Plant engineering for the food industry: Evaporate operating costs!
In food production, the focus is always and first and foremost on flavor in the context of costs! Every manufacturer in thefood industry knows the challenge: Concentrating liquid raw materials through evaporation is highly complex. It is determined by flavors, vitamins, nutrients, and then the whole thing has to remain affordable. For this, plant manufacturer DEVEX has everything a food producer could desire: "From plate evaporators and natural circulation evaporators to falling film evaporators to complex multi-stage evaporation or mechanical and thermal vapor compressors, we support you with the complete range of food evaporation systems," says Stefan Oestermeyer, authorized signatory and technical director at plant manufacturer and process engineer DEVEX. Of course, evaporation plants for foodstuffs should be particularly energy-efficient in order to keep operating costs as low as possible. And when it comes to energy efficiency, especially for the food industry, DEVEX plants are particularly strong.
The most efficient systems for every application to save costs
"Since every foodstuff reacts differently as a raw material, our evaporator systems are always tailored to the specific customer's needs," says Technical Director Oestermeyer. "We advise our customers in the food industry so that we can offer the most efficient system for each individual application. This allows them to save a huge amount on operating expenses. DEVEX's core competencies are the energy efficiency of its systems to save costs, flexibility in system design, and the breadth of applications that can be covered.
Evaporation of liquid foods: best product quality, long shelf life, savings in transport costs
There are many reasons for evaporating liquid foods. In the food industry, factors such as product quality, shelf life, and savings in transport costs due to reduced liquid weight are decisive. Not to mention operating costs. Solvent recovery also plays a role. That is why the range of DEVEX approaches is as wide as the range of customer requirements. DEVEX Chief Technology Officer Oestermeyer: "From inexpensive plate evaporators for relatively uncomplicated applications to energy-saving multi-stage systems and complex falling film evaporators with mechanical vapor compressors for highly sensitive foods."
Test center for maximum customer satisfaction through political production
"In our test center, we can optimize existing processes and test completely new processes individually for our customers. With pre-tasting together with the customer from the food industry, of course. So it's like a small pilot production, which we then implement on a large-scale production basis according to the results at the customer's site," says Oestermeyer.
Unbelievable but true: diluted concentrate just as aromatic as raw material
Oestermeyer explains: "DEVEX uses falling film evaporators, for example, for the concentration of temperature-sensitive liquid foods, such as the evaporation of fruit or vegetable juices. "We reduce the water content as much as possible. However, in order to preserve important nutrients and vitamins in the product, we evaporate at low temperatures in a vacuum of up to 50 mbar and around 40 degrees," says Oestermeyer. Processes to protect flavors and return them to the product after evaporation are an integral part of the systems. The product is then simply diluted with water again at its destination and is just as aromatic as the original material.
Calibrating evaporation parameters for the best flavor in food
"It's about calibrating the numerous parameters so that evaporation results in the best possible product quality with optimal cost-effectiveness. And evaporation in a vacuum enables gentle concentration at low temperatures, which in turn means that the ingredients contained in the raw material suffer less." Stefan Oestermeyer concludes on the subject of energy efficiency: "We can use heat recovery systems to further optimize the evaporation process in terms of energy efficiency."