Energy Conservation Opportunities for an Indian Dairy Industry

The milk processing industry handles large quantity of perishable liquid milk, necessitating timely processing and con-version into value-added products. This type of industry is energy-intensive, consuming substantial quantities of fuel and electricity annually leading to elevated production costs. In typical dairy plants, around 70% of energy requirements are met through thermal energy, with the remaining 30% sourced from electricity. As global awareness grows around reducing energy consumption to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, there is an increase in focus on adopting cost-efficient energy saving measures to both reduce expenses and to contribute to environmental conservation. The main aim of this paper is to explore and suggest the best practices available in the literature and identify energy conservation measures through energy auditing to the regional diary plant. The energy and cost savings that will be obtained by implementing the best practices and energy conservation measures for thermal, electrical and renewable energy systems are evaluated and presented. This study highlights industrial best practices like pinch analysis, a well-established method in process engineering to assess energy flows and to identify areas for improvement, recover waste heat from the pasteurized hot milk to heat the incoming milk using plate type heat exchanger which reduces both process heating as well as process cooling loads and integration of solar energy for energy needs of the dairy industry. The proposed implementation cost and payback period for these recommendations are given to assist the dairy plant to initiate the implementation of energy conservation measures.