Emmepiemme srl is the world's leading manufacturer in ohmic heating technology and produces a wide range of systems for the food industry and other areas. Emmepiemme Ohmic heating, is the result of a research project started in 1993, which resulted in highly reliable and versatile continuous heating system. It started started as a collaboration on an R&D project. The main topic was industrial ohmic heating for the food industry. The project was created in collaboration with a company specializing in microwaves and food processing with expert engineers. In the first period of the collaboration, various prototypes were developed and successfully equipped for the first time in a plant from Italy, where the engineers then started a long period of evaluation with different types of food. Initially, the research program was independent, because in those years ohmic heating was an embryonic technology, and there was no public information about research centers. However, major companies were exploring the ohmic process during the same period. The study initially gave good results on the empirical tests, and the technology looked promising despite being at the first level. The main topic after the first test was the industrialization of the process and the reliability of the equipped hardware. Materials, production processes, assembly, testing, laboratory analysis and more are the basis of the company that has grown for more than 20 years and about 100 equipped facilities on 4 continents. Research from Emmepiemme has not stopped and continues to help with technological and material advances. The company continuously develops and tests new solutions for industries. The R&D activities are actually carried out in collaboration with specialized research centers where technology and know-how are shared to improve industrial processes and hardware. Emmepiemme offers after-sales assistance to customers worldwide. Production processes and product specifications are strictly confidential and monitored by expert technicians without externalizing know-how and intellectual property. the fluid using the Joule effect when alternating electric current passes through a conducting material. This is the result of transforming energy causing an increase in temperature. The most commonly used heating techniques for liquids rely on heat transfer from a hot surface. This heat can be generated directly from an electric heating element or indirectly from a hot transport medium (e.g. steam) via a heat exchanger (e.g. tube and plate exchanger). These methods require a temperature gradient to transfer the heat to the process fluid, which is why the surfaces have a higher temperature than the product. This can cause fouling of the surfaces of certain products that burn on the hot surfaces, reducing heat transfer rates and adversely affecting the product. A further problem with heat transfer is found when heating very viscous liquid and liquids with particles, where a uniform heat transfer is difficult to achieve. Ohmic heaters solve the aforementioned problems by removing hot surfaces from the heating of the liquids. Ohmic heating has been used in the food industry for over 20 years. Emmepiemme is highly specialized and offers different types of installations and technical solutions to ensure a reliable and efficient process. Different types of ohmic heaters have been developed over the last two decades using new materials and advanced technological solutions that have made it possible to build facilities for heat treatment, pasteurization, sterilization, HTST (high temperature short time) for different categories of products, such as fruit puree (peach, pear, strawberry), fruit pieces (peach, pear, strawberry, pineapple, apricot), vegetable cream, vegetables (whole or pieces), spreads and cream cheese, egg products, dairy cream, algae, creamy sauce and vegetable sauce, minestrone, jam and syrup.
Therefore, the ohmic heater can treat both homogeneous and heterogeneous products uniformly and in a short time (from 10 to 90 seconds). For heterogeneous products, some precautions must be taken regarding the composition of the carrier liquid and which electrical properties must correspond to those of the solid particles. Ohmic processing approaches somewhat the HTST concept. Therefore, the thermal damage of the product is remarkably reduced compared to conventional heating methods. In particular, sensory parameters such as color, consistency and taste are very satisfactory compared to the incoming fresh material. In addition to the reported quality improvements, the industrial applications of ohmic heaters from Emmepiemme pointed out additional advantages compared to conventional heating methods, among others flexibility, elasticity, modular construction, compactness and other commercial advantages.FlexibilityIf the possibility is anticipated and desired in advance, a single piece of equipment can be designed so that it is able to process both homogeneous products and products containing particles. The treatment of products containing diversified electrical properties is also possible in the range of 1 to 30 times. Elasticity Absence of hot walls and rapid heating make it possible to stop and restart operation without special problems and with very little product damage or loss, which is impossible with conventional systems and especially with aseptic systems. Modular construction Emmepiemme's ohmic heating system is designed on a modular basis. The single module is a 60 kW power unit. Therefore, it is possible (within a certain limit) to increase the plant's power and capacity simply by installing additional modules. Compactness The overall dimensions of the ohmic heater are very reduced, so that it can be easily inserted even into existing lines without problems in terms of layout and utilities .Large pipe sectionsThe technology allows the use of large pipe sections (from 50 to 100 mm) so that product pumping is improved, especially for continuous plants, which reduces the mechanical destruction of products due to displacement.With regard to specific products containing particles, this technology allows to obtain finished products with very large pieces (20 and even 25 mm), which are probably not achieved in conventional systems, as well as products with very high drained weight up to 80-90% (depending on the product). Commercial advantages Due to of the improved sensory qualities and the possibilities provided by the above functions, it is possible to market very competitive and even innovative products, not only in comparison with conventional processes, but also with frozen products (IQF). Alflow sells heating systems from Emmepiemme - Contact us and find out more.
