GEA and esarom team up to redefine flavor excellence in the beverage industry
GEA technologies have played a key role in enabling esarom to grow its portfolio and business and expand across international markets.
Austria-based esarom is a family-owned and run business that specializes in creating flavors and ingredients for the global food and beverage industry. Established in 1946, the company’s expertise spans powdered and liquid flavors, bases, emulsions, extracts, distillates, concentrates, colorings and additives. With a presence in more than 35 countries esarom strives to innovate and develop the highest quality products for national and international markets and markets with special demands. These include organic ranges, and products for special dietary needs, including vegetarian, halal, kosher, gluten free or lactose free.
Partnership supports expanding portfolio
For more than 20 years specialist GEA teams and project managers have worked closely with esarom to configure and install key equipment and complete lines for processing flavors and ingredients for alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, ice cream, confectionery, dairy and pastry products.
GEA technologies have played a key role in enabling esarom to grow its portfolio and business and expand across international markets. Working together, we have focused on configuring equipment and automation that can help to improve product quality, process efficiency and productivity, while reducing environmental impact and supporting greener, more sustainable manufacturing.
"We’re proud to have implemented such big project as our focus was to save resources and increase capacities. The resulting efficiency is a great reward for the whole team."
Stephan Mölls
Managing Director
esarom
Automation to boost efficiency and capacity
esarom operates separate powder processing and liquid processing facilities in the Vienna region. Recently, multidisciplinary GEA teams worked with the company to configure, supply and install an end-to-end line for processing different types of fruit juice concentrates, which esarom’s customers use to create ready-to-drink products for consumers. The goal was to design a highly automated, modular line that would let esarom process multiple product types, including new and existing recipes, starting from materials reception and storage, through to blending, heat treatment and aseptic filling. Increased production capacity and improved automation to increase efficiency and minimize financial losses were key endpoints for the project.
A number of fruit juice concentrates are processed in relatively small volumes from high value starting ingredients, using highly customized processes that had previously required a lot of manual tasks to program, monitor and just equipment operating parameters for each product. This was costly, time consuming and meant there was always a risk of human error. A major objective for us was to configure a highly automated line that would increase capacity – esarom also produces large volumes of some products - but also minimize the need for human operation. One goal was to cut the amount of time it took to set, monitor and fine tune equipment settings for each product and batch, as well as reduce manual error risk, and cut product loss and waste, while enabling faster, thorough cleaning and switchover.
Understanding challenges and goals
Our collaboration with esarom is founded on trust and mutual expertise, and we worked closely together to outline and understand the challenges and goals, and to design a process line that would meet all key expectations and fit in with the existing layout and space at the facility in Oberrohrbach. One initial challenge was to select systems that could handle and process high-viscosity liquid concentrates without affecting quality, and without impacting on equipment functionality or efficiency. esarom is continually innovating in its field, so it was equally important for the company to have the flexibility to adapt the line for each process and product, without unnecessary complexity.
A modular solution
In fact, we went one step further, and engineered for our partner a modular line that lets esarom minutely control process stages, but also swap equipment and components - such as homogenizers - in and out or the line, dependent on the final product.
Combining automation and user-configurable equipment with a high capacity clean in place (CIP) plant and pigging system were key not only to giving esarom confidence in reproducible, reliable processing, but also to helping improve overall productivity and yield, reduce waste and product loss, and cut delays.
Process line highlights
- Pigging system
- Recipe management
- Flexibility
- Capacity expansion
Confidence in the process, 24/7
The final design includes new five 25,000 L tanks for the reception and cold storage of raw materials, including juice and juice concentrate. We also installed two 25,000 l tanks for blending concentrates, premixes, powders and liquids. Blending for each product created by the esarom team is carried out according to precise recipe and process instructions, which are programmed into the line’s digital control system. Our automation platform makes it relatively simple to store recipes and process parameters and instructions, giving esarom confidence in reproducible processing, 24/7, as well as offering real time oversight into process progress. Automated control also helps to speed product switchover to reduce delays and so improve relative efficiency and productivity.
esarom had previously undertaken manual cleaning of its process lines, but the high-capacity CIP plant we configured for the new line can thoroughly clean all relevant equipment, irrespective of size. CIP offers great time efficiency, reducing delays and the need for manual tasks, and potentially can cut overall energy, water and chemicals use, and reduce wastewater volume.
Handling low- and high-viscosity products
The fruit juice concentrates used by esarom are created from a mix of starting concentrates plus powder and liquid ingredients. Some of the raw materials and final products being processed are highly viscous, in the range of 6,000 mPa*s. Our customer- and product-focused design team was able to configure a line that was ideally suited to handling both low- and high-viscosity products, so esarom could expect continued high-quality processing.
High-viscosity materials commonly stick to the inner walls of process pipework, but media used to help push out the retained product during cleaning is commonly less viscous. This then means there must be a long mix phase of water and product, which can’t be separated, so must be drained, and any retained product is effectively wasted. We’ve installed a pigging system into the esarom line to act as a split/barrier between product and the pushing media. This means there’s no complete mixing phase, which minimizes losses.
GEA Ariete Homogenizer
Precision adjustment for homogenization
The new esarom process line includes a highly customized 6,000 l/h pasteurization plant, including two GEA homogenizers and two sterile tanks to store the pasteurized products under sterile conditions, prior to filling. Homogenization is a key process stage that impacts on the product’s final physical structure, so we’ve configured homogenizers that can be adjusted precisely for each recipe and product type.
The line is in addition connected via a highly flexible piping matrix to several aseptic fillers, so multiple products can be filled at the same time. esarom has the freedom to package products aseptically in the most appropriate containers, from truckload to individual cartons, industrial bulk containers, drums or jerry cans.
Recycling heat energy
Our aim at GEA is, wherever possible, to include components, systems and digital tools that could help to save and recycle energy and resources and improve sustainability. Through our partnership we have delivered Short Time Heating plants including plate and tubular heat exchangers to esarom at both pilot and commercial scale, to capture and recycle of waste heat energy.
The final plant was installed at esarom’s site within about a five-month time frame, completed in 2023. We have also since continued to make additional upgrades at the site, not least with the installation of additional storage tanks at the front end.
Automation, an important aspect that facilitates the production of large quantities, further mechanical processing and filling, as well as cleaning and monitoring. This is what the new (large-batch) plant stands for: a role model for automation, efficiency and further projects in the future.
Lukas Schravogl
Machinist, esarom
