Construction begins on Alfa Laval's Food Application & Innovation Center

Construction has started on an innovation facility from Alfa Laval that is designed to help advance food processing approaches and sustainability — a ground breaking ceremony was held on 4 March in Copenhagen to mark the occasion.

The 1200 m² research and development facility will feature the full portfolio of Alfa Laval’s technologies, supporting the testing and development of solutions for both traditional and next-generation food production — with plans to initially focus on protein processing.

Johan Agrell, Strategic Business Development Manager, Food Pharma Division, said the facility will become a place to develop ideas such as biosolutions.

“Alfa Laval is proud to be walking the talk and establishing ourselves as part of the ecosystem that is looking to find resilient food solutions for meeting the global supply challenge, whether that is through traditional protein extraction or new fermentation processes.”

Building on Alfa Laval’s Innovation House, founded in Copenhagen seven years ago, the new facility will be used to look at how to improve conventional production methods, as well as exploring new and emerging opportunities to drive enhanced yields while using less energy and water and ensuring that the recovery of resources in waste streams is maximised.

“It will be a place where large corporates can develop and fine-tune processes with us, startups can establish proof of concept and scale up, and academic researchers from around the world can meet to develop and test new ideas,” Agrell said.

Danish construction and engineering contractor IBG has been appointed to build the facility, which is expected to be completed by March 2027.

Image caption: L–R: Brian Slot, Director IBG; Sammy Hulpiau, President Food & Pharma Division, Alfa Laval; Astrid Søborg, Deputy Mayor, Gladsaxe municipality and Per Lund Hansen, Managing Director, Alfa Laval Copenhagen. Image courtesy of Alfa Laval.