Evaporation unit cuts fuel bill at German dairy

London - The Olbernhau dairy in Germany has reported significant fuel savings following the installation of a super efficient evaporation plant from Niro Denmark. The new unit processes milk into whey concentrate - an important product for the dairy with roughly 50 tonnes being produced every day. The concentrate is used in a wide variety of food products including chocolate and baby food.

 “With the old plant we needed about two million litres of heating oil a year to operate, said an Olbernhau Dairy statement. "The new Niro plant only uses around 300,000 litres, that means a reduction of 1000 tonnes of carbon-dioxide (CO2) every year being discharged into the atmosphere, and of course enormous cost savings for the dairy."

The plant incorporates a mechanical vapour recompressor fan system to compress the vapours from the liquor which are then used as an energy source. Only the fan requires electrical power with the rest of the process being powered by heat from the recompressed vapours, explains Niro.

Installing the new 1.2 million Euro plant was quite a challengie for Niro engineers, according to the equipment supplier,. The giant machinery weighing 26 tonnes had to be lifted into the building through an opening in the roof and took eight weeks to fully install, the company reported.