Flavors and fragrances are added to so many of the things we use and eat every day. Fragrances are added to food, soaps, detergents, candles, oils, candies and many other items. Similarly, flavors are added to many foods, drinks, candies, medicines and countless other items that we encounter daily.
There are two general categories of flavors and fragrances, natural and artificial, and both can make use of steam in their creation process. When natural flavors and fragrances are extracted from the source and concentrated, steam is often used to distill a flavor or fragrance, whereby the source material is heated to its vaporization point, before being condensed to capture the concentration, a process that is very similar to liquor. Other natural flavors and fragrances can be heated in steam jacketed kettles or stream heated vessels to boil off the liquids and create the concentrated product.
Artificial flavors and fragrances are specific formulas of ingredients that when combined and heated, form a compound that can add flavor or an attractive smell to various other products, with steam being the industry standard heat source. If you are enjoying the smell of lavender from a burning candle, the fragrance was probably distilled from lavender flower using steam. If you remember the cherry taste of cough syrup, that was created from artificial ingredients in a steam heated vessel.
Flavors and fragrances are a multi-billion dollar business that enhances all our lives with nicer smelling clothes, better tasting food and drinks, soothing smelling candles and more palatable medicines. And steam was used to make it happen.
Clayton Steam Generators are ideally suited to handle the process needs of the flavors and fragrance industry. These products are often produced in batches which requires large surges in steam demand. The Clayton boiler was designed to handle big load swings while keeping pressure and temperature stable.