GEA, Düsseldorf, Germany, one of the largest suppliers of processing technology for the global dairy and food industry, has installed a high-performance spray dryer as the centrepiece of a new milk powder plant in Lichfield, New Zealand. For its customer Fonterra, GEA developed the best performing and the most efficient spray dryer currently available on the market. With a capacity of 30t of milk powder per hour, it can process nearly 4.4 million litres of milk daily (equivalent to165 truckloads).

 

GEA was responsible for the complete turnkey milk powder plant and provided all of the processing technology – from road tanker receival to evaporation, drying, powder handling and packaging. The company’s technicians developed several innovations, which simplify the processes on site and reduce the total cost of ownership. In particular, energy efficiency was a key focus. For instance, the plant requires very little process water as the evaporator condensate is filtered through the membrane of a high-pressure reverse osmosis system and, because of the GEA technology, this water can be reused during processing. As a result, Fonterra is required to maintain much less wastewater treatment capacity at the site. The official opening of the plant is scheduled for December 2016. www.gea.com 

 

 

The new high-efficiency milk powder plant in Lichfield, New Zealand (copyright: Fonterra)