Turbo charging
Using a decanter instead of a membrane in lysine production

One of the largest lysine producers with an annual output of more than 100,000 tons has replaced its existing membrane system with a decanter on a new production line. Costs have come down, and the process is now less complicated.

Not only power athletes believe lysine has magic powers. Its properties also make it essential in animal breeding. More than 500,000 tons of lysine are sold throughout the world. Companies such as ADM (USA), Ajinomoto (Japan), BASF (Germany), CJ (South Korea) and Degussa (Germany) have their nose in front in terms of lysine production.
At one of the largest lysine manufacturers with an annual output of over 100,000 tons, Westfalia Separator is now ensuring efficient and smooth recovery of the ”turbo charger”. A new line incorporating a decanter for the first time ever will in future separate the lysine from the fermentation solution, replacing the membrane installation.

Membrane filtration cannot do the job; the fermentation solution consisting of glucose syrup and molasses is simply too ”robust” for sensitive membranes. The fine pores of a membrane become clogged-up, and the particles cannot be removed even with intensive cleaning. The only way is to exchange the membrane after a manageable period. On the other hand, with centrifuges, even pure molasses solutions can be processed reliably, effectively and efficiently. Westfalia Separator has realized this by developing the innovative type CB 506 decanter which can even recover the ”slippery” solids from the solids matrix with very good results.
A two-stage process
The process is broken down into two process stages. In the first stage, the fermentation solution is fed to type HSB 300 separators. These separate the bacteria from the lysine solution achieving a yield of around 92 percent. The solids discharged by the separators still contain lysine. The discharge is, therefore, sent to a washing tank and is processed in the second process stage with CB 506 decanters. These boost the overall effectiveness of lysine recovery to approximately 99 percent. In this second stage, the decanter is able to take full advantage of its major benefits as it processes even high solid concentrations without any problem.
Of course, the customer wanted to enjoy the major benefits of the new installation as quickly as possible. The agreed delivery time was only five months. The key to this ”turbo performance” was strict time management and configuring the plant components as package units. In June 2004, the membrane era was brought to an abrupt end by a ”big bang”: production was switched to the new line. The entire plant has since been operated by one employee – and gets precisely the results that Westfalia Separator had predicted: high-grade lysine and lower production costs.
Overall, Westfalia Separator has installed six HSB 300 separators and four CB 506 decanters at one of the largest lysine manufacturers. With this equipment, the installation is able to process 125 m3 per hour. The capacity is thus around 100,000 tons of lysine per year. The overall volume of the order comprises not only the separating technology but also the complete process including the control system for the CIP installation, washing water processing and the lysine storage tanks.