COPENHAGEN, Denmark—GEA Liquid Processing is taking part in a new €3 million turnkey project for Lebortovo Capital Partners Ltd. in the Mogilev region of Belarus. The fully automatic, multi-purpose production line from GEA will produce skin care and liquid household cleaning products for the local market, significantly reducing the region’s dependence on imported products.
The new production facility Svoboda will operate according to international hygiene and production standards. The products themselves will fall into the category of green and natural products containing the minimum of additives and will be produced to meet the highest standard for sustainability while maintaining the superior product quality. In line with the trend in the industry, the objective is also to reduce manufacturing costs, waste, energy consumption and the emission of carbon dioxide.
GEA Liquid Processing, part of GEA Process Engineering, is the main contractor for the project responsible for designing the production line, supplying the key equipment and handling the installation and commissioning. The company will use its knowledge of best practice and benchmarking for process technology in the personal care industry to ensure the new plant meets the highest international standards for hygiene, product quality and production. Equipment supplied directly by GEA includes the raw material reception, raw material storage, dosage systems, BATCH FORMULATM Mixing Systems, final product storage and Clean-in-Place (CIP) installation. The plant will be fully automated with a recipe controlled process.
Sergey Krivenko, the chief technologist at Svoboda said his company chose GEA Liquid Processing primarily because of the high level of hygiene laid down in the design. According to Thorsten Vammen, director of sales at GEA Liquid Processing, said this hygienic design was achieved by approaching the project from a pharmaceutical or food industry perspective. “Traditionally, personal care production sites were designed on the basis of best practice from the chemical industry, i.e. non-clean," he said. “However, we adopted a super-clean policy similar to that used in the food and pharmaceutical industries. This level of hygiene control means we have avoided the use of unwanted additives."
This is the first phase of the construction of the 25 tonne/annum production line. Within the next two years Lebortovo Capital Partners intends to double the current capacity. The facility also houses a dry process line for the production of detergents and household products. The first products are expected to be released to the Belarusian consumers during the first half of 2011.