Process heating and cooling supply in milk production

When milk production runs sustainably and efficiently - then the cooling and heating solutions from ENGIE Refrigeration are certainly in play. At a large dairy in northern Germany, seven thermeco2 high-temperature heat pumps guarantee the supply of process heating and cooling.

Our cooling and heating experts have set a new record at a large dairy in northern Germany. Due to a spray dryer for the production of milk powder, the dairy has a high demand for process heat during milk production. The spray drying process also works thanks to the precise supply of cold air flows. When it comes to the reliable provision of process heating and cooling, ENGIE Refrigeration is always at the forefront: our team of experts provides seven redundant thermeco2 high-temperature heat pumps, each with six compressors, for the cooling and heating of the spray tower and thus for milk production. In order to achieve the temperature spread of 125 Kelvin between the cold water and hot water temperatures required for milk production, our specialists also installed controlled heat exchangers. The thermeco2 not only copes with the high demand for process heating and cooling without any problems, it also runs particularly efficiently thanks to combined cooling and heating. Our team ensured this beforehand on our own test bench.

The milk production of tomorrow

And it gets even better: in this dairy production project, our cooling and heating specialists set a new record in the industry. By making technical adjustments, they increased the hot water flow temperatures to up to 125 °C in a single-stage cooling circuit. They also succeeded in improving the coefficient of performance of the high-temperature heat pump with two independent hot water circuits. Thanks to CO2 as a refrigerant, the solution also impresses with its sustainability in process heating and cooling supply. The pleasing consequence: by switching to climate-neutral energy sources, primary energy consumption is reduced by 41 percent compared to a standard spray tower without a high-temperature heat pump. This corresponds to 6,000 tons of CO2 and 8,000 operating hours per year with an emission factor of 0.05 kilograms of CO2 per kilowatt hour of electrical energy. This ensures sustainable and future-proof milk production - as well as a reliable supply of process heating and cooling.