2024 Agenda

Advanced Separation: Electrodialysis for Organic Dairy Ingredients

This presentation overviews processes for D90, lactose and others from different dairy sources (acid whey, sweet whey, permeate) using electrodialysis and bipolar membrane electrodialysis at the industrial scale.

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Panel Discussion: Advancement in Forward Osmosis & Wastewater Management

Join Douglas J. Peckenpaugh, Group Publisher for dairy, meat, poultry, bakery, snack, confectionery, and packaging at BNP Media, as he leads a discussion on key advancements in strategies for membrane cleaning. He will be joined by Devesh Mittal, Vice President & General Manager, Energy and Environmental Services Division, Aquatech International, and Jon Goodman, Vice President, Commercial Development, ZwitterCo, as they dig into topics like increasing reuse of water, reducing fees associated with wastewater discharge, advancements in forward osmosis (FO) management, streamlining cleaning processes, reducing chemical usage, improving overall sustainability, and more.

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Pushing Boundaries: Vandstrom Inc.'s Innovations in Next Generation Membrane Development

Membrane producers aspire to create membranes with uniform properties throughout the casting process. The presentation will show how Vandstrom improved its UF membrane’s uniformity and performance by analyzing the casting conditions and their effect on membrane’s properties.
To make quality controlling membrane pore size more efficient, Vandstrom developed a method to quantify UF membranes’ largest pore sizes. This technique uses the total organic carbon analyzer (TOC) to determine rejection. There was a strong correlation (R2 >0.91) between the TOC and MWCO methods; the TOC method had lower coefficients of variance.
The second part of the presentation will focus on advances Vandstrom is making in the water purification market. Vandstrom is developing water purification membranes that use Aquaporins (AQP) to increase the efficiency of RO membranes. AQP are water channel proteins that facilitate the transfer of water through the cells’ membranes.

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Unique Applications and Opportunities for Ceramic Membrane Filtration for Dairy and Non-Dairy Foods

Ceramic filtration has been widely used within the dairy industry for bacteria reduction and fat removal in milk and whey processing. In this presentation we will review unique and distinct applications that are suitable for ceramic filtration within the dairy industry. A few examples from the non-dairy industry will be described as well. The presenter will discuss the benefits of using ceramic membranes in these applications, and its offering a a process solution provider.

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Developing Scalable Membrane Filtration Solutions

Development of a membrane filtration application relies on a number of a process and product optimizations which are necessary steps incorporated during the feasibility and scale-up studies. From considerations of the suitable membrane configuration and chemistry to adequate pretreatments, to understanding of the product characteristics and down to the selection of proper mechanical and physicochemical parameters, each of these plays an important role in improving the efficiency of the process and enhancing product quality. Our focus, through this presentation, is to highlight novel and important design and developments that improve the performance of membrane separation processes across a diverse spectrum of food and dairy applications.

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Enhancing Quality, Safety, and Efficiency with New Controls Technology

This presentation will focus on the recent advancements and improvements in membrane technology, specifically in the food processing industry. The food processing industry is complex and demanding, requiring high levels of quality, safety, and efficiency. The presentation will introduce new controls technology that can help food processors achieve these goals by providing innovative solutions for various applications, such as clean-in-place (CIP), thermal and UV pasteurization, and general process recording and tank monitoring. The presentation will highlight the PPR, a versatile and user-friendly product that can handle multiple tasks and integrate seamlessly with existing systems. Through case studies, examples, and customer testimonials, the presentation will demonstrate how the PPR can improve performance, reliability, and profitability while reducing environmental impact and enhancing regulatory compliance. Attendees will gain a better understanding of how new controls technology can optimize food processing processes and help achieve business objectives. The session will also look forward to address anticipated future challenges related to customer implementation.

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Improved Nanofiltration Membrane Chemistry to Reduce Replacement Rates in Dairy Applications

Separation and demineralization of whey protein and lactose requires a nanofiltration membrane that has an appropriate molecular weight cutoff to reject organic molecules yet is open enough to allow significant transport of monovalent salts. Today, fouling stands out as a primary challenge for nanofiltration membranes in dairy processes. The new generation of nanofiltration elements, designed with improved membrane chemistry, help endure the stress caused by the demanding conditions of daily cleaning.

