Eur 40 electrodialysis stacks for the demineralization of cheese whey.

Dairy

Eurodia has a good experience in whey demineralization. Its first plant was built in 1989. Since then, 27 other plants have been supplied. Eurodia provides complete processes to obtain demineralized whey as final product, or as an intermediary for other value-added products, such as lactose or whey proteins.

The benefits of whey demineralization are :

  • To increase the yield of valuable products
  • To preserve the product qualities
  • Lower operating costs
  • To minimize future process difficulties due to high levels of minerals and microorganisms. This leads to a better crystallization by the reduction of interstitial space.
  • To improve the efficiency of each selected processIn its whey demineralization plants, the Eurodia processes are designed to:
  • Produce any rate of whey demineralization (from 50 to 90%)
  • Produce demin powder from any type of whey
  • Reduce the operating costs (longer membrane life increase, lower water consumption)
  • Produce high quality whey powderThe Eurodia processes take advantage of three of its technologies:
  • Nanofiltration
  • Electrodialysis
  • Ion Exchange resin


Each technology has its own advantages and inconveniences:

  • Nanofiltration

Advantages
Inconveniences
Concentration of dry solids Increase the concentration of bivalents
Partial demineralization (removal of monovalent ions) High potential for microorganism development

  • Electrodialysis

Advantages
Inconveniences
  Low pollution load (no salt added)   No concentration effect
Require no chemicals for regeneration  
Does not have ion selectivity  
Can achieve several demineralization rates  

  • Ion exchange resin

Advantages
Inconveniences
Remove all ions High volume of effluents
Low capital costs High amounts of chemicals for regeneration
  High losses of valuable products (proteins)

 

The original idea of Eurodia/Ameridia’s engineers is to use a combination of these technologies. Thus this combination allows 

  • The lowest operating costs
  • To preserve the quality of valuable products by avoiding microbiological development and thermal shocks
  • To maintain as high as possible the yield of dry solids and products
  • To take into account the downstream process steps (evaporation, WPC, lactose, spray drying…)
  • To optimize the technology, materials, instruments
  • To meet the requirements of FDA and 3A
  • To meet the requirements for processing Organic Whey

Capabilities of the Eurodia demineralization processes, starting from liquid whey:

PROCESSES

    

NF

ED

EUDEM 70

EUDEM90

DEMIN RATE

35 %

EFFICIENCY

+ + +

+ + + +

  

MICROBIOLOGY QUALITY

-

-

  

MEMBRANE LIFE

6 000h

8 000h

  

50 %

EFFICIENCY

  

+ + +

+ + + +

MICROBIOLOGY QUALITY

  

-

+ + +

MEMBRANE LIFE

  

6 000h

NF 6 000h

ED 12 000h

70 %

EFFICIENCY

  

+ +

+ + + +

MICROBIOLOGY QUALITY

  

- -

+ + + +

MEMBRANE LIFE

  

5 000h

NF 6 000h

ED 12 000h

90 %

EFFICIENCY

    

+ + + +

MICROBIOLOGY QUALITY

  

- - -

+ + + +

MEMBRANE LIFE

  

2 500h

NF 10 000h

ED 17 000h
This Table illustrates on average the capabilities of operating plants.

Calculation of operating and investment costs
(in Euros)

DEMIN RATE

PROCESSES

OPERATING COSTS

INVESTMENT COSTS

TOTAL COSTS

50 %

ED ALONE

0.093 €/kg

  

0.093 €/kg

EUDEM 70

NF WHEY

0.061 €/kg

0.036 €/kg

0.097 €/kg

EUDEM 90

NF WHEY

0.040 €/kg

0.044 €/kg

0.084 €/kg

70 %

ED ALONE

0.130 €/kg

  

0.130 €/kg

EUDEM 70

NF WHEY

0.080 €/kg

0.030 €/kg

0.110 €/kg

EUDEM 90

NF WHEY

0.049 €/kg

0.047 €/kg

0.096 €/kg
The operating costs have been calculated taking into account:

  • For each process:
    • The same final product dry solids
    • The same final product demin rates
    • Product yields
  • For each step:
    • Consumption of chemicals
    • Water consumption
    • Electricity consumption
    • Membranes/resins life
    • Electrode consumption
The investment costs have been calculated assuming a 3-year depreciation, excluding membrane, labor, and raw material costs.


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