Agitated thin-film evaporation has been very successful with difficult-to-handle products. Simply stated, the method quickly separates the volatile from the less volatile components using indirect heat transfer and mechanical agitation of the flowing product film under controlled conditions.

 The separation is normally made under vacuum conditions to maximize ∆T while maintaining the most favourable product temperature so that the product only sees equilibrium conditions inside the evaporator and can maximize volatile stripping and recovery.