2009 q3 generate special edition en

The inTernaTional magazine of The gea group special issue november 2009

BEST OF GENERATE 2006-2009

GENERATE is published by the GEA Group Aktiengesellschaft, a globally successful technology group with more than 250 companies in 50 countries.

Listed on MDAX stock index, the company focuses on specialty mechanical engineering – especially process engineering and equipment.

GEA Group technologies are applied in the food, chemical and petrochemical industries, the energy sector, air treatment and shipbuilding as well as the pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries. The GEA Group is one of the world`s market and technology leaders in 90 per cent of its businesses.

In 2008 the group employed more than 21,000 people who generated sales of more than EUR 5 billion.

Contact GEA Group Aktiengesellschaft Dorstener Straße 484 44809 Bochum Tel: +49-(0)234-980-0 Fax: +49-(0)234-980-1087 www.geagroup.com

REFRIGERATION

MECHANICAL SEpARATION

pROCESS EqUIpMENT

pROCESS ENGINEERING

THERMAL ENGINEERING

pHARMA SYSTEMS

Dear Readers,

Earlier this year GENERATE was shortlisted in the Deutscher preis für Wirtschaftskommunikation (DpWK), one of Germany’s leading corporate communications awards. The official recognition as one of Germany’s best and most innovative corporate communicators is a real achievement.

Ever since being launched in November 2006, GENERATE has highlighted how GEA technologies and engineering are used all over the world in an incredibly diverse range of applications. These have included everything from processing coffee, preserving famous paintings in art museums, improving the quality of wine, protecting the world’s oceans to how different parts of our business are playing a key role in the growth of China’s powerhouse economy.

The past 12 months have shown that every society or company is well advised to take precautions based on different possible scenarios. Even though the industries in which we operate are considered to be relatively

robust, they have still felt the impact of the current economic environment. To counteract this, we have taken measures to adapt the group to meet new challenges. As part of these adjustments, we are promoting our expertise in engineering ‘efficiency in food and energy processes’ as one of our core strengths.

So when we put this GENERATE special together not only did we include articles the DpWK jury particularly liked, but we also included features that illustrate GEA’s place as an important player in the world’s food and energy markets; two areas where we are particularly strong and where we believe there will be continued growth in years to come.

I hope you enjoy reading this special edition. The next issue of GENERATE will be published in March 2010.

Jürg Oleas Chairman of the Executive Board GEA Group Aktiengesellschaft

Welcome to this special online issue of GENERATE, published by the GEA Group Aktiengesellschaft.

FARM TECHNOLOGIES

AIR TREATMENT

EMISSION CONTROL

GENERATE MAGAZINE SPECIAL ISSUE

FUELING CHINA’S pOWER NEEDSGEA helps to mitigate the environmental impact of coal-fired power stations

MESSAGE IN A BOTTLEThe soft drinks market is really bubbling

HOW TO DO ITMaking orange juice

q&A Passion for chocolate: We talk to Pierre Marcolini, one of the world's leading chocolatiers

LAST WORDGlobal news from GEA

ART IN ENGINEERING

VACCINATION BOOST Revolutionizing drug delivery in the developing world

All the features in this special issue first appeared in copies of GENERATE magazine published from 2006 to 2009. Any forward-looking statements have not been updated.

FEATURE STORY THE HEAT IS ON – WITH THE WORLD DEMANDING MORE POWER, DIVERSITY IS THE KEY TO PROVIDING IT

FEATURE STORY MIlk – SOMETHING fOR EVERYONE:HOW THE GLObAL DAIRY INDuSTRY HAS KEPT PAcE WITH INcREASING DEMAND fOR MILK AND ITS ASSOcIATED PRODucTS

1GENERATE MAGAZINE SPECIAL ISSUE

cOAL IS KING AS

cHINA SEEKS

TO GROWcOAL IS KING AS

cHINA SEEKS

TO GROWcOAL IS KING AS

cHINA SEEKS

TO GROW

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isitors to Shanxi Province in the north of china marvel at the ancient city of Pingyao, the buddhist Yungang Grottoes and the

famous Hanging Monastery. These and many other cultural sites from Shanxi’s long and rich history are the reason why the province is known as the ‘chinese Ancient Architecture Museum’.

There have been people in this region for more than a million years and legend has it that the Yellow Emperor, who founded the chinese nation, once lived here.

Shanxi also has a wealth of natural wonders, including the Wutai Mountains and the Hukou Waterfalls. but, ironically, it’s one of the region’s natural resources that is threatening this environment and contributing to global climate change – coal.

And Shanxi has it in abundance, so much so that it is known as the ‘Kingdom of coal’. It mines more coal per year than britain, Germany and Russia combined and accounts for a third of china’s estimated thousand billion tons of coal deposits. A large proportion of the 2.5 billion tons of coal that china is expected to use during 2007 will come from Shanxi.

According to a bbc news report, 80 per cent of china’s electricity comes from coal, twice the average for any other country. As china strives to grow its economy and reduce poverty, using its own resources is the cheapest way to fuel its energy needs. It takes around two years to build a coal-fired power station – nuclear power plants take much longer. Hydroelectric projects such as the Three Gorges Dam can only meet a fraction of demand and oil is considered too expensive.

china has around 2,000 coal-fired power stations and plans to build over 500 more.

The high environmental cost of carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide emissions from china’s coal-fired power stations was highlighted in the recent documentary film An Inconvenient Truth. featuring former united States Vice President Al Gore, the film reviews the scientific evidence for global warming and predicts terrifying consequences for the planet if greenhouse gases are not reduced. but, interestingly, Gore also makes the point that china is far stricter about emissions from cars than the state of california.

In the case of coal-fired power stations, china is investing heavily in new technology to mitigate the environmental impact, including protecting the water supply. GEA is one of the companies providing a technical solution to this. In October 2006 the Governor of Shanxi Province, Dr Yu Youjun, led a delegation, including high-ranking officials and representatives from the coal, iron and energy industries, that visited GEA’s head office in bochum, Germany.

During the visit GEA highlighted how their Energy Technology Division’s pioneering air-cooled condensers are helping to protect Shanxi’s natural resources. They are ideal in dry regions like Shanxi because the steam is condensed into water, which is then recirculated. In this way the power stations run without being a drain on the water supply.

first published in Generate magazine issue 2, March 2007

cHINA HAS AROuND 2,000 cOAL-fIRED POWER STATIONS AND PLANS TO buILD OVER 500 MORE.

power planTs GEA air-cooled condensers have been installed or are under installation at a number of power plants, many of which are in Shanxi Province.

At the same time, GEA Westfalia Separator is supplying decanters that are used as part of the process for neutralizing the sulfuric acid contained in flue gas. The Chinese Government wants all new coal-fired power stations, as well as existing ones, to have desulfurization installations. Additional decanters are also used for treating the general wastewater from the plant.

These are small but essential steps towards enabling China to use its own energy resources without damaging the environment.


oft drinks have been available for longer than you might think. The first bottled soft drinks appeared in the 17th century

made from water and lemon juice sweetened with honey.

but it was nearly 100 years later that an English doctor, Joseph Priestley, made the first glass of carbonated water and not until 1832 that John Mathews, known as the ‘father of American soda water’, invented an apparatus for charging water with carbon dioxide gas.

In 1883, James Tufts patented the ‘soda fountain’, a machine for dispensing carbonated soft drinks, usually from pharmacies, which became part of American culture. but it wasn’t long before people wanted to take their beverages home – and the commercial bottled soft drink market was born.

but those bubbles were a problem and in 1892 William Painter patented the ‘crown cork bottle Seal’, the first successful method of keeping the bubbles in the bottle. The bottles themselves were made of glass, hand-blown in the early days. It was only when Michael Owens of the Libby Glass company developed a bottle-blowing machine that production rocketed and the bottled soft drinks market took off too.

Technology The soft drinks market has come a long way since those days. Procomac, Italian specialist in bottling technology, became part of the GEA Group in April this year.

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Since 1979 the company has supplied bottling equipment to a growing market and now provides complete bottling lines. It’s a specialist in aseptic bottling – bottling performed entirely under sterile conditions – the latest development in bottling and one that allows consumers to enjoy a much more extensive range of drinks than ever before.

before aseptic bottling the accepted technology was the ‘hot fill’ technique. This required the beverage to be heated up to 90°c to kill bacteria; then it had to be cooled again, a process that consumed a great deal of energy. More importantly, perhaps, the heating affected the taste of the product.

However, according to Paolo Pagliarini, Deputy General Manager & Group companies co-ordinator for Procomac, aseptic cold filling suffers from none of these problems. “We put an aseptic product in an aseptic bottle with an aseptic cap and perform the whole process under aseptic conditions,” he explained. “This way we use less power, have a better tasting product with a higher nutritional value and can use lightweight PET (Polyethylene Terephthalate) bottles that reduce material costs and power usage.” The latest equipment can achieve filling speeds of up to 60,000 bottles every hour.

Although aseptic production was initially more expensive than the hot fill technique, technical developments and economies of scale are continually reducing the investment and running costs of plants. Quality control is also vitally important. According to carlo

ferrari, Media Manager for Procomac, it’s electronics that provides the key. “I see electronic equipment becoming more and more the foundation of the aseptic process with extensive checks and higher process accuracy,” he explains.

