The international dairy industry accepts a “standard” lost product figure of 2-3 per cent annually. Even with these low percentages, the loss can be very high in monetary terms. The cost of spilt milk is definitely worth shedding some tears.
Historically, many processing plants viewed production and wastewater treatment as two entirely separate functions. This is changing as raw material costs increase, margins tighten, the market changes, and competition becomes more intense. Therefore, cost management is more important than ever. Process wastewater is infamous for carrying valuable product away from the plant, and away from the bottom line.
International experts concur that approximately 2-3% of the total amount of milk purchased annually by dairy processors is lost during processing. Some of this is an inevitable part of processing output, but some of the loss could be avoided. As an extra commercial headache, pollutants generated by industry are very often these same losses in production. So, not only does lost product cost in terms of the wasted raw materials, but it also costs to treat it at the wastewater treatment plant (WWTP). Production and treatment of each pound of BOD in a dairy processing environment is expensive, particularly since the average plant will produce millions of pounds of BOD each year.
Processing Challenges for TOC Measurement
Dairy Processing is a very challenging environment for an analyzer due to the fats, oils, grease, and solid waster (FOGS), salts, and particulates that are inevitably present in process streams. Many on-line TOC analyzers fail under these harsh and challenging process and wastewater conditions.
The Dairy BioTector B7000i TOC analyzer was developed specifically for the Dairy Industry. Typically, lost product levels can be reduced by a conservative 15% using reliable TOC monitoring. There is a direct correlation between levels of lost product and wastewater loading. Clients regularly report greater than 15% reduction to wastewater loading as a result of using reliable TOC monitoring, with some clients achieving as much as a 40% reduction.
A BioTector analyzer automatically self-cleans all parts of the analyzer, thus preventing clogging, sample contamination, and inaccurate results. The Hach Dairy BioTector B7000i analyzer only requires calibration and preventative maintenance in six-monthly intervals. These analyzers have delivered consistently high performance in dairy applications, meeting uptime of 99.86%.
For more information visit au.hach.com