AlfaVap system
The Alfa Laval AlfaVap rising film evaporator concentrates low-to-medium fouling liquids as well as highly viscous liquids across a broad range of applications and industries. Robust, versatile and economical, it is energy efficient, easy to operate and maintain, requiring 50-70% less height than conventional shell-and-tube evaporators. Its compact size makes it easy to install in existing facilities.
More compact, faster start-ups, higher thermal efficiency, and better product quality than shell-and-tube evaporators
- Versatile, economical evaporator for concentration of a various products across a broad range of industries
- Improved product quality due to fast start-up and shut-down times, high heat transfer efficiency, and short residence time – perfect for heat-sensitiv
- High energy efficiency due to lower steam use with multiple effects and thermal and/or mechanical vapour recompression units
- More uptime, less maintenance with minimal fouling due to self-cleaning effect created high turbulence and high shear rate
- Compact, space-saving footprint that is 50-70% shorter in height than shell-and-tube evaporators, reducing installation and service time and costs
Maximize uptime with the Alfa Laval AlfaVap rising film plate evaporator. This cost-effective climbing film evaporator concentrates process liquids that contain dissolved solids, easily handling higher media concentrations and viscosities than tubular evaporators.
Install AlfaVap rising film evaporator as a complete evaporation effect or a cost-efficient booster unit to increase existing evaporator capacity using the existing structures and controls. Its low height makes it easy to install on a single floor with a few or no pumps. This cuts installation costs.
Typical applications of a rising film evaporator include sugar refinery, sweetener, animal and plant-based protein, bioethanol and caustic evaporation duties.
Reduce your engineering requirements with Alfa Laval expertise, global process application development and support, and a complete range of evaporator solutions for a wide selection of applications and capacities. Our complete system designs include vessels, pumps, piping, ducts, instruments, and engineering.
Applications
Take advantage of the unique plate geometry used on the plates of Alfa Laval AlfaVap rising film plate evaporation system. Proven effective since first introduced to the market in the 1990s, the unique semi-welded plate with thick gaskets resulted from close cooperation with sugar manufacturers to improve heat transfer efficiency when concentrating high-viscosity, fouling-prone process liquids.
Food and beverage
- Fruit juices and purées
- Sugars, syrups (corn), honey and confectioneries
- Ethanol stillage
- Meat and vegetable broths
- Gelatine and collagen peptides
- Fermentation products
- Coffee and tea
- Vegetable protein
- Milk and whey protein
- Non-dairy plant drinks (oat, nut, etc.)
- Beer de-alcoholization
- Herbal extracts
Starch and sweeteners
- Sugars (beet, cane, potato, etc.)
- Glucose, dextrose, fructose, maltose
Proteins
- Gelatine
- Stick water
- Meat and fish broths
- Insect protein slurries
- Plant-based proteins
Chemicals and wastewater
- Caustic (NaOH, KOH, LiOH)
- Zero liquid discharge
- Inorganic salts
- Biofuels
Life science/industrial fermentation
- Fermentation broths
- Lysine
- Lactic acids
- Citric acids
- Amino acids
- Yeast extract
How it works
How the AlfaVap rising film evaporator works
The Alfa Laval AlfaVap is a rising thin film plate evaporator. Product flows along the heating channels and evaporates, releasing a portion of its water content. Contact time of the product with the heating surface is limited due to the turbulence and high fluid velocity. The vapour/liquid mixture leaves the plate heat exchangers and enters a vapour separator, which separates the vapour phase and directs it to the upper outlet. The liquid phase collects at the bottom of the separator and is transferred through an outlet for subsequent processing in the next effect or to the final extraction point.
Engineered system
A complete AlfaVap climbing film evaporation system includes plate evaporators, preheaters, cyclone separator vessels, thermal and/or mechanical vapour recompression units, pumps, instruments, valves, ducting and piping and a local programmable logic controller (PLC) and control panel. The system can be pre-assembled in Alfa Laval’s workshop, which reduces installation time on site to one to three weeks.
Sustainability with the AlfaVap rising film plate evaporator
The AlfaVap is highly energy efficient and has a significant and positive impact on sustainability credentials. Watch the video to learn more.
Rising Film Evaporator VS Shell-and-tube evaporator
Compared to a traditional shell-and-tube evaporation system, the AlfaFlash and AlfaVap system requires substantially less installation height and can be installed without complex civil work on site.
Outstanding heat transfer coefficient for the plate evaporator
The Alfa Laval evaporation solutions provide much higher thermal efficiency than traditional shell-and-tube evaporators. With up to three times the heat transfer efficiency versus other technologies, substantial savings can be made, especially at higher concentrations.
Heat sources for evaporation systems
Configuration Options
Alfa Laval evaporation systems can use heat from different sources such as mechanical and thermal compression as well as waste vapours from dryers.
Multiple-effect system
- Saves energy by reusing steam
- Simple and flexible
Mechanical vapour recompression, MVR
- High investment
- Low (or no) steam consumption
- Uses electricity
Thermal vapour recompression, TVR
- Low cost with reduced steam consumption
- Simple, no moving parts
Waste heat from dryers
- Low energy cost
- Relatively high investment
Pilot testing and rentals of evaporation systems
Try before you buy. Get expertise and advice from Alfa Laval engineers for the optimum configuration for your evaporation system, including:
- Detailed water analysis and characterization
- Process and water chemistry modelling
- Benchmark and/or pilot testing for moderate- to high-risk applications
- Detailed material compatibility evaluation
- Sample analysis
- Pilot tests
Visit the Alfa Laval Materials Technology & Chemistry Lab and Test Centre in Lund, Sweden, the Alfa Laval Innovation and Test Centre in Nakskov, Denmark, or rent one of our mobile pilot evaporation systems to conduct onsite trials at your plant.
Possible fossil free concentration process
A lot of water is transported on our roads today and by reducing the water content in food products using an evaporation system, you will reduce the energy consumption in transportation.
A concentration step is typically what would be the highest energy consumer in your whole process plant, which also makes that the process step most suitable to optimize to save energy. In in most cases, the energy for an evaporation system is coming from fossil fuels. With AlfaVap, you can transfer that over to electrical energy, making it possible to get completely fossil free energy for your concentration process.
Watch this webinar to learn more about how to produce more food and beverages, while using less water and emitting less carbon.
Happy customers
Service
Food system services
Alfa Laval Food system services help extend the performance of your food systems by maximizing the performance of your processes. This enables you to:
- Continually improve your operations to maintain competitive advantage
- Focus on uptime, optimization and availability
- Maximize return on investment throughout the life cycle of your food systems
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Explore our range of evaporators
Alfa Laval offers a wide range of evaporation systems from plate evaporators, and rising film evaporators to tubular evaporators and falling film evaporators. Find out what would work for your evaporation needs.
