Biochemicals
Biodiesel
Biodiesel is booming. The many different reasons for this success story include an environmental policy which is specifically promoting fuels from renewable raw materials. New biodiesel production facilities are springing up all over the world to transesterify vegetable and animal oils and fats into fatty acid methyl ester (FAME).
GEA supports the production of this biodiesel product in terms of both the pre-treatment of the oils and fats required and transesterification itself.
Two variants have proved themselves within alkaline refining: firstly so-called standard neutralization and secondly cold refining, which allows oils containing waxes to be winterized as they are neutralized.
GEA supports all refining processes, of which alcohol neutralization is the most economical variant. In this refining method, the process line uses a bypass flow of the transesterification stages to pre-treat the oils and fats. This completely avoids waste water and other waste products.
Advantages of GEA process lines
GEA process lines allow the following pre-treatment objectives to be efficiently realized:
- No waxes, making biodiesel more stable to cold
- No impurities, resulting in improved glycerin quality
- No gums to cause fouling in the thermal glycerin process
- No free fatty acids, reducing the proportion of MONG (Matter Organic Non Glycerin)
- No phosphates in waste water, reducing disposal costs
In addition to economical pre-treatment of the oils and fats, GEA also supplies all the components for subsequent transesterification.
The individual solutions and equipment used in these process lines has been developed and optimized since as early as 1996. They are both sophisticated and tried and tested; they combine stable process management with high product quality and are well established with producers of biodiesel.
Products & Technologies
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Aseptic valves & components
Aseptic valves face exceptionally high demands within UltraClean and Aseptic processes. You can be assured that they all provide highest quality in terms of hygienic design and sustainability.
Distillation Test Facilities at Karlsruhe R&D Center
With state-of-the-art pilot plants and test benches our R & D Center is optimally equipped for testing in the fields of distillation technology.
Ejector Systems
Ejectors, are devices for the conveyance, compression or mixing of gases, vapors, liquids or solids in which a gaseous or liquid medium serves as the motive force. They are "pumps without moving parts".
Evaporation Plants
Sophisticated systems integrating all components of a thermal separation process plant, utilizing various types of evaporators and heat treatment, to achieve maximum energy efficiency, sustainability, and economic viability in industrial processes.
GEA specializes in crafting bespoke evaporation solutions that precisely match each client's unique...
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GEA Insights
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Closing the loop: key lessons for breweries from OeTTINGER
The 2022 CO2 shortage forced breweries to review their dependency on global supply chains. Many were forced to close, unable to carbonate their products. At its breweries in Germany, OeTTINGER GETRÄNKE is turning its own CO2 into a powerful lever for independence and sustainability – with the help of CO2 recovery technology from GEA.
Staying the course: Q&A with GEA's Chief Sustainability Officer
In a shifting political and economic landscape, GEA stays the course. We spoke with Dr. Nadine Sterley, GEA’s Chief Sustainability Officer, about why sustainability remains central to the company’s business strategy, how GEA is progressing on its ambitious goals and what it takes to turn words into action.
