Halfwerk Ruben, Verdonk Louise, Yntema Doekle, Van Spronsen Jaap, Van der Padt Albert
Wetsus, European Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Water Technology, Oostergoweg 9, 8911 MA Leeuwarden, The Netherlands; Food Process Engineering, Wageningen University, Bornse Weilanden 9, 6708 WG Wageningen, The Netherlands.
Wetsus, European Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Water Technology, Oostergoweg 9, 8911 MA Leeuwarden, The Netherlands; Food Process Engineering, Wageningen University, Bornse Weilanden 9, 6708 WG Wageningen, The Netherlands; Tetra pak Cheese and Powder Systems B.V., Venus 100, 8448 GW Heerenveen, The Netherlands.
Food Res Int. 2023 Jun;168:112764. doi: 10.1016/j.foodres.2023.112764. Epub 2023 Mar 27.
Eutectic freeze crystallization is explored as an alternative to the state-of-the-art evaporation process for the recovery of lactose from whey permeate. At the so-called eutectic freezing point, both water (the solvent) and lactose (the solute) crystallize and can be removed continuously while continuously feeding whey permeate. This continuous process is demonstrated on a pilot scale at sub-zero temperatures. In the first instance, only freeze concentration of whey permeate took place at -4 °C. It was possible to reach a lactose concentration of 30 wt% and hardly any nucleation was observed. The resulting ice had high purity, with a lactose concentration of ±2 wt%. Next, the eutectic phase was reached, and lactose and ice crystallized simultaneously and were continuously removed from the system, the resulting crystals had parallelogram morphology with an average size of 10 µm. Ice was recovered at a rate of 60 kg/h and lactose was recovered at a rate of 16 kg/h, yielding over 80% of the feed lactose. A conceptional design was proposed for an improved yield and reduction of energy. Yields of at least 80% and up till 95% could be achieved. Compared to the state-of-the-art mechanical vapor recompression (MVR), EFC is 80% more energy efficient.
探索了低共熔冷冻结晶法，作为从乳清渗透物中回收乳糖的一种替代现有蒸发工艺的方法。在所谓的低共熔冰点，水（溶剂）和乳糖（溶质）都会结晶，并且在连续进料乳清渗透物的同时可以连续去除。该连续过程在零下温度下的中试规模上得到了验证。首先，仅在-4°C下对乳清渗透物进行冷冻浓缩。可以达到30 wt%的乳糖浓度，并且几乎未观察到成核现象。所得的冰纯度很高，乳糖浓度约为2 wt%。接下来，达到了低共熔相，乳糖和冰同时结晶并从系统中连续去除，所得晶体具有平行四边形形态，平均尺寸为10 µm。冰的回收速率为60 kg/h，乳糖的回收速率为16 kg/h，进料乳糖的回收率超过80%。提出了一种概念设计，以提高产量并降低能耗。产量至少可达80%，最高可达95%。与现有技术的机械蒸汽再压缩（MVR）相比，低共熔冷冻结晶法的能源效率高80%。
