A review of pasteurisation process monitoring to support energy efficiency in the dairy industry

Panel: 4. Technology, products and system optimisation

This is a peer-reviewed paper.

Authors:
Charlotte Challis, University of Bristol, Industrial Doctorate Centre in Systems, United Kingdom
Mike Tierney, University of Bristol, United Kingdom
R. Eddie Wilson, University of Bristol, United Kingdom
Andrew Todd, Verco, United Kingdom
Tim Kay, Verco, United Kingdom

Abstract

Pasteurisation is used in a number of food and drink industries but in particular in dairy processing. Pasteurisation is typically one of the highest energy consuming sub-processes on site due to the high levels of heating and cooling demand. This study provides results from a survey with eight major dairy processing sites supporting practitioner experience that the energy consumption of pasteurisation units is often not monitored or understood. This is due to a number of factors including poor provision of equipment specification and support from manufacturers, and insufficient temperature monitoring to allow calculation of heat transfers. The sites fall into three broad categories in terms of how they approach process (and specifically pasteurisation) energy optimisation and reduction (those that undertake no monitoring or review of pasteurisation units; those that undertake periodic review and those with regular monitoring and review). On a number of these sites significant energy savings can be found from an investigation of the data available. We conclude that dairy processing sites can benefit from improving the visibility of the available data from SCADA (Site Control And Data Acquisition software used for process control and data management) regarding pasteurisation. The additional monitoring of regeneration temperatures (where missing) would provide an ability to track individual heat exchanger/regenerator effectiveness and take necessary improvement action. Manufacturers and suppliers also have a role to play in improving and promoting the energy efficiency features of their equipment and to provide monitoring that allows the heat consumption to be tracked.