Gentle drying of different products, such as:
- Plant extracts
- Fruit juice concentrates
- Food / Instant products
- Pharmaceutical products
- Coffee, tea, etc.
- Soluble dried malt extract
- Bakery products
- Meat extracts
Special services are available:
Storage Room for Products
- 20 °C 10 m²
- - 20 °C 10 m²
- - 50 °C 8 m²
Product storage -50 °C, 8 m², within the e&e drying test centre
Conditioning and Pretreatments
- Mixing station for liquid and solid products
- Foaming and prefreezing unit
- Milling unit for frozen products
- Sieving unit for frozen and milled products
e&e drying test centre
Dryer Unit
- Flexible set-up for freeze or vacuum drying
- Feeding system for liquid, solid and frozen products
- Discharge system for granulates or cakes
- Condensers down to -50 °C
- Vacuum units down to 0,1 mbar
- Heating and cooling zones (4 – 8)
e&e product laboratory within the e&e drying test centre
Product Laboratory
- Particle size analysis through sieve fraction
- Measurement of the water resp. solids content
- Sensoric evaluation
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e&e Test Centre
Continuous Freeze and Vacuum Drying
Extraction and Concentration Plants
e&e has its own test centre where customer-specific process and product development takes place.
The e&e test centre comprises:
- Pilot extraction plant, 2 x 50 l
- Pilot evaporation plant, water evaporation rate: 50 kg/h
- Pilot vacuum belt and freeze dryer, 2 m² / 0,3 mbar – 10 mbar
- Rotary evaporator (laboratory scale)
Overall view of the e&e drying test centre
e&e Pilot Extraction Plant, 2-effect, 2 x 50 l Atex
e&e 1-effect pilot evaporation plant, 50 kg/h water evaporation rate
e&e Test Centre
Continuous Freeze and Vacuum Drying
Within our test centre, the brand new e&e Pilot Vacuum Belt Dryer has been realized for examining and developing the drying properties of food, concentrates and extracts.
Advantages:
- Controlled drying conditions
- Short drying times
- Drying in trays or continuous drying
- Adjustment of the dried product properties, such as bulk density, colour, flavour
- Scale-up of drying results for commercial plants
- Product development in reasonable scale (representative product sample)
e&e dryer with 2 drying belts
The dryer is designed as a continuous dryer, equipped with two drying belts with 2 m2 drying surface in total. The products can be entered in liquid, but also in solid form (through a sluice), without having to interrupt or to influence the drying process. Via two big sight glasses, the drying process can be directly observed which makes an exact adjustment of the drying properties possible.
The special arrangement of the heating plates allows varying the drying plate temperature of each heating zone.
Technical data and drying options are given in table 1.Table 1: Drying Options for the New e&e Pilot Vacuum Belt Dryer
| Type | Vacuum Drying | Vacuum Drying | Lyophilisation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Drying Temperature | 40 °C – 70 °C | 10 °C – 40 °C | -2 °C – 40 °C |
| Pretreatment of Products |
Extraction Evaporation |
Extraction Evaporation Sterilisation |
Extraction Evaporation Foaming and prefreezing unit Freezing of instant Products Milling of Instant Products |
| Water Evaporation* | 0,9 – 2,5 kg/m2 h | 0,9 – 2,5 kg/m2 h | 0,9 –2,0 kg/m2 h |
| Drying Pressure | 70 – 300 mbar | 10 – 100 mbar | 0,1 – 6 mbar |
| Vacuum Devices | Condenser and Water Ring Pump |
Condenser and Water Ring Pump with Gas Injector |
Ice Condenser and Dry Compressing Vacuum Pump with FC control |
| Dry Product Handling | Discharging, Packaging in Bags |
Discharging, Packaging in Bags |
Discharging, Packaging in Bags |
*depending on the product properties
Numerous parameters are selectable, such as product feed by swivel arm, nozzle or vacuum sluice, belt width and product temperature. For freeze drying, temperatures of -50 °C are realizable. Depending on the task, the generating of vacuum happens via water ring pumps or dry compressing vacuum pumps.
Moreover, e&e offers the possibility of characterising and developing drying product properties (according to table 2). Drying test runs can be carried out, in order to determine important product properties, such as water content, adsorption and desorption behaviour, relative product humidity and glass transition temperature.
By the help of these key data, the perfect drying conditions can be determined.
e&e drying test centre – product discharge
Table 2: Overview of Products and e&e Drying Principles
Drying Principles
| Products | Freeze drying | Vacuum drying |
|---|---|---|
| Spices | X |
X |
| Fruits | X |
X |
| Vegetables | X |
X |
| Food Complements | X |
X |
| Pharmaceutical Extracts | X |
X |
| Instant Coffee | X |
- |
| Other Products | X |
X |
Test runs with product quantities up to 30 kg can be carried out.
We would appreciate welcoming you in our test centre. Please contact us for receiving additional information.
e&e pilot extraction and pilot evaporation plant
Front view of the e&e pilot extraction and pilot evaporation plant
e&e Pilot Extraction Plant, ATEX
The e&e Pilot Extraction Plant is designed to extract small batches of raw material by means of water or ethanol solvent. For other organic solvents (chlorinated), the sealing material has to be adapted. The e&e Pilot Extraction Plant is equipped with 2 percolators, each 50 l volume. Additionally the plant consists of a condensation unit which consists of a condenser and a stainless steel vacuum pump. Furthermore, the plant consists of a solvent balance tanks as well as a miscella outlet.
e&e Pilot Evaporation Plant, ATEX
The e&e Pilot Evaporation Plant is designed to concentrate small batches of extracts or other liquid products based on water or ethanol solvent. For other organic solvents (chlorinated), the sealing material has to be adapted. The concentration rate is limited to the viscosity of the concentrated liquid up to approx. 500 cP. The plant is used for the concentration of watery or organically dissolved extracts. The plant consists of a plate evaporator with a downstream centrifugal separator. The evaporated vapours are condensed in a plate condenser. A vacuum pump is connected to the condenser, and the vacuum can be adjusted between 20 and 800 mbar.
The evaporation temperature can be adjusted according to the product specific boiling curve through the applied vacuum. By this, even temperature sensitive extracts can be concentrated.