Products It’s no longer just carbonated drinks that are suitable for bottling. Today’s technology allows a wide range of beverages to be bottled safely and economically without compromising the taste or risking contamination. High acid products such as isotonic sports drinks and citrus fruit juices are the easiest because they are less susceptible to biological attack. Low acid products such as milk drinks or vegetable juices are more difficult and require more stringent measures to be taken as part of the company’s HAccP (Hazard Analysis and critical control Point) procedures.

Where will growth come from in the future? ferrari expects uHT (ultra heat treated) milk and fruit juices to be the most popular although a new market for beer would be very exciting if PET containers for beer gained market acceptance.

Eastern Europe is considered to be a big growth area and, of course, china and India, as prosperity rises, will be targets for the future. Surprisingly perhaps the uS, birthplace of the bottled soft drink, may see the biggest opportunities. Procomac has recently filed with the fDA (food and Drug Administration) for high-speed, low-acid

filling technology. When that is approved, access to the world’s biggest consumer market with these technically challenging products will be very exciting.

Environment No industry today can or should escape the demands of environmental sustainability and the switch from hot to cold aseptic techniques is undoubtedly positive. However, aseptic production does require the use of chemicals to maintain the sterile environment. ferrari explains that recycling is fundamental within the system to minimize the environmental effect. “The chemicals are very carefully managed and approximately 85 per cent are recycled within a closed-loop system. We are constantly aware of the need to do all we can in this area.”

The beverage industry is embracing aseptic technology as a way of achieving natural flavor and long shelf life with the greatly expanded product range demanded by today’s consumers. It’s a multi-billion dollar industry that is still expanding rapidly as technology improves and the world becomes richer. What would Messrs Priestley, Mathews, Tufts, Painter and Owens have made of it all?

first published in Generate magazine issue 4, November 2007

cAN ANYONE IMAGINE A WORLD WITHOuT SOfT DRINKS? PRObAbLY NOT. NO LEMONADE WITH THE PIcNIc; NO bOTTLED WATER WITH A TOucH Of cITRuS ON A LONG HOT cAR RIDE; NO ISOTONIc SPORTS DRINKS TO SuSTAIN THE LONG-DISTANcE RuNNER; AND, WORST Of ALL PERHAPS, NO ‘REAL THING’ TO REfRESH AfTER A PuNISHING GAME Of TENNIS. uNTHINKAbLE!



bY 2030, THE INTERNATIONAL ENERGY AGENcY PREDIcTS, THE WORLD WILL NEED 50 PER cENT MORE ENERGY THAN TODAY, WITH MucH Of THAT INcREASED DEMAND cOMING fROM cHINA, INDIA AND OTHER RAPIDLY DEVELOPING EcONOMIES. STEvE HObSON ExAMINES THE cONSIDERAbLE cHALLENGES fAcING THE ENERGY INDuSTRY AS IT TRIES TO bALANcE THE WORLD’S INSATIAbLE ENERGY DEMANDS AND DIMINISHING OIL RESERVES WITH THE NEED TO PRESERVE THE ENVIRONMENT fOR fuTuRE GENERATIONS.PHOTOGRAPHY: PETER DAzELEY STYLING: SAbRINA JARD

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both processes currently rely largely on the same fossil fuel sources that would have provided the transport fuel.

Our demands for electricity, heat, and transport are growing faster than ever. According to US Department of Energy figures, global energy demand – which rose by around 42 per cent between 1980 and 2000 (from 283 quadrillion British Thermal Units [btu] in 1980 to 400 quadrillion btu in 2000) – will nearly double again in the years to 2030.

Fossil fuels No one is sounding the death knell for fossil fuels. The World Energy Council (WEC) points out that there are still extensive reserves of fossil fuel – but they are being depleted faster than ever. For example, the ‘Estimated Ultimate Recovery’ (useable reserves) of conventional oil was originally 387 billion tonnes. Of this, about 143 billion tonnes had been exploited to the end of 2005 and within the next ten years fully half of the reserves will have been extracted.

More fossil fuel reserves are likely to be discovered: for example, so-called ‘unconventional’ sources such as the immense oil sands in Canada. The question of whether these unconventional sources will be fully exploited is a complex one. Some have already been tapped and it is technically possible to recover most of them.

Changing directions It’s not the first time the energy industry has needed to make a step change. A recent example is the switch to using gas as both a direct source of heat and as a clean and efficient fuel for electricity generation. The industry originally depended on thousands of miles of pipeline transporting the gas from the source to the user. That network is still being extended, but it requires huge investment. It’s also inflexible and restricts the gas market, a very real concern when three countries – Russia, Iran and qatar – hold around 50 per cent of the world’s natural gas resources.

Cooling and liquefying the gas, however, allows it to be transported by ship. Overcoming this technical challenge has been the basis for developing a global market for liquefied natural gas (LNG). Now twelve countries export natural gas and ten more may become exporters in the next few years. Whether it’s pipelines or LNG plants, GEA’s Thermal Engineering Division takes a leading position in supplying cooling components for these applications.

Developments like LNG have broadened the options available for the global energy market. But the sheer rate of growth in demand and increasing fears over the future of fossil fuels have sent the energy supply industry back to the drawing board to look at how energy is delivered and used.

he need for bodily warmth and for cooking food was what drove the first humans to make use of fire, and it has

been a constant of our search for the best energy sources for thousands of years.

Our energy needs may be more varied now and electricity was discovered long ago but heat still forms the basis of many of our systems. Since much of our electricity production has relied on producing steam to move the turbines that produce power, the energy industry has been focused on finding and exploiting the best heat sources. And that has generally meant extracting fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas.

It’s not just demand for electricity and process heat for industry putting pressure on fossil fuel resources. They also provide fuel for transport and feedstock for the chemical and manufacturing industries. And, while electricity and hydrogen have both been mooted as potential fuels for the transport industry, this is shifting, not removing, the burden. Electricity must be generated and hydrogen produced and


There are ‘finite’ and ‘renewable’ energy resources. The first are the organically-based resources of coal, oil, gas and tars, along with the uranium and thorium resources used as nuclear fuel.

‘Renewable’ energy sources include solar, photovoltaic, wind, wave, tidal and bio-energies. There are no ‘reserves’ to be mined; instead, exploitation is a matter of harvesting them whenever they are available. perpetually available they may be, but they can’t always be guaranteed to match the place or time of demand.

The answer, then, is diversity: a mix of ‘renewable’ energy sources; robust and extensive energy networks that make the best of the energy available at any one time; and storage, either electrical or in the form of an energy carrier such as hydrogen, or biofuels.

The costs of abating emissions of carbon dioxide will drive up the price of using fossil fuels, as will the increasing burden of extracting them.

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is expected to be commercially viable by around 2020 and will allow fossil fuels such as gas, oil and coal to be used without contributing to carbon emissions. CCS involves extracting carbon from the fuel either pre- or post-combustion before transporting it via pipelines to underground storage on- or offshore. Its economics are expected to be greatly improved when used in conjunction with enhanced oil recovery, where the liquefied carbon dioxide is used to help extract more oil from depleted fields.

Coal power stations on the UK’s North Sea coast are ideal proving grounds, and the UK Government is holding a competition to develop viable CCS among power station operators. Bob Taylor, Managing Director of UK generation at German energy giant Eon, says that, as well as contributing to a reduction in the UK’s carbon emissions, it is vital CCS is developed for fitment to India and China’s rapidly growing fleets of coal-fired power stations. The UK Government wants to see a small-scale demonstration of CCS by 2014 and applied to 300 to 400MW plant by 2018.

geoThermal energy One of the lesser-known forms of electricity generation, geothermal energy, is power generated from beneath the earth’s crust. Hot water from below the earth’s surface is extracted and converted into electric power. Geothermal steam and hot springs have been used for centuries but geothermal energy wasn’t used to make electricity until 1904 when a steam field in Italy powered a small generator to light four bulbs.

The utilization of geothermal energy has reached the state of industrial application. The geothermal power plant Unterhaching in Bavaria, Germany, is a perfect example of cross-divisional collaboration within the GEA Group: GEA Energietechnik GmbH and 2H Kunststoff GmbH, both from the Thermal Engineering Division, have delivered the cooling towers including the cooling tower fills. GEA Ecoflex GmbH from the Process Equipment Division supplied plate heat exchangers.

Unlike many other renewable energy sources, geothermal energy can produce a constant source all year round. Geothermal energy currently accounts for less than one per cent of the world’s energy but a range of pilot projects are underway around the globe to explore its potential.

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Renewable energyTapping ‘renewable’ energy resources has proved challenging. In some cases, such as wind power, exploiting the resource has sent engineers back to re-examine technologies that have been used for centuries and consider how they can be re-engineered for modern purposes. In others, such as solar photovoltaics, there have been true technological leaps. Their common thread is the need to step up these niche technologies to meet a significant proportion of global energy and power needs.

