Beer Recovery from Excess Yeast

The process for yeast extract recovery uses a ceramic cross flow technology with specific control features to achieve reduced costs.

Cost Savings

• Low consumption of cleaning agents and water 
• High system availability and production time

Long production cycles and less cleaning cycles

• Control of feed flow
• Control of cross flow velocity
• Control of permeate flow and trans membrane pressure (TMP) at each module level against target set points

Continuous adjustment of the process parameters to variable set points minimize energy consumption and provide gentle treatment of the yeast during the entire process. Most important is the control of permeate flux and TMP in direct relation to the cross flow speed and feed rate

Process Description

The beer recovery is conducted in a batch process, which offers several advantages:

• Improved performance (up to 20%) and quality due to lower yeast concentration in system during batch cycle
• Reduced energy consumption (up to 25%) due to lower yeast concentration in system during batch cycle
• Yield up to 80% due to diafiltration

Quality

To evaluate the percentage of beer which can be blended back to production without compromising the beer quality, several test were conducted. By chemical and sensory analysis carried out by independent institutes, it was shown that a back blending ratio of up to 5 % volume is suitable. The superior quality of the recovered and blended beers has been confirmed as follows:

• No identification of blended beers by taste panel
• Minimum deviation (within analytical method sensitivity) by basic analytics
• No significant differences on esters 
• No significant differences on short chain fatty acids
• No significant difference in stale flavor active substances

                - Closed system for minimum oxygen uptake

                - Clear cut off with low turbidity and almost yeast free beer

• High microbiological safety due to easy cleaning and sterilization with hot water up to 90 °C (194 °F)

Membralox IC ceramic elements are high surface area multichannel membranes designed for high capacity crossflow filtration of process fluids and effluents in the food & beverage industry. Membralox IC ceramic elements are asymmetric multi-channel membranes composed of a porous alumina support and filtering layers. Their innovative and highly compact design in unique 4 and 5.5 mm channel geometries provide superior filtration area per multichannel element - up to 570 m2/m3.

The increased capacity of the Membralox IC filtration modules, up to 45% more than standard module configurations, enables optimized system loop design, which results in more compact systems, with smaller footprint and reduced hardware costs. The smaller hold-up volume of the system loops also results in a significant reduction of the related water and chemical cleaning costs.

Pall Membralox IC membranes, 100% ceramic and 100% bubble point tested, feature the same exceptional performance, mechanical and chemical resistance and service life as the well-recognized Membralox product range

The short ROI with a range between 1 - 2 years make this technology and the investment made into it very attractive to the brewing industry.

Keraflux systems for beer recovery are avilablein mutibleranges to fit to the specific needs for the brewers