A 'nano factory' that fits inside a shipping container (2021)(cnn.com)
cnn.com
A 'nano factory' that fits inside a shipping container (2021)
https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/23/europe/nano-factory-shipping-container-spc-intl/index.html
5 comments
First-party source:
https://www.unilever.com/news/news-search/2021/how-our-engin...
Apparently it makes liquid bouillon?
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?
> 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?
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.
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
Is vacuum distillation a thing in food production?
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.
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.
300 tons in 8 hours is 20 pounds a second. That’s like 3 gal/s.
Amazing numbers, even a water pipe that carries that much is a lot, much less bouillon
Seems like the concept would be more useful for emergency response, making e.g. hot meals for a sudden refugee camp.
Not saying it wasn’t worth it or a good idea or otherwise denigrating the device itself… I just think this isn’t a good use of the word factory.