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  2. Industry Sectors

Application Area

Food & Beverages

 

The food and beverage industry offers many applications for compressors with different pressure ranges. However, the applications have one thing in common: the high legal purity requirements for the gas. That is why the NEA series for CO2 consists exclusively of oil-free reciprocating compressors and selected materials.

 

CO2 Recovery

The most common application of NEA series compressors, i.e. reciprocating compressors, is in CO2 recovery plants in the beverage industry. Here, the wet carbon dioxide produced during the brewing process is captured, collected and returned to the process at a later stage. The oil-free NEA CO2 compressors deliver 300 to 2,400 kg of CO2 per hour at a discharge pressure of 16 - 21 bar. Oil-free compression is the top priority here to ensure CO2 purity. Efficient CO2 recovery contributes to ecological production. For the compression of CO2, the NEA CO2 portfolio consists of a total of 6 different piston compressors to cover the volume flow requirements.

 

CO2 Extraction

CO2 extraction is a high-pressure extraction process in which ingredients that would be sensitive to high temperatures can be gently and selectively extracted. The use of CO2 means that no solvent residues remain in the extract or raw material. This application is frequently found in the food, luxury goods and cosmetics industries, among others, where ingredients are gently extracted with supercritical CO2. Here, oil-free piston compressors in vertical and V-design are used.

 

Dry Ice

The gas produced in dry ice production can also be recovered by means of an NEA CO2 series compressor. Instead of releasing the CO2 into the atmosphere, it is efficiently compressed to 20 bar in two stages and returned to the process. This reduces dry ice costs by up to 50% and protects the environment. The product portfolio for this application range consists of 6 compressor types and covers a flow rate between 300 and 2,400 kg/h.

PET

In the PET bottle blow molding process, food-grade compressed air is injected into preformed PET blanks. These expand and form the shape of the PET bottle. For this process, air is compressed oil-free to a discharge pressure of up to 40 bar(g). For this purpose, 3-stage oil-free V-compressors are used, which achieve a flow rate of up to 1300 Nm³/h. The piston compressors can even be combined with a screw compressor on the suction side, so that an increased volume flow of up to 4,000 Nm³/h can be achieved.

Sweets

Sugar and sugar replacers can be found in many products, such as sweets. Fines ranges from caster sugar via powder sugar to icing sugar. Fine grinding is required when the sugar needs to be dissolved in the final product or is used as sweetening agent. Depending on the application, the impact classifier mill (ICM) or the impact classifier mill eXtra (ICX) are suitable for this purpose.

Plant Proteins

Around 25% of the crop is remaining on the land and is used in certain cases as a natural fertilizer. This is a waste of valuable resources. Peas in various variations and also beans can be used as a protein source. The protein content can be increased. In this case the feed stock is ground followed by a classification step. Possible feed stocks (pulses) are faba beans, yellow and green peas as well as chickpeas. At this point, the impact classifier mill eXtra (ICX) is used grinding and the guide ring classifier (GRC) is used for classifying.

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