GEA Filtration at WorldWide Food Expo

We are exhibiting at the Worldwide Food Expo! (formerly known as 'Megashow') Come and visit us at booth # S7622!

WorldWide Food Expo 2003 (WWFE 2003)
October 29 - November 1, 2003
McCormik Place
Chicago, Illinois, USA

This year at the Worldwide Food Expo our booth will feature the following GEA Companies and Business Groups:

GEA Filtration

A world-leading supplier of cross-flow membrane filtration systems to the food, dairy, beverage, biofood, and nutraceutical industries.

The new pilot plant Model M will be on display for the first time. It enables laboratory testing/membrane screening of minute quantities of valuable products typically found in the biofood and nutraceutical industries.

Niro Soavi

Niro Soavi features a full range of sanitary 3A high-pressure pumps and homogenizers. On display will be the new energy efficient homogenizing valve "The NanoValve". The NanoValve enables the homogenizing process at lower pressures in most dairy, food and beverage applications. This reduces the energy consumption up to 20% on, for example, whole milk homogenization. The NanoValve can be installed on all existing Niro Soavi homogenizers as well as on other brands. The patented system provides a stable operating and a very low noise level.

Niro Liquid Processing

Will demonstrate its capabilities in process integration with special emphasis on the integration of Niro components into complete process lines. Various automation screens and systems will also be displayed.

GEA Evaporation Technologies

The company is dedicated to supplying evaporation, distillation, rectification, and crystallization process technology and systems to the North American market. The company serves a variety of industries, including biotechnology, food, dairy and beverage, and environmental. Product lines includes:

• Niro (sanitary multi-effect evaporators for the dairy industry; including thermal vapor recompression, mechanical vapor recompression, and compact evaporators)
• GEA Wiegand (distillation, rectification, and evaporation of beverages, carbohydrates, and alcohol)
• GEA Kestner (climbing film, falling film, flash, and forced circulation evaporators and crystallizers)

Will display a new and advanced analysis system of dairy evaporator's hydraulic performance during clean in place operations, CIP process times can be reduced without the addition of circulation pumps, valve manifolds, large tanks and other equipment requiring a substantial initial investment and repeating maintenance costs. The analysis employs CIP program details including spray device on/off/delay times as well as system flow-rates and evaporation rates. The analysis results have been validated against actual evaporation system performances.

Atlas Freeze Drying

In the freeze drying process deep-frozen products are dried at temperatures below -18°C. No thawing of the product takes place and its quality is preserved. Niro is the world's leading supplier of freeze drying equipment for the food, food ingredients, nutraceutical and beverage industries. Freeze drying is a superior preservation method for a variety of foods and food ingredients. Atlas freeze dryers set the world standard for design, operation and quality. The delivery program includes plant sizes ranging from pilot scale to large industrial batch and continuous plants.

Why Freeze Drying?
The answer is simple: Atlas freeze drying plants will provide high-quality products for your customers as well as unrivalled financial and operational advantages for your company.

Benefits for your customers
The advanced technology and efficient design of the Atlas freeze drying plants ensure the preservation of excellent quality in a wide range of food products - vegetables, temperate and tropical fruits, fish, meat, TV-dinners, coffee, flavor essences and many other products. The original flavor, proteins and vitamins are preserved. Your products will retain their original shape, color and texture. Re-hydration is rapid and complete.

Benefits for your company
The most important benefit for your company will be the satisfaction of your customers. The excellent quality of your products will mean a steadily growing demand. But there are substantial operational and financial advantages too: The freeze drying process results in stable products with long shelf life. Freeze dried products are durable at a wide range of temperatures, eliminating the need for complicated cold chain distributions systems. The low weight and easy handling of freeze dried products reduce shipping costs dramatically. On top of that the Atlas freeze drying plants are designed to: Eliminate product loss. Reduce energy costs. Maximize plant reliability and ease of use.

Note: As of December 1, 2001 Niro has acquired the Food Division of Atlas-Stord, the internationally well known supplier of RAY and CONRAD freeze dryers and also vacuum dry condensing equipment.

Avapac (formerly known as Avalon Engineering)

Will exhibit the latest technology in hygienic powder packaging and handling systems. Typical applications include:

• Bakery Mixes
• Cocoa Powders
• Soya Bean Bases
• Tomato Powders
• Soup Bases
• Pharmaceutical Compounds
• Stearic Acids
• Acrylic Resins
• WPC
• Whole Milk
• Skim Milk
• Butter Milk
• Fat Filled Whey
• Caseinates
• Lactate
• Hydrolyzed Yeast Calcium
• Permeates
• Baby Food
• Hydrolyzed Whey Proteins
• Functional Food Compounds
• Coffee Whitener
• Hydrolyzed Corn Starch

Niro Food & Dairy Dryers

Will exhibit a veracity of drying and agglomeration systems including spray dryers, fluid bed processors, as well as a new process to dry de-proteinized whey using a tubular concentration device (the ROSINAIRE™) to further concentrate the stream from a conventional evaporator. The high solids concentrate is cooled in a jacketed twin screw conveyor and then dried in a specially designed mechanically agitated fluid bed and finally milled. The capital investment for this systems is much lower than the traditional systems to dry de-proteinized whey and the energy consumption is also significantly reduced.

Additionally, we will display our patented sanitary bag filter, the Sanicip™, with a newly developed automatic isolation system. We will also demonstrate our Integrated Filter Dryer the IFD™.

Backgrounder:
The Multi-Stage Dryer MSD™/FSD™ concept has been widely used in the food and dairy industries since Niro obtained the first patent in the early 1980s. The drying principle is used to produce a wide range of free-flowing powders, agglomerated, and granular dry materials of low dust content, many of which are difficult to produce on other spray dryer types.

Niro has further developed and refined the versatility and success of the MSD™ by introducing the CIP-able SANICIP™ bag filter. This combination is used in the new Integrated Filter Dryer - IFD™ - which features an integrated fluid bed and filter arrangement. The location of the filter assembly inside the drying chamber improves powder quality and gives total in-place powder recovery and cleaning capability. It also simplifies powder handling as it eliminates the need for external cyclones, bag filters, and fines recycling. Prototype testing has shown that the location and operation of the internal filters enhance control over particle formation and therefore over the quality specification.

The compact design reduces the amount of equipment in contact with the product. Consequently, cleaning is easier making the IFD™ concept especially attractive to producers where hygiene is a first priority. Improves powder quality Total in-place recovery of powder Features integrated fluid bed Simplifies CIP operations No handling of product outside drying chamber Compact plant layout Reduced noise level Less energy consumption.

Tuchenhagen

Complete range of sanitary valves and fittings.

Westfalia Separator

Complete range of separators, clarifiers, and decanters.

Leading Technologies. Individual Solutions.

For more information about the Worldwide Food Expo please access http://www.worldwidefood.com/