Abstract
MicroPlumbers Microsciences LLC, has developed a relatively simple concentrator device based on isothermal
evaporation. The device allows for rapid concentration of dissolved or dispersed substances or microorganisms (e.g.
bacteria, viruses, proteins, toxins, enzymes, antibodies, etc.) under conditions gentle enough to preserve their specific
activity or viability. It is capable of removing of 0.8 ml of water per minute at 37°C, and has dimensions compatible with
typical microfluidic devices. The concentrator can be used as a stand-alone device or integrated into various processes
and analytical instruments, substantially increasing their sensitivity while decreasing processing time. The evaporative
concentrator can find applications in many areas such as biothreat detection, environmental monitoring, forensic
medicine, pathogen analysis, and agricultural industrial monitoring. In our presentation, we describe the design,
fabrication, and testing of the concentrator. We discuss multiphysics simulations of the heat and mass transport in the
device that we used to select the design of the concentrator and the protocol of performance testing. We present the
results of experiments evaluating water removal performance.
