amount of white froth appears in the water washing unit, but the concentration process cannot last even 20 hours. This situation poses a serious problem for production; we would appreciate it if everyone could suggest ways to solve this issue.