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Hollow Fiber Membranes: An Attractive and Sustainable Solution for Milk Protein Fractionation and Concentration

The demand for proteins as food constituents is rising sharply because of continuous increase of world population. Available membrane technologies for protein purification, fractionation, and concentration have advantages, but also challenges impacting operation limits, consumptions, and costs. Hollow fiber membranes are used in a large number of applications around the world like water, wastewater, and the food & beverage industry. This presentation will highlight our work on protein production from plant- or animal-based sources.

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Membrane-Driven Sustainability Opportunities for Dairy

In our presentation, we aim to focus on specific areas within various dairy processes where opportunities exist to mitigate and reduce consumption of key resources. We will delve into membrane technologies that can be effectively employed for materials re-use, documentation of water reduction strategies, and even potential marketability of these strategies. Additionally, we will explore sustainable solutions for managing spent or surplus materials that cannot feasibly be recovered or reconditioned by membrane processes, with an eye toward minimizing environmental impact. Our presentation will thoroughly examine the delicate balance between economic considerations and environmental sustainability, both of which are topics of paramount importance to the dairy industry.

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Revolutionizing Membrane Filtration: Smart polymers for sustainable and efficient dairy industrial processes

Ecofilter Tek Inc. is poised to unveil groundbreaking advancements in membrane technology with the introduction of smart polymers, a transformative innovation set to reshape the landscape of the membrane industry. In this presentation, we showcase the initial success of our technology in the dairy industry, where the proof of concept has resulted in a remarkable 20% improvement in whey production performance and an impressive 10-fold reduction in CIP chemical consumption. The versatility of our smart polymers encompasses diverse membrane types such as RO, NF, and MF, in configurations including hollow fiber and flat sheet membranes. The key role played by smart polymers in filtration performance not only enhances efficiency but also revolutionizes cleaning procedures, reducing reliance on harsh and toxic chemicals. This breakthrough technology not only promises to significantly impact operational expenditures (OPEX) but also establishes a new benchmark for environmentally friendly production practices. Join us as we unveil the potential of smart polymers, ushering in a new era of sustainable and efficient industrial processes across various membrane applications.

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Accelerated Cleaning Protocols, Monitoring, and Sustainability for Dairy and Non-Dairy Products

In today’s world of ever-increasing sustainability goals, suppliers and their customers are continuously working together to implement hygiene programs that will contribute to water, water treatment and energy savings while reducing turnaround time to allow for increased production or maintenance needs. This session will discuss accelerated cleaning protocols, innovative monitoring tools, and precision volume-based dosing and their impact on your ability to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of your membrane systems in the development of dairy foods and beverages, as well as high-protein, non-dairy products.

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Factors of Membrane Clean-in-Place (CIP) Process

Identifying soils and using the right chemistry are only part of the membrane clean-in-place (CIP) process. There are several other factors that need to be considered to have a successful CIP, which will lead to consistent production. Come join us to learn about those factors and why they are important. This presentation will expand upon basics of CIP, including looking at factors outside of chemistry, including: hydraulics, times, temperatures, considerations for different membrane types, and makeup water for CIP.

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Advancements in Forward Osmosis Technologies for Processing Fruit Juice, Coffee, and Beer

Porifera’s PFO products are ideally suited for concentrating streams with high osmotic pressures and suspended solids in both waste and food and beverage applications, such as fruit juice, coffee, and beer. Porifera’s innovations include a new high flux, high selectivity forward osmosis (FO) membrane combined with a new element design for FO processing. The advantages of Porifera’s PFO technology include low head-loss, reduced footprint, and both co-current and counter-current processing. Porifera has also developed FO membrane systems with draw recovery for high osmotic pressure processing, competing with thermal evaporators. This talk will provide the latest information on Porifera's PFO technology and for the first time provide details about Porifera’s new PFO200 module, designed for improved cleanability, drainability, and even lower head loss suitable for processing highly viscous products.

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Empowering Dairy Operations: Big Impacts through Optimization of Process Separations

In the dynamic landscape of today’s dairy industry, processors face a multitude of challenges ranging from enhancing operational efficiency to ensuring environmental sustainability. Meeting the demand for continual performance improvement amid process complexity and resource constraints creates a challenging environment in many dairy processing facilities. Under these conditions, even minor changes in process separations can be easily overlooked and can have a profound impact on the overall operation and profitability of the business.

