Alfa Laval Corporate AB Profile
Alfa Laval Corporate AB (Alfa Laval) operates as a global provider of first-rate products in the areas of heat transfer, separation and fluid handling.
The company’s products, systems and services are sold in more than 100 countries. Around half of all sales are handled directly by the three divisions and the rest via channels, such as system builders, external contracting companies, retailers, agents, and distributors.
The company has more than 100 service centers with the capacity to deliver services in over 160 countries.
Divisions
The company operates through three divisions: Energy, Food & Water, and Marine.
Energy division
The Energy division focuses on solutions to promote greater energy efficiency, in both financial and environmental terms. Customers include companies operating in data centres, renewable energy, oil and gas extraction, refining, petrochemicals, power generation, and heating, ventilation and refrigeration.
The division serves customers in heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration markets, as well as process industries, such as chemicals, petrochemical industry and the oil and gas industry. The division also serves customers operating in the mining and manufacturing industries. Focus is on increased energy efficiency, waste heat recovery and sustainable solutions.
Heat transfer is the division’s main technology, ranging from brazed and fusion bonded heat exchangers and gasketed plate heat exchangers for less demanding applications, and welded heat exchangers for use in more challenging processes. Separation, both thermal and mechanical, is the second technology, which includes high-speed separators, decanter centrifuges, freshwater generators, evaporation systems and filters in the offering.
Sales include components, configured products and projects. The division has its own, direct customer management and service organization, but also reaches customers via system builders, contractors, retailers, agents and distributors.
The division’s offering includes products and solutions for, heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration. It also includes offerings for electricity generation, renewable fuels, refining and oil and gas extraction. Heat transfer expertise and innovation also creates business opportunities as new fuels and energy sources are developed.
Alfa Laval has a wide range of products for managing environmental problems. The division’s efficient heat exchangers and energy recovery solutions offer energy savings, which reduces carbon emissions from the customer’s operations. The division is also providing circular solutions to the end users where waste reduction and water re-use are in focus.
Significant End Markets
HVAC (Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning) and Refrigeration: Alfa Laval heat exchangers help create a comfortable indoor climate in homes and public buildings around the world. The technology is also used for everything from deep freezing and cold storage in facilities, such as industrial premises to ice rinks.
Process Industries: The range includes plate and tubular heat exchangers for the production of organic and inorganic base chemicals, polymers, fibres, pulp and paper, and metals.
Oil and Gas: Includes oil and gas drilling, processing, production and transportation. In drilling, Alfa Laval offers heat exchangers and decanter centrifuges for mixing, cooling and purifying drilling mud. In oil and gas processing, production and transportation, the products are used in a wide range of applications, as well as in waste management.
Refinery: Heat Exchangers are used to handle high pressure and temperatures in various processes in in a refinery. These processes break down crude oil to components that are refined to products like fuel oil, aviation fuel and diesel.
Power: Heat exchangers, separators, filters and steam boilers are used to generate and store energy in various processes in the power sector irrespective of energy source. The products are also used for carbon capture.
Food & Water division
The Food & Water division works with products and systems for food and water applications, for example in industries, such as food, pharmaceuticals, biotech, brewing, dairy and water treatment.
The Food & Water division targets customers in industries, such as food, pharmaceuticals, biotech, vegetable oils, brewing, dairy and personal care products. The division also works with public and industrial water treatment, as well as water and waste treatment.
The company’s offering extends across all three key technologies. This includes various types of heat transfer and separation products, along with fluid handling products, such as pumps and valves.
The division offers the sale of components, configured products and projects. As a result, the division works directly with customers and reaches end customers via system builders, contractors, agents and distributors.
The company has a wide range of products for managing various environmental problems. In Food & Water, the company offers decanter centrifuges that can dewater digested sludge in public wastewater treatment plants and are also used in the management of industrial wastewater and industrial waste. In the food industry, Alfa Laval processes and solutions help reduce waste by increasing the volume extracted from raw materials.
Significant End Markets
Dairy: Hygienic products for dairy processes – from whey, milk and cream processing to the production of ice cream, cheese, soured cream or yoghurt. Products include separators, heat exchangers, tank cleaning equipment, membranes, pumps and valves.
Water and Waste Treatment: Products and solutions for municipal wastewater treatment and for industrial water and waste treatment. The range includes everything from decanter centrifuges and belt presses, to spiral and tubular heat exchangers and membrane bioreactors.
Ethanol, Starch and Sugar: Separators, decanter centrifuges, heat exchangers and evaporation systems are used in the production of starch and sugar, which in turn are raw materials in the production of ethanol.