Wind power is probably the fastest growing of the new power sources. The European Wind Energy Association puts the number of wind turbines in use worldwide at 85,000, providing 94GW of electricity capacity. The capital cost of onshore wind is relatively low, and can be staged as more turbines are added to an existing wind farm, so it is often the first choice for new renewable energy. Major suppliers and volume production had combined to bring down capital costs, but in recent years the popularity of wind power has been too high for the industry to manage. Turbine

manufacturers have full order books for years to come and so have companies providing installation and commissioning services, especially in the offshore wind sector.

photovoltaics (pV) is unique in the variety of potential applications it offers, from large stand-alone panel arrays to thin films or glasses integrated into buildings. It can also be installed in stand-alone applications far from the electricity grid to feed directly into the building supply. That means the potential for different types of installation is enormous. The European photovoltaics Industry Association estimates that installed peak capacity could grow by around 35 per cent annually, from the around 1000MW installed worldwide in 2005. The growth of the industry has been slowed by three major factors: the price and availability of silicon, a vital material; the high capital cost of the panels; and the problems of providing financial credit for domestic levels of power generation. problems with silicon supply may ease during the next few years as new manufacturing facilities come on line. High sales volumes (the industry hopes) will start to bring down capital costs.

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WIND POWER IS PRObAbLY THE fASTEST GROWING Of THE NEW POWER SOuRcES.


As the pV industry grows, a second solar industry is developing alongside: using the sun’s heat. Collecting and concentrating the sun’s energy with specially shaped mirrors can allow it to be used to produce steam for driving a conventional steam turbine. It is a new way to use a familiar technology that fits well into our existing energy networks; and it is growing fast in areas which can rely on sunshine, such as California and Spain.

bio-energies Biomass and biofuels are, similarly, a new way to fuel familiar technologies. Fossil fuels are directly replaced with their plant-based equivalents: wood or other solid biomass for coal, or vegetable oils for fossil oil. It is an attractive solution, as it will also fit directly into our existing energy infrastructure, sometimes in stages. The UK, for example, will soon require transport fuels to include a mix of up to five per cent plant-based equivalents. There are questions over the costs and environmental impact of refining and transporting the necessary quantities of bio-energies. But the biggest question is over their production: they compete for space with existing crops, not least food crops; and there was an outcry when cash crops such as palm oil were seen to be the cause of destruction of virgin forest.

Large-scale hydropower is another part of the renewable energy portfolio. The different types of hydropower include waterwheels, hydroelectricity (dams) which is the most widely used, and damless hydro (using the kinetic energy of rivers, streams and oceans). They enable low cost energy to be used at long distances from the water source. Although hydroelectricity doesn’t give out harmful emissions and is cheaper than energy generated from fossil fuels, it may not be a major option for the future in developed countries as there is little scope for further development and the building of new dams may present environmental problems.

Other technologies, such as ocean-based devices that abstract energy from waves and tides, are at an early stage of development but are likely to encounter the issues of supply-chain development that have checked the wind industry.

Renewables target All these energy sources will be needed to meet our needs, and at ever faster rates of deployment. In January 2008, the European Commission published detailed plans on how its member states would together produce 20 per cent of their primary energy supplies from renewables by 2020. It is a big increase and will fuel the European market for all these technologies, but it will not allow the EU to dominate world markets. Demand is growing still faster in areas such as China and India.

gea’s role in The energy indusTry As countries and energy companies around the world explore how to meet future energy needs, GEA’s Thermal Engineering Division will be with them every step of the way. Heat transfer technology plays a central role in the world’s power stations, oil refineries, petrochemical plants, gas pipelines and GTL (gas to liquid) and biomass facilities.

central to gea’s energy offering are: > Air Cooled Heat Exchangers (also known as Air Fin

Coolers) for direct dry cooling, which are used in any application where heat needs to be transferred in large quantities. Air cooling is used at all modern industrial facilities (from energy generation to energy transportation) – air is unlimited, free and does not require treatment.

> Air Cooled Condensers, for direct condensing, which are used to condense steam.

> Wet cooling (a two-step method – water is cooled in a wet cooling tower and then the cooled water cools or condenses the fluid or steam).

> Indirect dry cooling by means of Heller ® cooling towers (a two-step method – water is cooled in a Dry Cooling Tower and the cooled water cools or condenses the fluid or steam).

> Special applications (e.g. de-sublimination, crystallization).

The Thermal Engineering Division has businesses worldwide.

GEA has invested heavily in China and it is paying off with a host of contracts to supply Air Cooled

Condensers for the fleet of coal-fired power plants and Air Fin Coolers for the petrochemical refineries that will power the China of the future. The boost of India’s economy is great news for its petrochemical industry and GEA is supplying components there, too. South Africa’s power industry is also developing at a fast rate. GEA is currently heavily involved in the development of new power stations there, winning one of the largest orders in the history of its Thermal Engineering Division in December 2007 for the design, manufacture, supply and erection of Air Cooled Condensers for Medupi power station. South Africa is experiencing energy shortages and GEA is also involved in projects that will recommission power stations shut down in the 1990s. The growth of refineries, GTL plants and gas processing plants in the Middle East has created a new market for air cooling as water is scarce. Thus, GEA company Batignolles Technologies Thermiques opened a new manufacturing site for Air Coolers in Qatar to tap into this market.

Historically, GEA has been a major player in the energy sector, building its first Air Cooled Condenser in 1939, and the Group’s reputation for knowledge, reliability and engineering excellence means it is well positioned to benefit from projected increases in energy consumption.

And it’s not just GEA’s Thermal Engineering Division that plays a leading role in the energy industry. The division teams up with different GEA businesses to offer clients integrated engineering solutions to both energy production and boosting energy efficiency.

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green urban developmenT According to urbanists and statisticians, the human race has just reached the point where more than half of the world’s population lives in cities. By 2050, two-thirds of the global population will call a city home.

Can cities be green, reinvent themselves as exemplars of sustainable development? There’s a queue of designers, engineers, architects and politicians who say emphatically ‘yes’.

The environmental and political imperatives surrounding the need to cut greenhouse gas emissions have already persuaded the UK Government to lead the world by committing to the ambitious goal that all new homes will be built to a zero carbon standard by 2016. The house building industry has signed up to this. Work is also now underway to look at equally tough energy efficiency targets for new commercial and industrial buildings.

Ministers also want to see ten so-called eco-towns climbing off the drawing board by the end of the decade. Each will be a small new town of at least 5,000 to 20,000 homes and all will have to achieve zero carbon development. This will be delivered by a mix of renewable energy projects, domestic micro-generation systems, and community heating projects based on combined heat and power systems and ultra energy-efficient new dwellings.

Meanwhile, internationally, two city-scale projects are beginning to make waves. Consultants Arup are working on what is claimed to be the world’s first sustainable city at Dongtan in China. The city will get the bulk of its energy from wind turbines and bio fuels. The designers envisage a city powered by local, renewable energy, with super-efficient buildings clustered in dense, walkable neighborhoods.

At the same time the United Arab Emirates has announced plans to start building Masdar, a multi-billion-dollar green city in the desert. This 50,000-inhabitant city will feature narrow streets, squat buildings with shaded courtyards and no cars. Solar and wind energy will power the city and its water desalination plant. The target is definitely zero carbon with energy supplied by photovoltaics, solar power, wind, waste to energy and other technologies.

is energy labelling working? Essentially, there are two routes to diminishing carbon emissions from electricity use: cutting the carbon intensity of power generation (reducing the carbon dioxide emissions per KWh by using more nuclear or renewable energy, improving the efficiency of fossil fuel plant etc); or reducing the energy intensity of consumption (bringing down the MWh per square meter by improving energy efficiency of buildings or appliances or reducing energy-hungry activities).

The US Department of Energy’s Federal Energy Management Program has called upon Federal agencies to reduce energy use by 35 per cent by 2010 on 1985 levels; while last year the European Union set a target of saving 20 per cent of its energy consumption compared to projections for 2020.

In 1985, the EU introduced an energy rating scheme covering white goods and light bulbs. Appliances are rated from A (the best) to G (the worst) based on energy and water efficiency. In 2004, two new categories for refrigerators and freezers were added, where A+ indicates appliances that consume 30-42 per cent of standard energy consumption and A++ those consuming under 30 per cent.

With sales of A-rated white goods rising from 20 per cent to 60 per cent in the first three years, the scheme was a success but any gains were more than wiped out by modern consumers’ insatiable demand for electronic gadgets.

Incandescent light bulbs, which waste 95 per cent of electricity consumption, have been specially targeted. Many governments are proposing to phase out incandescent lighting and replace it with more efficient technologies such as compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) and light emitting diodes (LEDs). To encourage the use of energy-efficient lighting in homes, the European Commission set up the European Design Competition ‘Lights of the Future’. This year’s awards will be presented at the Light+Building event to be held as part of a giant trade fair in Frankfurt in April 2008.

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The energy outlook World energy prices are likely to continue rising because of the combination of falling supplies of fossil fuels and rising demand from emerging economies. past experience shows that when oil prices in particular rise too high, demand in the developed economies – especially in the US – falls, correcting prices downwards.

But the picture has changed. While the developed world still accounts for most of the world energy consumption, the developing economies – especially in Asia – are increasing consumption fast (see table). No country has ever managed to increase its gross domestic product without increasing its energy consumption and this will certainly hold true for China's and India’s surging economies. In 1990 the developed world used more than double the non-industrialized nations. By 2025, the developing world will be consuming only five per cent less than the industrialized nations.

Those emerging economies expected to see the largest increases in wealth and hence energy demand are the ‘BRICS’ – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. China and India are currently seeing gross domestic product growth running at almost ten per cent a year and energy consumption is outpacing this growth as domestic and industrial electricity demand rockets.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) calls the consequences of China’s and India’s rise in energy demand “alarming”, and warns in its 2007 World Energy Outlook: “If governments around the world stick with current policies the world’s energy needs would be more than

50 per cent higher in 2030 than today. China and India together account for 45 per cent of the increase in demand in this scenario.”

