Fat and oil processing

Pushing the industry forward 

The world is facing a major food supply challenge, and as fat and edible oil producers rise to tackle the issue, Alfa Laval is on hand to help drive the effort, with reliable and innovative technological solutions and support. 

This is a complex and ever-changing industry with many products, processes and technologies – and new ones continually arriving on the scene. 

Alfa Laval has equipment and process expertise across the spectrum, be it for nutritious food production to feed the world or for the supply of more sustainable fuels that can play their role in combatting climate change. So, whether it is olive oil, refined oils, modified fats for confectionary fats, margarine and shortenings, or technology for biodiesel and hydrotreated vegetable oils (HVO) leading to diesel and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), Alfa Laval is at the heart of the action. 

And whatever the end-product, the goals of boosting yield and quality, while offering new possibilities to reuse byproducts and reduce costs, remain at the core of Alfa Laval’s approach. Alfa Laval’s drive for innovation, backed by decades of experience in fat and oil processing, ensures that the solutions should meet the toughest requirements when it comes to water, energy, and CO2 savings, while providing a flexibility that helps customers thrive in shifting market places. 

When it comes to food production, supplying a growing population with the opportunity for balanced oils and fats consumption is fundamental to the human diet, and alongside this, the rise in living standards means an increased demand for prepared foods. Alfa Laval brings knowledge and expertise from all parts of the food processing arena, including supplying essential fatty acids (linoleic and linolenic), meaning customers can benefit from bespoke solutions, whatever the product involved. 

Palm oil, for instance, continues to grow in importance, and is now the major feedstock in the market, while also offering a great example of how Alfa Laval makes a difference, following the development of an evaporation technology that has revolutionized the processing of the polluting wastewater, palm oil mill effluent (POME), with its challenging high organic material content. The use of an Alfa Laval AlfaFlash forced circulation plate evaporator in the processing creates clean water for process reuse and recovers valuable by-products such as oil and minerals, which can be used for fertilizer or dried for animal feed. The system is a game-changer that, compared to the traditional methods, doesn’t produce methane, takes up less space and saves on water and waste. Alfa Laval is also on the forefront when it comes to mitigating trace amounts of undesirable impurities in the refined palm oil to the strictest specifications (known as 3MCPD and glycidol esters, GE) with technologies deployed both in the palm oil mills as well as in the refining plants. 

It is the sort of Alfa Laval innovation that is found across the sector – even in the traditional world of olive oil, where the vacuum technology of Alfa Laval’s Olive Oil Booster is increasing yield, improving product quality and saving resources. 

And it is found too in the significant ongoing growth area of biodiesel and HVO (Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil) production, where the focus is on processing flexibility to enable use of inedible and used oils and fats (tallow, used cooking oil and others). 

Alfa Laval is operating globally in all of these markets, alongside more traditional fields such as margarine and shortening, and is ready to discuss challenges and opportunities with companies across the board to find the latest efficient solutions to boost quantity and quality, while saving on resources. 

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