Case studies - ederna

To meet the increasing demand for natural and healthy products, the evapeos^® process provides an innovative and cost effective solution to natural ingredient manufacturing.

Products in aqueous solutions can be highly concentrated and solvents can be easily removed while maintaining the initial quality. evapeos ensures the stability of sensitive substances, which completely respects the very restrictive operating conditions imposed in the manufacturing processes of functional ingredients. The evapeos process is the ideal vector for proteins, vitamins, antioxidants and more.

Products already shown to have proven benefits from concentration witt evapeos include fruit juices, dairy and fermentation products, vegetable extracts and algae.

Case Study : Instant coffee manufacturing process

To obtain instant coffee, there are different steps. The coffee beans have to be roasted to develop all the flavors and then the coffee is extracted with hot water. The diluted coffee obtained is then concentrated using thermal evaporation. This technology does not preserve the flavors of the coffee because heat denatures then numerous thermo-sensitive molecules that are present.

The evapeos process which operates at room temperature and guarantees the conservation of the original properties of the coffee could be a gentle alternative.

Coffee concentration experiments with the evapeos process were carried out in the laboratory in order to validate technical feasibility of the operation. Sensory analysis showed that it was clear that most of the coffee flavors were not affected by the concentration process. A product with good quality was obtained.

Download the application note related to instant coffee manufacturing process

Case study: protein powder production

Proteins are complex organic molecules with functional and nutritional properties. They are essential to life for every living organism, and can be found in all of them. Because of their various properties and biological activity, proteins are commercialized as ingredients in numerous products such as food supplements, drugs, cosmetics and food additives.

Most of these proteins are commercialized as powders. The downstream process is composed of two major phases: extraction/purification and drying. The first phase produces a dilute solution of purified proteins. Since proteins are thermo-labile molecules, which can be easily denatured by heat, this solution is dried, most of the time, using lyophilization. This technology is particularly energy consuming and time-consuming. The more the solution is dilute, the more water needs to be removed, and the more time and energy are needed.

The evapeos process, patented by ederna, could concentrate protein solutions at room temperature and pressure. These mild operating conditions would guarantee no degradation of the proteins.

Using this innovative process as a concentration step before freeze-drying would reduce the amount of water to be removed and, subsequently, the cost of the drying step.

Download the application note related to protein powder manufacturing process