Wheat based starch production
Wheat is an excellent source of starch and gluten, a valuable co-product. Alfa Laval offers equipment to efficiently split wheat into starch, gluten, fibre and pentosane fractions. Our wheat starch production processes ensure low water and energy consumption, easy control and high yield. Alfa Laval equipment boosts performance and minimizes operating costs without compromising quality or reliability. Alfa Laval can also integrate key equipment into complete gluten and/or starch production lines.
What is wheat starch production
Wheat starch production sees starch being separated from the other components in wheat flour – mainly gluten proteins and pentosans (non-starch polysaccharides) – via a variety of processes. The route to extracting these constituent parts starts with the steeping and softening of the flour, then grinding and washing before separation and refining and finally drying and storing. Alfa Laval offers world-class expertise at all stages to ensure the most cost-effective, efficient and sustainable of processing solutions.
Three-phase wheat splitting
High capacity, compact size, low energy consumption and high reliability make Alfa Laval Foodec three-phase decanter centrifuges the ideal choice for separating gluten, starch and pentosanes.
They ensure gentle product handling as well as producing well-agglomerated gluten, which paves the way to greater efficiency in any further processing. The open-outlet design makes these decanter centrifuges less sensitive to variations in flow velocity and flour quality.
B starch dewatering
Using a 2-phase Foodec decanter centrifuge for B starch dewatering results in starch with 40–44% dry solids – roughly twice as high as from a high-speed separator.
Better dewatering results in lower energy consumption in the drying stage, and means that more water can be reused in the process. The overflow water from the decanter centrifuge has the same high quality as that from a high-speed separator.
Fibre removal
Conical sieve centrifuges are used for efficient fibre removal. Each screening centrifuge consists of a rotating conical basket with sieve plates, a nozzle arrangement from which wash water is continuously sprayed over the pulp layer in the conical sieve, a housing equipped with nozzles for “back washing” of the sieve and cleaning of the housing, and a drive arrangement.
Clarification
Depending on the required capacity, Alfa Laval is able to supply high-speed separators or hydrocyclones for clarifying process water from starch concentration.
Starch washing
High performance and reliable operation characterizes our starch washing systems. High-quality materials and low tolerances in our multicyclones (cyclonettes) lead to efficient washing and very low levels of impurities in the end product.
Effluent evaporation
Our evaporation systems for wheat effluents are based on Alfa Flash technology, making them compact and energy-efficient. High flow velocity and turbulence minimize fouling. In existing evaporation systems, steam consumption can be cut by 50% by retrofitting them with an extra effect based on Alfa Laval technology. The payback time for this type of investment is often less than a year.
Heating and cooling
Alfa Laval provides a wide range of gasketed plate heat exchangers with high thermal efficiency, compact design, high uptime and low maintenance costs. You can easily expand the capacity of these gasketed heat exchangers by adding more plates at a later stage.
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