Distilleries specialize in creating spirits by fermenting beverages to extract alcohol that can then be distilled. Distilling processes vary depending on what final spirit is desired – for instance whiskey typically uses grains while vodka can use fruit- or potato-derived alcohol as its starting material.
Alcohol industry innovation aims at improving efficiency and productivity while still meeting high quality standards. Utilizing polishing technology may help eliminate impurities from spirits in order to meet regulatory standards and enhance their overall product.
Distillation advances also focus on improving heat-transfer equipment used in the process, including reboilers and condensers that help control alcohol vapor and liquid temperature. Advances in shell-and-tube technology have dramatically increased reboiler and condenser performance to allow them to handle higher temperatures more effectively while offering greater energy savings.
Future technology trends for alcohol distillation involve developing more robust and flexible automation systems to control, monitor, and measure production rates while not compromising product quality. This will allow distillers to increase production rates without compromising beverage quality.
Finally, advances in distillation systems will continue to enhance overall process reliability. This means developing more precise models and hardware to manage physical chemistry, fluid dynamics, mass transfer in systems. This can result in more effective designs of distillation equipment such as continuous flow conveyors for beer removal.
