Bring your distillation process to life.
Whatever your separation challenge, our specialists work with you to assess process feasibility, optimize product purity and recovery, and develop a scalable solution tailored to your application.
By combining hands-on pilot testing, advanced process simulation and analytical expertise, we help you:
- Assess the viability of new distillation and rectification processes.
- Identify opportunities to improve energy consumption and operating costs.
- Assess opportunities to improve product purity and yield.
- Investigate solvent recovery and recycling opportunities.
- Evaluate scale-up from laboratory to production plants.
- Generate data to support technical and financial risk assessment before capital investment.
Working with GEA’s process experts supports process development, process data generation and informed design and investment decisions.
Laboratory and pilot testing for seamless scale-up
The GEA Karlsruhe R&D Center offers state-of-the-art laboratories, pilot plants and demonstration systems for distillation technology. From initial feasibility studies to advanced pilot campaigns, we provide the process knowledge and practical data needed for confident project development and execution.
Our facilities include:
- Laboratory-scale glass distillation columns for initial evaluations
- Pilot-scale glass and stainless-steel rectification columns
- Packed and tray column configurations
- Falling film and circulation evaporators
- Direct steam and thermal oil heating systems
- Mobile pilot plants for on-site customer testing
- Remote monitoring and digital data acquisition systems
In addition, distillation testing can be integrated with other GEA technologies, including membrane filtration, evaporation, centrifugation, decanting and drying, enabling complete process line evaluations.
Test. Optimize. Scale.
Feasibility studies
Pilot testing
Analytical services
Digital process simulation
Pilot plants and integrated process lines
Send us a sample of your feedstock or process stream, and we can design a testing program tailored to your objectives and production requirements. The resulting data provides a data basis for scale-up and commercial implementation.
Applications
Solvent recovery and recycling
Recover and purify valuable solvents such as ethanol, methanol, IPA, acetone, NMP, DMP and specialty solvents to reduce operating costs and support circular production concepts.
Chemical processing
Optimize separation and purification processes for organic and inorganic chemicals, intermediates and specialty products.
Pharmaceutical and fine chemicals
Evaluate high-purity separation processes and solvent recovery systems for regulated production environments.
Biofuels and fermentation
Develop efficient distillation and rectification concepts for ethanol recovery and downstream processing of fermentation products.
Aroma, flavor and specialty ingredients
Separate and concentrate high-value compounds while preserving product quality and maximizing yield.
Circular economy and resource recovery
Capture and recover reusable materials from industrial process streams through separation technology, supporting material recovery and process optimization.
Discuss your distillation challenge with our experts
Ready to validate and optimize your distillation process?
Whether you are developing a new separation process, improving product purity, recovering valuable solvents or preparing for commercial scale-up, our distillation experts are ready to support you.
Send us a sample of your product or process stream, and we will develop a tailored test program to generate the data and insights required for confident decision-making. From laboratory feasibility studies to pilot-scale validation, GEA helps reduce risk, optimize performance and accelerate the path to production.
Contact our distillation specialists to discuss your application, plan a test campaign or arrange a consultation at the GEA Karlsruhe R&D Center.
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