GEA Process Engineering

GEA Process Engineering A/S is a Danish company that has been a part of the German GEA Group since 1993. GEA Process Engineering A/S specializes in the development, design and engineering of liquid and powder processing equipment for the manufacture of products in powder, granular or agglomerate form. The GEA Group has specialised in process engineering, process equipment and plant engineering.
GEA Process Engineering A/S has supplied technology for many companies in the world for their production of dairy and food products, chemicals and pharmaceuticals. Some of these products are manufactured in a single plant, others in a fully engineered process line designed and installed by GEA Process Engineering A/S in collaboration with leading suppliers of auxiliary equipment.
GEA Process Engineering A/S is part of the GEA Process Engineering Segment, which has a turnover of more than EUR 1 billion and approximately 4,000 employees working in subsidiaries located in more than 40 countries. GEA Process Engineering develops designs and sells production plants for the dairy, brewery, food and chemical industries. GEA Process Engineering is the world leader in industrial processing within the above industries. The head office of GEA Process Engineering is located in Denmark and has more than 500 employees. GEA Process Engineering is recognized as the world leader within industrial drying with spray and fluid bed processing as our core technologies. The company specializes within liquid processing, concentration and pre-treatment, drying and powder processing and handling. GEA Process Engineering is one of nine divisions of the international enterprise GEA Group, which is listed on the German MDAX. The head office of GEA Group is in Bochum, Germany. GEA Group has a turnover of more than EUR 5 billion and employs over 20,000 people all over the world.
Company history
A/S Niro Atomizer was founded in 1933 by Johan Ernst Nyrop and specialised in industrial drying, with spray drying, freeze drying, and fluid bed processing as core technologies. In the 1990s Niro dropped "Atomizer" from the company name and in 1993, the Niro Group was acquired by the German GEA Group and began to co-operate closely with other GEA companies specializing in process technology and engineering.
A growing importance of controlling feed quality prior to drying brought Niro into the concentration business and falling film evaporators became part of the scope of supply, primarily within the dairy industry. This involvement in pre-treatment has since grown to include extraction and membrane filtration. The start of this period saw the two-stage drying concept introduced to the dairy industry. Spray drying technology was also applied to air pollution control in 1978.
In 1989 the need to further develop particulate processing techniques led to Niro upgrading its fluid bed technology and introducing new equipment for blending, coating, pelletising, and de-dusting (to produce powdered, agglomerated or granular products of specific properties). During the 1990s Niro formed the Niro Pharma Systems business unit in order to strengthen the presence of the Powder Technology Division in the pharmaceutical market.
In 2002, Niro A/S acquired the activities of the Atlas Food Division from Atlas-Store Denmark A/S, specializing in the design and supply of freeze drying systems for food applications and vacuum systems for deodorizing edible oil. Since 2008 the legal name has been GEA Process Engineering A/S while GEA Niro has been retained as a brand name.
Key business areas
GEA Process Engineering A/S' daily operation is controlled through four main divisions: chemical, food and dairy, pharmaceutical and after Sales. GEA Niro also has special activities within environmental engineering, where the core technologies of GEA Process Engineering A/S are used in air pollution control and waste management.
GEA Process Engineering A/S’ plants are designed to abide by high performance standards and strict safety regulations.
The food and dairy industry
Serving the food and dairy industry continues to be a major component of GEA Process Engineering A/S’ business activities. The food and dairy division supplies food and dairy equipment used to process a wide variety of products. GEA Process Engineering A/S manufactures either individual plants, such as Evaporators, spray dryers, fluid bed dryers, extraction plants or freeze dryers or as combinations of these, alternatively as complete process-lines on a turnkey basis. Product applications have been within the industry segments of milk and whey products, carbohydrates, beverages, ingredients & flavours, protein foods, and fruit pulp and juices. Product applications include: baby food, coffee and tea, egg products, juice, fruits & tomatoes, milk products, starch, whey products etc.
The chemical industry
GEA Process Engineering A/S produces chemical processing equipment, such as spray and fluid bed plants, that has the ability to handle any plant capacity requirement, irrespective of whether the product contains aqueous or organic volatiles, is toxic, or abrasive. Product applications include: ceramics, dyestuff & pigments, organic chemicals, polymers, detergent and air pollution control.
The pharmaceutical industry
For more than 70 years, GEA Process Engineering A/S has supplied drying plants used to produce powders and particulates in the pharmaceutical industry. The pharmaceutical processing equipment includes low capacity dryers designed for specialist potent powders as well as industrial size plants for continuous operations performed under strict hygienic standards. Product applications include analgesics, antibiotics, enzymes, proteins, vaccines and vitamins.
GEA Niro after sale
GEA Process Engineering A/S’ after sales department provides customers with plant services, process services and training services and components for plants after the plant has been delivered and installed.
Core Technologies
Spray Drying
Spray drying is widely used in industrial process for particle formation and drying. It is well suited to the continuous production of dry solids in powder, granulate or agglomerate particle form from liquid feedstocks. Feedstocks can include solutions, emulsions and pumpable suspensions.

Fluid bed drying
GEA Process Engineering A/S supplies a wide range of batch and continuous fluid bed drying systems. GEA Process Engineering A/S' fluid bed dryers process any particulate matter between 20 and 5000 micrometres, with source feeds that include dry or damp powders, filter cake or centrifuge cake. GEA Process Engineering A/S supplies the following types of fluid bed drying: open fluid bed drying systems, closed cycle fluid bed drying systems, fluid bed spray granulation and rewet agglomeration.
Freeze drying
Freeze drying is used as a preservation method for a variety of food products and food ingredients. GEA Process Engineering A/S' delivery programme includes plant sizes ranging from pilot scale to large industrial batches and continuous plants. GEA Process Engineering A/S' designs and delivers complete drying plants for the coffee industry.

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