Hydrodistillation from the heart of Pyrenees
The manufacturing workshop
Income zone: Plant material reception
Drying step if necessary, crush, weighing
Loading of the production still with plant and water
DISTILLATION
The processing workshop is equipped with distillation lines designed to produce large volumes of hydrolats using a hydrodistillation process that has been used for a long in the pharmaceutical and cosmetics industries.
This self-contained workshop has been designed according to industrial quality criteria, with an area dedicated to incoming plants, separated from a clean area for optimal packaging of preservative-free hydrolats.
One of the special features of our processing plant is a system for concentrating hydrolats by reverse osmosis at room temperature. The hydrolats can thus be concentrated 100x, which also largely limits the impact of transport.
PLANTS RECEPTION
The plants are prepared according to their origin and the operating procedure: visual sorting, crushing for 'leafy branch' products, leaf removal for 'leaf water' products, weighing on approved commercial scales, macerating, etc.
Hydrodistillation consists of boiling the plants in a still and collecting the vapour, which is loaded with active ingredients :
The temperature lyses the plant cells, which release their substances, the volatile and semi-volatile ones being carried away by the water vapour. A condenser allows the vaporised water and the volatile active ingredients to be returned to liquid form, this is the hydrolat.
The length of the distillation process depends on the quantity of plants added to the still, the concentration of active ingredients required and the quantity of desired hydrolat.
Flowchart
From the condensation stage onwards, the equipment is located in a separate room with restricted access. Gown, cap and carefully washed hands are mandatory.
There is always a little plant matter carried away with the steam. Depending on the type of production being carried out, it may be necessary to filter the distillate to remove these impurities from 80 µm untill 1 µm.
For formulations involving the addition of preservatives, they are added to the agitated tanks.
Final packaging can be in 5-litre and 25-litre jerrycans, 220-litre drums or 1000-litre IBCs.
The principle behind hydrodistillation is to produce a clear product in which purified water makes up the majority. One of the special features of the PY'STILL workshop is its ability to reconcentrate the active ingredients. To do this, a reverse osmosis recirculation system fitted with special membranes removes the pure water while preserving the organic molecules. This process avoids solvents used in the industry during the extraction-concentration phases.
Steril-filtration at 0.2 µm is carried out in a separate cabinet, under a fume hood. Packaged in 1, 5 or 25 litre containers on approved commercial scales.
These concentrated hydrolats can be packaged without preservatives with 12 months stability. This gives them the decisive advantage of being able to be subsequently incorporated by our customers into all formulas without interfering with the stabilisation systems. Even more so, they will find their place in organic or even preservative-free products. Our cold room (+4°C) stores the concentrated hydrolats, as well as the sample library of the produced batches.
Modulary Flowchart