Protein: Products for the recovery of protein, fats and oils from vegetable and animal residues for the production of everything from gelatine, fish oil and fishmeal to bone meal, surimi and animal feed. The product portfolio includes separators, decanter centrifuges, evaporation systems, membranes, heat exchangers and steam boilers.
Brewery: Products for all aspects of the brewing process, from mash and wort production and fermentation, to filtration and pasteurization. The range includes, for example, separators, membranes, decanter centrifuges, mixing equipment, plate heat exchangers, pumps, valves, run-off water systems and pasteurization modules.
Pharma and Biotech: Pumps, valves, separators, membranes, decanter centrifuges, tank cleaning equipment and heat exchangers for processes with stringent cleanliness requirements, such as the production of liquid or solid pharmaceuticals, vaccines, creams and ointments.
Edible oil: Products, such as separators, decanter centrifuges, heat exchangers and pumps are used to produce oils from rapeseed, olives, soybeans or fish, for example. These oils are processed to meet customers’ requirements in terms of colour, taste and nutritional value.
Prepared Food and Beverage: Alfa Laval’s technologies allow hygienic and efficient preparation and manufacturing of prepared food.
Marine division
The Marine division specializes in solutions for shipping customers, including shipping companies, shipyards, engine manufacturers and companies involved in offshore oil and gas exploration.
The division’s customers are mainly shipowners, shipyards, diesel and gas engine manufacturers and companies involved in offshore oil and gas exploration.
The division’s offering includes heat transfer equipment, high-speed separators and pumping systems, as well as various environmental products and systems for cleaning ballast water and exhaust gases.
The division sells its products and solutions directly to end customers. These are clearly defined and limited in number, allowing the division to canvass customers using a small sales force.
The division has a range of solutions that can help reduce the environmental impact of shipping, including products to boost energy efficiency, ballast water treatment systems, technology to reduce sulphur levels in ships’ exhaust gases or to clean onboard bilge water.
Significant End Markets
Shipbuilding and Shipping: There is a wide range of products and systems available for installation on board ships. These include fuel purification and treatment systems, loading and unloading pumping systems, steam boilers, freshwater generators, inert gas systems, lubricating oil treatment and tank cleaning systems.
Offshore: Technology and solutions for oil and gas platforms, including inert gas systems and emergency power generators, as well as pumping systems used for firefighting or to pump seawater for onboard applications.
Engine Power: Engine-generated power is used in off-grid locations, as back-up power during power outages, to handle peaks in demand when the grid is insufficient or as a complement to solar or wind power. Alfa Laval offers several products, including modules for fuel treatment, separators for cleaning crankcase gases and heat exchangers for various cooling applications.
Alfa Laval also joined the Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller Center for Zero Carbon Shipping, whose partners include BP, MAN Energy Solutions, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, and Siemens Energy, among others.
Key Technologies
Heat Transfer
The company’s heat exchangers transfer heating or cooling from, for example, one liquid to another. They recycle heat, optimize customers’ energy consumption, cut costs and reduce their environmental impact.
Separation
The technology is used to separate liquids from other liquids and solid particles from liquids or gases. The offering includes separators, decanter centrifuges, filters, strainers and membranes.
Fluid Handling
The company supplies pumps, valves, tank cleaning equipment and installation material for the food and pharmaceutical industries and pumping systems for the marine sector and offshore market.
Strategic Priorities
The company has established various strategic priorities that encompass customer collaboration, a focus on products and working to further strengthen the aftermarket offering.
Research and Development
The company’s research and development costs were SEK 1,159 (1,039) million in 2021.
Competition
The company’s competitors are Danfoss A/S (Denmark); HEATMASTER (the Netherlands); HISAKA (Japan); Kelvion (Germany); KANGRIM (Korea); MIURA (Japan); OSAKA (Japan); SAACKE (Germany); SPX FLOW/APV (the U.S.); SWEP (the U.S.); GEA (Germany); MITSUBISHI KAKOKI KAISHA (Japan); PIERALISI (Italy); SPX FLOW/Seital (the U.S.); Decanters Flottweg (Germany); GEA (Germany); GUINARD/ANDRITZ (France, Austria); PIERALISI (Italy); Bardiani Valves (Italy); Dockweiler Edelstahl (Germany); Fristam (Germany); GEA (Germany); Kieselman GmbH (Germany); MARFLEX (the Netherlands); SPX FLOW/APV (the U.S.); and SULZER (Switzerland).
History
The company was founded in 1883. It was formerly known as AB Separator and changed its name to Alfa Laval AB (publ) in 1963 and then to Alfa Laval Corporate AB in July 2022.
