Evaporation can be a key part of experimental and production processes. At the production level, it can extend the shelf life of products such as foods and pharmaceuticals. In the laboratory, evaporation can remove solvents from completed chemical syntheses or obtain analytes from wet samples.

Evaporation occurs when the molecules at the surface of a liquid collect enough kinetic energy to overcome intermolecular forces and separate themselves from the rest of the liquid. Evaporators have been developed to achieve faster evaporation by optimizing a sample’s environment for the process.

Two main types of evaporators are used in laboratories: vacuum evaporators and nitrogen blowdown evaporators. Both remove vapor molecules from the surface of liquids during evaporation and provide kinetic energy to samples in the form of heat. Vacuum evaporators facilitate the evaporation process by sucking vapor away, while nitrogen blowdown evaporators blow vapor away with a stream of nitrogen gas. Any inert gas can be used in blowdown evaporators, but nitrogen is typically the gas of choice due to its abundance.

Compared with vacuum evaporators, nitrogen blowdown evaporators are better suited for small sample volumes because the blowdown evaporative process is slower for large samples. However, because they do not require the mechanical complexity of a vacuum, most nitrogen blowdown evaporators can process multiple samples at once. Thus, nitrogen blowdown evaporators are best suited for researchers who need to process batches of small samples quickly.

To improve their evaporation rates, manufacturers have introduced vortex motion to blowdown evaporators. By creating a vortex in the sample, evaporative surface area is increased, speeding the evaporation rate. Further increases can be achieved by heating the nitrogen gas used to blow away vapors. These rate enhancing features are found on systems that process samples in the milliliter range.

Nitrogen evaporators are highly configurable. Users can choose between water baths or dry blocks as the sources of heat for samples. Sample volumes can range from microliters in well plates to milliliters in vials. A range of 6–80 vials can be processed at the same time, depending on the evaporator selected and how it is configured. Some systems have been designed to work specifically on microtiter plates, with one variant capable of processing three plates at the same time. Some higher-end models incorporate user friendly features, such as timers and automatic shutoff at selected sample volumes.

The leading vendors of nitrogen blowdown evaporators are Labconco, Biotage and Organomation. Other vendors in this market include Glas-Co and Radleys. The total market for nitrogen blowdown evaporators is approximately $15 million.

Nitrogen Blowdown Evaporators at a Glance:

Leading Suppliers

• Labconco

• Biotage

• Organomation

Largest Markets

• Pharmaceuticals

• Biotechnology

• Food

Instrument Cost

• $2,000–$16,000