Page 20 - Vol.36-No.9 issue

ANIMAL PREEDING

MINIMIZED WATER USAGE AND

EMISSIONS – 100% QUALITY

Asia’s largest milk powder plant amulfed focuses on sustainability

with eff cient gea technologies

India’s largest dairy cooperative, that we could complete this whole proj- gy efficiency. The exhaust air from the
Amul, started producing milk products ect within 20 months. Our flush had start- dryer passes through four cyclones to
for people in the Gujarat state, and be- ed and we needed this capacity. We are GEA’s largest available SANICIP® bag
yond, in the 1950s. Heralded as the pi- thankful to GEA that they completed this filter, and the fines discharged from the
oneer of India’s ‘white revolution’, Amul project on time,” explains Dr. Rupinder bag filter are then returned to the drying
has been instrumental in making India Singh Sodhi, Managing Director, Gujarat chamber, saving product and enabling
one of the world’s largest producer of Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation, nearly zero emissions.
milk and milk products. After competi- Amul. AmulFed also operates an automated,
tive bidding, GEA being a global tech- high speed 25kg bag filling line, sup-
nology leader and long-term partner of Production 24/7 with plied by GEA, which features total bag
Amul was the obvious choice to plan and minimized water usage and control, and an enclosed filling area. With
build Asia’s largest milk powder plant at emissions this system, manually handling of un-
its AmulFed site in Gandhinagar. filled bags is no longer necessary, which
The focus at the new AmulFed site in Hygienic design principles and ad- minimizes contamination risk and helps
Gandhinagar was set on sustainable pro- vanced, integrated processing solutions to ensure complete safety. The plant also
duction with innovative and future proof ensure sustainable and future-proof operates retail and jar filling lines, so it
GEA technologies. GEA was responsible milk powder processing at the Amu- can be used flexible to match changing
for the complete turnkey project, from lFed plant. Built to operate 24/7, the 150 market and consumer demands.
milk processing to powder packing and TPD processing and packaging line can
including auxiliary systems, electricals, handle the highest volumes of milk ar- Advanced safety features
utilities, piping and automation. The riving from dairy farmers throughout Importantly, the AmulFed facility has
plant was completed in record time so the region during the ‘flush’ season. been configured with advanced safety
that it could be commissioned in time The highest capacity and quality manu- features. “The plant is equipped with an
for this year’s flush season, the peak milk facturing at AmulFed mean that milk at advanced level of safety, including a CO
production season in India. peak loads is processed and converted detection system, explosion suppression
The scale of the powder plant, which into valued-added products, including system as well as nozzle camera to mon-
covers 26,000 m2, and is eight stories in skimmed milk powder, dairy whitener, itor the atomizer cloud,” notes Golani.
and whole milk powder.
height, was unprecedented in the Indian Systems for monitoring and regulating
dairy sector. The automated GEA facility The end-to-end solution includes the entire plant operation, help to ensure
can produce 150 metric tonnes per day GEA’s energy efficient separators with top quality production, optimize the use
(TPD) of skimmed milk powder and 120 integrated direct drive, bacteria remov- of resources, minimize waste, product
TPD of dairy whitener. The plant sits on ing clarifiers, high pressure homogeniz- loss and emissions, and reduce time and
the same site as Amul’s existing 60 TPD ers and hygienic valves for the liquid unnecessary stoppages.
and 100 TPD powder plants, which were milk processing, as well as the largest
also supplied by GEA, in 1994 and 2004, GEA MVR evaporators delivered to India AmulFed plant delivers the
respectively. “The three plants together to date. These evaporators require typi- highest quality products
mean that AmulFed is now the largest cally 30% less space than conventional
single-site skimmed milk powder facil- systems, and help to cut energy use and “We looked at the competency of GEA
ity with capacity of 310 TPD in Asia,” ex- costs, and reduce CO2 emissions. Three to provide us with a fully automatic plant.
plains Rajesh Golani, Head of Sales Sup- sets of reverse osmosis polisher units We aimed to look for the best technolo-
port and Offer Management, GEA India. treat condensate from the evaporation gy that could deliver a very good quality
“We had series of interactions with plant and reuse the water, which makes product, very good efficiency, environ-
AmulFed during the planning phase on AmulFed nearly a zero-water plant. “Im- mentally friendly, and also deliver a high
pressively, one hundred percent of evap-
the selection of suitable technology, su- orated water is condensed and reused in level of productivity,” explains Anilku-
perior features regarding energy effi- the dairy plant.” comments Dr. Rupinder mar Bayati, General Manager, AmulFed
ciency, productivity, sustainability, plant Singh Sodhi. Dairy. “It’s a completely integrated setup
and product safety, eco-friendliness, right from our milk processing to our
hygiene, zoning concepts and product After evaporation, the milk concentrate packaging. The products manufactured
quality, so that everybody was able to is transferred to the spray dryers. GEA are of global standard and the products
evaluate every aspect, and efficacy of supplied its largest multistage MSD® produced by the plant fetch the best
the new plant at par with global stan- Spray Dryer for the AmulFed plant. The price in the globe, because of the quali-
dards,” Golani says. MSD® Spray Dryer is equipped with ty of the milk and the technology that we
have adopted. This has really helped us
The AmulFed plant had to be complet- a dual feed system to allow 24/7 oper- in achieving our target.”
ed in record time, and within a very tight ation. Because drying is carried out in
three stages, it results into higher ener-
timescale. “The biggest achievement is Circle 21 on enquiry card
18 Vol. 36 No. 9