It forecasts that world energy demand will hit 17.7 billion tonnes of oil equivalent (toe) by 2030, up from 11.4 billion toe in 2005. Worryingly for the climate, fossil fuels will account for 84 per cent of this increase in demand, with oil consumption rising 37 per cent to 116 million barrels per day (Mbbl/d) in 2030, while coal demand will leap 73 per cent. Most of this increase in coal use will be in China and India.

China is both the world’s largest producer and consumer of coal, currently exporting around 50 million tonnes of its massive 2.3 billion tonnes annual production. Coal analysts McCloskey’s expects China’s coal consumption to rise rapidly to 3.3 bnt by 2011, partly fuelled by coal-fired generating capacity rising at 90 gigawatts (GW) a year. After 2009, however, rising output and stabilizing demand are expected to more than cover this domestic increase and China will have a rising surplus for export.

The global energy industry knows the world can no longer rely predominantly on fossil fuels and that renewable forms of energy must become an increasing part of the energy supplies of the future if greenhouse gas emissions are to be reduced. And the steep increase in demand for energy – as more and more people in the developing economies aspire to own cars and have electricity – means looking long and hard at options to power the world’s economies. Our future depends on it. first published in Generate magazine issue 5, March 2008

REGION

1990 2001 2010 2025

INDUSTRIALIzED NATIONS* 182.8 > 211.5 > 236.3 > 281.4

EASTERN EUROpE/ FORMER SOVIET UNION 76.3 > 53.3 > 59.0 > 75.6

DEVELOpING NATIONS

ASIA 52.5 > 85.0 > 110.6 > 173.4

MIDDLE EAST 13.1 > 20.8 > 25.0 > 34.1

AfRIcA 9.3 > 12.4 > 14.6 > 21.5

cENTRAL & STH. AMERIcA 14.4 > 20.9 > 25.4 > 36.9

TOTAL DEVELOpING NATIONS 89.3 > 139.1 > 175.6 > 265.9

TOTALWORLD 348.4> 403.9> 470.8> 622.9Source: Energy Information Administration*US, Western Europe and Australia

ENERGY CONSUMPTION (QuADRILLION bTu)


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A REVOLUTIONARY METHOD OF MANUFACTURING VACCINES IS IMpROVING THEIR AVAILABILITY FOR pEOpLE IN THE DEVELOpING WORLD.

GENERATE MAGAZINE SPECIAL ISSUE 15

baby cries and its mother smiles. It’s vaccination day and the tears bring joy because she knows her child is one of

the lucky ones who can look forward to a healthy future.

Such a reaction is not uncommon in the developing world where, unlike in wealthier countries, immunization programs are not taken for granted. According to the GAVI Alliance 2.5 million children died in 2008 from vaccine preventable diseases – more than the entire population of Paris.

The GAVI Alliance is one of several organizations working to improve access to vaccines and immunization for children in developing countries. but procuring and supplying the vaccines is relatively easy compared with actually delivering them safely.

for example, in the war-torn Democratic Republic of congo only one of the eleven provinces is accessible by road. The rest rely on airlifts and subsequent distribution by canoe, bicycle or on foot. This logistical nightmare is compounded by the fact that vaccines must be stored and transported under strict temperature-controlled conditions of between 2°-8ºc otherwise they will become ineffective1. It’s called the cold chain: the system of correct storage, transport and maintenance of vaccines to ensure that they are protected from inappropriate temperatures and light from the time of manufacture to administration.

In the developed world the cold chain is relatively easy to manage with access to electricity, refrigerators, temperature-controlled vehicles and fast communications. but transfer that same problem to a region of the world where the cold chain is more difficult – such as Africa or the remote areas of South America – and providing potent drugs can be almost impossible.

Leadingtheway The World Health Organization (WHO)estimates that currently nearly half of all global vaccines are wasted due to suspected or real temperature damage, so millions of people go without life-saving vaccinations. Add to the problem the fact that much of the greatest need for vaccines is in the developing world – 400,000 people die of AIDS every year in Africa alone (WHO) –

and it’s understandable that finding a solution has been called the ‘holy grail’ of vaccine research.

for three years GEA Niro has been at the forefront of this research by working with a uK company, cambridge biostability Limited (cbL), to develop a revolutionary method of stabilizing vaccines using spray drying. Dr bruce Roser, chief Scientific Advisor for cbL, said that simply using ‘spray drying’ rather than the more common ‘freeze drying’ increases the availability of these vital drugs. “Traditionally, vaccines are made in a batch process. Measles, for example, takes three days to manufacture and freeze dry. Spray drying takes seconds and can run continuously until sufficient quantity is made,” he says. “If all vaccines were made by spray drying we could overcome the problems of shortages, enabling production to be linked more precisely to demand.”

Overcoming shortages is good news but doesn’t address the problem of temperature control. Drugs taken orally can be provided in tablet or capsule form and are, therefore, not susceptible to temperature degradation. but some drugs must be delivered through injection and it is these that must be kept cooled. To solve the problem, cbL, with GEA Niro’s help, are pioneering a process that is set to revolutionize drug delivery and make the need for the cold chain obsolete, saving an estimated uSD 200-300 million per year2 and helping to make effective vaccines available to the world’s most vulnerable people.

Life-saving The process involves mixing the active ingredient with a water-soluble glass-like material which is then dried, using the GEA Niro spray dryer, into highly-polished solid or hollow glass spheres of 3µ to 20µ diameter (1mm = 1000µ)2. These spheres can be engineered to provide the desired rate of solubility and release.

The spheres, containing the stable active ingredient, are then suspended in an inert anhydrous syrup (anhydrous meaning ‘without water’) such as medically approved fluorocarbons, hydrofluroethers or low-density metabolized oils chosen to match the density of the powder to prevent the powder floating or sinking. The resulting suspension

is a thermo-stable, ready-to-inject liquid that can be stored and transported at ambient temperature without losing its potency.

Drugs transported in this way can be injected immediately without the need for reconstitution as the body’s fluids naturally dissolve the glass spheres to release the active ingredient. This eliminates the risk of contamination and the need for antiseptics. As the vaccines are themselves inert while in suspension it’s possible to mix vaccines for simultaneous injection making delivery faster and easier.

Although trials of the process have focused on the preparation of pentavalent vaccine for the treatment of children with a risk of exposure to Hepatitis b – a virus that affects around one third of the world’s population – tests have demonstrated that it can be successfully applied to a wide range of pharmaceutical preparations including vaccines, insulin, antibodies, growth hormones, proteins, enzymes and nucleic acids.

During the trial period the spheres are produced under aseptic conditions through spray drying in an ASEPTIcSD™, size ASD-1 spray dryer that enables batches of 10,000 doses to be produced under cGMP (current Good Manufacturing Practices) conditions2. Although the ASD-1 is essentially designed for R&D projects the process itself can be easily scaled up using production capacity machines as soon as clinical trials are complete. for some vaccines the amount needed is very limited and in these cases the ASD-1 will fulfil the needed capacity.

1 According to the UK’s Health and Safety Executive 2 Figures from Cambridge Biostability Ltd.

first published in Generate magazine issue 8, March 2009

NEARLY HALF OF ALL GLOBAL VACCINES ARE WASTED DUE TO SUSpECTED OR REALTEMpERATURE DAMAGE....FINDING A SOLUTION HAS BEEN CALLED THE ‘HOLY GRAIL’ OF VACCINE RESEARCH.

Spray drying could significantly increase the availability of vaccines in the developing world.


Orange juice, sometimes described as packaged sunshine, is the world’s citrus juice of choice. The technology used for processing the raw products into juice is similar across the world. Oranges are grown on commercial farms across the world but orange juice production is dominated by brazil and the uS. Here are the landmark stages in the oranges’ journey from the tree to the breakfast table.

Making orange juice

JUICE EXTRACTION

Traditionally, oranges have been pressed manually to separate solids and liquids but automatic processing, allied with gentler ways of treating the oranges to produce more juice, have helped facilitate the industry’s widespread growth. Oranges are fed into huge juicing machines (known as extractors) and the juice is extracted from fruit as well as separated from the peel and oil in a series of processes. There are two main extraction methods: one cuts the fruit in half and the juice is extracted by rotating squeezing heads and the second uses circular cutters to extract juice by cutting through the top and bottom of the oranges, which are placed in cup-shape holders. The pulp content is adjusted by centrifugal technology according to the individual requirements. A range of GEA technology and equipment including separators and decanters (see panel, right) are used in these processes. Juice is then ready for concentration or pasteurization.

HARVESTING

farms generally grow varieties of oranges that mature at different times to enable them to produce a steady supply of fruit. Ripened, the oranges are hand-picked and delivered to industrial processing facilities where they undergo quality control checks before industrial processing begins.

