Description
Removing alcohol by evaporation under vacuum.
The product is first heated by a heat exchanger in counter current to the finished alcohol-free product. It is then dispersed at the top of a specially designed evaporation column. For CO2 containing liquids, prior degassing prevents formation of foam. Exhaust vapours are fed into the bottom of the column. They rise upwards inside the column in counter current to the falling warm liquid. Thereby, they remove the volatile alcohol from the product. The less volatile components fall to the column base and flow into the falling film evaporator that generates the exhaust vapour. Densely packed, thin stainless steel sheets in the column maximize the transfer surface and the contact time between product and exhaust vapours. The complete process takes place under vacuum at low temperature. The remaining alcohol-free product is pumped away and cooled. The volatile flavours from the original product can be separated in an aroma recovery system and added back to the finished product. The alcohol is optionally concentrated to up to 90 vol. % for further use.
Advantages
- Gentle treatment of the product at low temperature
- Residual alcohol content close to detection level
- Optional aroma recovery and alcohol rectification
- High precision Centec sensor technology for process control
