Porifera - Liquid Product Concentration
Porifera Concentrator is a Low-Energy Beverage Concentration system which utilizes forward osmosis to draw water out of product streams. The non-thermal process protects and retains flavors, nutrients, and aromatics. This system uses Porifera’s membrane process to compete with evaporators to create new products or save on waste disposal costs.
How Does It Work
Product stream flows past a semipermeable membrane with saline draw solution on the other side.
By osmosis, water flows out of the product solution and into the draw solution.
The draw solution can be treated to the desired water quality by low-power reverse osmosis.
More Information
Porifera has been awarded $22M in federal & state contracts, including two CEC EPIC projects with Los Gatos tomato processing facility and a wastewater project with a microbrewery in Oakland. They are still working on preparing case studies, but have released the following information about a Dairy plant installation:
Porifera implemented a system that would concentrate milk to 40 total solids (4x the original concentration). The resulting milk was higher quality (no “cooked” flavor or browning) and could be stored and transported using less energy and at lower cost. The concentrated milk can be rehydrated prior to selling with little to no effect on aromatic qualities. According to Porifera, when compared to MVR thermal evaporation systems, forward osmosis demonstrated the following savings:
- 11,250 kg/h of 40 total solids milk concentrate • Capital cost savings of 80%
- Energy savings of 44%
- Operating cost savings of 50% (including membrane replacement cost)
- Customers with an available feed-stream (such as seawater) will see an additional 90% savings in both CAPEX and energy use.
