Energy Academy
Sector: Food & Drink/Energy Management in Dairies
Sector13 lessons · 143 min

Energy Management in Dairies

Milk through pasteurisers, separators, ice water and (on powder sites) the sector's hungriest unit operation: dairy-specific loads and benchmarks, the spring flush, whey and co-products, and the regeneration and ice-bank opportunities unique to dairy processing, capped with a full dairy energy audit. Assumes the Food & Drink Foundations course.

Start course →

01The Dairy & Where Energy Goes

  1. ▶From Tanker to Chiller: The Dairy's DayReception, separation, standardisation and homogenisation; liquid, cheese and powder sites; and the spring flush that makes dairy intake seasonal.10 min
  2. ▶Pasteurisers, UHT & the Heat StoryHTST with regeneration is the sector's quiet triumph; UHT and sterilisation are its heavyweights. Where dairy heat goes and what decides its bill.10 min
  3. ▶Ice Water, Ice Banks & RefrigerationWhy dairies cool with ice water, how an ice bank turns refrigeration into storable cold, and the loads from reception to cold store.10 min
  4. ▶Fundamentals CheckQuiz on the dairy's process flow, heat systems and ice-water plant.5 min

02Benchmarks, Evaporation & Whey

  1. ▶Specific Energy: kWh per LitreLiquid, cheese and powder sites differ by an order of magnitude; product mix and the spring flush make normalisation non-negotiable.10 min
  2. ▶Evaporation & Spray Drying: The Powder ProblemRemoving water is the sector's hungriest job: multi-effect evaporation, TVR and MVR, membrane pre-concentration, and the spray dryer at the end.11 min
  3. ▶Whey, Co-products & Cow WaterWhey turns cheese sites' effluent economics upside down, and evaporator condensate ('cow water') is a water source hiding in the milk itself.10 min
  4. ▶Benchmarks & Evaporation CheckQuiz on dairy SEC, evaporation technologies and whey.5 min

03Efficiency in Practice

  1. ▶Heat Recovery in a DairyRegeneration effectiveness is the dairy's most valuable maintenance number; around it sit evaporator vapour, condensate and desuperheat recovery.10 min
  2. ▶Ice Banks, Load Shifting & the Electric DairyThermal storage lets a dairy buy its cold at night prices; MVR and heat pumps are electrifying the rest. The sector's route off the gas main.10 min
  3. ▶Hands-On: Two Quick DiagnosticsTwo short dairy call-outs: a pasteuriser whose regeneration has quietly degraded, and an ice bank charging at the wrong time of day. Calculate, diagnose and prescribe the fix.12 min
  4. ▶Efficiency in Practice CheckQuiz on regeneration, ice banks and dairy electrification.5 min

04Capstone Project

  1. ▶Capstone: Audit a DairyA full, staged energy audit of a fictional liquid-milk dairy: scope it, walk the plant through a spring-flush year of data, and rank what you find.35 min