The global whisk(e)y1 market is the third largest segment in the global distilled spirits market, representing 11.4% of market revenue. The market is enjoying steady growth, projected at a CAGR growth rate of 5.0% in revenue from 2025 to 2030. This growth and increased consumer demand for premium and varied products fuel the need for producers to increase productivity or expand while maintaining or improving quality standards.
Whisky is distilled from a mash of fermented grains, including barley, corn, rye and/or wheat. Whisky producers apply expert and proprietary techniques to create their unique brands. Particle removal and haze filtration are indispensable in production and common but essential to achieving quality specifications.
Sheet filter presses have historically been employed in these applications. With excellent capability to achieve depth filtration and adsorption, filter sheets are an ideal solution for turbidity reduction and haze removal in distilled spirits.
However, sheet filters in a press configuration pose challenges such as labor-intensive handling and change-out, high hold-up volumes, which negatively affect the yield on product changes, and drip losses, resulting in lower yields or the need for reprocessing. Additional drawbacks are the potential for microbial growth on exposed edges of filter sheets, large footprint, and relatively high capital investment.
Finally, sheet filters are open systems. Therefore, volatile organic compounds escape to the surrounding environment and must often be exhausted via area ventilation systems to avoid air quality and safety concerns.
Pall's SUPRApak technology has a proven track record in brown spirits production. Its primary application with demonstrated benefits is replacing traditional flat filter sheets for particle and/or haze removal, resulting in quality improvement, capacity expansion, and cost of ownership reduction.
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Challenge
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Solution
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Benefits
A large distillery produces several million liters of different brands of Canadian whisky. To meet the rising demand for contract bottling projects, productivity needed to be enhanced to create additional capacity within the plant. This goal needed to be achieved while maintaining consistent and high-quality filtrate and minimizing production complexity.
The distillery was using a 60 cm x 60 cm sheet filter with a filtration area of 19.7 m2 (212 ft2), resulting in flux rates of 749-1153 liters/m2-hour. The filter sheet grade in use was relatively tight, to meet the filtrate quality specification of less than 1 NTU.
With batch sizes of 30,283 liters (8,000 US gallons), filter sheet change-outs often occurred mid-batch due to sheet blocking and pressure build-up. Some batches required multiple passes to achieve the desired clarity, leading to inconsistent whisky color. Variations in the saturation stages of the filter sheets further complicated the process, resulting in necessary adjustments during blending to mask these inconsistencies. As a result, the product blending sometimes had to be adjusted to mask variation. Process consistency was a struggle with the existing setup and labor and time expenditure for managing the sheet filter further limited productivity.
*Product selections shown are recommended but may be adjusted based on the applications.
SUPRApak technology by Pall offers a state-of-the-art closed-system filtration solution for distilled spirits. Using depth filter media with unique edge flow technology, SUPRApak SH modules effectively remove haze-causing components while minimizing color adsorption, resulting in a clear product that meets organoleptic standards. The modular design allows for higher throughput and integration into enclosed housings for safe operation, offering substantial cost savings.
During a trial, one SUPRApak module processed 30,283 liters (8,000 gallons) at a flux rate comparable to a traditional 19.7 m² sheet filter, achieving greater throughput and the required filtrate quality of 0.4 NTU after one pass.
The production now features three manufacturing cells filtering different Canadian whisky types, each utilizing two parallel 5-high module housings with SUPRApak modules and 5-micron filtration. This setup allows continuous single-pass filtration with low change-outs, increasing flow rates by 50% compared to previous sheet filters. Consequently, three batches can be processed simultaneously in 4 hours, boosting capacity by six times and requiring only 66% of the space of sheet filters, with a payback on the capital investment in under 10 months.
SUPRApak modules are enclosed in housings of modular design.
With SUPRApak modules, the whisky producer achieved cost-effective and quality-enhancing filtration with the following benefits:
- Closed system with zero drip losses, minimal escape of volatiles to the environment, and overall, a more hygienic installation
- Improved filtrate quality, with better color control and elimination of blending step
- Productivity increased 6 times due to extremely high throughput, reduced downtime, and less frequent and shorter change-out times.
- 93% labor expenditure reduction due to less frequent filter change-outs and a 75% reduction in time required to do a change-out
- 33% footprint reduction when comparing SUPRApak installation in each manufacturing cell with the original sheet filter
- Concurrent production of 3 different whisky types made possible by highly compact arrangement and reduced capital investment costs
- 78% reduced capital investment compared to new sheet filter assemblies
- Reduced operating costs with a short return on investment
- Minimal spare parts and maintenance
Pall's SUPRApak technology has been utilized in various brown and white distilled spirits applications, including Scottish, Irish, and American whiskies, cognac, sherry, other brandies, rum, vermouth, vodka, tequila, and more.
1The terms whisky and whiskey are spelled based on the preferred approach taken by the countries of origin. US and Irish whiskey is typically spelled with an ‘e’ while Scottish, Canadian and Japanese whisky is spelled without an ‘e’
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