Wiegand Plants for Processing Fermentation Products
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Wiegand® Plants for Processing Fermentation Products Production of bio-based substances of the chemical industry and food industry engineering for a better world GEA Process Engineering

GEA Wiegand – Custom-made Designs Technical competence GEA Wiegand is one of the prominent manufacturers of plants for thermal and mechanical process engineering with core competencies in evaporation, distillation, membrane filtration, jet pumps and vacuum systems and offers a broad range of plants and technologies for the processing of fermentation solutions and waste water. Research and development GEA Wiegand has its own research and development center with numerous laboratories and pilot plants. Test data are evaluated here and the product-specific parameters are determined for each...

Plants for Processing Fermentation Products Process flow sheet Starting situation The flow sheet shows the basic sequence of a fermentation process with possible adjacent technologies. GEA Wiegand‘s range of products is colour-coded. The following pages provide you with detailed descriptions of the technological systems, illustrated by examples of implemented plants. Many primary products of chemical and food industry are produced from renewable resources by fermentation: Bio-chemicals Succinic acid Lactic acid Propandiol Butandiol Food and feed additives Yeast and yeast extract Monosodium...

Biomass Separation, Isolation of Valuable Substances Biomass separation Isolation of valuable substances The biomass separation by means of membrane filtration has the crucial advantage that a solid-free fermentation solution (filtrate) can be produced in a continuous and almost maintenance-free operation. Genetically modified or pathogenic organisms are contained in this process. Preferably, ceramic membranes are used. Alternatively, combinations of centrifuges and membrane plants with spiral wound modules are used. After the biomass has been separated, the valuable substances are isolated...

Purification of Valuable Substances, Preliminary Concentration Purification of valuable substances Preliminary concentration Undesirable substances are removed from the isolated valuable substances in a fine purification step. Ultrafiltration and nanofiltration are particularly suitable for the efficient purification of product since impurities can be specifically separated. The yield can be increased applying a diafiltration in which additional water can be injected into the concentrated solution. If no adequate purification can be achieved with membrane filtration, chromatography...

Concentration of Fermentation Products After the biomass separation and further treatment steps, the fermentation solutions are concentrated in falling film evaporators up to a solid content of 50 % DS. The further concentration and crystallization then takes place in forced circulation evaporators and in crystallizers. Energy-efficient design Usually, evaporation plants are designed as multi-effect plants and are heated either directly or by means of thermal vapour recompression. In case of high steam costs the heating of the plants using mechanical vapour recompression offers an...

High final concentrations Depending on the required concentration and plant capacity, up to three mechanical vapour recompressors (fans) are arranged in series. In case of high final concentrations, an additional steam-heated finisher is used - even with thermal vapour recompression. Plant characteristics ingle-effect falling film evaporator with S mechanical vapour recompression High final concentrations, with a forced circulation evaporator as finisher, heated via an additional mechanical vapour recompressor vaporation rates of 5 to 70 t/h E The design of these plants is complex, because...

Concentration of Fermentation Products Special requirements upstream of the evaporators in order to separate and concentrate the majority of ammonia. The vapour condensates then only contain small quantities of ammonia and in this way can be re-used in the process. Other products, such as e. g. lactic acid or propandiol are volatile to a certain extent and on the basis of their equilibrium conditions they are converted into vapour during evaporation. In order to avoid product losses and impurities of the condensates, scrubbing columns are installed on the separators of the evaporation...

Concentration of Fermentation Waste Water Optimal design Waste water occurring in the production of fermentation products is often strongly organically loaded and very saline. Therefore, the suitable evaporator type has to be selected, unless contamination of the heat transfer surfaces has to be expected during the concentration. Moreover, fermentation waste water is corrosive to a large extent and therefore care has to be taken when selecting the materials. An economical solution can be achieved when selecting a combination of metallic materials (e. g. titanium) – for the heat transferring...

Solvent Recovery Fermentation processes for the production of cell cultures, cell components or cellular products are often connected with the use or the formation of organic solvents (e. g. alcohols or esters) which due to different volatility can be separated from mixtures or liquids by means of distillation in fermentation or downstream processes. Solvents occur in the extraction, precipitation or ion exchange/ chromatography. For processes such as e. g. isopropanol recovery in the production of xanthan gum or carrageenan gum, GEA Wiegand delivers custom-made plants with distillation...

Mixing, Pumping, Heating Circulating and mixing Liquid jet mixers are used to circulate and mix fluids in fermentation tanks. If one or several mixers are optimally arranged there is a three-dimensional flow which homogeneously mixes the tank contents. Thereby the yield is increased and the fermentation time is reduced. Pumping and conveying Liquid jet solids pumps convey granular product by means of a motive fluid. The product to be conveyed generally is fed to the jet pump via a funnel and is entrained by the motive jet. The high speeds in the jet pump provide for a good mixing of the...