Milk production needed ice to proceed
Sectors: Food and drinks
The Challenge
Keeping milk at optimum temperature
When the chiller plant at a large dairy broke down, it could have resulted in thousands of litres of spoiled milk, a loss of production and revenue. As the site’s process cooling system used ice water, we needed to find a way to keep this at a steady 1oC, to maintain the milk’s temperature between 3-4oC. Too warm and the milk would spoil – too cold and the water would freeze.
Project Fact File
The Solution
Ice water at a stable 1°C for round the clock milk production
We came up with a plan to link into the site’s water cooling process using a heat exchanger. This accepted the ice water from one side and we attached a three way valve to the other. This then linked into our 800 kW chiller, which delivered water at a constant set point of 1⁰C.
We installed a sensitive temperature gauge to the three way valve to monitor the water temperature leaving the heat exchanger. The valve opened and closed to cool and heat the water as its temperature rose and fell – keeping it between +/-0.3⁰C of 1⁰C.
Food & Beverage Specialist , Worldwide
Aggreko Technical Engineer
Milk kept in tip top condition throughout the process
The whole dairy site was supported with a robust cooling package until the failed chiller could be replaced.
As a result it was able to maintain milk production round the clock, 24/7 and was able to meet its production schedules.