CLEANING/CRUSHING

The fruit is washed and cleaned and sorted according to size. Jets of water spray the oranges as they pass along conveyor belts. Despite being washed, their sweet citrus scent remains. No two oranges are exactly the same but on average an orange is 43 per cent juice and 57 per cent peel and pulp.

exTracTor finisher

cells sand/solids pulpcollecTor

Tank

pumphydrocyclone clarifier

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pACKAGING/TRANSpORTATION

The product can now begin its journey to customers across the world. It is either bottled on site, using state-of-the-art bottling technology, or stored in refrigeration tanks before being loaded into tankers, driven to ports and transported around the world in specially refrigerated ships.

pASTEURIzATION OF NFC JUICE

When the orange juice is not concentrated but sold as Nfc (not from concentrate) juice, it has to be pasteurized (heated rapidly for a short time) to kill any harmful bacteria. This process also extends the products’ shelf live. The industry is constantly striving for ways to make pasteurized orange juice look and taste like its freshly squeezed equivalent.

CONCENTRATION

The majority of the world’s orange juice is manufactured for export so turning the juice into concentrated juice gives it a better stability for storage and transport and makes it more cost-effective. To make concentrated juice, the juice passes through evaporators, which draw off the water through heat to produce a juice that is five times more concentrated than freshly squeezed juice. This concentrated orange juice is frozen for transportation and is then reconstituted in the country it is exported to through defrosting and the addition of water and flavorings.

CITRUS OIL RECOVERY

Essential oils are a valuable by-product of the citrus juice production process, especially oils from lemons and grapefruit but also from oranges. The oil itself is in the citrus fruit’s peel. It is released during pressing in the extractors and washed off. The oil in the peel wash water is then concentrated by separators in a two-stage separation process.

Juice

gea and The Juice indusTry Various GEA Group companies are involved in all the key stages of the citrus juicing industry including production, bottling and refrigeration.

Leading the way in beverage technology expertise is GEA Westfalia Separator Process, part of GEA’s Mechanical Separation Division. GEA Westfalia Separator has been the market leader in centrifugal separation technology for over 100 years and its range of separators, decanters and membrane filtration help manufacturers to ensure maximum yield and the highest product quality. GEA Westfalia Separator’s range of separators and decanters are used in the extraction process, resulting in higher product yields and consistently high quality juice and oil. GEA Hovex, also part of the Mechanical Separation Division, supplies desanding cyclones to protect the downstream equipment from the erosive effect of the sand.

GEA TDS is one of the world’s leading manufacturers and suppliers of process technology for producing fruit juices and concentrates. From specialist components to complete plants, equipment from GEA TDS is designed to meet the industry’s strict hygiene standards.

A number of companies from GEA Process Engineering are also involved in the production

process. GEA Niro’s freeze-drying technology improves juices’ shelf life and reduces storage and transportation costs. GEA Wiegand’s evaporation

technology (taking out water from solids by thermal energy) is used to concentrate juices. By extracting the flavors from the thin juices to create a thick concentrate, the juice can be reconstituted close to the fruit’s original flavor after transportation and storage. GEA Filtration technology is used for reclaiming CIP (Clean In Place) chemicals for reuse in the CIP process.

GEA Procomac, which is also part of the Process Engineering Division, is a specialist in cutting-edge bottling and packaging technology. It designs, manufactures and services complete cold aseptic and ESL filling lines for juices in PET (Polyethylene terephthalate) bottles. Its customers include Tropicana, one of the US’s biggest juice manufacturers.

Finally, GEA’s Refrigeration Division, in the shape of Grasso and Grenco, is involved in the refrigeration of juice. The product is transported in ‘juice carriers’, specially designed bulk vessels that can hold up to half a million refrigerated liters of juice.

buffer Tank

buffer Tank

evaporaTor

concenTraTe

heaTer

pump

pump


first published in Generate magazine issue 9, August 2009


chocolate is one of the most popular and recognizable flavors in the world.

Alternatively described as food of the gods or food of the devil, chocolate is the

ultimate sensual fix. The global chocolate market – which all starts with raw cacao

being harvested, mainly in Africa – is worth a staggering $75 billion annually and it’s growing.

The demand for quality chocolate has seen stratospheric growth over recent

years as customers worldwide have realized that fine chocolate products

with an astonishing range of flavors offer a luxurious experience which is both

available and affordable. Pierre Marcolini, one of the world’s leading chocolatiers,

is one of the pioneers taking hand-made quality chocolates to a whole new level. GENERATE talked to him about the joy

of chocolate.


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q. Why does chocolate taste so good?

A. That’s a really interesting question. There’s no doubt eating chocolate is a very social experience and can make you feel happy. It melts slowly in your mouth at a temperature just below your own and as it passes through your system chemicals are released in your brain that make you feel good. For me as a chocolatier, it’s all about different flavors and how they are blended together. It’s about the cacao beans and the aromas they produce. Beans from different countries produce different flavors – when the beans are fermented and dried by the farmers they start to give off flavors and this continues throughout the manufacturing process.

q. Where do you source your cacao beans?

A. I’ve been called ‘the chocolate gringo’ by the cacao producers. I travel the world to work with small cacao co-operatives in Madagascar, Mexico and Brazil. I know the people who grow the beans and they are like extended members of the Marcolini family. We treat them as valued partners and work closely with them to produce the right beans with the right flavors and give them a fair price – that’s what fair trade is all about. When we have made the chocolates we send them the products so they can see what we have done with their cacao beans – having this personal relationship is an important part of the process.

For the cacao manufacturers that supply the big chocolate manufacturers, mainly based in the Ivory Coast and Ghana, the sheer quantity of cacao beans they are contracted to supply means it is a different type of working relationship. The big companies treat their suppliers fairly and give them a good price for their products but it is, I think, a less personal relationship than I have with my cacao farmers. And the cacao beans that are used for mass-produced chocolates tend to be blander than those used for quality hand-made chocolates.

q. How long have you been making chocolate? And how did you get started?

A. I’ve always liked to eat chocolate – maybe a bit too much – so I decided I would be better off making chocolate for a living. I started as an apprentice at the age of 17 and learned the trade at all the famous chocolate houses in Brussels. Later I worked in paris and that experience really taught me a lot about chocolate as an international business. In 1995 I decided I wanted to open my own business and set up the Marcolini business when I was 30 – quite late for a chocolatier to set up his own business. For me it’s always been about creating new flavors, a quest for perfection and making innovative chocolates and smaller products.

q. Can you tell us about your business?

A. I started in a garage that was 30 meters square, moved to one that was double that size and things grew from there. We now employ more than 300 people, in 15 shops, in Belgium, the US (New York), France, Kuwait and Japan. Even though the business has grown I’ve tried to keep the friendly, family atmosphere. I still make chocolates every day and I never have to ask myself why I am doing this when I wake up every morning. I am one of a handful of chocolatiers who still create their own coating (blending the beans from different regions) to make the chocolate and it creates wonderful flavors.

We produce a winter and summer range of chocolates and these days we make a lot more than just chocolates. Our shops also stock desserts like cheesecakes, marshmallows, biscuits, ice cream and sorbets.

q. What’s the secret of making great chocolate?

A. Working with good beans, trying out new flavors and developing innovative new products. For example we have just started working with a new cacao producer in Brazil: that will enable us to add new flavors to our cru, which is an exciting development. Size and merchandising are also important – small products with amazing flavors presented in beautiful boxes all add to the chocolate’s appeal.

fOR ME IT’S ALWAYS bEEN AbOuT cREATING NEW fLAVORS, A QuEST fOR PERfEcTION AND MAKING INNOVATIVE cHOcOLATES AND SMALLER PRODucTS


Today's chocolatiers are producing more innovative products that are beautifully presented.

q. Which country is the spiritual home of chocolate?

A. Belgium is the capital of Europe in many regards and we certainly produce some of Europe’s best chocolates. Belgian people can be quite shy by nature and don’t shout about the things that we are good at. At some point in the future we might well lose our title as Europe’s chocolate capital to paris, which would represent something of a crisis in Belgium.

q. Why does mass-produced American chocolate taste so bad compared to its European equivalent?

A. I certainly don’t want to comment on the quality of chocolate produced by the big American companies but I would say that customers’ tastes are changing in the US. We have a shop in New York that does really well so there is probably a market for quality chocolate in the bigger, more cosmopolitan US cities.

q. How is the market changing?

A. As well as their tastes, customers’ eating habits have changed over the years. For example, businessmen used to have three-course business lunches and chocolate desserts were a popular part of them. Now that those long lunches are generally a thing of the past, we have adapted our products, making smaller chocolates that can be eaten at any time and not just with a meal. As chocolate makers we have learned to react quickly to such changes.

In recent years people have realized that they can get better quality versions of basic goods like tea, coffee and chocolate alongside the everyday kind. Luxury chocolate represents five per cent of the global market but it’s the fastest growing segment. We have four stores in Japan where there is a real demand for quality products of any description. The Middle East also represents an opportunity for chocolatiers. One day I would like to open a shop in London. But for me it will always be about actually making the chocolate and the joy of producing new chocolate products.

first published in Generate magazine issue 3, August 2007

Biographical details

pierre Marcolini is a world-class chocolatier who has won numerous awards, including premier Belgian Ice Cream Confectioner in 1991, pastry World Champion in 1995 and European pastry Champion in 2000. He set up his own business in 1995 and now has 15 shops across the world. All products are handmade in the company’s factory outside Brussels and shipped to the shops. Exports now account for 50 per cent of the company’s turnover. The Marcolini flagship store in Brussels is a chocolate dream, displaying some of the world’s most innovative chocolate products.

www.marcolinichocolatier.com

gea and The chocolaTe business GEA's main connection to the chocolate industry is through GEA Westfalia Separator, a company in the Mechanical Separation Division, which supplies clarifying decanters and separators during cocoa butter's production process.

