Plant-Based Proteins
Bepex offers the most energy efficient, cost effective and environmentally friendly systems for processing plant-based products. Transform and recover proteins and their high-value coproducts while contributing to your corporate sustainability commitments.
Better Protein Processing
Bepex continues to pioneer innovations in plant-based protein production. Our systems lower water requirements, require less energy, and create less emissions. All resulting in more cost-effective and more environmentally friendly processing. Plus we provide more control over the proteins as they are extracted, resulting in a higher quality product.
Lower Costs with Less Environmental Impact
Wet fractionation is the preferred process for extracting plant-based proteins. But that requires costly drying of protein concentrates or isolates during processing. Bepex excels in handling high-solids-content, dewatered feeds. The Bepex PCX flash dryer dries non-pumpable, water-laden materials – dramatically lowering water requirements, utility costs, and emissions. Spray dryers can’t handle high-solid feeds. Ring dryers require a far larger footprint and can’t match PCX’s product quality. Bepex is the better choice.
More Control For Better Product
Bepex thermal equipment provides tight control over processing time and temperature – critical to protecting delicate proteins. Our thermal processing technology aids in protein modifications including gelation, solubility, water or oil holding capacity, viscosity, emulsion ability, and flavor enhancement. And unlike many traditional drying processes, you’ll get tighter control over particle size, producing products ranging from fine powders to small granules.
Broad Product Line and Wide Ranging Expertise
Bepex offers a broad range of milling, delumping, dewatering and thermal equipment to help you design the most complete, cost-and-energy efficient extraction and post-processing system possible. Extend your R&D capabilities by partnering with our Process Development Center. Working together, we can design, test, and quantify a wide range of options to home in on your specific protein production and modification requirements.
Plant Protein Production with Bepex
Drying
Drying proteins without damage is a challenge in producing high protein ingredients. Led by the innovative PCX flash dispersion dryer and industry workhorse Solidaire paddle dryer, Bepex offers the industry’s broadest range of drying technologies. Bepex focuses on providing superior control over drying, lower operating costs, and high capacity in a compact footprint. The result is a better product with a better cap ex return than spray, rotary, ring, or other traditional drying technologies.
Delumping
Protein production requires fractionation, and fractionation depends on a reliable front-end mill. The Pulvocron air-classifying mill delivers consistent milling while using an air sweep to maintain low operating temperatures and protect product quality. Internal classification delivers strict particle size control, resulting in more efficient extraction and upstream processing.
Mechanical Separation
Mechanical separation offers a cost-effective method for reducing moisture in a solid’s mass prior to thermal drying. That lowers the operating cost and heat input needed in the downstream drying process. The Bepex S Press offers a sanitary design with multiple controls to fine tune your processing. Pair it with the RP Disintegrator if you need to grind larger materials ahead of pressing.
RP Disintegrator
The RP Disintegrator is designed for grinding, delumping, pureeing, and homogenizing. Its design provides operational versatility including quick cleaning, change overs, and maintenance. It grinds wet and dry materials to produce solid particles, fine purees, or pastes.
Pulvocron
The Pulvocron air classifying mill uses high-speed impact and internal size classification to produce fine powders with narrow size distribution. Heat, dry, cool, mill all in one machine. Grind powders to a D50 as fine as 3 μm.
PCX
The PCX dispersion flash dryer processes high-moisture materials including non-pumpable wet cakes, pastes and slurries into a fine powder or small granules. No extra dilution is required for processing, meaning faster drying, less energy use, and lower emissions.
S-Press
The S-Press is designed for mechanical dewatering, juicing, or solvent removal. It squeezes liquid from feeds to lower costs of drying or other downstream processing. Its compact footprint, sanitary design, and easy cleaning make it widely used in food processing.
Solidaire
The Solidaire thin layer paddle dryer offers the highest heat transfer coefficient available. Process dry or wet solids, liquids, slurries, cakes or pastes more efficiently, with more control, at lower cost. Solidaire applications include drying, devolatilizing, reacting, cooling, and crystallizing.
Feeding the World Sustainably
Demonstrating Our Commitment to Sustainability and Innovation
At Bepex, we’re committed to helping to feed the world more sustainably.
By developing innovative products like the PCX dryer, we help processors use less water, require less energy, and produce less emissions while actually improving product performance.
Join us in developing a more sustainable future. Our Process Development Center is here to help you design the best plant protein production system to meet your needs – including your organization’s commitment to sustainability and reduced environmental impact.
Explore Our Resources
Process Development
Feasibility
All new inquiries begin with a feasibility study. These studies aim to provide preliminary insights into the viability of a commercial process. Using as little as 100 grams of material, we can begin early process design, develop plans for pilot-testing and/or confirmation, and begin providing early economic estimates. Our experience across our wide range of technologies gives us a unique ability to provide quick feedback on the feasibility of your process.
Development
From our learnings, we’ll begin the process development work. The primary work in this phase takes place in the form of pilot-scale testing in our Process Development Center. Our pilot tests look a bit different than what you may have experienced in the past. Each test is designed to measure the system performance and feasibility rather than that of any single machine.
Each system is custom assembled for each test. Our goal is to provide as much of a pilot-scale simulation as possible while gathering scale-up data to deliver on commercial capacities. When a certain technology proves ineffective, we’ll draw from our range of options to determine if there is a better fit. The Process Development Center is our sandbox to build, test, and revise to ensure we get every detail right.
Budget Evaluation
With a successful pilot simulation completed, we now have everything we need to scale up and provide proposals for capital equipment with included performance guarantees.
System Design And Build
After receipt of the purchase order, we begin with both equipment and system engineering. Each proprietary technology we sell is custom-designed and built per application. We do not have any off-the-shelf units. At this stage, your exact system begins to take shape, including auxiliary equipment, process flow diagrams, process and instrumentation diagrams, safety provisions, and more.
Commissioning
After delivery and installation of your new system, Bepex will provide a mechanical check to ensure everything is placed according to plan. This is followed shortly thereafter by system commissioning. This is where our pilot-scale simulations become invaluable, as our team of application engineers, controls technicians, and sales engineers begin working with your team to successfully bring your system online.
Support
At this point, you’re up and running at rate, producing a quality product, but our work doesn’t stop there.
Following commissioning, Bepex remains a reliable partner, providing quality OEM parts, immediate field service, process optimization, training, system troubleshooting, and more. We have consistently had high customer retention rates, and we believe it is due in large part to our comprehensive approach to serving our customers long after the original sale.
Improving Protein Production and Profitability
Learn more about improving your plant-based protein products and profits while enhancing production sustainability. Reach out to a Bepex processing expert.
