Application
Dairy evaporation and drying for whole and skimmed milk, whey, permeate, proteins and dessert powders. We design, manufacture and modernise the complete concentration and drying line, with sanitary finish and measured energy consumption.
Spray drying chamber in operation: the concentrate is atomised and dried in seconds, with sanitary finish on every product-contact surface.
Each dairy product defines a different line: the evaporation surface, the maximum allowable temperature and the way of atomising all change.
Concentration up to the solids content the product allows and spray drying with the bulk density and solubility the end customer asks for.
High volume and low solids: the evaporator defines the cost of the line. Lactose crystallisation is provided for when the product requires it.
Temperature-sensitive products: work is done with short residence times and fine control of inlet and outlet air.
Prior evaporation, crystallisation and drying, with the corresponding handling and recovery of fine powder.
High-sugar products, sticky when hot: the chamber, cooling and sweeping are designed for that.
Concentration of dilute streams to reduce volume, recover solids and lower treatment costs.
Standardisation, heat treatment and preheating of the product before it enters the evaporator.
Most of the water is removed with the lowest energy consumption: one to six stages, with thermal vapour recompression (TVR) depending on the energy available at the plant. As a reference, a four-effect falling film evaporator with thermal vapour recompression (TVR) uses about 0.11 kg of steam per kg of water evaporated: roughly 9 kg of water removed per kg of steam.
The concentrate is atomised by disc or nozzle and dried in seconds. This is where final moisture, bulk density and particle size are defined.
Fluid bed, separation in cyclones or bag filter, conveying, cooling and packing, with CIP cleaning of the plant.
Evaporating water inside the spray dryer is the most expensive way to remove it: air has to be heated and then discarded. In a falling film evaporator, by contrast, the vapour generated is reused in the next stage or recompressed. That is why, in a dairy plant, every point of solids gained by the evaporator translates into lower consumption and more output from the dryer already installed.
Dairy evaporation removes most of the water from milk, whey or permeate before drying, at low temperature and with short residence time to protect proteins. A dairy evaporator is chosen by product, capacity in kg/h of water evaporated and the steam available at the plant.
Thermal vapour recompression reuses part of the vapour with live steam. It suits plants with available steam; adding effects lowers steam consumption per kg of water evaporated.
Whey and permeate are concentrated before crystallisation or drying. The design considers fouling, cleaning (CIP) cycles and the final solids required by the dryer.
With these data a serious first technical proposal can be made. If any are missing, we estimate them together or they are measured at the pilot plant.
Yes. Evaporating one kilogram of water in a multi-stage falling film evaporator, or one with thermal vapour recompression, consumes a fraction of the energy needed to evaporate that same kilogram inside the spray dryer. That is why the dairy line is almost always built as evaporator plus dryer: the evaporator removes most of the water and the dryer delivers the finished powder.
The product, the inlet flow, inlet and outlet solids, the target final moisture of the powder, the energy available at the plant and the sanitary requirements. With that, the evaporation surface, the evaporation capacity of the dryer and the auxiliary equipment are defined.
Yes, even if it is from another manufacturer. We carry out the on-site diagnosis with a mass and energy balance, and propose the mechanical uprating, the automation and the replacement of the components that limit production or drive up consumption.
Yes. Real samples are processed at the pilot plant to obtain the drying curves and the characteristics of the powder, and with those measured data the industrial equipment is scaled up.
With the product data and the capacity you are looking for we will reply in less than 24 business hours, with a first technical assessment of the line that fits your plant.