Denmark-based Niro A/S, part of GEA's Process Engineering Division, is also involved in the chocolate industry, supplying various agglomeration systems that make chocolate powder (cocoa/milk solids/sugar mixtures). The powder is used to make hot chocolate for vending machines and homes across the world.


MILK IS WIDELY REGARDED AS NATuRE’S MIRAcLE fOOD – AND IT’S EASY TO SEE WHY. APART fROM bEING PAcKED fuLL Of ESSENTIAL PROTEIN, VITAMINS AND MINERALS, IT IS ARGuAbLY THE MOST VERSATILE fOOD ON THE PLANET. JuLieMiTcheLL LOOKS AT A GLObAL PHENOMENON THAT SHOWS NO SIGNS Of SLOWING.PHOTOGRAPHY: WILL THOM STYLING: SAbRINA JARD

rothing cappuccino coffee, an indulgent cake oozing with cream, a cool glass of milkshake on a summer’s day, butter

melting tantalizingly on hot toast, a crusty bread roll crammed with delicious, nutty-flavored cheddar cheese. There’s no doubt that dairy products regularly feature in the daily diet in most parts of the world.

The uses of milk are legion. As a drink flavored with fruit or chocolate or added to hot drinks. You can process it into a variety of milk types. Skim the cream off the top for myriad culinary uses or churn it into butter. curdle milk and you get cheese – the varieties run into thousands. Whey, the by-product of cheese-making, which used to be discarded as waste, is today a valuable raw ingredient for the food industry. And even when milk turns sour you can still enjoy it as yogurt.

Such is the cultural impact of dairy products that they have inspired many well-known phrases. People in the uS refer to an important person as ‘a big cheese’, while the french expression ‘en faire tout un fromage’ means to make a big deal of something. Similarly, ‘to milk’ is associated with making the most of a situation, for example, “he milked it for all it was worth”.

hOWMiLkingDeveLOpeD There’s no conclusive evidence to pinpoint when humans started to drink milk from animals, although it is generally accepted to date from when man learned to domesticate goats and sheep in the Middle East around 8000 bc. It’s also known that people were herding cattle in parts of Turkey as early as 7000 bc.

The ancient Egyptians enjoyed dairy products. Murals on some of their tombs show cheese being made. And there was also a cosmetic value – cleopatra famously bathed in ass’s milk to improve her skin. The Greeks, too, were into cheese. One of their most famous sons, Homer, immortalized it in his epic poem, The Odyssey, where he describes the cyclops making cheese from sheep and goat’s milk. but it was the Romans who are credited with establishing uniform cheese-making techniques in Europe. They also introduced them to other parts of their Empire where cheese-making had previously been unknown.

Eventually, dairy products were on the menu throughout Europe as well as parts of Asia and Africa. Then, during the Age of Discovery in the 15th-17th centuries, Europeans spread the word to the far-flung corners of the globe when they took domestic cows and dairy production to their colonies.

Today, more people drink milk from cows than from any other animal. According to the International Dairy federation’s World Dairy Situation 2007¹ cow milk represents 84 per cent of world output – 551 million tonnes in 2007. Interestingly, the report also reveals that, in India and Pakistan, buffalo milk production is growing faster than cow milk production. Sheep and goat milk production is estimated at 21 million tonnes worldwide.

Other animal milk sources include camels, yaks, reindeer and horses. People in central

Asia are partial to drinking fermented mare’s milk, which they call kumis, while in Sweden and Russia there are moose dairies.

because milking is a labor intensive process – between three and five minutes per cow – up until relatively recently dairy production could only be achieved on a small scale.

Milking had to be done by hand – the farmer or milkmaid sitting beside the animal with a bucket. but when electricity was discovered in the mid-19th century the race was on to transform milking from an art to a science.

After 50 years of trial and error the first pulsator was introduced in 1895, paving the way for the modern pulsator machines. Another key development around this time was the milk pipeline, which replaced the cumbersome task of carrying pails of milk to collection tanks.

but the real breakthrough came in 1929 when the first rotary milking parlor was installed on the Walker-Gordon dairy farm in Plainsboro, New Jersey in the uS. called the ‘Rotolactor’, it could milk 50 cows at a time. It remained in use until the 1960s when it was superseded by more sophisticated rotary parlors.

Advances in milking technology, not least rotary parlors capable of milking more than 100 cows an hour, have enabled dairy farms throughout the Western world to become huge corporations with thousands of cows. And the trend is spreading to new markets such as china, Iran, Pakistan and Turkey. During the 20th century mechanization, food processing technology and refrigeration have made a huge variety of dairy products readily available around the world.1/2 bulletin of the IDf N°423/2007 – The World Dairy

Situation 2007, International Dairy federation, Diamant building – 80, boulevard Auguste Reyers, 1030 brussels – belgium, www.fil-idf.org

THE uSES Of MILK ARE LEGION: SKIM THE cREAM Off THE TOP fOR MYRIAD cuLINARY uSES OR cHuRN IT INTO buTTER. cuRDLE MILK AND YOu GET cHEESE – THE VARIETIES RuN INTO THOuSANDS.

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SAFE TO DRINK The milk collection revolution has gone hand-in-hand with advances in food production. Today “the share of milk production which is delivered to dairies for processing is growing faster than in previous years,” says the World Dairy Situation 2007 bulletin². “An estimated volume of 371 million tonnes of cow milk was delivered to processing facilities, which is 65 million tonnes more than ten years ago.”

Milk is first pasteurized by heating it to 74°C for 15-20 seconds to kill potentially harmful bacteria, without damaging the nutritional value or taste, then rapidly cooled and refrigerated to preserve its shelf life.

Whole milk, which has a fat content of 3.5-4 per cent, is usually homogenized to spread the fat evenly through the milk and prevent cream forming on the top. Semi-skimmed milk has a lower fat content, 1.5 – 1.7 per cent, while skimmed milk is virtually fat free. Unfortunately, reducing the fat content lowers the levels of vitamin A and D but, on the positive side, reduced fat milks contain slightly more calcium by volume.

Ultra heat treated (UHT) milk is heated to at least 135°C and packaged in sterile containers. As a result it can be stored for several months and, until it’s opened, doesn’t need to be kept in the refrigerator. Sterilized milk, which goes through a more severe heat treatment, will last even longer but has a lower nutritional value and the taste is affected. Other durable

liquid varieties are evaporated milk, heated at temperatures between 60°–65°C then sterilized in sealed cans for ten minutes, and condensed milk from which most of the water has been removed and sugar added.

The longest-lasting format is milk powder. Milk is heat treated and pre-concentrated, then homogenized and fed into a spray dryer where the water is removed. With the exception of some vitamins, whole milk and skimmed milk powders retain the nutritional value of their liquid forms. Milk powders can be reconstituted with water and then treated the same way as fresh milk. They are used extensively in food manufacturing, particularly in cakes, biscuits and sweets and also form the basis for baby milk formula.

>

pasTeurized by heating it to 74°C for 15-20 seconds to kill potentially harmful bacteria

whole milk has a fat content of four per cent, is usually homogenized to spread the fat evenly through the milk

semi-skimmed milk has a lower fat content, 1.7 per cent, while skimmed milk is virtually fat free

uhT (ultra heat treated) milk is heated to at least 135°C and packaged in sterile containers. As a result it can be stored for several months

evaporaTed milk is heated at temperatures between 60°– 65°C then sterilized in sealed cans for ten minutes

Milk is heat-treated and pre-concentrated, then homogenized and fed into a spray dryer where the water is removed. milk powder is the longest lasting format of milk

Estimated volume of cow milk delivered to processing facilities in 2007


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A GROWING MARKET by 2010 the worldwide dairy products market is predicted to be worth more than uSD 305 billion, according to a report published this year by Global Industry Analysts (GIA). Several factors are expected to fuel this growth, including more emphasis on value-added products, changing eating habits, increasing demand for organic products, packaging innovations and marketing of niche brands.

GIA found that Europe, the uS and the Asia Pacific region now account for more than 70 per cent of the dairy market but that, by 2010, Asia Pacific will be the fastest growing regional market. This is attributed to changing dietary aspirations in line with new-found wealth. The report

also argues that yogurt will be the most profitable sector, particularly in china.

Higher demand for dairy products is expected to come from Latin America and the caribbean, while Western Europe will continue to lead the dairy consumption league table – it currently accounts for 42 per cent of the global market.

The biggest milk producer by far is the uS, followed by India and Russia. As mentioned earlier, most farms in the developed world are run to industrial capacity. but, thanks to the latest processing technology, countries like Pakistan are being encouraged to develop their dairy industries for the export market. Pakistan is actually the world’s fourth largest milk producer but, interestingly, its livestock is widely distributed among rural households. New state-of-the-art processing plants, like Nestle’s at Kabirwala, have the capacity to process up to three million liters of milk per day to international standards.

