Integrated Milk Processing System Delivers Sustainable Savings

An Irish milk processor reduces its carbon footprint and boosts capacity with a modular configuration of refrigeration, heat pumps, and a pasteurizer that work seamlessly together.

Aurivo’s heat pump system reclaims and channels excess heat from its cooling system to heat water for the milk pasteurization process, helping to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions.
Aurivo’s heat pump system reclaims and channels excess heat from its cooling system to heat water for the milk pasteurization process, helping to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions.

When Aurivo, Ireland’s second largest milk processor, upgraded its manufacturing plant in Killygordon in 2019, it took a holistic, sustainable approach. The company installed an integrated milk processing system designed to increase capacity and reduce its carbon footprint, energy use, and reliance on fossil-fuel-fired water boilers.

Aurivo replaced its outdated, inefficient refrigeration system and pasteurizer with a modular system from GEA’s Sustainable Energy Solutions program, which enables processors to customize and integrate equipment to meet heating and cooling demands efficiently and sustainably. Aurivo’s new integrated configuration consists of refrigeration, heat pumps, and a pasteurizer from GEA.

Outfitted with a skimming separator, automatic standardizing unit, and homogenizer, the pasteurizer processes 45,000 L of milk per hour and works seamlessly with the upgraded refrigeration and heat pumps. GEA’s heat pump technology reclaims and channels excess heat from the new cooling system to heat water for the milk pasteurization process. The pumps remove heat from the cooling system at a low temperature and then uses a small amount of electrical energy to raise the temperature of the heat for the pasteurization process. Thermal buffering balances the load between the cooling and heating sides of the system to further optimize performance.


See it Live at PACK EXPO Connects Nov. 9-13: Custom Stainless Steel Processing Tanks and Vessels, by DCI, Inc. Preview the Showroom Here.


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