Alternative proteins: Innovating for the future

Understanding the challenges, current and future, of food and industrial production sites is key to Clauger’s continued development and evolution

Manufacturers face a number of challenges in terms of environmental responsibility and community impact. Today, scientists, researchers, and industry leaders are demanding innovation in the way we produce food, with more efficiency while reducing pollution and waste. Research and technology advances are therefore enabling safer, healthier methods of food production for tomorrow.

Clauger wants to be part of the movement, contribute to it and learn from it. It is building partnerships to help drive the transformation of our current food system to ensure our collective sustainable future. It works with clients to further develop their ideas into successful commercial products that are available for mass consumption. “Innovation and the men and women of Clauger are what drive our company’s growth,” says Paul Minssieux, Founder of Clauger. “Profit is not a finality. Money remains a means to finance innovation and the growth that sustains Clauger’s future.”

Clauger supports manufacturers in their production of quality products while protecting the environment and local communities. This has driven the company to innovate, and through it, its Green and Clean Label Solutions were born. These ensure safe, ideal conditions around products (Clean) while limiting the overall footprint of a production site (Green).

Supporting the future of food

Predicting, adapting, and listening to clients and global markets allow Clauger to create and innovate for its clients. Founded in 1971 in Lyon, France, the company has more than 50 years of experience in industrial refrigeration and hygienic air control for industrial manufacturing sites.

Its expertise in hygienic air treatment began by supporting French cheesemakers to create ideal conditions in their cheese caves. Clauger quickly understood humidity, air velocity, temperature, adjacent operations, gas control, and homogeneity were key to quality aging. Today, its teams continue to refine and develop solutions to ensure conditions and improve product quality for cheesemakers as well as a wide range of sectors and processes, including alternative proteins.

Clauger has a strong track record in the development and industrialization of alternative protein processes, such as waste recycling, use of black soldier flies and bacteria, as well as phytotrons, vertical farming, greenhouses, and more. Its expertise has been applied in many ways to bring technology to scale.  

Providing correct conditions around products is key to successful manufacturing. Parameters that must be controlled in alternative protein processes and growth applications include temperature, humidity, air velocity/filtration, emissions and energy recovery, gas, and odor control, as well as energy optimization. The rewards are exponential when you have the proper environment for these organisms to thrive. They grow quickly and at a fraction of the cost compared to traditional livestock.

Clauger offers expertise and support at each stage of a project: engineering, design, process qualification, airflow simulation, and manufacturing of custom equipment. Its qualified teams support your product’s performance over its lifecycle. As a specialist in process air treatment and factory-wide air management, Clauger provides an integrated solution to optimize production and ensure secure, quality products.

“We want to build sustainable partnerships with our customers, much more than a simple customer-supplier relationship,” continues Minssieux. “We are here to co-construct a customized support plan with each customer’s site. We help the industry and operators take a step back and anticipate future changes by providing support over time, and so much more.”

Utilizing Clauger’s range of proprietary products, its clients receive customized solutions that meet their actual needs. In the area of alternative proteins, there are numerous solutions and applications for the sector.

Parameters that must be controlled in many alternative protein processes and growth applications include temperature, humidity, air velocity, air filtration, emissions and energy recovery, gas, and odor control, as well as energy optimization

Design’Air by Clauger

Design’Air combines numerical simulation and engineering expertise to help you understand and identify improvements in your operations.

For new or emerging technology, this solution is key to ensuring engineering and designs will meet your real needs when in production.

Aeraulic or Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulation can be used to characterize air flows, rates of heat exchange, and other aspects of a room’s performance. This can accurately and efficiently address a variety of scenarios in terms of:

• Product quality: identify the homogeneity of air conditions surrounding the products;

• Product safety: identify critical areas throughout the production process;

• Personnel safety: identify working conditions of personnel, comfort levels, and emission risks (dust, fumes, etc);

• Energy: optimize and balance air flows and improve heating/cooling cycle times.

Clauger assesses different scenarios and recommends the optimized thermo-aeraulic solution. This allows it to commit to results during the design phase, adapt a defined solution to any constraints, or anticipate the impacts of an installation modification. Using CFD allows ideas and small-scale solutions to become industrialized realities.

Custom air handling systems

As a specialist in process air treatment, Clauger’s experience has evolved into new innovations in its products and solutions. Customized air handling units are the result of this experience. The company’s air handling units and air diffusion networks are designed to meet the most demanding specifications for temperature and pressure control, air purity, humidity, velocity, and condensation control.

These units are designed to condition recirculated air and outside air during production mode. Pre-filtration modules remove dust and other contaminants from the air before it is cooled or heated to the needed temperature and humidity for the room or chamber. Final filters remove dust, pathogens, and other contaminants before supplying clean air at the right velocity.

They offer flexibility in design, capacity, and features to fulfil the most demanding applications. During the design phase, Clauger will work with you to understand ideal conditions and operational constraints of your new or existing process.

E-Streaming by Clauger  

E-Streaming is an aero contamination risk management tool that monitors quality, assists in piloting air treatment installations, and makes it possible to optimize energy consumption. Clauger’s patented solution offers:

• Real-time, continuous monitoring of airflow directions, velocities, and inversions in a facility, allowing you insights to take immediate action;

• Corrective capabilities automatically adjust your system (fresh air and exhaust) to re-establish the correct airflow of your site;

• Continuous optimization to identify the ideal balance between fresh air, extracted air, and best operating mode parameters (using algorithms). Automatic corrections result in cost savings (maintenance and energy).

Local support and long-term commitments

Clauger is committed to providing sustainable and reliable operations by offering maintenance and troubleshooting. It assists clients in attaining their ‘green’ objectives: reducing energy costs, recovering energy, using natural refrigerants, and offering free cooling. The objective is to deliver a production system that is 100% available and effective.

To reinforce its support and partnership with its customers, Clauger relies on its people – with more than 2,200 people located in over 15 countries, its service support continues to grow internationally. Digital tools and artificial intelligence are also allowing new insights, optimizations, and innovations for new and historical markets. Using its local teams in parallel with its digital tools, Clauger’s designs and operations evolve based on experience and data.

Clauger offers comprehensive process consulting, which begins with its participation in projects from the earliest stages. This allows the company to support you and advise you based on its extensive experience. Clauger applies this approach to all aspects of the process, operations, and product considerations required by each client, site, and application.

It offers a 360° view of each project and pledges to support customers in the long term. This commitment incorporates the customer’s energy, product, quality, and process dimensions. It includes CAPEX (costs of investment), OPEX (operating costs), and the associated financing solutions (energy efficiency certificate, heat funds, etc).

Sustainability and progress are much more than a goal to be achieved. It’s an ongoing commitment that keeps the company company moving forward – innovating with you today for a better tomorrow.

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