>

milking success Movie star Sir Sean Connery began his working life as a milkman at the Corstorphine Dairy in Scotland before turning to acting.

cheese off The menu for mice In 2006 researchers at Manchester Metropolitan University in the UK made an amazing discovery that debunks the long-held belief that mice like cheese. Their study showed that mice are attracted to sweet, sugary foods, preferring to tuck in to fruit and grains rather than the Cheddar on the mousetrap.

wesTern europe

usa

asia pacific

Estimated value of worldwide dairy products market by 2010.

usarussia

pakisTan

indiaasia

pacific

laTin america

biggesT milk producers

greaTesT demand

fuTure expanding markeTs

EuROPE, THE uS AND ASIA PAcIfIc AccOuNT fOR MORE THAN 70 PER cENT Of THE DAIRY MARKET buT bY 2010 ASIA PAcIfIc WILL bE THE fASTEST GROWING REGIONAL MARKET


cream and buTTer Without homogenization the fat content of milk will, when left to stand, rise to the surface and float on the top. Before mechanization this cream would simply be skimmed from the surface. Today, the process is speeded up using centrifugal separators.

There are several grades of cream available – the higher the fat content, the thicker the cream. Thick cream, known as double cream in the UK and heavy cream in the US, is favored for cooking as it is less likely to separate when heated than the lower fat type.

Cream is a key ingredient for many cakes and desserts, not least ice cream, as well as sauces both sweet and savory. It can also be fermented with bacterial cultures to create sour cream and crème fraîche. Central and Eastern Europe have a similar product called smetana.

Churning cream produces butter, another worldwide dairy staple. Butter can be salted or unsalted and the color varies according to the breed of cow and its diet. Clarified butter, made by separating the milk solids and water from the butterfat through gentle heating, is favored for frying because it can be heated to higher temperatures than ordinary butter. India has its own version, known as ghee, which is a regular ingredient in recipes. Moroccan smen is clarified butter mixed with spices.

Tibetan households have butter made from yak milk. Tsampa, the national dish, consists of barley flour mixed with yak butter. Another favorite is tea with rancid yak butter and salt.

curds and whey US television host Clifton Fadiman summed up the feeling of cheese-lovers everywhere when he described cheese as, “milk’s great leap towards immortality”. No other food has quite captured the imagination, or the palate, like cheese.

There are literally thousands of cheeses from the familiar Cheddar, Brie, Emmental and Gorgonzola to the less well-known Kadchgall from Afghanistan and Daralagjazsky from Russia. Many cheeses are allowed to develop molds which create distinctive blue veins, or have colorings and flavorings added, for example Wensleydale with cranberries or the fiery Afuega ‘I Pitu with chilies. And for the brave there is Casu Marzu from Sardinia with live maggots.

The method of making cheese is basically the same, whatever the type. Rennet, a starter bacteria, or acid such as vinegar, are added to the milk to curdle it so that the solid curds are separated from the liquid whey. The curd is then pressed into a mold and the whey is usually transformed into a powder for use in the food, animal feed and pharmaceutical industries.

The unique texture and flavor of the different cheeses depends on the milk used – usually from cows, buffalo, goats or sheep – the animal’s diet, the curdling technique, butterfat content, processing and length of aging. Some cheeses are heated to between 35° and 55°C to remove more moisture, giving them a harder texture, while others are made by washing the curd in warm water to create a milder flavor. There is also a range of cheeses, such as cottage cheese or Romanian Cas, which require little in the way of processing once the milk is curdled.

yogurT For centuries, people living in the Balkans, Turkey, Asia and the Middle East have sworn by the restorative powers of yogurt. It was generally believed that yogurt helped to prolong life and cure gastrointestinal conditions. Although yogurt is a Turkish word it’s not certain who actually invented it.

However, yogurt is probably the oldest method of preserving milk. It is made by adding specific bacteria to milk and fermenting it under controlled temperatures. The bacteria eat the lactose (milk sugar) and release lactic acid which thickens the milk protein while preventing harmful bacteria getting into the product.

Yogurt is available in whole, reduced fat and non-fat varieties, either in its natural sour state or sweetened and mixed with fruits, nuts and syrup. Some types, such as Greek yogurt, are strained through a cloth or paper filter to give a thicker consistency. Across the Middle East, Central Asia and India yogurt is popular as the basis for drinks, such as kefir and lassi.

Another dairy product which resembles yogurt is fromage frais. It is actually made from curdled milk, like cheese, except that curds are stirred to prevent them from solidifying. Pure fromage frais is fat free but there are versions with cream added. It can be enjoyed the same way as yogurt or added to desserts and savory dishes.

THE uNIQuE TExTuRE AND fLAVOR Of THE DIffERENT cHEESES DEPENDS ON THE MILK uSED – uSuALLY fROM cOWS, buffALO, GOATS OR SHEEP – THE ANIMAL’S DIET, THE cuRDLING TEcHNIQuE, buTTERfAT cONTENT, PROcESSING AND LENGTH Of AGING.


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vitamin b12 = red blood cells

calcium = strong bones and teeth

carbohydrates = energy

magnesium = muscle function

phosphorus = release energy

potassium = nerve function

protein = growth and repair

riboflavin = healthy skin

zinc = immune system

whaT’s good abouT a glass?

DAIRY AND HEALTH Are dairy products good for you? for milkmaids it would seem that the answer is yes. Historically, milkmaids, who milked the cows and prepared cream, butter and cheese, have been presented as fair, fecund and in fine health.

Perhaps easy access to dairy products meant they were getting enough to eat at a time when many working people were malnourished. Their skin was certainly in better condition: working with dairy cattle exposed them to cowpox, a less serious form of the human version, smallpox. contracting cowpox made them immune to smallpox, which meant milkmaids did not have the pockmarked complexion common to smallpox survivors.

In the 19th century kumis, made from mare’s milk, was considered to be a panacea for all ills, so much so that kumis resorts sprang up in the south east of Russia. Even now the antioxidant content of mare’s milk makes it much sought after in the cosmetics industry for use in skin creams.

In today’s health-conscious, diet-obsessed world the jury is still out on how good or bad dairy products are for human health. certainly dairy products, especially the full fat varieties, can be fattening and doctors recommend that people with high cholesterol or heart conditions should avoid them. Also some people lose the ability to digest lactose, becoming lactose intolerant.

On the plus side a glass of milk contains: vitamin b12 for red blood cells, calcium for strong bones and teeth, carbohydrate for energy, magnesium for muscle function, phosphorus to release energy, potassium for nerve function, protein for growth and repair, riboflavin for healthy skin and zinc to protect the immune system.

Numerous studies have been carried out into the effects of regular milk consumption. It’s been suggested that drinking low fat milk reduces the risk of hypertension, coronary heart disease, colorectal cancer and obesity.

In recent years there’s been an upsurge in demand for probiotic milk drinks and yogurts from health-conscious consumers. Probiotics contain bacteria that can counteract harmful bacteria in the intestines.

TRENDS IN THE DAIRY INDUSTRY because fresh milk has a relatively short shelf life it used to be delivered directly to households. The milkman and his daily round are still alive and well in the uK and in rural India it’s delivered in a metal container attached to a bicycle. but, in many countries, modern food distribution, refrigeration and lifestyles have taken away the need for home delivery and now most people buy their milk from the shops.

Over the years the packaging has changed from the glass bottle to the wax-coated paper carton and the plastic container. Now, with the environmental lobby seeking to cut down on plastic, the next stage of the packing evolution looks set to be recyclable bags.

A major growth area for dairy is flavored milk as concerns about wellbeing and obesity prompt consumers to ditch carbonated sugary drinks in favor of healthier options. chocolate, strawberry and banana are the most popular.

Goat’s milk is also experiencing a renaissance. In Europe the market is increasing by ten per cent a year, prompting farmers to increase herd sizes.

Like other food producers dairy farmers are feeling the effects of increased animal feed and fuel costs, which are driving up prices. but the long-term outlook is healthy: with the enhanced demand for new products such as milk-based drinks, probiotics and niche cheeses, the world’s appetite for dairy products shows no signs of abating.

first published in Generate magazine issue 7, November 2008

perfecT snack Log on to www.cheddarometer.com to find the recipe for the perfect cheese sandwich. The site contains a mathematical formula devised by scientists at Bristol University in the UK, which calculates the ideal thickness of the bread and cheese, plus the required amount of salad, mayonnaise or pickle.

coke noT ‘The real Thing’ in oz More flavored milk is drunk in South Australia than anywhere else in the world. Farmers Union Iced Coffee, a coffee-milk-mix drink, is a far bigger hit there than Coca-Cola.


milking and processing excellence The globalization of the dairy industry could not have been achieved without milking machines, cutting-edge processing technology and refrigeration. And new developments in all these areas will continue to play a critical role in helping farmers and dairy companies to meet the challenges of the future.

One of the leaders in this field is the GEA Group, which has a long and impressive history of supplying innovation and engineering know-how throughout the dairy chain.Given that GEA technology is involved in approximately one quarter of all milk produced worldwide it’s highly likely that the dairy products in your refrigerator will have had some contact with the company’s milking or processing equipment.

Since 1926 WestfaliaSurge – part of GEA Farm Technologies – has been setting the trends in milk collection technology, with a comprehensive range of equipment for all stages of the milking process. In particular, the market-leading WestfaliaSurge AutoRotor can milk more than 100 cows an hour. And now the company has now taken the milking revolution further again with the MIone milking robot, which enables cows to be milked when they choose and is suitable for farms of virtually all typical sizes.

