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And a lot of it, apparently > The nano factory is currently in the Netherlands, in the middle of its first trial producing liquid bouillon, a cooked stock pack

And a lot of it, apparently > The nano factory is currently in the Netherlands, in the middle of its first trial producing liquid bouillon, a cooked stock packed in a bottle. Unilever says the factory is making around 300 tons of bouillon per eight-hour shift. If I'm google correctly a 40ft container has 70m³ of volume (i.e. 70 tonnes of water), but can produce 300 tonnes of liquid bullion (~4x the volume of the container) in just 8 hours. I suppose they're not boiling it for as long as a homecook would?

bombcar 4y ago
300 tons in 8 hours is 20 pounds a second. That’s like 3 gal/s.
- killingtime74 4y ago
  Amazing numbers, even a water pipe that carries that much is a lot, much less bouillon
thereisnospork 4y ago
Considering the energy requirements to boil off that much water (70tonnes * reduction ratio) and form factor - notably the lack of a tall evaporating column - I'd hazard that they are concentrating via reverse osmosis. So the inside probably looks something like: Pump -> Heat Exchanger [Cold to Hot] -> heater (sanitize and start cooking the stock) -> continuously stirred vessel or just a large volume of insulated tube (cook time set by volume of vessel/tubing) -> the same Heat Exchanger [Hot to Cold] -> Membrane Separator [probably but not necessarily a bunch of tubes] which splits into Product and effluent [more or less pure water]. This step is also popular in Maple Syrup production to cut down on boiling, which is slow, costly, and can degrade the product due to temperature. -> Product IBC cube -> Sewer drain Plus a bunch of valves and instrumentation for control and monitoring.
- staticautomatic 4y ago
  Is vacuum distillation a thing in food production?
  - thereisnospork 4y ago
    Probably, can't say I am an expert. For bouillon which presumptively[0] has a very high boiling point due to the high concentration of salts even with vacuum a pot-style distillation would probably[0] be fairly slow. A falling film evaporator would likely work well, but there doesn't appear[0] to be room in the container for one. Going all the way to solid bouillon a spray-dryer would make sense, and would fit. Solids handling is usually a pita though. [0]Sorry for the weasel-words: only my general, not specific, experience applies.

bombcar 4y ago

300 tons in 8 hours is 20 pounds a second. That’s like 3 gal/s.

killingtime74 4y ago
Amazing numbers, even a water pipe that carries that much is a lot, much less bouillon

thereisnospork 4y ago

Considering the energy requirements to boil off that much water (70tonnes * reduction ratio) and form factor - notably the lack of a tall evaporating column - I'd hazard that they are concentrating via reverse osmosis. So the inside probably looks something like: Pump -> Heat Exchanger [Cold to Hot] -> heater (sanitize and start cooking the stock) -> continuously stirred vessel or just a large volume of insulated tube (cook time set by volume of vessel/tubing) -> the same Heat Exchanger [Hot to Cold] -> Membrane Separator [probably but not necessarily a bunch of tubes] which splits into Product and effluent [more or less pure water]. This step is also popular in Maple Syrup production to cut down on boiling, which is slow, costly, and can degrade the product due to temperature. -> Product IBC cube -> Sewer drain Plus a bunch of valves and instrumentation for control and monitoring.

staticautomatic 4y ago
Is vacuum distillation a thing in food production?
- thereisnospork 4y ago
  Probably, can't say I am an expert. For bouillon which presumptively[0] has a very high boiling point due to the high concentration of salts even with vacuum a pot-style distillation would probably[0] be fairly slow. A falling film evaporator would likely work well, but there doesn't appear[0] to be room in the container for one. Going all the way to solid bouillon a spray-dryer would make sense, and would fit. Solids handling is usually a pita though. [0]Sorry for the weasel-words: only my general, not specific, experience applies.