AlfaVap system

Key products

Service

Food system services

Alfa Laval Food system services help extend the performance of your food systems by maximizing the performance of your processes. This enables you to:

• Continually improve your operations to maintain competitive advantage
• Focus on uptime, optimization and availability
• Maximize return on investment throughout the life cycle of your food systems

Learn more about our service offer for food systems 

Applications

Take advantage of the unique plate geometry used on the plates of Alfa Laval AlfaVap rising film plate evaporation system. Proven effective since first introduced to the market in the 1990s, the unique semi-welded plate with thick gaskets resulted from close cooperation with sugar manufacturers to improve heat transfer efficiency when concentrating high-viscosity, fouling-prone process liquids. 

Food and beverage 

•    Fruit juices and purées 
•    Sugars, syrups (corn), honey         and confectioneries 
•    Ethanol stillage 
•    Meat and vegetable broths 
•    Gelatine and collagen peptides 
•    Fermentation products 
•    Coffee and tea  
•    Vegetable protein 
•    Milk and whey protein 
•    Non-dairy plant drinks (oat, nut, etc.) 
•    Beer de-alcoholization
•    Herbal extracts 

Starch and sweeteners

•    Sugars (beet, cane, potato, etc.) 
•    Glucose, dextrose, fructose, maltose 

Proteins 

•    Gelatine 
•    Stick water 
•    Meat and fish broths  
•    Insect protein slurries 
•    Plant-based proteins  

Chemicals and wastewater 

•    Caustic (NaOH, KOH, LiOH) 
•    Zero liquid discharge 
•    Inorganic salts 
•    Biofuels

Life science/industrial fermentation 

•    Fermentation broths 
•    Lysine 
•    Lactic acids 
•    Citric acids 
•    Amino acids 
•    Yeast extract

Pilot testing and rentals of evaporation systems

Try before you buy. Get expertise and advice from Alfa Laval engineers for the optimum configuration for your evaporation system, including:

• Detailed water analysis and characterization  
• Process and water chemistry modelling  
• Benchmark and/or pilot testing for moderate- to high-risk applications  
• Detailed material compatibility evaluation  
• Sample analysis  
• Pilot tests  

Visit the Alfa Laval Materials Technology & Chemistry Lab and Test Centre in Lund, Sweden, the Alfa Laval Innovation and Test Centre in Nakskov, Denmark, or rent one of our mobile pilot evaporation systems to conduct onsite trials at your plant. 

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Engineered system

A complete AlfaVap climbing film evaporation system includes plate evaporators, preheaters, cyclone separator vessels, thermal and/or mechanical vapour recompression units, pumps, instruments, valves, ducting and piping and a local programmable logic controller (PLC) and control panel. The system can be pre-assembled in Alfa Laval’s workshop, which reduces installation time on site to one to three weeks. 

How the AlfaVap rising film evaporator works

The Alfa Laval AlfaVap is a rising thin film plate evaporator. Product flows along the heating channels and evaporates, releasing a portion of its water content. Contact time of the product with the heating surface is limited due to the turbulence and high fluid velocity. The vapour/liquid mixture leaves the plate heat exchangers and enters a vapour separator, which separates the vapour phase and directs it to the upper outlet. The liquid phase collects at the bottom of the separator and is transferred through an outlet for subsequent processing in the next effect or to the final extraction point.

Using a multiple-effect evaporation setup significantly reduces steam consumption. Adding thermal vapour recompression (TVR) and/or mechanical vapour recompression (MVR) units improves energy efficiency further, cutting steam usage to a fraction of the total evaporation capacity and reducing both operating costs and environmental impact.

Rising Film Evaporator compared to Shell-and-Tube Evaporator

Compared to a traditional shell-and-tube evaporation system, the AlfaFlash and AlfaVap systems require substantially less installation height and can be installed without complex civil work on site. The AlfaFlash flash evaporator, with its advanced flash evaporation method, offers significant advantages over conventional systems. The compact design of the AlfaFlash plate flash evaporator ensures efficient operation and easy maintenance, making it ideal for various industrial applications.

By utilizing the flash evaporation method, the AlfaFlash flash plate evaporator minimizes fouling and enhances heat transfer performance. This makes it a superior choice for processes involving high-viscosity and high-fouling liquids. The AlfaFlash system's ability to handle challenging process liquids with suspended solids and some crystallization further sets it apart from traditional shell-and-tube evaporators.

Outstanding heat transfer coefficient for the plate evaporator

The Alfa Laval evaporation solutions provide much higher thermal efficiency than traditional shell-and-tube evaporators. With up to three times the heat transfer efficiency versus other technologies, substantial savings can be made, especially at higher concentrations.  

Heat sources for evaporation systems

Configuration Options

Alfa Laval evaporation systems can use heat from different sources such as mechanical and thermal compression as well as waste vapours from dryers.

• Saves energy by reusing steam 
• Simple and flexible

• High investment 
• Low (or no) steam consumption 
• Uses electricity 

• Low cost with reduced steam consumption 
• Simple, no moving parts

• Low energy cost 
• Relatively high investment