Foodec

The features that make the difference

Everything you need to meet your challenges today – and tomorrow

Packed with unique Alfa Laval features, our decanter centrifuge for food applications delivers improved efficiency, reliability and serviceability across the food and beverage industry. Alfa Laval's unique branded features are engineered to meet your specific needs, ensuring optimal performance and maximum uptime.

TrueStainless™

Stainless steel for long-lasting hygiene

TrueStainless^TM ensures solid stainless steel is used for the frame and other key parts of your decanter centrifuge that may be in contact with corrosive atmospheres, leading to optimal hygiene and longer equipment life.

PondCtrl

Adjustable pond depth control during operation

Fast and accurate adjustment of your decanter centrifuge pond depth, ensuring optimum conditions for maximum separation performance, cleanability and easy start-ups.

SaniRibs®

Clean, efficient way to transport solids 

Unique seal welded ribs create more friction, which offers better, more efficient solids transportation. This innovative technology also eliminates pathogen hot-spots and allows for easy cleaning, meaning longer production runs, less manual maintenance, and improved profits.

FlightProtect

Wear protection for conveyor flights 

FlightProtect is an application-specific wear-protection coating for conveyor flights that preserves the integrity of each flight and prolongs its service life.

SaniFeed

Feed zone optimized for sanitary applications 

The uniquely designed SaniFeed feed zone ensures gentle product acceleration and minimal turbulence, resulting in low power consumption. The smooth, crevice-free surfaces and absence of sharp corners ensure fast and effective cleaning, and in turn maximum uptime, and a high level of hygiene.

PondCtrl – Adjustable pond depth control during operation

Take full control of your food centrifuge with Alfa Laval PondCtrl, the automated solution for regulating pond depth in real time. Designed to prevent liquid overflow in the solids discharge, optimize cleaning and adapt to feedstock variations, PondCtrl ensures higher uptime, improved yield and consistent product quality.

• Seamless starts and stops with automated pond depth adjustments
• Optimized separation for superior product quality and process stability
• No need for slide gates—automatically prevents liquid overflow
• Compatible with new and existing decanters equipped with a paring disc outlet

Fine-tune your process while your decanter is running, ensuring optimal centrifugation in food processing with the perfect balance of separation, taste and efficiency. This is especially crucial in beer and plant-based drinks production, where controlling fine fiber content directly impacts product success. With PondCtrl, you can easily adjust separation parameters on the fly, ensuring optimal taste and mouthfeel without interrupting production.

How does a food centrifuge work?

The unique design of Alfa Laval's decanter centrifuge for food and beverage processing efficiently separates the incoming feed into three phases: oil, solids and water.

The product is fed into the bowl through a stationary inlet tube and is then smoothly accelerated by an inlet rotor. Separation takes place in a horizontal cylindrical bowl equipped with a screw conveyor. Centrifugal force causes instant sedimentation of the solids on the wall of the bowl.

The conveyor rotates in the same direction as the bowl, but at a different speed, and conveys the solids to the conical end. Because it is lighter, the fat or oil flows on the inside, and the solids move towards the outer perimeter, while the water remains in the middle. The two liquid phases pass to their respective outlets via a vibrating filter and are then discharged into collecting tanks.

Add value – Pond depth regulation made easy

Alfa Laval Foodec design increases hydraulic pressure inside the drum to improve flow through a narrow opening. The compacted and dewatered solids leave the bowl via discharge openings at the smaller diameter of the conical end. Separation takes place in the entire length of the cylindrical part of the bowl and the clarified liquid leaves through a paring disc (internal centripetal pump).

Traditional decanters have a pond depth limit before liquid overflows into the solids outlet. Alfa Laval's Baffle Disc eliminates this issue, allowing deeper pond operation without overflow. The disc forms a solids seal, preventing liquid from passing through. The PondCtrl system enables operators to easily regulate the liquid level and the pond depth during starts, stops and cleaning -either automatically or manually via a control panel-, ensuring maximum separation and minimizing product loss. Easily fine-tune pond depth to maintain optimal separation despite changes in feedstock composition.

All wetted parts in Foodec decanter centrifuges for the food industry are made with stainless steel. The control system is equipped with a graphic user interface and multiple communication options.

Success stories of decanter centrifuges in food and beverage processing