Evaporation & Crystallization Systems

Evaporation is a process that removes water or moisture content from a liquid stream to increase the solids content of a solution or final product. Various technologies are used in a variety of food, drink and dairy applications, as well as the industrial preparation of pet foods.

Certain ingredients and additives are used to preserve the flavor or enhance the taste or appearance of pet foods and increase their nutritional content or stability. Ineffective evaporation during processing can result in increased viscosity and product instability, which may make drying more difficult or even damage the finished product. Evaporation provides an energy efficient, optimal dewatering step for the preparation of purified ingredients and makes subsequent spray drying more economical.

The best evaporator for your product will depend on the required concentration ratio, the evaporation rate, the viscosity, the type of heating or heat recovery system and fouling characteristics of the application. Falling film evaporators are typically used for low viscosity products with a moderate tendency to foul. Forced circulation evaporators can be used for higher concentration ranges and can handle much higher viscosities or fouling.

GEA’s falling film evaporation plants are highly energy efficient and an excellent choice for temperature-sensitive products. Offering flexible operation methods, gentle evaporation — mostly under vacuum — and extremely short residence times, high product quality is guaranteed. 

Depending on specific requirements, the evaporation plants can be heated by thermal or mechanical vapor recompression with live steam or dryer vapors. For gelatin and protein hydrolysates, for example, we also supply combined sterilization and evaporation units.

Dedicated to the development and evaluation of process innovations, including evaporation technologies, GEA plant and our global R&D centers work tirelessly to exploit our equipment and process expertise to design the optimum evaporation system for each food ingredient product or production process.