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Freezing Concentration
Concentration is the process of removing moisture content from a liquid to make it a highly concentrated liquid.
For example, fruit juice is transported by reducing the total amount of water by concentrating at the production plant to reduce the transportation cost to the consumption area.
After being transported to there, it is turned into the state before concentration by adding the removed water (= reduction) and gets on sales.
In addition, the concentration of components is increased by concentrating the extract that has a high moisture content and is less effective as it is, so that it can be used as a raw material for flavors and fragrances. Concentration methods generally used include evaporation by heat and membrane concentration by reverse osmosis.
What's Freeze Concentration?
We, MEIWA CO., LTD., focus on the technology of freeze concentration and do the business on manufacturing and selling the machines.
Freeze concentration is a concentration method that freezes the water in the liquid, separates the water and the substance inside, and increases the substance concentration. This method is characterized by the ability to concentrate while maintaining the quality of the liquid without any component deterioration or loss due to heat. However, there are few companies that adopt this method because the process takes a long time and the equipment itself tends to get large.
What's Meiwa Strength?
Meiwa employs the progressive freeze-concentration method and overcome the problems of the conventional freeze concentration methods, and has shortened the concentration process time and downsized the equipment.
This method has a very large concentration effect on extremely low solution concentrations (almost equal to water).
It's especially recommended for evaporative condensed water, distilled water, water extracts and water-soluble fragrances.
Progressive Freeze-Concentration
Progressive Freeze-Concentration
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Features
- The liquid is agitated to prevent components from flowing into the ice.
- It can be freeze-concentrated in a short time by controlling the temperature of the refrigerant and of the liquid.
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Advantage
- The component in a liquid are not damaged and basically not changed after concentration.
- Component concentration rate is equal to the liquid concentration rate.
- Energy consumption is 5 times lower than heating concentration.
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Concentration effect (based on in-house test results)
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* Magnification values based on the original liquid as "1".
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Test liquid 500 times diluted floral water (Rose damask)
* Diluted with pure water.Test equipment agitation type freeze-concentration machine (PFC-M10) Collection rate of concentrated liquid 35% (water removal: 65%) Concentration rate (compared with the original liquid) 2.9 times
Comparison with conventional concentration methods
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(Decompressed) evaporative concentration
Features
- A large amount of liquid can be processed in a short time by heating.
- Flavor components and taste components deteriorate due to heating.
- Heat-sensitive components are lost due to heat.
- Weak flavor components are removed with a suction fan.
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Membrane concentration
Features
- The loss of components due to heat can be prevented.
- Efficient concentration can be achieved by reverse osmosis.
- Components smaller than the membrane pores may permeate the membrane.
- Membrane maintenance and replacement are required.
Progressive Freeze-Concentration
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Features
- No deterioration in the quality of the components because of processed at low temperature (below freezing point).
- It can be prevented from volatilization and deterioration of components due to heat.
- No(little) loss of liquid components balance since only water gets frozen.
- The simple structure leads to little few parts replacement and maintenance.
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High-added value concentrated liquid production is possible.
Reference data (comparison data with membrane concentration method)
The figure below shows the balance of components after returning the water removed (concentrated and reduced) to the freeze concentrated liquid and membrane concentrated liquid.
Compared to membrane concentration (reverse osmosis method), the component balance is almost similar to the original liquid.
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* Magnification values based on the original liquid as "1".
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▼ Concentrated by two methods, membrane concentration (reverse osmosis method) and progressive freeze-concentration (freeze concentration), the concentrated liquid is analyzed.
Test liquid evaporated condensed water of La France juice Test equipment circulation type freeze concentration equipment (PFC-C10) Collection rate of concentrated liquid 27% (water removal: 73%) Concentration rate (compared with the original liquid) 3.67 times
Testing Service
We offer concentration testing service for a fee in the in-house laboratory (FReC Labo.).
Only few companies deal with freeze concentration and the technology itself is not yet common,
and thus its features and benefits are not well known.
First of all, we recommend freeze concentration tests of customer's product liquids to show what effect they can achieve for further steps.
Applicable Test Equipment
- Agitation type freeze concentration machine (PFC-M10)
- Circulation type freeze concentration machine (PFC-C10 / PFC-C50)
Minimum test volume
* However, it is limited to the agitation type only. Other machines require liquid with the designated volume.
Test Experiences
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- Distilled water (of grape, tree water, etc.)
- Evaporated condensed water (milk, etc.)
- Fragrance (water extract, solvent extract, alcohol extract)
- Beverage (soy milk, coffee, milk, fruit juice, etc.)
- Alcohol (sake, Shochu) and many others
Our sales staff proposes a test plan according to your request.
Please feel free to contact us in the inquiry form below.