GEA expands its Process Test Center for mechanical separation
GEA is investing in the expansion of its Process Test Center (PTC) at its headquarters in Oelde, Germany. The additional room will allow the facility to handle more customer pilot tests, internal development work and trials involving larger machines and advanced skid systems.
After construction, the centre will occupy 3,500 square metres and will be able to conduct pilot tests with raw materials or other media at flow rates of up to 5,000 litres per hour. The work forms part of a wider programme to modernise and develop the site.
The Oelde facility has supported the development and application of centrifugal separation technology for 70 years. Customers use it to examine product characteristics, choose and design disk-stack and decanter centrifuges, and check separation processes under conditions intended to reflect industrial operation. More than 60,000 test reports from different application areas have been produced and stored in its records.
Testing at the centre covers chemical and pharmaceutical processes, renewable raw materials, beverages and dairy processing. About 800 product samples are currently tested and developed further in Oelde each year. GEA said the expansion would maintain access to testing capacity as demand for pilot work and tailored process development has increased in recent years.
The PTC has more than 120 test machines, from small laboratory units to skid systems close to industrial scale. Its equipment portfolio includes disk-stack and decanter centrifuges. An ATEX-certified test room is already available for work in potentially explosive atmospheres, supporting applications in the chemical, oil and gas, and related industries.
Results from product analyses, measurements and centrifuge trials are used to assess equipment selection, process parameters, the effect of differing raw-material qualities and the consistency of the resulting product. GEA said the third room would give its teams more flexibility to test applications more quickly and conduct internal research and development trials with greater independence, while customers could obtain repeatable results before investment decisions.
The expanded facility is being designed to operate with reduced resource use. Plans include a dedicated wastewater-treatment system and a GEA heat pump. The company also uses both technologies in projects for customers.
