Food and Beverage Industry

 

Cross-flow membrane systems for reverse osmosis, nano-, ultra- and microfiltration are widely used in the food and beverage industries all over the world.

 

One of the main goals of the system is to fulfil the sanitary design required in manufacturing food and beverage products. All membrane materials and equipment are FDA approved for use in food and beverage production.

 

In systems you can clarify, concentrate and modify/improve your products. You can choose ceramics or spiral wound elements depending on the rheological properties of the process liquid and the overall economics of your process.

 

The main advantages of the systems are:

• Low energy consumption
• Gentle thermal effect - no heat deterioration of the products
• No phase change
• Easy increase of capacity    

 

PRODUCTION OF BEER    

Cross-flow membrane filtration has proven to be effective for treatment of brewing process residues containing yeast slurries (from fermentation tanks) and sediments (from conditioning tanks). By means of microfiltration (MF) it is possible to re-cover up to 65% bright beer from tank bottoms and thus increase brewing efficiency.

 

Advantages with MF:  

• Minimization of beer losses
• More gentle process compared with alternatives
• More environmentally acceptable process due to elimination of filter aid
• Closed system ensures against O2 uptake and loss of CO2 and volatiles
• Low initial haze •Better beer quality
• Economically favourable
• Trouble-free recycling back into the main beer stream without any additional treatment
• The concentrate can be used as animal fodder, remedy in human and veterinarian medicine
• The increased dry matter content of yeast in the concentrate will improve the viability of the yeast resulting in a higher selling price
• Sanitary design
• Continuous operation
• Automated CIP
• Low retention time of only 8-10 minutes
• Easily scalable to any capacity    

 

PRODUCTION OF VINEGAR    

By the traditional process the vinegar has to have a reaction time for formation and sedimentation between 3 and 6 months depending on the raw material. For some vinegar types fining agents are necessary. These are added to the vinegar after the fermentation. The final filtration takes place after storage in order to remove the colloids formed.  

 

The ultrafiltration process can substitute many steps in the traditional process, yet gi-ves a resulting vinegar product that is similar in colour, organoleptic quality, and has no turbidity. The UF fining process can be used for red wine, white wine, apple and distilled vinegar.  

 

The UF system for vinegar has the following advantages:

• High quality of the treated vinegar (colour, clarity, taste and bacteriological level)
• High vinegar recovery - up to 99 % by UF, and even higher by addition of water (diafiltration)
• The traditional storage time of 3-6 months can be omitted
• Addition of filter aids can be omitted
• Low operating costs
• The same installation can be used for different types of vinegar