A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF COLD TRAP DESIGNS USED IN BIOLOGICAL CONCENTRATORS’

Refrigerated cold traps have been used for many years as part of vacuum evaporation and concentration systems. Initially they were used to protect oil lubricated vacuum pumps from attack by organic solvents, however, in recent years their scope of application has been extended to help reduce evaporation times and to reduce emissions of organic solvent vapours [1]. Thinking prevalent among users has been that the colder the cold trap the better is performs. To investigate this notion, three types of cold trap, each from a different manufacturer are evaluated by this study.