GEA’s Process Engineering Division supplies everything from stand-alone installations to complete plants for processing dairy products including milk and whey powders. The division supplies turnkey plants for some of the world’s biggest dairy operations. GEA Process Engineering company Ahlborn was founded in 1856 and

became part of the GEA Group in 1979. Today, it is part of the newly named GEA TDS GmbH company, which also includes Tuchenhagen Dairy Systems, a leader in the dairy, fruit juice and food processing industries.

The companies of the GEA Process Equipment division support adherence to strict hygiene regulations for companies from the brewing, beverages, dairy and foodstuff industries, as well as the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, cosmetics and health care industries with a range of homogenizers, valves and plate heat exchangers. The diverse processes for handling liquid foodstuffs require many heating up and cooling steps. GEA Ecoflex plate heat exchangers meet these demands with a wide range of plates for all applications. A high level of productivity, cost-efficient operations and reliable product consistency characterize process components from GEA Tuchenhagen. Process valves, valve blocks, in-line measurement and control equipment, cleaning devices, CIP units and pumps manufactured by the company from Büchen, Germany, meet the demanding hygienic and sterile requirements of these industries. High pressure homogenization is essential for improving the stability and shelf life of dairy products. GEA Niro Soavi offers a full range of homogenizers and pumps covering all dairy industry requirements, from pilot to large scale fully automated units. Compared to conventional homogenizing valves, the company’s patented NanoValve™ achieves optimal performance at low pressure and is ideal for processing milk, cream, yogurt, cheese, baby food, ice cream, whey and butter.

The company GEA Niro offers pilot plants for test processing and manufacturing product samples. And its Test Center for Food and Chemical Products in Denmark offers a world-leading resource for food and chemical companies to try out a range of extraction, evaporation and drying technologies.

Separation equipment is central to the processing system within modern dairies. This is also a field in which GEA – with its company GEA Westfalia Separator Process – excels. The centrifugal separators remove bacteria and they are crucial to a wide variety of dairy processes. Applications range from single-stage/two-stage bacterial clarification to the special bacterial clarification used

for drinking milk as well as the variable bacterial clarification of cheese milk, treating concentrated whey and pre-treatment of milk powder. Westfalia is the market leader in centrifugal separators for fresh cheese.The FAGE dairy, the largest operation of its kind in Greece, chose machines from GEA Westfalia Separator Process for its main plant in Athens as well as for a new dairy in the US.

Another innovation from Westfalia’s Dairy Technology Business Unit is PROCOOL – which enables dairies to switch from cold to warm milk separation, using the same machine, providing more flexibility and cheaper running costs. Westfalia also produces turnkey process lines for the variety of soft cheese products that have been developed in the trend towards more health-conscious diets (including cream cheese, quark, Thermoquark and Baker’s Cheese). There is a high level of automation in the process lines. In addition Westfalia supplies all elements of the process lines for the butter industry, including the buttermilking machine, tanks, pasteurization unit and associated pipework.

Like most fresh foods, dairy products need to be kept cold. GEA Refrigeration is one of the world’s leaders in industrial refrigeration. The division provides state- of-the-art refrigeration technology, which can be used during the whole process, from the delivery of the fresh milk to the factory through all stages of production and storage.

Finally, clean air at the right temperature is essential to providing the hygienic conditions needed for processing and storing dairy products. Leading air treatment experts of the GEA Air Treatment Division broke new ground by providing a climate control system at the Müritz-Milch cheese dairy in Waren, Germany, based on the dehumidifiers normally used for indoor swimming pools. To counteract the effects of the salty air from the brine bath – central to the cheese-making process – GEA Happel Klimatechnik supplied equipment made from corrosion-resistant steel.


This stunning shot was taken at GEA procomac's bottling technology facility in Italy. It may remind you of flowers, but what’s actually happening to the pET (polyethylene terephthalate) tops is an intrinsic part of the mechanical bottling process. These bottles are being sterilized, with penetrating nozzles spraying liquid

peroxide solution over them at high pressure, before they are rinsed in sterile water.

Then these spotless bottles are filled with fruit juices by one of GEA procomac’s Spanish customers.

First published in Generate magazine issue 7, November 2008

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gea supplies resource-saving cooling sysTems

GEA’s Energy and Farm Technology Segment has received orders from China worth EUR 46 million for efficient power plant cooling equipment. They include an Alex Air Cooled Condenser for the 2 x 660 MW coal fired power plant in Chongxin and a Heller® cooling system for the coal fired power plant in Shuidonggou, which has an equal energy output.

As both systems operate without using water in the cooling cycle or discharging heated cooling water, they offer an environmentally-friendly and resource-saving method of power plant cooling.

“This will be the fourth power plant in China to be equipped with this efficient GEA technology within the last 24 months”, says GEA Group CEO Jürg Oleas, who is also responsible for GEA’s Energy and Farm Technology Segment. “Due to the water scarcity in the power producing regions of the country, combined with China’s need for energy-efficient power production, using the most advanced systems is a key issue to the Chinese power industry. This new order underlines this development in the market.”

www.gea-energy.com

gea To build dairy planTs in chile and saudi arabia

Orders worth EUR 33 million have been won by GEA’s Process Technology Segment for a baby food (instant formula) factory in Saudi Arabia and Chile’s first fully automatic dairy plant.

The baby food plant order was placed by Almarai, the Middle East’s leading dairy foods company. Worth more than EUR 24 million, the project includes engineering, manufacturing, supply, installation and commissioning of the factory in Riyadh and is due for completion in autumn 2010.

Nestlé has awarded a EUR 9 million contract to build the liquid processing section of a Growing-Up Milk plant near Osorno in Chile. The plant will be equipped with the latest in process technology to ensure safe and efficient production. GEA TDS is responsible for project management, sanitary design, process automation, installation and commissioning of all liquid processing parts, evaporation system, butter oil plant and the CIP (clean in place) unit.

www.geap.com

frozen asseTs combine

GEA Refrigeration has brought together industry-leading subsidiary companies Aerofreeze, Eurotek and Intec under the banner of GEA Freezing.

The three companies specialize in chilling and freezing equipment and services for the frozen food processing industry. As GEA Freezing they will provide a uniform product line and worldwide access to service and technological innovation. The new organization designs and manufactures in-line tunnel, spiral, and carton freezers/chillers for large food processors.

“Food processors around the world will benefit from the shared resources, technical expertise and service support our combined companies will provide,” said Jean-Michel Daviaud, Vice President of GEA Refrigeration. “Our individual records of innovation and customer service are now coming together to address the food processor’s need for improved hygiene and more energy efficient operations.”

In October GEA Freezing showed its latest innovations at Process Expo, part of Pack Expo, in Las Vegas and at the World Wide Food Expo in Chicago.

www.gearefrigeration.com

new generaTion decanTer on show

GEA Westfalia Separator presented its new F series decanter for the first time at drinktec 2009.

Designed specifically for the beverage industry, the multifunction machine has a bowl diameter of 400 millimeters and ensures maximum performance, combined with high clarifying efficiency and maximum dry matter in the solids.

The machine is termed a “hydro-hermetic” decanter with a pressurized separation chamber. A major advantage is that it can decant process products with absolutely minimized oxidation or intake of other gasses containing low levels of dissolved solids. Apart from that the hydro-hermetic feature enables the decanter to discharge separated soft and fluffy solids reliably which would not be possible without the support of the pressure. For example beer can be recovered from yeast efficiently and to a high quality. In addition to breweries, the new decanter can be used for fruit juice and wine production.

www.westfalia-separator.com

milesTone pharma win from china

Zhejiang Hisun Pharmaceutical Co has given Pharma Systems Division, part of the GEA Process Technology Segment, a EUR 15 million order for pharmaceutical freeze dryers with automatic load and unload systems (ALUS).

This is a major breakthrough in the region, allowing Hisun to expand its operations into formulated pharmaceutical products for oncology and infectious diseases. The equipment will be used at the new facilities in the Fuyang pharmaceutical valley where Hisun is planning to invest over EUR 100 million to make it the biggest pharmaceutical production site in China.

“We won this contract because of our technical excellence, reputation for operational reliability and proven capability of running large engineering projects for the pharmaceutical industry,” says Niels Graugaard, member of the Executive Board of GEA Group. “GEA Pharma Systems already holds an established position in China with a major manufacturing facility in Shanghai and an engineering, service and after-sales structure throughout the country.”

www.geapharmasystems.com

GENERATE celebrates ideas that changed the world.

from the rotary milking parlor to air cooling and centrifugal technology – GEA companies have a long and rich history of innovation.

In issue 10 of GENERATE we look at these and also the many technical advances over the centuries that have shaped the modern world.

COMING IN MARCH 2010...

GENERATEis the external magazine of the GEA Group. published three times a year, it is distributed across the world.

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PUblISHER GEA Group Aktiengesellschaft Dorstener Straße 484 44809 Bochum

EdITOR IN CHIEF Nina Remmer (responsible for editorial content)

EdITORIAl STAFF GEA katrin lamprecht Gaby Fildhaut

PROdUCEd bY Merchant 16 Lincoln’s Inn Fields London WC2A 3ED www.merchant.co.uk

PUblICATION MANAGER leigh littlebury

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COPYRIGHT © 2009 by GEA Group Aktiengesellschaft, Dorstener Straße 484, 44809, Bochum, Germany. Reprinting only with the permission of the publisher. The contents do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the publisher.

CONTACT questions or suggestions on the contents of the magazine: [email protected]

2009 q3 generate special edition en

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