Dairy

Preamble

At 176.4 million tonnes annually, India is the global milk and milk products producer. There are over 1,200 large, medium & small dairy industries. The dairy industry is dominated by the co-operative sector with 60% of the installed processing capacity in this sector.

Milk processing in India constitutes around 35% of total milk production, of which the organised dairy industry accounts for 13% of the milk produced while the rest of the milk is either consumed at farm level or sold as fresh.

India has emerged as the largest milk producing country in the world with the present level of annual milk production estimated at 100 million tonnes. The dairy industry is dominated by the co- operative sector which possesses 60% of the installed processing capacity. It has been estimated that the dairy industry consumed 210 ktoe of primary energy in 2007–08. The industry utilises a substantial amount of thermal (heat) energy for milk processing (pasteurisation, sterilisation, spray drying, evaporation, etc.) and electrical energy for refrigeration during milk pre-chilling, milk chilling after pasteurisation, cold storage of packed milk, compressed air requirement for pneumatic milk packaging machines, milk homogenisation and clarification operations. The solar mapping exercise revealed that there is vast potential in the dairy industry for installing various solar applications. Solar thermal systems can substantially contribute to reducing the conventional energy use in the various thermal processes in the dairy industry that require water at temperatures less than 120˚C.

Business Opportunity

Energy plays a major role in processing milk and milk products. In a dairy, primary energy sources such as furnace oil, etc. are used in boiler for generating steam which in turn is used for heating applications like pasteurization, evaporation, drying of milk. Nearly 30% of overall manufacturing cost is spent on purchase of furnace oil, electricity, which is substantial. Typical dairy plants derive about 70% of their energy requirements in the form of thermal energy and the remaining 30% is consumed in the form electricity.

Solar Thermal Interface Processes for Dairy Processes.

The total amount of heat energy generated by boiler is divided into various processes as per requirement. Maximum amount of thermal energy generated is consumed for chilling and cold storage. Followed to this sterilization and spray drying consumes equal amount of energy. Chemical processes carried out at dairy requires smallest amount of energy of total energy generated. Solar thermal systems can enormously contribute to driving the various thermal processes in the dairy industry which demand water at temperatures 120 °C.Please find below table with heat energy requirement for various processes of Dairies: -