Conventional process analytics and controls often fall short in efficiently and effectively addressing these issues. Collaborating closely with a partner who understands the intricacies of the application and the critical variables that contribute to the overall economics of a process and adopts a dynamic consultative approach is critical. Join Solecta and Great Lakes Cheese as we delve into a compelling case study illustrating the benefit of a consultative approach, enriched by data-driven insights using SolectaINSIGHTS™ predictive analytics, which resulted in a $250,000/year improvement in performance that illustrates the transformative power of a holistic approach to process optimization.

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How to Manage Dairy Membrane Processes at a High Level

Membrane technologies play a critical role in dairy businesses, utilizing all four membrane technologies (MF, UF, NF, RO) to produce different dairy ingredients. However, due to the nature of dairy membrane operations, membranes, or associated equipment often fail prematurely, compromising the efficiency of separation and quality of produced ingredients. This presentation will show how Leprino Foods employs high-level dairy membrane management to improve its process.

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Updated Production of Low-Alcohol Beverages using RO/NF Technology

Low alcohol beverages are typically produced by taking full-strength beer then processing using a thermal process to remove the alcohol. To reduce the heat vacuum evaporation is used; however, the beer is still heated which can alter the organoleptic properties of the beverage. Other techniques such as low sugar content grains or limited fermentation can produce low alcohol beverages, but the limited or no fermentation does not allow the taste and nutritional value to fully develop. Maintaining the organoleptic properties of the original full-strength fully fermented beverage is desired. The use of membranes that operate at relatively low pressure and temperature to maintain the flavor profile can accomplish this goal. This paper looks at different membranes that can be used to produce low alcohol beverages and will present new pilot test studies which have recently been completed in 2024.

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Membrane Processes in Food Protein Production: a Sustainable Future

The predicted growth in the human population, combined with other global sustainability and environmental challenges, has put new demands on the methodology for production of food products. We need to develop innovative techniques and processes for increased global protein production from a variety of alternative sources. This presentation will provide an overview of how membrane technology, either as standalone units or in synergy with other separation solutions, can be implemented with focus on sustainable alternative protein production. Examples will show the importance of supporting industrial partners in developing separation solutions from lab to commercial scale.

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Proper Enzyme Cleaning at High pH Levels

In the past years many have touted the effects of enzyme cleaning. Each presenter has stated the pH range is critical and that enzymes over a 10.0pH would render the enzyme useless. The properly created enzyme is very stable at and up to 11.2+ pH. This now takes the enzyme step to a dual cleaning step where as you have an alkalinity level in which even more soils are removed. We have used this for 15 years with great success and achieved longer membrane life for every element manufacturer.

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TBD

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Sustainable design of reverse osmosis membrane processes in ingredient production

Many F&B producers face complex challenges in improving manufacturing performance due to cost pressures, high quality demands, increasing new product introductions, and sustainability targets, all while streamlining production. Using digital design through process modeling techniques can aid in process development and optimization. We collaborate with companies to leverage process modeling tools to drive physics-based understanding of F&B processes, including membrane filtration. Examples of applications include polyphenol purification, whey protein concentrate production, beer recovery, and much more. One example this session will cover in detail is from leading plant-based ingredients producer Roquette. Roquette uses reverse osmosis (RO) membranes to remove product impurities that can lead to high diafiltration water usage and substantial energy needs to evaporate/concentrate the resulting waste stream. Process modeling reduced diafiltration water usage by about 20% and downstream evaporation energy consumption by about 65% compared to a reference operating schedule.

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Facility Tour

Ecolab Shuman Campus Technology Center

Eagan, MN

Experience the science behind Ecolab’s products and services at the Schuman Campus Technology Center. Schuman RD&E tours demonstrate our innovation and provide access to our comprehensive solutions for clean water, safe food, and healthy environments. This tour will feature our membrane experts and provide a behind the scenes look at some of our state of the art membrane technologies and analytical capabilities.

One shuttle bus for both tours. Buses load at The DoubleTree Hilton at 7:45 AM

Facility Tour

Veolia Water Technologies & Solutions

Minnetonka, MN

The Minnetonka facility for Veolia Water Technologies & Solutions manufactures a wide range of technologies and equipment for dairy, food, and beverage customers, as well as products that serve other markets such as power, mining, municipal, and general industrial. The tour will focus on production of membrane elements, with tour stops at membrane casting and element finishing, including a look at two new membrane casting lines. The tour will also highlight our equipment fabrication capabilities, with a tour stop overlooking one of the industry's largest membrane equipment production areas.

One shuttle bus for both tours. Buses load at The DoubleTree Hilton at 7:45 AM
Lunch will be served following the Ecolab facility tour